This is Stephen King’s fantasy remake of The Magnificent Seven. Not one of the best ones in the series, but still pretty good. King’s prose is sometimes rather clunky, but his imagination never fails him. And I must say that this series reveals a side of King not seen in his other works. For a …
Category: General
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2010/06/14/wolves-of-the-calla-by-stephen-king/
Apr 24 2010
Timon of Athens by William Shakespeare
Never has misanthropy been so eloquently expressed. Timon’s reversal of fortune serves as a cautionary admonition to our craving for material prosperity, as well as a cynical lesson on the fickle nature of men. The cynic Apemantus emerges as the wisest character in this story of riches to rags, yet even he is not spared …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2010/04/24/timon-of-athens-by-william-shakespeare/
Mar 13 2010
The Saudis: Inside the Desert Kingdom by Sandra Mackey
This book is about what happens when a hopelessly backward society is suddenly flooded with wealth and forced to modernize overnight. Of all the Islamic countries that are facing a crisis of modernity, Saudi Arabia has been the hardest hit. The Saudis have a bottomless appetite for the material goodies the West has to offer, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2010/03/13/the-saudis-inside-the-desert-kingdom-by-sandra-mackey/
Feb 21 2010
Truman by David McCullough
This book is a case study in how extraordinary an ordinary man can be. Unlike his predecessor in the White House, Harry Truman was not a brilliant man, but he possessed character and fortitude that ultimately made him a successful president. At times the author seems to revel a little too much in how ordinary …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2010/02/21/truman-by-david-mccullough/
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2010/02/15/the-elfish-gene-dungeons-dragons-and-growing-up-strange-by-mark-barrowcliffe/
Jul 14 2009
The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
This was not a long book, but I took my time reading it because the writing was so eloquent. I have never seen such hatred and fury channeled into such eloquent discourse. There isn’t enough space allowed here for me to get into the problems of post-colonialism, but what impresses me most about this work …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2009/07/14/the-wretched-of-the-earth-by-frantz-fanon/
Jul 11 2009
Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski
This is Bukowski’s best novel. An autobiographical novel, it goes a long way toward explaining how he became the bitter, misanthropic, brilliant drunk that he eventually became. Bukowski’s writing really resonates with me for some reason. It’s not uplifting, but it gives the me the courage to face whatever life throws at me. For that …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2009/07/11/ham-on-rye-by-charles-bukowski/
May 13 2009
Literary Theory: An Introduction by Terry Eagleton
This is a marvelous book that explicates modern literary theories in very readable English. The author has a Marxist bent that flavors his discourse throughout, but he does a good job of explaining critical theories like formalism, the New Criticism, phenomenology, structuralism, semiotics, deconstruction, and psychoanalysis. He also asks pertinent and seemingly unanswerable questions, such …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2009/05/13/literary-theory-an-introduction-by-terry-eagleton/
Apr 20 2009
The Celts by Jean Markale
The author deserves credit for taking on such a difficult and ambitious project…yet it must be said that this book is full of unwarranted assertions and loose interpretations. Most of what we know about the Celts comes either from what their enemies wrote about them or from Celtic mythology, neither of which are very reliable …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2009/04/20/the-celts-by-jean-markale/
Mar 20 2009
Genghis Khan: Life, Death, and Resurrection by John Man
The Mongol conquests are certainly impressive, but the Mongols contributed nothing to civilization and in fact destroyed civilization wherever they found it. The author reveals that Europe was spared a Mongol invasion only because the Mongols saw nothing to gain from such a venture, but they did overrun Hungary and Poland to give Europeans a …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2009/03/20/genghis-khan-life-death-and-resurrection-by-john-man/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
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Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire