Book Review: Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson One hundred years ago this month, May 7, 1915, the Cunard Lines ocean liner Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine, the U-20, killing over a thousand crew and passengers (and three German stowaways whose true identities were never determined.) 123 of… Continue reading Book Review: Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
Tag: New York City
Book Review: Headstrong
Book Review: Headstrong by Rachel Swaby This is a collection of short biographical sketches of women who made advancements in various scientific fields. According to the introduction, it was inspired when the New York Times ran an obituary of Yvonne Brill that listed her home cooking as her most important accomplishment, followed by being a wife… Continue reading Book Review: Headstrong
Comic Book Review: Essential Rampaging Hulk, Vol. 1
Comic Book Review: Essential Rampaging Hulk, Vol. 1 story by Doug Moench, art by various. Doctor Bruce Banner was one of the nation’s top physicists, and an expert in gamma radiation, when he was drafted into creating a new kind of nuclear weapon called a “gamma bomb.” Just before the device was about to go… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Essential Rampaging Hulk, Vol. 1
Comic Book Review: Essential Sub-Mariner Vol. 1
Comic Book Review: Essential Sub-Mariner Vol. 1 Edited by Stan Lee Namor, the Sub-Mariner, first appeared in Marvel Comics #1 in 1939. The son of Captain Robert McKenzie, an icebreaker commander assigned to the Antarctic area, and Princess Fen of Atlantis, Namor possessed hybrid vigor that made him stronger than any ten humans or Atlanteans, the… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Essential Sub-Mariner Vol. 1
Book Review: Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Book Review: Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner Economics can be a deadly dull subject, at least when dominated by stuffed shirts talking about trade deficits, returns on annuities or fiat currency. But the basics of economic theory can be used to learn… Continue reading Book Review: Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents: Weird War Tales Volume 1
Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents: Weird War Tales Volume 1 edited by Joe Kubert & Joe Orlando As I’ve mentioned in other reviews, the relaxation of the Comics Code in the early 1970s created a horror anthology boom at DC Comics. At the same time, the once best-selling war comics were going into a slump,… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents: Weird War Tales Volume 1
Book Review: The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries
Book Review: The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries edited by Otto Penzler The title of this volume is slightly misleading; “locked room” stands in for the general idea of impossible crimes in mystery stories. A man is found stabbed in the back in a windowless room with the door locked from the inside.… Continue reading Book Review: The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries
Book Review: Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final Year
Book Review: Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final Year by Tavis Smiley with David Ritz Disclaimer: I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it. My copy was an advanced reading copy, and the final product (due out September 2014)… Continue reading Book Review: Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final Year
Movie Review: Till the Clouds Roll By
Movie Review: Till the Clouds Roll By This 1946 musical, filmed in glorious Technicolor, is loosely based on the life of songwriter Jerome Kern (Robert Walker). It opens with the opening of Showboat, the famous Oscar Hammerstein play he wrote the music for. After several numbers, we skip to the end of the performance. Mr. Kern… Continue reading Movie Review: Till the Clouds Roll By
Film Review: Hi-De-Ho (1947)
Film Review: Hi-De-Ho (1947) Jazz singer and bandleader Cab Calloway (Cab Calloway) has a new manager named Nettie (Ida James). His girlfriend Minnie (Jeni Le Gon) becomes insanely jealous, despite the relationship being purely professional. When Nettie lands Cab and his orchestra a gig at the ritzy Brass Hat Club, Minnie hies herself over to… Continue reading Film Review: Hi-De-Ho (1947)