BOOKS
A Word About Dictionaries
Sunday, April 20 2025
A short dissertation on my infatuation with dictionaries.
- Published in Books
How to Consult Your Destiny Via Thoreau’s Walden
Tuesday, January 07 2025
During a long life of hard reading, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden is the book that helps me understand what it is to be human.
- Published in Books
Peaceful Transfer of Power: Then and Now
Tuesday, September 03 2024
Lindsay Chervinsky’s new book closely examines the dramatic events that shaped America’s pattern for the peaceful transfer of power.
- Published in Books
The Best John Steinbeck Biographies, Part II
Friday, July 12 2024
Russ Eagle builds on his previous list of John Steinbeck biographies by looking at works that focus on specific relationships and periods in the author’s life.
- Published in Books
The Best John Steinbeck Biographies, Part I
Tuesday, June 11 2024
As Clay prepares for the second leg of his Travels with Charley journey, Russ Eagle calls out the best John Steinbeck biographies.
- Published in Books
The Age of Acrimony
Monday, May 27 2024
Lindsay Chervinsky reviews “… the dirty tale of how democracy got clean” in Jon Grinspan’s The Age of Acrimony: How Americans Fought to Fix Their Democracy, 1865-1915.
- Published in Books
The Age of Exploration Meets the Era of Disillusionment
Thursday, May 16 2024
I have been reading Hampton Sides’ excellent new study of Captain James Cook’s third voyage (1776-1779), The Wide, Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact, and The Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook.
- Published in Books
Rereading Blue Highways — An Enduring Backroads Journal
Monday, March 25 2024
Originally published is 1982, Clay says William Least Heat Moon’s Blue Highways is still our best backroads manifesto.
- Published in Books
Reading Orwell’s 1984 In 2024
Thursday, March 07 2024
The question is: how prophetic was Orwell? What does he say to us in the age of “fake news” and “alternative facts”?
- Published in Books
Notes on Geert Mak’s In America: Travels with John Steinbeck
Saturday, March 02 2024
Mak’s In America: Travels with John Steinbeck is without question the best book written about retracing the 1960 Travels with Charley journey.
- Published in Books