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May 9, 2026May 9, 2026

#BookReview: American Rambler by Isaac Fitzgerald

Solid Travelogue/Memoir Needs Documentation To Be Solid As History. This is one of those books where read as a travelogue/ memoir from a 40 ish yr old dude who has lived a life few of us can really imagine (though far too many can imagine quite well, at least in some experiences discussed herein), it really works quite well. Fitzgerald found an esoteric thing connected (ish) to his home area and childhood and uses that in midlife as a way to both connect with people he otherwise would never have met and to examine his own life, and in these aspects the tale here really is a solid slice of Americana as it exists in this post-COVID world.

But approaching this as anything remotely resembling a history of Johnny Appleseed – even though this history is discussed – would be a mistake. Because even though Fitzgerald frequently mentions various actual biographies of Appleseed, he never once actually cites them – at least not in this Advance Review Copy text I’ve had for a little over four months prior to publication day. Indeed, that is actually the star deduction here – there is not one shred of any bibliography at all in this text, when similar nonfiction books – even similar memoir based books! – average out around the 15% or so documentation point.

But there again, Fitzgerald isn’t an academic. At all. As this story will tell you. Repeatedly.

Those interested in seeing the actual lived lives of their fellow humans will enjoy this book. It has an interesting structure and due to the particular event chosen for that structure has an interesting cadence to the tale that is atypical and indeed refreshing to a point, and it reads as particularly raw and honest at pretty well all points herein. Specifically including at least some stories here where Fitzgerald doesn’t exactly come out looking as perfect as those memes say we generally try to show ourselves on Instagram or LinkedIn. And yes, there are even points where the room gets a touch dusty.

Overall an interesting tale that will absolutely appeal to at least some readers, and one that helps bring out the commonalities in so many of us even as so much of our lives tries to tear us apart by our differences, and for that reason alone it should get more attention than it likely will.

Very much recommended.

This review of American Rambler by Isaac Fitzgerald was originally written on May 9, 2026.

May 6, 2026May 6, 2026

#BookReview: Paul For The World by Nijay K. Gupta

Deja Vu / Rinse And Repeat. Either Works. I do believe this is the first time in over 1,800 reviews over the last decade where I can truly say that literally everything I said about the author’s previous book – in this case, 2024’s Strange Religion – still applies to this one. Simply swap out any references to the “early church” to the “Pauline epistles” instead, and truly literally that entire review could be here with just those changes.

And so, the rest of the review is a version of exactly that:

“Fascinating History Marred By Prooftexting And Dearth Of Bibliography. This was an utterly fascinating look at the Pauline Epistles and the world they were written in and for. I genuinely learned quite a bit from reading this book, and Gupta kept the overall tone scholarly enough to be sufficiently serious without going into pretentiousness. Indeed, the *only* problems I had here, that are automatic star deductions when I encounter them, are the rampant prooftexting – the practice of citing Bible verses out of context in order to “prove” a particular point – and the dearth of a bibliography, clocking in at just 12% or so of the overall text when 20-30% is more normal in my experience across hundreds of nonfiction titles over the last several years. Even with being more willing to at least *slightly* lower that given more recent experiences, 12% is still simply too low.

But for anyone interested in the history of the Pauline Epistles and how that history could well change how exactly you interpret them, for any reason: read this book. Christians, no matter your bent, read this book and consider its words in relation to your relationship with the Pauline Epistles.

Very much recommended.”

PS Special To The Review of Paul For The World: After you consider this text and write your review of it, you should also read Frank Viola’s Pagan Christianity. He too has a very illuminating look at these very books of the Bible.

This review of Paul For The World by Nijay K. Gupta was originally written on May 6, 2026.

April 28, 2026

#BookReview: Blue Power by Stuart Schrader

Rise Of The Political Cop. Nearly 15 yrs ago now, when Michael Brown still had almost exactly a year left in his life, Radley Balko released a seminal history of the rise of the militarized police force in the United States he titled Rise Of The Warrior Cop. In it, he traced the history of policing in the American tradition all the way from its origins as the ‘Shire Reef’ in feudal England to its then most modern incarnations. (He has also released an updated version of this book in the last couple of years.)

