Book Review Blog

Welcome to Special Collections at West Library!Special Collections staff invite you to visit our blog, and our department in person, if you have an interest in archives, Texas Wesleyan University history, or the history of Fort Worth.The aim of the department is to post stories of interest biweekly to our blog, so check back often! If you have a particular research interest, please feel free to contact the University Archivist, Louis Sherwood, at lsherwood@txwes.edu or 817-531-4822. It is advisable to make a research appointment before visiting the archives.

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We have started this blog.

Call Number: PS3563 .O594 S47 2014
Reviewed by John Lamberth
John's Rating: 5/5

When you have already taken one Shakespeare story and turned it on its ear, it is only logical that the next step be to take TWO Shakespeare stories and turn them both on their ears. Oh, and smash them together with some Edgar Allen Poe. This is the premise behind The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore.

Call Number: BF319.5 .F4 S76 2014
Reviewed by Kaeli Vandertulip
Kaeli's Rating: 4/5

The performance evaluation: every person whose had a job for more than six months has been there…captively sitting and listening to a laundry list of your faults or the infuriating, “You’re doing great,” with nothing added for improvement.  Or the worst—the “feed-back sandwich”—where your faults are wedged in between what you do well. The entire time, you are frozen in fear.  Then, you stew over the negative things said about you.  Then you complain about what a waste of time it’s all been.  Managers and supervisors are often trained, workshopped, and coached about how to give good feedback.  But the work is lost if the person they are evaluating isn’t receptive.

Call Number: PS648 .S5 T48 2013
Reviewed By: John Lamberth
John’s Rating:  4.5/5

The Machine of Death is a device that tells you how you will die. A simple needle prick of your finger provides the machine with a blood sample and then it ejects a small rectangular piece of paper with your death prediction printed upon it. Nobody really knows how the machine works, including the persons responsible for its creation, but it does work and it is always right. But it is just how you will die. Not when. And even then, the machine often has an ironic sense of humor. “Old Age” could mean you die at age 100 or it could mean you get hit by a car driven by an old man.

Call Number: D107.3 .M38 2013
Reviewed By: Kate Wiant
Kate’s Rating: 3/5

As the mother of a three year old little girl, I was excited to read this book.  At home, I am inundated with Disney Princesses, but both my husband and I have encouraged our daughter to branch out.  So, it is not uncommon to see her running around wearing a tutu and wielding a lightsaber.  I think fantasy is wonderful, and it provides a much needed place for children to play and adults to escape the daily grind.

However, I think it becomes problematic when we fail to question the messages we receive through any medium, and the message we are sending to our daughters is perhaps the most important one to me at this point in my life.

Call Number: HX826 .S35 2012
Reviewed By: John Lamberth
John’s Rating: 3/5

For most people, “anarchy” is what happens when a group of teenagers throw a house party while the parents are out of town: complete chaos with a side of destruction of property and maybe some violence. The likely reason for this negative public perception stems from more than a century’s worth of media coverage of events like the Haymarket Square Riot and the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, books like The Anarchist’s Cookbook, and music from The Sex Pistols. These examples get more attention because they are exciting.

Call Number: PS3566 .A7756 Z46 2013
Reviewed By: Dr. Kendra Irons

Do you ever get in those phases where you pick up a book and simply cannot put it down?

Well, lately I have been completely taken over by books even though piles of grading and numerous meetings vie for my attention.

I have been buried in an Ann Patchett world, devouring her new This is the Story of a Happy Marriage which, by the way isn’t really about marriage but rather is a collection of fascinating non-fiction narratives based upon her life experiences. It was my first Ann Patchett book and I enjoyed it (and her interview on NPR) so much I immediately loaded my Kindle with Truth and Beauty, Patchett’s earlier nonfiction book based upon her intimate friendship with Lucy Grealy (The Autobiography of a Face).

Call Number: PN1995.9 .H6 M65 2013
Reviewed By: Kaeli Vandertulip
Kaeli's Rating: 3.5/5

Horror is a fascinating movie genre. It is a fun-house mirror of society, showing what our culture fears, disdains, rejects, extols, and relishes.  Horror excels at punishing what society condemns, as indicated by the phrase “Vice precedes slice and dice.” Horror is also becoming a legitimate field for scholarship, with literary critics, social scientists, and culture wonks cranking out books, documentaries, and scholarly articles. Books such as The Philosophy of Horror or Nightmares in Red, White, and Blue examine this genre in a full historical context, showing the evolution of the horror film through our atomic power fears and xenophobia through to our infection and invasion fears.