By Marion Elizabeth Rodgers - Special to The Washington Times
The Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald story is well-known. As writer Budd Schulberg observed, its romantic legend is so uniquely American in all its strengths and weaknesses that it is little wonder that the life and work became mythologized. Published May 17, 2013 Comments
By Peter Hannaford - Special to The Washington Times
Now 90 years old, William Zinsser has spent his adult life campaigning for clarity of writing which, of course, can only flow from clarity of thought. Nearly 40 years ago, he wrote a book titled “On Writing Well.” It has become an essential guide for many a nonfiction writer. That book was inspired by a writing course he taught at Yale in the 1970s. Published May 16, 2013 Comments
By Gary Anderson - Special to The Washington Times
A more appropriate title for this book might be “Empire Happens.” No British king or minister made a conscious decision to create the greatest empire in history. The imperium was created as a patchwork over the centuries beginning with the subjugation of Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Published May 15, 2013 Comments
By David DesRosiers - Special to The Washington Times
William J. Bennett and David Wilezol’s “Is College Worth It?” asks and authoritatively answers one of life’s biggest questions. Published May 14, 2013 Comments
By William Murchison - Special to The Washington Times
Eric Metaxas’ project here, in limning the notable lives of seven Christian men, is to hold up all seven as models of right behavior and commitment. He senses — well, I mean, how could he not? — that “young men especially need role models. Published May 13, 2013 Comments
By Philip Kopper - Special to The Washington Times
It is a brave novelist who opens a book with his heroically obese wine snob, “a vast floodplain of undulating flesh,” flopping in marital bliss, with his wife “making that melodious sound that reminded him of mermaids singing in an unintelligible language of a place he had never seen.” Published May 10, 2013 Comments
By Joseph C. Goulden - Special to The Washington Times
Seventeen years after his death, former Director of Central Intelligence William E. Colby remains a controversial figure among many persons in and around the intelligence community. Did he betray generations of fellow officers by going public with a so-called “family jewels” list of CIA misdeeds over the years? Or did the disclosure save the agency from dissolution by an angry Congress? Published May 10, 2013 Comments
By Corinna Lothar - Special to The Washington Times
"I've lost every book I've ever written," says the unnamed narrator at the beginning of Kristopher Jansma's novel, "The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards." The "I" is a writer, whose literary attempts began "before my feet could touch the linoleum floor beneath my seat." Published April 26, 2013
By Martin Rubin - Special to The Washington Times
When C.P. Snow arrived to lecture at Harvard in 1960, he was riding a wave of fame that followed his talk on "The Two Cultures" at Cambridge University the year before when he pointed out that the intellectual world was becoming increasingly divided between science and the humanities. Published April 25, 2013
By James Srodes - Special to The Washington Times
No other figure in American history has been subjected to such intense yet incomplete scrutiny as Franklin Delano Roosevelt; certainly none of the Founding Fathers, not even Abraham Lincoln. The closest anyone has come to an all-encompassing complete portrait was Kenneth S. Davis, who won prizes 50 years go for his five-volume biography that covered FDR's life only up until 1943. Published April 24, 2013
By Joshua Sinai - Special to The Washington Times
"Takedown: Inside the Hunt for Al Qaeda" is an insider account by a former high-level official at the CIA and FBI about how both agencies substantially upgraded their counterterrorism capabilities after the U.S. government's failure to prevent al Qaeda's catastrophic attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Published April 23, 2013
By Carrie Sheffield - Special to The Washington Times
If you're seeking a comprehensive, fairly non-technical narrative on the 2008 financial crisis albeit one from hardly a passive observer here's a decent place to start. Published April 22, 2013
By Muriel Dobbin - Special to The Washington Times
If you are curious to find out how a professional hit man learns his trade, this is the book for you. Thomas Perry has clearly devoted considerable research to the creation of this gripping account of the short and vicious life of Joey Moreland, who kills for profit and without a shred of pity. Published April 19, 2013
By Wes Vernon - Special to The Washington Times
Fittingly, the American passenger train was born on the Fourth of July. On that date in 1828, one of our Founding Fathers laid the granite cornerstone of the first chartered railroad in the United States, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Published April 18, 2013
By Joseph C. Goulden - Special to The Washington Times
The Renaissance is renowned as an era of intellectual and artistic excellence, centuries that produced such persons of genius as Shakespeare, Michelangelo and Montaigne. But the years had a dark side that is shunned by most historians: constant, horrific warfare that caused the deaths of countless hundreds of thousands, including hapless civilians in the path of murderous armies. Published April 17, 2013
By James Srodes - Special to The Washington Times
The question often arises at book talks, especially those given to student groups, why the Founding Fathers could speak such high-sounding words about equality and liberty and then ignore the oppressions visited on slaves and Indian tribes. Published April 16, 2013
By David DesRosiers - Special to The Washington Times
Jeb Bush and Clint Bolick's "Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution" is a must-read for every citizen, wannabe citizen, legal working resident and those illegally working in the shadows of our economy. Their drumbeat title certainly captures the heated nature of our political discourse on immigration. Published April 15, 2013
By Martin Rubin - Special to The Washington Times
Born in 1881, P.G. Wodehouse was not really equipped for the 20th century. By the time it dawned, he was frozen in a time warp as an affable schoolboy. And not just any schoolkid, but what the British call a "public schoolboy," a product of the elite private boarding establishments that we call prep schools. Published April 12, 2013
By William F. Gavin - Special to The Washington Times
At the turn of the 20th century, it was a frontier town, surrounded by desert, in the middle of nowhere. In the early 1930s, it was a place where construction workers building Boulder Dam came to have a good time. Published April 11, 2013
By Robert F. Dunn - Special to The Washington Times
"Mayday," the universal distress call, is herein sounded for a U.S. Navy in serious trouble. Even as the Navy continues to fulfill commitments around the world, the number of ships and aircraft is decreasing, and those that remain are aging at an unacceptable rate. Published April 10, 2013
By RIchard Viguerie - Special to The Washington Times
"Heritage wanted young tigers, not old lions, who were excited about engaging in the war of ideas, eager to go into battle, and optimistic about the prospect for victory." Ed Feulner. Published April 9, 2013
By Michael Taube - Special to The Washington Times
Would it surprise Washington Times readers to learn that the United States has held public debt since 1789? Well, it's true. For more than two centuries, federal government securities such as Treasury bills and notes have been heavily borrowed from the general public. Published April 8, 2013
