History | Raging Biblio-holism

High Dive

February 15, 2017 by Drew

The Short Version: It’s 1984 and Maggie Thatcher is prime minister, Ireland is tearing itself apart, and life is otherwise moving steadily forward. But when Thatcher’s entire leadership team plans to stay in Brighton for a conference, three lives – a hotel manager, his daughter, and an IRA operative – collide with the bombing of the Grand Hotel as their backdrop. The Review: This has been a year for slow burners in the ToB – books that take their time, develop […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, England, Fiction, High Dive, Historical Fiction, History, Ireland, Jonathan Lee, Literature, Margaret Thatcher, review, Reviews, The Tournament of Books 2017, The Troubles

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The Lost Time Accidents

December 21, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Waldemar Tolliver has become not so much unstuck in time as excused from it. He finds himself in his aunts’ old apartment, writing out the story not just of how he came to be here but of his family and their curse/burden/quest: to solve the Lost Time Accidents and master time itself. The Review: I, supposedly, am in the midst of doing a bonus Ten-Year-Catch-Up of Kurt Vonnegut – but I’ve been oddly out of sync with ol’ […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, History, John Wray, Literature, review, Reviews, The Lost Time Accidents, Time

The Underground Railroad

November 14, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: A slave woman named Cora runs away from the Georgia plantation where she is enslaved and finds that the Underground Railroad is, in fact, a literal railroad – and so begins a winding adventure towards freedom. The Review: This isn’t going to be so much a review as a musing. I just don’t know how I can write a traditional review of this book in light of the last week. See, I read this book in the days […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: 5+, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Colson Whitehead, Fiction, History, Literature, review, Reviews, Slavery, The Tournament of Books 2017, The Underground Railroad

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Crooked

October 5, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: We all think we know the story of our thirty-seventh President, Richard Milhous Nixon – but what if Nixon wasn’t, in fact, a crook so much as the last in a line of sorcerer-presidents, standing firm against a tide of not just Communists but supernatural evil? Perhaps the world is far stranger than we’ve been allowed to believe… The Review: “…no one has ever convincingly established a motive for the Watergate break-ins.” This quote from The Arrogance of Power: […]

Categories: Fiction, Horror • Tags: A Visit to October Country, Alternate History, American Politics, Austin Grossman, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Crooked, Fantasy, History, Horror, review, Reviews, Richard Nixon

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Roundup, August 2016

August 31, 2016 by Drew

A monthly round-up of any books that didn’t get a full review! Paper Girls, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang 3 out of 5 The Short Version: On Nov. 1, 1988, four paper girls are doing their early morning route when they encounter strange creatures. What seems like leftovers from Halloween quickly turns out to be something else entirely: some kind of invasion from across time and space. So they fight back. The Review: I’m a sucker […]

Categories: Fiction, Graphic Novel, History, Literature, Non-Fiction, Sci-Fi, Short Stories • Tags: August 2016, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, Fiction, Frederic Morton, Graphic Novel, History, Judaism, Literature, Non-Fiction, Paper Girls, Rebecca Schiff, review, Review Roundup, Reviews, Roundup, Science Fiction, Short Stories, The Bed Moved, Thunder at Twilight

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A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal

July 20, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Kim Philby was the perfect spy. Educated, well-groomed, brilliant – it’s no surprise that he rose to prominence in MI6 during the Second World War and the ensuing Cold War conflict. What was surprising was that he was also working for the Soviets. For over thirty years, he maintained a double life and compromised nearly every major operation for the West. This is his story and the story of those who thought they knew him – but didn’t […]

Categories: History, Non-Fiction • Tags: A Spy Among Friends, A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal, Ben MacIntyre, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, CIA, Cold War, England, Espionage, History, John le Carré, Kim Philby, Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal, MI5, MI6, Nicholas Elliott, Non-Fiction, Reviews, US, USSR, World War II

The Queen of the Night

May 27, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: A young orphan from America makes her way to Paris and then to the world stage as an acclaimed soprano – passing through the roles of carny, maid, courtesan, spy, and more on her way. But when she reads a novel that seems to lay bare the secrets of her life, she wonders who from her past might be planning her downfall… The Review: Opera and literature aren’t too far apart, really. Both provide opportunities for life to […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Alexander Chee, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, France, Historical Fiction, History, Literature, Music, Opera, Paris, review, Reviews, Second Empire, The Queen of the Night, Third Republic

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Boy, Snow, Bird

May 9, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Boy Novak escapes her brutal father in post-WWII New York and heads north, to the Massachusetts countryside. There, in a small town some way out of Boston, she begins a new life and falls in a kind of love with widower Arturo Whitman and his daughter Snow. But a surprise revelation upon the birth of Arturo & Boy’s daughter changes everything she thought she knew about the town, about her husband, and about herself… The Review: A magic […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, BookClub, Books, Boy Snow Bird, Fairy Tales, Fiction, Folklore, Helen Oyeyemi, Historical Fiction, History, Literature, Magical Realism, Race, Reviews

Sudden Death

April 1, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: A tennis match gets underway between the painter Caravaggio and the poet Quevedo, played with a ball made from the hair of Anne Boleyn. Meanwhile/earlier, Hernán Cortés has conquered the Aztecs and a new breed of Popes arise to start the Counter-Reformation. And author Álvaro Enrigue attempts to write his latest novel by blending history with imagination to the point of no return. The Review: In all honesty, I should’ve known what I was getting into from the very […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: 6, Aztecs, Álvaro Enrigue, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Caravaggio, Counter-Reformation, Fantasy, Fiction, Galileo, Historical Fantasy, Historical Fiction, History, Metafiction, Mexico, Quevedo, Reformation, Reviews, Rome, Spain, Sports, Tennis, The Tournament of Books 2017

Raging Biblio-holism

The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books

Tag: History

High Dive

The Lost Time Accidents

The Underground Railroad

Crooked

Roundup, August 2016

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal

The Queen of the Night

Boy, Snow, Bird

Sudden Death