book reviews

Reviews of other people’s books

Book Review: The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games – First Person Scholar

book reviews • Dave • September 26, 2018 • reviews, toxic meritocracy

Today I’ve had a book review I wrote of Christopher A. Paul’s The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games posted on First Person Scholar. Here’s a sample: My difficulties with conceptualizing a non-meritocratic review, perhaps, illustrate just how hard-wired meritocratic norms are—especially in academia—which demonstrates that this book makes a very good point about thinking more […]

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Book Review: Hit Me

book reviews • Dave • October 26, 2013 • book reviews, gomes, hit me, life in vegas, organized crime

Danielle Gomes and Jay Bonansinga. Hit Me: Fighting the Las Vegas Mob by the Numbers. Guilford, Connecticut: Globe Pequot Press, 2013. 301 pages. One of the most-asked questions for people who study Las Vegas history is “How did the mob get kicked out of the casino industry?” This book tells you a major part of

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Book Review: Wonderful Life with the Elements

book reviews • Dave • November 24, 2012 • book reviews, bunpei yorijufi, wonderful life with the elements

Bunpei Yorifuji. Wonderful Life with the Elements: The Periodic Table Personified. San Francisco: No Starch Press, 2012. 206 pages. Elements. Whether we like it or not, we’re all composed of them. And it’s not just us–the entire universe is composed of elements–71% of it’s hydrogen, but that doesn’t make it any less interesting. And yet

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Book Review: Riding Rockets

book reviews • Dave • November 17, 2012 • book review, mike mullane, nasa, riding rockets, space shuttle

Mike Mullane. Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut. New York, Scribner, 2006. 368 pages. This is a book everyone who has any kind of interest in the history–and future–of manned space flight should read. For that matter, anyone who doesn’t have an interest in manned space flight should read it, too,

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Book Review: Ready Player One

book reviews • Dave • November 10, 2012

Ernest Cline. Ready Player One. New York: Crown Publishers, 2012. 384 pages. This is a hard novel to review. I’ve got to confess that I came very close to not making it more than a twenty pages into this book. It’s set in a dystopian future, with a disillusioned teenager as the protagonist. And that’s

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Book Review: The Dog Stars

book reviews • Dave • November 6, 2012 • book reviews, peter heller, the dog stars

Peter Heller. The Dog Stars: A Novel. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012. 336 pages. You know post-apocalyptic fiction has come a long way when it goes from sci-fi and horror to literary fiction. The Dog Stars is, without a doubt, the most introspective piece of post-apocalyptic writing I’ve read yet. There’s not much plot–it’s mostly the

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Book Review: The Fat Years

book reviews • Dave • November 3, 2012 • book reviews, chan koonchung, the fat years

Chan Koonchung. Michael S. Duke, translator. The Fat Years. New York: Nan A. Talese, 2012. 336 pages. This novel, written by a veteran Chinese journalist/writer, gives Westerners a glimpse of sorts into Chinese social psychology. Lots of people in the U.S. are fretting about the rise of China, and the possibility that the 21st century

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Book Review: The Book of Business Awesome

book reviews • Dave • October 7, 2012 • book of business awesome, book reviews, scott stratten

Scott Stratten. The Book of Business Awesome: How Engaging Your Customers and Employees Can Make Your Business Thrive. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 2012. 250 pages. This is actually two books rolled into one, and issued with double covers: You can either start on the “Awesome” side or flip the book over and

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Book Review: Positive Intelligence

book reviews • Dave • September 3, 2012

Shirzad Chamine. Positive Intelligence: Why Only 20% of Teams and Individuals Achieve Their True Potential. Austin, Texas: Greenleaf Books, 2012. 227 pages. Positive Intelligence falls into an interesting intersection between self-help books and business strategy books. That’s certainly no accident; for most people, work is one the primary ways they express themselves. And, as we all

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Book Review: The Nelson-Wolgast Fight and the San Francisco Boxing Scene, 1900-1914

book reviews • Dave • July 20, 2012 • arne k lang, book reviews, nelson-wolgast

Arne K. Lang. The Nelson-Wolgast Fight and the San Francisco Boxing Scene, 1900-1914. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 2012. 187 pages. Boxing today is nothing like it was a century ago. On one hand, it was a nearly-outlaw sport–many states had restrictions against professional fights or outright bans on public bouts, while others tolerated them.