Here, Schrader does for police unions what Balko did for police militarization, though Shrader’s historical focus is more explicitly limited to the last century or so with only brief mentions of prior periods – including the aforementioned ‘Shire Reef’.

Detailed and decently documented, with its bibliography clocking in at a reasonable 22%, this is yet another book that anyone concerned with the amount of power police wield in modern America will want to read. Schrader does a great job of showing how we got to this point via both intentional machinations… and some sheer dumb luck for those pushing for more unionization of police. Yet despite being a Johns Hopkins professor, this doesn’t really read as an academic tome. Dense, yes, with a *lot* of facts and names and dates, but also decently readable even for those less academically inclined.

Overall a truly solid look at a facet of policing in America that some talk about yet virtually no one understands the history of, this will absolutely fill in that gap for any who care to read it. It also happens to be reasonably balanced, so while there may be annoyances here or there depending on one’s own politics, there isn’t really anything here that seemingly anyone will be looking for the highest possible window to use for defenestration purposes.

Very much recommended.

This review of Blue Power by Stuart Schrader was originally written on April 28, 2026.

April 28, 2026

#BookReview: This Land Is Your Land by Beverly Gage

Pessimist Gen X Yale Professor Takes A Selective Road Trip Through America And American History. Understood through this lens, this book isn’t as terrible as it could have been. It is still quite politically oriented in the expected directions from a Yale professor, and its treatment of history is quite surface level and routine, but it is also at least somewhat more balanced than many books from similarly situated authors – so it does have that going for it.

The bibliography clocks in at 15%, which isn’t great, but does meet my bare minimum threshold and there isn’t really much here that would demand a Sagan Standard application – again, this is primarily surface level typical Ivy League Elitist type history.

Indeed, in the areas that Gage travels and covers that I’m most familiar with – specifically, Atlanta – Gage really barely covers anything at all, yet what she does choose to cover is both very surface level yet also, again, reasonably balanced given her current position. She covers Stone Mountain, including both how difficult it is to find in modern Atlanta and how while it remains a hotbed for KKK rallies, these are also seen as a free speech issue where the kooks have to be allowed to speak… but are also largely ignored. She covers MLK and his roots in Atlanta… while missing an interesting deeper dive connection to women’s suffrage and indeed the fight for racial equality that was *right there* at the time and location she was discussing. (Look to when and where Rebecca Latimer Felton, first female US Senator and last formerly slave owning one, died… 😉 )

Overall this is as much travelogue as history, and while it is reasonable as both it also isn’t a particularly deep dive or novel tale in either. Pessimistic and clearly slanted in the expected political direction given her day job and employer, it isn’t *so* heavy handed as to be unreadable… yet those with differing political views also won’t find much use here, as most of the history covered here is fairly standard and well known. Yes, some tidbits here and there are a bit deeper, but really not enough to perhaps justify the read for those with particularly strong political viewpoints that diverge from Gage’s own.

Recommended.

This review of This Land Is Your Land by Beverly Gage was originally written on April 28, 2026.

March 24, 2026

#BookReview: Open Space by David Ariosto

Well Documented Examination Of Space Tech Beyond Musk and Bezos. At least in the US (where both Ariosto and I are based), if you’re talking space these days you’re generally talking NASA, Elon Musk (SpaceX), or Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin). This book goes into the details of where space science and tech are *beyond* just those three entities, traveling all over the world showing how different people in different areas are contributing to pushing humanity beyond our home world – and why. While there are a lot of details here, including how nativist US policies ultimately both created China’s space program decades ago and pushed it to new heights (both literally and figuratively) more recently, this is also more of a complete overview of the entire field than a deep dive on any particular tech or event. Even as some significant ones – including the race to have the first commercial lunar lander – are more heavily detailed than other aspects. (For example, while space craft of various forms are discussed heavily, I don’t remember any mention whatsoever of space suit tech and only the barest mention of space food tech.)

Still, for all that it *does* cover, this book will actually better inform you of a lot of things that perhaps even some within the space exploration field may not be fully aware of (as I’m all too familiar with the idea even in my own field that a practitioner isn’t always fully aware of newer developments even in their own field). At 22% documentation, it is also fairly well sourced and because it is primarily reporting on current and near future tech and the histories thereof, Sagan doesn’t really apply here – making the 22% more than sufficient for this particular narrative.

