The Gene: An Intimate History”by Siddhartha Mukherjee Reviewed by Mark D. Walker Interest in the power of the gene has heightened by the popularity of the numerous ancestry testing sites, like 23 & Me, which is the one I used to find out that I was 99% “Northwestern” European, which included Britain and Ireland (this would also include Scotland, which wasn’t a surprise) but the “Irish” ancestry was. The book provides a comprehensive history of the most intimate science of our time—the fundamentals of heredity. What better person to tell this story than the author of The Laws of Medicine […]
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Book Review – About Writing: The Business of Being a Writer
The Business of Being a Writer By Jane Friedman Reviewed by Mark D. Walker “Every writer needs tough love. Typically, that’s delivered by your editor as you’re writing the book. But where’s the tough love once your book is ready for the world? It’s in here and its Jane.” I learned about this book along with another, Daily Rituals, by Mason Curren from the speakers at a Phoenix Writers Network meeting several months ago. Curren’s book provides inspirational stories from writers, composers, artists and filmmakers on how the artists produce their creations, But then the question becomes, how do we […]
Continue readingBook Review – Non-fiction: The Age of Inequality: Corporate America’s War on Working People
The Age of Inequality: Corporate America’s War on Working People Edited by Jeremy Gantz Reviewed by Mark D. Walker A culmination of forty years of reporting by investigative reporters and progressive thinkers focuses on one of the key issues of our time, a steady movement towards an oligarchy in which ever more resources are being concentrated in an every smaller segment of our population. The richest 1 percent of Americans now own more wealth than the bottom 90%, while the country’s median household income is less today than it was in 1989. The great struggles of U.S. history, from the […]
Continue readingBook Review – Travel: The Tao of Travel: Enlightenments from Lives on the Road
The Tao of Travel: Enlightenments from Lives on the Road By Paul Theroux Reviewed by Mark D. Walker This book celebrates 50 years of travel writing and is just one of the reasons Theroux is known as the “Godfather of contemporary travel writing”. It’s an invaluable portal into the world of timeless travel on a global scale by one of the great travel authors. Theroux shares some of the books and authors who influenced and inspired him. He intersperses selections from his many books as well as those of the best travelers like Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Graham Greene, James […]
Continue readingBook Review – Fiction: Speak from Your Heart and Be Heard
Speak from Your Heart and Be Heard By Dr. Kixx Goldman Reviewed by Mark D. Walker I’ve known the author for several years through our involvement with several writing groups including the Phoenix Writers Club and the Phoenix Writers Network because she’s bringing her considerable experience as a psychologist to help her readers deal with the complicated realms of truth, emotion, trauma and healing. Fortunately, she followed Tony Morrison’s challenge,”if there’s a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it” a valuable mantra for any writer. The author often reiterates one […]
Continue readingBook Review – Latin America: Silence on the Mountain: Stories of Terror, Betrayal, and Forgetting in Guatemala
Silence on the Mountain: Stories of Terror, Betrayal, and Forgetting in Guatemala By Daniel Wilkinson Reviewed by Mark D. Walker While researching for a documentary on the immigration crisis in Guatemala, I came across the reference of this book being one of the best books on the Guatemalan civil war, which lasted thirty-six-years and claimed some 200,000 people, the vast majority of whom died (or “disappeared”) at the hands of a U.S.-backed military government. The title sounded familiar, so I checked out my bookshelves and, low-and-behold, it surfaced and I’m so glad it did. The author was a young human […]
Continue readingBook Review – Fiction: SAY HER NAME
A BOOK REVIEW OF SAY HER NAME By Francisco Goldman Reviewed by Mark D. Walker An evocative story of love and loss by acclaimed author Francisco Goldman who marries Mexican writer Aura Estrada. Tragically, a month before their second wedding anniversary, Aura breaks her neck body surfing. In order to deal with the loss and a deep-seated feeling of guilt, Goldman wrote this novel chronicling his love and feelings of unspeakable loss, which reflect the stages of grief when love and passion give way to inexplicable pain. The author traces every memory from his loved one’s memory and university days […]
Continue readingBook Review – Non-fiction: Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind
Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind By Yuval Noah Harari Reviewed by Mark D. Walker The author takes us on a sweeping trek through the history of our species. His encyclopedic approach covers most of the great turning points of mankind, the agricultural revolution, scientific revolution and what unifies mankind. The author’s all-encompassing perspective is summarized as, “One hundred thousand years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens. This opens some very interesting questions, which the author deals with, like how did our species succeed and become dominant. Why did […]
Continue readingBook Review – Latin America : The Saddest Pleasure: A Journey on Two Rivers by Moritz Thomsen
The Saddest Pleasure: A Journey on Two Rivers by Moritz Thomsen Reviewed by Mark D. Walker After being thrown off his small farm on the Rioverde located in northern Ecuador after years of service as a Peace Corps Volunteer and then as a local farmer by his local partner Ramon, the 63-year-old author, embarks on a desperate journey on a second river—this one is in Brazil. The trek proves to be a time of reckoning, assessing and reflecting on his life, which he perceived was coming to an end. This book would be the third of the author’s four literary […]
Continue readingBook Review – Latin America: The Rigoberta Menchu Controversy, Arturo Arias, Editor
The Rigoberta Menchu Controversy, Arturo Arias, Editor Reviewed by Mark D. Walker I learned of this book while helping produce a documentary on immigration problems in Guatemala, “Guatemala: Trouble in the Highlands,” when I announced that I was planning to recruit anthropologist David Stoll to work with us. I’d read his excellent studies, “Between Two Armies” and “Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans,” which he researched with extensive interviews in the Ixil Triangle region of Guatemala. But when I announced his involvement, a number of our advisors said they’d abandon the project if we included Stoll. Evidently, […]
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