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Book Review: Tubes

book reviews • Dave • July 13, 2012 • andrew blum, book reviews, internet, tubes

Andrew Blum. Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet. New York: Harper Collins, 2012. 304 pages. I have a hunch that you know a thing or two about the Internet. After all, you’re reading this review on it, so at the very least you use it every one in a while. But most

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Book Review: The War at the Shore

atlantic city, book reviews • Dave • June 29, 2012 • book review, skip bronson, war at the shore

Richard D. “Skip” Bronson with Andrew Meisler and A. M. Silver. The War at the Shore: Donald Trump, Steve Wynn, and the Epic War to Save Atlantic City. New York: Overland Press, 2012. 220 pages. Many people are fascinated by the high-stakes world of casino development. Deals get announced that create thousands of jobs and

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atlantic city, book reviews

Book Review: Screenwriting Tips, You Hack

book reviews • Dave • February 5, 2012 • book reviews, screenwriting tips, xander bennett

Xander Bennett. Screenwriting Tips, You Hack. 150 Practical Pointers for Becoming a Better Screenwriter. Amsterdam: Focal Press, 2012. 210 pages. I’ve never written a screenplay, but I still believe that Xander Bennett’s Screenwriting Tips, You Hack, has made me a better writer. I’m not being facetious here; Bennett’s book has given me a much better

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Book Review: Tackling Tumblr

book reviews • Dave • December 28, 2011 • book reviews, tackling tumblr, thord daniel hedengren

Thord Daniel Hedengren. Tackling Tumblr: Web Publishing Made Simple. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, 2011. 258 pages. When I got the chance to review a book about Tumblr, I figured I’d give it a shot. I’d heard about the web publishing platform and thought it might be a good fit for a project I’m

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Book Review: How to Keep Score in Business

book reviews • Dave • December 16, 2011 • book reviews, how to keep score in business, robert follett

Robert Follett. How to Keep Score in Business: Accounting and Financial Analysis for the Non-Accountant. Second Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: FT Press, 2012. 168 pages. Financial statements can be a riddle. Loaded down with numbers and sometimes-confusing terminology, they can obscure rather than illuminate if you don’t know how to read them. If

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Book Review: Unquenchable

book reviews • Dave • November 25, 2011 • book reviews, natalie maclean, unquenchable

Natalie MacLean. Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World’s Best Bargain Wines. New York: Perigree, 2011. After reading UNQUENCHABLE, I can state three things with confidence about Natalie MacLean: 1) She likes to drink wine 2)She knows a great deal about it 3) She wants to share some of her experiences and perspectives with you

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Book Review: The Art of Roughhousing

book reviews • Dave • October 28, 2011 • anthony debenedet, book reviews, horseplay, lawrence cohen, the art of roughhousing

Anthony DeBenedet and Lawrence J. Cohen. The Art of Roughhousing: Good Old-Fashioned Horseplay and Why Every Kind Needs It. Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2010. 192 pages. Parents get mixed messages about physicality and child-rearing. On one hand, they remember running around, pushing, and just plain having fun as kids. On the other, there’s an endless list

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Book Review: A More Perfect Heaven

book reviews • Dave • October 24, 2011 • a more perfect heaven, copernicus, dava sobel

Dava Sobel. A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos. New York: Walker and Company, 2011. 288 pages. We take much of our worldview for granted. Most of us, if asked to relate where the Earth is, would without blinking respond that it’s the third planet from the sun. Its daily rotation is responsible

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Book Review: Signing Their Rights Away

book reviews • Dave • October 14, 2011 • book reviews, signing their rights away

Denise Kiernan and Joseph D’Agnese. Signing Their Rights Away: The Fame and Misfortune of the Men Who Signed the United States Constitution. Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2011. 256 pages. As one of the foundation documents of the American Republic, the Constitution is an object of respect bordering on reverence. For the past 222 years it’s formed

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