Tag: nonfiction

A review of Step Across This Line by Salman Rushdie

The essays in this collection are, without exception, witty, intelligent, acerbic, moving, thoughtful and above all, truthful. Celebrating secular freedom of thought and speech, personal responsibility and courage, together they form a thesis. The book reads quickly, and all of…

A Review of Portraits in Fiction by A S Byatt

It is likely that, as an writer who works solely with words, however visually descriptive these words may be, Byatt is naturally biased. Portraits in Fiction is nevertheless, exactly what literary criticism should be, provocative, well researched, well written, enjoyable to read,…

A Review of Writer’s Guide by Irina Dunn

While the book suffers from trying to cover too much and therefore being a jack of all trades and master of none, there is still plenty of material here for both the beginner and the experienced writer, much of it…

A Review of Successful Nonfiction by Dan Poynter

Successful Nonfiction is a much quicker, and simpler read than Poynter’s other writing books. Rather than the detailed and specific instructions that his other writing books contain, Successful Nonfiction is a series of 109 “soundbites,” or inspirational tips for writers, each a couple…

A Review of The Plot Thickens by Noah Lukeman

The book is so well written–so tight and polished–that it provides a perfect example of its own principles. Lukeman’s prose is so lucid that it manages to render even complex concepts like “transcendency” clear, and provides practical ways of incorporating…

A Review of Platypus by Ann Moyal

Moyal writes clearly and arranges difficult material with crisp authority. This is a perspicacious book. Moyal cares about her subject and has used it to express more than a simple chapter of zoology. She sees the platypus within a very…

A Review of A Cook’s Tour by Anthony Bourdain

Does the idea of eating a still beating cobra heart and following it up with a blood chaser appeal to you? How about a potentially deadly puffer fish? Lamb gonads? Tete de veau (sweetbread stuffed calves face)? An old rubbery iguana? Birds nest soup? What about a sublime 20 course meal at The French Laundry in Napa Valley Ca, or roasted bone marrow at St. John restaurant, London. A Cook’s Tour is partly a foodie’s book, covering both the delectable and the disgusting, and it is also a travel book, tracing Boudain’s course through Tokyo, Vietnam, Cambodia, Portugal, Spain, France, Morocco, Russia, Mexico, California, Scotland, and England.