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A good story – that raises questions
Bob Moyer, aficionado of mysteries and thrillers, also has an abiding interest in nonfiction books about the Holocaust. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE SPIRAL SHELL: A French Village Reveals Its Secrets of Jewish Resistance in World War II. A Memoir. By Sandell Morse. Schaffer Press. 239 pages. $24.95. Sandell Morse did not know what…
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Out of ‘faded shadows’
Bob Moyer reviews a memoir that’s also the story of piecing together a very personal puzzle. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer WHEN TIME STOPPED: A Memoir of My Father’s War and What Remains. By Ariana Neumann. Scribner. 321 pages. $28. Growing up in Caracas, author Ariana Neumann knew of her father’s family only from the…
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Escaping the trap
“Not a mystery” was the subject line on the email in which Bob Moyer sent me this review. He knows that I know that most of his reviews are of mysteries, especially detective stories. But I also know that Bob has diverse interests, a lively intellect and a big heart, so I’m not really surprised…
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Challenging the powerful, a reporter’s story
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson REPORTER. By Seymour M. Hersh. Random House Audio. 14 hours; 11 CDs. Read by Arthur Morey. $40. Also available in print from Knopf, 355 pages, $27.95. “I am a survivor from the golden age of journalism…” begins Seymour M. Hersh in his remarkable memoir, the aptly named Reporter. On a…
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Poverty, material and spiritual
This memoir/sociological analysis came out last summer, but Bob Moyer finds that it’s just as relevant now as it was during the thick of the presidential campaign. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer HILLBILLY ELEGY. By J.D. Vance. Harper. 261 pages. $27.99. According to J.D. Vance, you may be a hillbilly if you do the following during…
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Deprivation, survival and life lessons
Paul O’Connor takes a break from his readings of history to review a book about something that, unfortunately, is as contemporary as it is terrible: life in North Korea. By Paul T. O’Connor IN ORDER TO LIVE. By Yeonmi Park. Penguin Audio. 9 hours and 30 minutes. Read by Eji Kim. 8 CDs. $40. Download…
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Israel, the U.S. and one man’s journey
If Paul O’Connor indulges in light books for summer reading, he keeps it a secret. Here he tackles a hefty book on a serious – and timely – subject. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor ALLY: MY JOURNEY ACROSS THE AMERICAN-ISRAELI DIVIDE. By Michael B. Oren. Books on Tape. $50. 16 hours, 52 minutes. Read by…
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Read it and shiver – and laugh
By Paul O’Connor CORPORAL BOSKIN’S COLD, COLD WAR: A Comical Journey. By Joseph Boskin. Syracuse University Press. Hardcover. 178 pages. $24.95. As a scholar of American culture, Prof. Joseph Boskin is very familiar with the work of Joseph Heller. As a Korean War-era draftee, Corporal Boskin can attest to the accuracy of Heller’s masterpiece, Catch-22.…
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Whirlwind memoir
Anne Barnhill of Garner, N.C., who’s hard at work on a novel to be published by St. Martin’s, has also written a short-story collection and a moving memoir, At Home in the Land of Oz, which tells her story of growing up with an autistic sister. Here, Anne takes a look at a new memoir…
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The Hare With Amber Eyes
Here’s our latest review, by Robert Moyer of Winston-Salem, whose interests are as wide-ranging as his talents. By Robert Moyer THE HARE WITH AMBER EYES: A Family’s Century of Art and Loss. By Edmund De Waal, Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 351 pages. $26. In the London hallway of potter and author Edmund De Waal, a brass…