Overall, this is an exploration of space exploration in its current forms that is clearly designed for mass appeal, and I do think this is one that most anyone even remotely interested in space tech and how we got where we currently are (beyond NASA, Musk, and Bezos) will find quite informative indeed.

Very much recommended.

This review of Open Space by David Ariosto was originally written on March 24, 2026.

March 19, 2026

#BookReview: The Feather Wars by James H. McCommons

Dense Academic Treatise With Not Quite Enough Bibliography. The singular most important thing you need to know about this book is that it is very much written in a dry, academic, very much textbook tone. There is a *lot* of seemingly fairly comprehensive history of birding from the beginning of European settlement in the area now known as the United States – with a brief touch on histories before that period – basically up to Silent Spring. Yes, given the eras this covers, particularly in the 19th century and earlier, this means that for nature lovers in particular it may be a doubly difficult book as it goes into details about the wholesale slaughter of birds generally and even the extinction of several different specific species, including the passenger pigeon.

While at least one other reviewer does claim the book to be hyperbolic, the approach here seemed at least relatively balanced regarding birds – if slanted more in favor of conservation and government power in particular human actions and specific conservation methods. Up to and including recommending some rather extreme actions regarding pet cats, declaring that they should be regulated even more tightly than pet dogs are. Clearly, this author has never actually attempted to keep a cat even inside a covered stroller, much less walked on a leash. (Yes, I’m aware *some* cats tolerate these actions. *Some* animals – including the human animal – will tolerate nearly any physically survivable situation. This does not mean the majority do or that these conditions are good for them.)

Indeed, as with so many nonfiction books declaring policy recommendations… eh, they’re always going to be hit or miss at best depending on the reader’s personal preferences. As a cat lover and avowed Anarchist… let’s just say I personally agreed with few of them indeed, but others with different views may arrive at different conclusions there.

Overall if you can withstand the dense academic tone – and, if a nature lover, the clinical precision with which McCommons describes such wholesale and wanton slaughter of so many birds – this book will at minimum be informative, unless perhaps you are a birder yourself with a strong knowledge of the history of that hobby.

March 6, 2026

#BookReview: Ruby Falls by Gin Phillips

Locked Room Mystery More On Women’s Fiction End Than Horror End. Growing up at the border of Appalachia and Atlanta, halfway between Chattanooga and Atlanta, I saw the “See Rock City” signs – mostly barns – quite frequently. Have even been out there both on school field trips and with my family, and indeed my youngest brother actually proposed to his now wife on top of Lookout Mountain. In other words, I know the modern version of the mountain – and the caves – fairly well. (Though to be clear, I haven’t seen the 2020s era updates.) Thus, you, oh reader of my review, can easily see why a book about the modern origins of the tourist attraction known as Ruby Falls would entice me to read it.

The tale itself is a locked room mystery yet is more women’s fiction than horror, though those with any hint of actual claustrophobia are going to find certain scenes here (at minimum) quite difficult to read. Probably even *worse* than *that* scene in Lee Child’s Die Trying, the Reacher story that finds even Reacher crawling through a cave at one point. The use of the cave as the “locked room” is done quite excellently, as are the basic cave survival aspects, all in service to the actual story being told.

But we *are* getting a lot more relational drama than the straight up terror from a tale such as Greig Beck’s Beneath The Dark Ice, even as a murder mystery unfolds deep underground. This is the Great Depression and this is still the age of people claiming to be clairvoyant… many of whom turn out to be hucksters… but not all. The era when the caves – and the Falls – were first discovered by modern man nearly a century ago as this book is released in March 2026, and we do in fact get to hear about the moment of their discovery as part of this story.

For those looking for a women’s fiction tale with a bit more kick, or perhaps a locked room murder mystery a touch more on the relational side than the terror side, this book is going to be pretty close to exactly what you’re looking for. Those looking for a more pure survival or horror tale… not so much.

Ultimately though this is truly a great tale of its form that does great service to its real world subject even as it creates a fictional story around the real-world history. For the millions… and millions! (cheap pop!)… who have been to Ruby Falls or who live in the surrounding regions or who enjoy these types of tales, this is absolutely going to be a book you’re going to want to pick up.

