Book Review: The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu, Joshua Hammer Nonfiction: The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu, Joshua Hammer Admit it: the title caught your attention. It caught mine, too. Fortunately, the contents of the book live up to the boldness of the title. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu tells the story of Abdel Kader Haidara and […]
Tag: #Nonfiction
Book Review: The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books, Edward Wilson-Lee
Book Review: The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books, Edward Wilson-Lee Biography: The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books, Edward Wilson-Lee In 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain to find western route to China and the Indies. As everyone knows, what he found instead was what became known as the “New World,” lands full of new people, […]
Book Review: The Orchid Thief, Susan Orlean
Book Review: The Orchid Thief, Susan Orlean Nonfiction: The Orchid Thief, Susan Orlean John LaRoche is described by author Susan Orlean as “the most moral amoral person” she’s ever known. When she first met him he was on trial for leading an expedition into the Fakahatchee swamp to collect rare ghost orchids. LaRoche told the […]
Book Review: Martin Rising: Requiem for a King, Andrea D. Pinkney
Book Review: Martin Rising: Requiem for a King, Words by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Illustrations by Brian Pinkney Poetry: Martin Rising: Requiem for a King, Andrea Davis Pinkney Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Three days later, I turned two years old. I only say that to put my age into […]
Book Review: Hidden Figures, Margot Lee Shetterly
Book Review: Hidden Figures, Margot Lee Shetterly Nonfiction Biography: Hidden Figures, Margot Lee Shetterly When America entered World War II, it did so with an aviation industry that was only the seventeenth largest industry in the US. Before the end of the war, US aviation was the largest industry in the world. Some of the […]
Booklist: 10 Books for a Reading Roadtrip Across America
Booklist: 10 Books for a Reading Roadtrip Across America Scintilla.info has been proudly international from the beginning, intentionally seeking books and authors from around the world. But we are based in the United States. Given that our country celebrates her birthday on July 4th, we decided to highlight some books that we have reviewed […]
Book Review: The Lost Gutenberg, Margaret Leslie Davis
Book Review: The Lost Gutenberg: The Astounding Story of One Book’s Five-Hundred-Year Odyssey, Margaret Leslie Davis Nonfiction: The Lost Gutenberg: The Astounding Story of One Book’s Five-Hundred-Year Odyssey, Margaret Leslie Davis On October 14, 1950, an ordinary wooden box arrives at the southern California home of Estelle Doheny. Inside the box, wrapped almost carelessly by […]
Book Review: Dreyer’s English, Benjamin Dreyer
Book Review: Dreyer’s English, Benjamin Dreyer Nonfiction: Dreyer’s English, Benjamin Dreyer This is a delightful, funny, and soon-to-become indispensable guide to writing in American English. Benjamin Dreyer has been a copy editor for Random House for more than 20 years. He has worked with numerous authors during that time, authors who appreciate both his attention […]
The Evolution of Everything, Matt Ridley
Book Review: The Evolution of Everything, Matt Ridley Nonfiction: The Evolution of Everything, Matt Ridley When Matt Ridley titled his book The Evolution of Everything, he really wasn’t kidding. From the scientific to the social to the technological, Ridley examines how things develop from the bottom up rather than the top down. His arguments are […]
Black Is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine; Emily Bernard
Book Review: Black Is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine, Emily Bernard Nonfiction: Black Is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine, Emily Bernard Black Is the Body is an extraordinary book. It is a collection of first-person essays by Emily Bernard, essays that […]