Current Reviews

HILLBILLY ELEGY: A MEMOIR OF A FAMILY AND CULTURE IN CRISIS, by J.D. Vance
I did not read this book when it was published in 2016, but with the author now the nominee of the Republican party for Vice President of the United States, it was time to go back and rectify this by reading his memoir. When he became the VP nominee, I knew only that he was a U.S. senator from Ohio and that he had written this book.
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IN THE SHADOWS: TRUE STORIES OF HIGH-STAKES NEGOTIATIONS TO FREE AMERICANS CAPTURED ABROAD, by Mickey Bergman and Ellis Henican
Mickey Bergman directs Global Reach and the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, non-governmental, nonprofit organizations that negotiate the release of political prisoners and hostages around the world. His book, In the Shadows, exposes the secret world of hostage negotiations along with the fragile and complex nature of the process by those working to bring captives home.
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SAVING SADIE: HOW A DOG THAT NO ONE WANTED INSPIRED THE WORLD, by Joal Derse Dauer with Elizabeth Ridley
In 2012, the author dropped off some material donations at a no-kill animal shelter in Kenosha, Wisconsin. On the way out, she was stopped in her tracks by a lame dog in very bad shape. She was doomed to live out her life there until nature took its course. Nothing could be done to cure her and was advised that she should be put down. So, by now, you know where this is going. Of course she adopts Sadie.
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WHEN THE CLOCK BROKE: CON MEN, CONSPIRACISTS, AND HOW AMERICA CRACKED UP IN THE EARLY 1990S, by John Ganz
Journalist Ganz writes a newsletter on Substack and cohosts a podcast called "Unclear and Present Danger." He is young and funny, and researched the '90s assiduously. When the Clock Broke is his first book and a surprise 2024 best-seller. This book should be required reading for voters not active in the early '90s who think we are in a uniquely weird era.
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WHEN WOMEN RAN FIFTH AVENUE: GLAMOUR AND POWER AT THE DAWN OF AMERICAN FASHION, by Julie Satow
The arrival of When Women Ran Fifth Avenue promised another fine read by Satow centered on the history of high-profile department stores in the city and we were not disappointed. She writes that department stores have always been feminine domains and, in this story, writes a group biography on three women who successfully ran first-class department stores in their respective primes.
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