Very much recommended.

This review of Ruby Falls by Gin Phillips was originally written on March 6, 2026.

February 25, 2026

#BookReview: Chosen Land by Matthew Avery Sutton

“His Assessment Told Only Half The Story”. Yes, this is a direct quote Sutton used in this book… and also quite possibly the most succinct summary of this text available. Despite having an ambitious premise with a rather large page count to expound upon it, Sutton here still manages to omit or dismiss key figures and movements when he deems them problematic (Lottie Moon, the Student Volunteer Movement, and Annie Armstrong), fails to show moderating actions by groups he opposes (the Southern Baptist Convention in particular), and fails to show similar controversies involving those he generally supports (black prosperity gospel preachers TD Jakes and Creflo Dollar) while showing in some detail at times the controversies of those he opposes.

And yet, despite all of this – and particularly for those who align with Sutton’s progressive biases – there is enough here that you are likely to learn something, almost no matter how much you know about the history of Christianity in the United States.

For those who know no better, Sutton’s history here shows at least one version – a significantly biased one – of the history of American Christianity that largely downplays or outright omits much of the history of Christianity in the American South, including the efforts of Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong in the era around the turn of the 19th century into the 20th in particular. Through this period, more focus is placed on the religious developments of the enslaved or formerly enslaved, even when other leading figures – such as first female US Senator and last formerly slave owning US Senator Rebecca Latimer Felton – were pivotal through this period. Further, key Southern revivalists such as Sam Jones are omitted entirely, even when similarly situated and influential black, Northern preachers are later discussed and even when discussing white Northern predecessors and successors to Jones’ style, such as Billy Sunday (the real one that the fictional character played by Robert De Niro in Men of Honor claimed no relation to) or Billy Graham.

And yet, for those who perhaps don’t know much about the history of American Christianity at all… there is truly enough here that warrants reading this book. As I noted above, you’re truly going to learn at least a little. You just also need to treat this as a biased primer and actively seek out a more complete picture, including from original sources such as Felton’s Country Life in Georgia In The Days Of My Youth or Jeff Guinn’s excellent chronicle of the siege at the Branch Davidian compound, Waco.

Ultimately, the star deductions are for a lack of bibliography, clocking in at just 10% of the overall text available in the Advance Review Copy edition of the book I read, the stark omissions that show only part of the overall premise, and the bias bordering on bigotry against anything white and/ or conservative that is so pervasive throughout this text.

One final curious note is that deep in the text, in the penultimate chapter to boot, there is a brief chronicle of one particular pastor named Doug Wilson who holds a very distinctive view of Christianity…. and who lives in and “took over” the next town down the road from Sutton’s base at Washington State University. While there is no public record of any animosity between the two, the lack of balance and clear bias towards perspectives even remotely similar to Wilson’s seems more than coincidental – though again, to be crystal clear, there is *zero* public evidence to support this. Still, that particular passage made me wonder, and I leave it to you, the reader of my review and possibly reader of Sutton’s book, to draw your own conclusions there.

Those that have a conservative lean to their politics and/ or religion are likely going to want to defenestrate this book long before completing its 600 ish pages. Don’t. There really is enough through most of this text that you’re going to learn something. Those who lean more in Sutton’s direction will likely praise this book quite highly. Again, I leave it to you, the reader of my review, to decide for yourself whether to read this book or not, and I do hope that if you decide to read it at all – even if you wind up DNFing it – that you’ll leave your own review and tell all of us what you thought of the text and why.

February 18, 2026February 18, 2026

#BookReview: The Greatest Scientific Gamble by Michael Joseloff

Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr. Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant. J. Robert Oppenheimer and Werner Heisenberg. In this text, Joseloff almost portrays the leading nuclear scientists of the WWII era – particularly Oppenheimer and Fermi vs Heisenberg – as a Professor X vs Magneto friendship yet rivals, still with humanity’s freedom – and possibly existence – at stake. Written in an approachable more journalistic rather than academic style befitting Joseloff’s background as an Emmy award winning news producer for various cable networks, thriller/ action fans may actually be able to enjoy this particular nonfiction book quite well.

