Category Archives: books

Timothy Egan on the Know-Nothings

Posted on August 26, 2010 by williamjcobb

Today’s NY Times has an excellent piece by Timothy Egan about the current Know-Nothing movement in the country, and its dangerous implications: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/building-a-nation-of-know-nothings/ What he does best is summarize some of the most ridiculous claims of this fake movement, a … Continue reading →

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On Heidi Cullen's "The Weather of the Future": Forecast for 2050: Your car just melted and your hair is on fire.

Posted on August 19, 2010 by williamjcobb

Heidi Cullen, a climatologist perhaps most famous for being The Brainy One on The Weather Channel (as opposed to, say, Stephanie Abrams, The Smiling Babe), has a new book out titled The Weather of the Future: Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, … Continue reading →

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Andrew Ross Sorkin's "Too Big To Fail" = Too Big To Read?

Posted on August 7, 2010 by williamjcobb

All summer I’ve been trying to get through Andrew Ross Sorkin’s terrific book about the financial meltdown (or as I like to call it, The Big Fall) of 2007-8, Too Big To Fail, and I think I’m going to have … Continue reading →

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Review of Rick Moody's "The Four Fingers of Death"

Posted on August 2, 2010 by williamjcobb

Here’s a url to my review of Rick Moody’s new novel, The Four Fingers of Death, which appears in today’s Dallas Morning News. TFFOD is awfully long, but I was sucked into the vortex of the middle of the book, … Continue reading →

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Kent Haruf, One of Our Finest Writers, Close to Completing a New Novel

Posted on July 30, 2010 by williamjcobb

So I’m loathe to do any literary name-dropping but in this case I think it’s worthy: Yesterday I had lunch with Kent Haruf, author of Plainsong (1999, a finalist for and should have won the National Book Award), and Eventide (2004, … Continue reading →

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On Rick Moody's new novel, "The Four Fingers of Death"

Posted on July 18, 2010 by williamjcobb

So I’m reviewing Rick Moody’s new novel, The Four Fingers of Death, which, after a rocky start, is turning out to be a fun read. A couple quick observations: It’s 700 plus pages, as in Infinite Jest long long long. … Continue reading →

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On Nathaniel Philbrick's "The Last Stand," in Memory of George Armstrong Custer

Posted on June 30, 2010 by williamjcobb

Writing a book about Custer’s Last Stand is a bit tricky, considering you have stiff competition from Evan S. Connell’s masterpiece Son of the Morning Star (1986), but Nathaniel Philbrick’s new book, The Last Stand, just published, is an immediate … Continue reading →

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Review of Nic Pizzolatto's "Galveston," a Knockout Crime Novel

Posted on June 22, 2010 by williamjcobb

I was camping in the mountains west of Cottonwood Pass, Colorado this weekend, but on Sunday the following review of mine appeared in the Dallas Morning News: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/books/stories/DN-bk_galveston_0620gd.ART.State.Bulldog.2951729.html Galveston is a terrific book, and whenever I get a chance I’m … Continue reading →

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