Daily Dose of Dorothy Parker

My second-eldest son is named Tennyson. Reading through some Dorothy Parker poems today, I came across this stanza:

Should Heaven send me any son,

I hope he’s not like Tennyson.

I’d rather have him play a fiddle,

Than rise and bow and speak an idyll.

Early thoughts on Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism

When I first saw the cover for Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg, I was amused, but also worried that it would be another entertaining bit of fluff like Glenn Beck’s Inconvenient Book. It is nothing of the sort. In all honesty, I haven’t enjoyed a book this much since Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s, […]

Book Review - Commies: A Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left and the Leftover Left by Ronald Radosh

Commies: A Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left and the Leftover Left is the best sort of memoir, a charming, controversial, score-settling peek into a world otherwise hidden from outsiders — in this case, the world of American Communists and fellow-travelers. Written by a red diaper baby, the book opens […]

Camille Paglia in Just Three Pages.

Camille Paglia is by far my favorite enemy-of-my-enemy. She’s a fun mix of art historian, psychologist, street performer and psychotic lesbian Dorothy Parker. I’ve read her tome Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson at least three times now. One of her central ideas — […]

Essential Books for the High Schooler

Our pal Carol at Parenting Freedom is compiling a list of esential reads for high school students. I thought I’d post a few from my essentials list and let you add some of yours in the comments section. I’m sticking with non-fiction, but throw in whatever you think is needful.
Roots of American Order […]

Book Review: A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (A Novel)

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (A Novel)
Marina Lewycka
Penguin Press (March 17, 2005)
The premise of this fun little novel is simple: An elderly Ukrainian widower in Britain falls in love with a voluptuous young Ukrainian woman and brings her over to the UK. Kanye West has told […]

The 5 Books Which Most Impacted You

What five books did the most to make you the person you are? They can be from any category — children’s books, popular novels, academic books, anything.