The Story Behind Edgar Sawtelle

Here is the link to David Wroblewski’s the story behind “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.”  Our book club read this book as our September choice and we unanimously agreed we would recommend it.  Seldom are we all in accord!  Oprah now has decided to jump on our bandwagon and has recommended it for her book club, [...]

Fisticuffs over Edgar Allan Poe’s Body

Philadelphia and Baltimore Fight Over Edgar Allan Poe’s Body

Edgar Allan Poe.

Edward Pettit, an Edgar Allan Poe Scholar, argues that Poe’s body belongs in Philadelphia where he wrote many of his works not in Baltimore, where he’s buried because he happened to die there — under strange circumstances.  On January 13, Pettit is going to square off against Jeff Jerome, [...]

Guns, Germs and Steel

Our book club read Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, which turned out to be one of the books I have recommended the most often to people.  Although I didn’t completely agree with all of Diamond’s points (he has the Pulitzer prize, I don’t), the book is an extremely thought-provoking discussion of the forces that have shaped human [...]

Tom Wolfe

Tom Wolfe was recently featured in the Sept. 8, 2008, Time Magazine.
In 1998, we read Tom Wolfe’s recently published “A Man in Full,” a heavy tome that I’ve just gotten from the shelf and dusted off. I remember it was hot enough off the press then that I had to buy the thing. The waiting list [...]