Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
By Cheryl Strayed
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012
As Reviewed By Ted Odenwald
Cheryl Strayed’s surname is basically a self-imposed label which she took legally when she divorced. “I had diverged, digressed, wandered, and become wild. I didn’t embrace the world as my new name because it defined [...]
Judith Skelton Grant. Robertson Davies: Man of Myth.
New York: Viking, 1994.
As reviewed by Ted Odenwald
As the hundredth anniversary of his birth approaches, it seems appropriate to revisit the life and accomplishments of Canadian novelist, journalist, educator, dramatist, and performing artist, Robertson Davies. Judith Skelton Grant’s detailed, analytical, and incisive biography pays tribute to her fellow [...]
According to narrative historian, Robert Massie, Catherine the Great of Russia was “a majestic figure in the age of monarchy,” unequaled by all enthroned women except Elizabeth I of England. Her achievements rank her alongside the most famous Russian ruler, Peter the Great, as both expanded Russian territories and…
William Deresiewicz. A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me about Love, Friendship, and the Things that Really Matter. New York: Penguin Press. 2011.
As reviewed by Ted Odenwald
William Deresiewicz combines literary criticism and memoir, focusing primarily upon how the novels of Jane Austen had awakened him to certain truths about life in general—and had [...]
Claire Tomalin. Charles Dickens: A Life.
New York: The Penguin Press. 2011.
As Reviewed by Ted Odenwald
Claire Tomalin has written an outstanding biography of Charles Dickens, published for the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Britain’s greatest 19th-century novelist. Her meticulously researched and documented study explores Dickens’ strengths and weaknesses, presenting opposing sides of controversial issues, [...]
Eric Rasmussen. The Shakespeare Thefts: In Search of the First Folios.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
As reviewed by Ted Odenwald
A character in Edgar Lee Master’s Spoon River Anthology observes that people thought him mad because his life goal was to memorize the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. Shakespearean scholar makes a similar profession of lunacy regarding his decades’-long [...]
Roger Ebert. Life Itself: A Memoir.
New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2011.
As reviewed by Ted Odenwald
Rituals are an important part of Roger Ebert’s life. He revisits people and events that have been formative for him. He revisits places through which his education and career have taken him: his hometown, Urbana, Illinois; the University of Illinois, [...]
Charles Frazier. Nightwoods.
New York: Random House, 2011.
As reviewed by Ted Odenwald
Set in rural North Carolina in the early 1960’s, Charles Frazier’s Nightwoods exhibits strengths that readers have come to expect from his two earlier novels, Cold Mountain and Thirteen Moon: characters who are on the fringes of society, intelligent beyond their levels of education; a [...]
John Le Carre. Our Kind of Traitor.
New York: Viking. 2010
As reviewed by Ted Odenwald
Though Our Kind of Traitor may not be totally Orwellian in message and tone, there is enough disenchantment and cynicism permeating this novel to assure us that John Le Carre has not lost his edge. His target is corruption in the [...]
Dear Donna, It’s only 45 Hours from Bien Hoa: Stories from the Vietnam War.
Douglas Neralich.
1st Books Library, 2002.
As reviewed by Ted Odenwald
Douglas “Doc” Neralich has created a succinct, incisive, and moving collage of his experiences as a medic with the 36th Engineer Battalion in Vinh Long, Vietnam. Interweaving short stories, brief anecdotes, and poetry, “Doc” [...]