This noted, the cast of “characters” is rather large – if you have trouble keeping track of half a dozen different characters in a tale, this one may not be for you after all, as there are nearly that many major players here along with several more supporting players for this particular narrative (many of whom were far larger players in the overall scheme of WWII, but who weren’t *as* prominent directly within the efforts on both sides of the war to build a working atom bomb).

Clocking in at roughly 23% documentation though, this tale is fairly well cited, and even if you think you know absolutely everything about nuclear development during the WWII era, this book will likely show you at least a few you didn’t. For example, I personally learned of the Allied attempts to assassinate Heisenberg, that Heisenberg was a version of the US/ Confederate States of America’s Robert E. Lee… and that the plutonium blast at Nagasaki that effectively ended the war (once the Russians finally declared war against Japan the next day) actually hit facilities used to produce torpedoes that had been used to attack Pearl Harbor nearly four years earlier (along with a *lot* of other facilities in Nagasaki).

But really, it is a story of friends finding themselves on opposing sides of a war, both seeking to both be the best in their field and uncover new scientific breakthroughs before the other does… knowing that their governments intend to weaponize these breakthroughs to use against the other side. It is a story of one man remaining staunchly loyal to his homeland, knowing its faults and yet choosing his home and family anyway. It is a story of his friends already seeing how evil their friend’s homeland is – even before its full evils were truly known – and doing absolutely everything possible to convince their friend to abandon his home and join them… even if they have to kidnap him to save his life.

It is a story you think you know… and yet you almost certainly never knew these particular aspects of it.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Greatest Scientific Gamble by Michael Joseloff was originally written on February 18, 2026.

January 30, 2026

#BookReview: I Told You So by Matt Kaplan

Interesting History That Can In Fact Comes Across As Extended Ad For Author’s Day Job. I was perusing the existing reviews on Goodreads as I sat down to write this review, as is my custom, when I saw a 2 star review mention that this book felt, to that reviewer, at least partially like an extended ad for the author’s day job as a science reporter for The Economist and actually agreed with that point in retrospect.

Written almost as much in a memoir style as even a popular science history type book – the author’s bread and butter for twenty years now both in articles for The Economist and in books on various topics over the years, if you didn’t know (see what I did there? 😉 )- this is actually the second book this month I read that dealt with a Hungarian physician named Ignaz Semmelweiss and his pioneering antiseptic work in the 19th century, with the other being The Great shadow by Susan Wise Bauer, about the history of sickness and healing more generally whereas Kaplan’s text here focuses more on how right Semelweiss was… and how much a price he paid for being the one man that was beginning to get at least something right in an era when The Establishment (to use a more modern phrase) was oh so very wrong.

Semmelweiss’ story is the binder of this narrative, but along the way we encounter a few others similarly situated, from the famous (Galileo, Lister (whom Listerine is named after, to give those who may not be familiar with the name an idea of why it may be significant), and Pasteur, among others) to the more bleeding edge and let’s say not-yet-as-globally-famous, even though this modern set has at least one Nobel Prize winner among it and one who was essential in the creation of the COVID 19 vaccine.

The history is well written – as should be expected with someone of Kaplan’s experience – and doesn’t shy away from relevant facts that may make the historical figures look not so great in modern eyes, yet the modern is, while still well written, perhaps a touch *too* personal, offering insights into Kaplan’s own training and direct interactions with some of the subjects he is profiling. This is where the more memoir aspects of the tale kick in, and again, these are still well written and engaging, they just don’t share the same psychological distance as is notable when Kaplan is writing of Semmelweiss and others.

Still, the only reason for the star deduction is, as long time readers of my reviews of nonfiction books can probably already guess, a lack of documentation, clocking in at just 12% of the overall text here, just shy of the 15% or so of even my more recent more relaxed expectations on this point after having read quite a few nonfiction Advance Review Copy books over these last eight or so years.

Overall though, the book is truly fascinating and brings to light quite a bit of obscure history of the last few hundred years, and does a great job of making the points Kaplan is trying to make quite clear without veering too deeply into preachiness. Most readers will likely learn quite a bit from reading it, and have a generally pleasant experience doing so.

Very much recommended.

This review of I Told You So by Matt Kaplan was originally written on January 30, 2026.