Category Archives: Book Reviews

Thoughts on Brideshead Revisited

Posted on March 8, 2023 by JC

I mentioned a few years ago in a post that I had been intending to re-read Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited along with Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. After finishing the former late last week, I decided I needed to write something about … Continue reading →

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A Most Interesting Man

Posted on February 19, 2023 by JC

Simon Leys: Navigator between Worlds by Philippe Paquet (translated by Julie Rose), La Trobe University Press, September 18th, 2017 The name of Simon Leys has appeared a couple of times on this blog. The first quoting portions of his fascinating … Continue reading →

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Entering at the Margins of Classic Chinese Literature

Posted on January 31, 2023 by JC

The Water Margin (Shuihu Zhuan) is one of what are known as the ‘Four Great Novels of China’ and was originally written by Shi Naian during the Ming Dynasty and published in 1368 AD. Though there is scholarly dispute on … Continue reading →

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A Brief Analysis of the Analects

Posted on December 31, 2022 by JC

The Analects of Confucius translated by Simon Leys Norton, April 2nd, 1997 Something definitely missing from my endless list of reading material is Chinese literature. This is something I’ve somewhat remedied recently by reading The Analects of Confucius but I … Continue reading →

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A Jesuit on Japan

Posted on November 27, 2022 by JC

An infrequent topic on this blog has been Japan and the Japanese who for a variety of reasons remain fascinating to me. The main being that I am married to a Japanese woman with whom I have children and I … Continue reading →

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An Argument Against Self-Publishing

Posted on November 6, 2022 by JC

Dan the Destructor: Barbarians of the Storm – Book I by Rob Rimes January 10th, 2022 In beginning this review, I find myself wondering whether I have been overly harsh in previous reviews I’ve written. As I’ve pointed out before, … Continue reading →

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A Religious Road Trip

Posted on October 23, 2022 by JC

American Pilgrim by Roosh Valizadeh Kings Media, February 16th, 2021 One of the earliest posts I wrote when I started this blog was a review of Roosh’s Free Speech Isn’t Free which chronicles his notorious speaking tour that sparked outrage … Continue reading →

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The Origins of Adventure

Posted on September 23, 2022 by JC

Over the last few years I’ve been discovering a lot of early fantasy and adventure that I previously had little or no knowledge of. This includes authors such as Lord Dunsany, George MacDonald, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard. … Continue reading →

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A Review of The Penguin Book of Australian Short Stories

Posted on September 16, 2022 by JC

The Penguin Book of Australian Short Stories edited by Harry Heseltine, Penguin Books, August 30th, 1976 Earlier this year I wrote a review of Modern Japanese Short Stories which was a collection by a selection of Japanese authors from the … Continue reading →

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Infernal Ruination

Posted on August 28, 2022 by JC

Stalin’s War: A New History of World War II by Sean McMeekin Basic Books, April 20th, 2021 World War II is still largely considered a great moral crusade by Western peoples and portrayed this way in most historical works I’ve … Continue reading →

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