Summer Picks: Book Selections by The Georgetowner
By • July 25, 2018 0 324
‘The Best of Richard Matheson’
Reviewed by Patrick G. Ryan
“The Best of Richard Matheson” is a great collection of horror/sci-fi short stories from the author of the 1954 novel “I Am Legend.” Matheson wrote many “Twilight Zone” episodes, including “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” which starred a young William Shatner. The original story is included here. A blurb on the back cover from Stephen King credits Matheson “as the author who influenced me most as a writer.”
‘The Square and The Tower’
Reviewed by Robert Devaney
In “The Square and the Tower, “with its subtitle, “Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook,” author Niall Ferguson takes the reader on an informative, fun ride, from the first years of the printing press to today, the time of the internet. Ferguson, who has written about empires, money and Henry Kissinger, analyzes political and cultural relationships — whether formal hierarchies (“the Tower”) or loose networks (“the Square”). In the mix are Gutenberg, Pizarro and Luther, as well as British generals and spies, the Rothschilds, the Jesuits, Nixon, Davos man and Twitter.
‘Jaws’
Reviewed by Stephanie Green
Summer is the perfect time to catch up on those literary classics that never made it onto your high school or college syllabus. For me, that classic was “Jaws,” which I devoured after checking it out from my favorite Tenleytown Public Library last month. Peter Benchley’s terrifying storytelling has you hooked from the first few pages — and there’s a love affair that didn’t make the 1975 movie version. It’s a real page-turner, but maybe not the best beach read.
“The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It”
Reviewed by Peggy Sands
In “The Boy Crisis,” Warren Farrell and John Gray examine how boys in America are facing catastrophe: dropping out of school more just when jobs require it, attending college less (40 percent of the total) and being raised without fathers (30 percent or more), male teachers and, increasingly, without loving paternal grandparents. The result: anger and despair leading to increasing violence, incarceration and suicide. Farrell and Gray urge two solutions: more male school teachers and“disputable assumption” divorce nationwide, requiring equal mom/dad coparenting.
