About Book Marks
Recent Reviews
Dave Itzkoff
Positive USA Today \"...an engaging and intimate chronicle of the cultural icon who took America by storm ... Spoiler alert: This is not a funny book. Off stage, comics rarely are a bundle of laughs: As Ralph Waldo Emerson pointed out, \'Humor is the mistress of sorrow.\' But Itzkoff has both covered here. There are moments when the reader will laugh out loud.\
Andy Weir
Positive USA Today ...an action-packed techno-thriller of the first order ... Being up to speed on high-school science helps here, although the reader also can skim all that high-tech jazz and simply follow the topsy-turvy lunar plot ... The pages fly by, taking the reader into orbit some 238,900 miles above this vale of tears — arguably a good thing given current events down below. But Weir’s book fails to fully beam his audience up. A little futuristic context would be welcome ... Still, by concocting cliff-hanging action worthy of Indiana Jones, Weir has provided the perfect vehicle for humans who want to escape, if only for a time, the severe gravity of planet Earth.
Ben Mezrich
Mixed USA Today Wooly spins this yarn of genetic creationism and scientific derring-do with breathless prose, which in places is indistinguishable from dust jacket fare. The reader will be forgiven for thinking that these big-tusked behemoths will reappear at the same time as the movie premiere ... Lesser characters in this brave new world include Stewart Brand, who published the Whole Earth Catalog, and Peter Thiel, of PayPal fame, who is funding efforts to find the Fountain of Youth. Without a touch of irony, Mezrich terms Thiel’s 'passionate belief' in using science to attain a 'massively extended life span' as 'infectious'...Near the very end of the book, Brand chimes in with a chapter all his own in which he undermines the very premise that he and Mezrich are pushing: that mammoths can ride to the rescue of Mother Earth.
Bruce Feiler
Rave USA Today Feiler takes the reader on an engaging meander in search of the first family’s transcendent meaning. His itinerary encompasses the Middle East and the Galapagos, Biblical scholars and anthropologists, and the likes of Michelangelo, Mark Twain and Mae West. It's a thought-provoking odyssey, and by its end it is hard not to nod in agreement with the author’s conclusions, such as 'There is no love without time' or 'Instead of censuring them (Adam and Eve), we should be celebrating them.' Conversant with Scripture, Feiler can make a single word dance before the reader.
Marty Appel
Rave The Christian Science Monitor In times like these, a book about Casey Stengel is just what our nation needs. And Marty Appel has delivered. Casey Stengel: Baseball’s Greatest Character is a wonderful romp through our collective field of dreams, from the medieval days of the sport to the modern era.
Larrie D. Ferreiro
Mixed The Christian Science Monitor Ferreiro’s narrative is certainly well researched, and well detailed to a fault. He is wont to ramble on throughout: for example, a lengthy section on the planned invasion of Britain by combined French and Spanish forces that never got off the ground. The narrative flow too often is disrupted by exhaustive excursions into backwater battles, to show how distracted Britain was by fighting a multi-front war. On the other hand, such side jaunts probably won’t bother serious history buffs in the least.