Books Archive

John le Carré (1931 – 2020) - David Cornwell was “recruited as a teenaged errand boy of British Intelligence” and, for almost two decades, was some kind of spy. Moonlighting as a novelist, he wrote novels. Because

John le Carré: A Delicate Truth - When we last were blessed with a John le Carré novel, we were confronted with a question not often posed in espionage thrillers --- who is more immoral, the biggest

John le Carré: Our Kind of Traitor - In the copies of "Our Kind of Traitor" that were sent to reviewers, John le Carré included a reprint of a 2009 piece from The Guardian. The headline: “Drug money saved

John le Carré: The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life - John le Carré has described himself as a liar: “Born to lying, bred to it, trained to it by an industry that lies for a living, practiced in it as

John Le Carre: The Spy Who Came In from the Cold - In 1963, David Cornwell published his third novel. Because he was then an agent for British Intelligence, he used, as his government required, a pseudonym: “John Le Carré.” Graham Greene, who

John O’Donohue: Anam Cara, A Book of Celtic Wisdom - I sometimes find myself on the outskirts of a conversation that has someone say, with regret: "National politics makes me feel like a spectator --- I can't think of anything

John O’Donohue: Our Friend Among the Dead - "Endings seem to lie in wait,” John O'Donohue wrote. His certainly did. He died in his sleep, January 4, 2008, on vacation near Avignon. He was just 53. I had read

John O’Donohue: Walking in Wonder: Eternal Wisdom for a Modern World - John O’Donohue was a student of Hegel who wrote his Ph.D. dissertation in German, an Irish priest, and then not a priest, but at all times a thinker, a very

John Steinbeck: Travels with Charley in Search of America - GUEST BUTLER JULIA PIZZOLATO grew up in the heart of Texas and is a wannabe New Yorker currently living in Palm Springs, California. She gave up television for good 2

John Tunis: The Kid from Tomkinsville - I read my first John Tunis novel when I was 8. By 10, I'd read them all. In my 20s, I revisited my childhood favorite --- the first book in the series,

Johnny U: The Life and Times of John Unitas - His father died when he was five, leaving behind a hard-pressed family and a coal-delivery business. After school, Johnny helped out --- like, before he was ten years old, shoveling

Joni Mitchell: Morning Glory on the Vine: Early Songs and Drawings - I note two key events in Joni Mitchell’s life in 1971. One was public: On June 22, she released “Blue,” the most essential of her essential albums. If you not own

Judy Collins: Cravings: How I Conquered Food - Who doesn’t know Judy Collins? The music is burned into our memories. But the woman who made the music? If you haven’t read her memoirs, you know nothing. I am an

Jules et Jim - SUPPORTING BUTLER: Head Butler no longer gets a commission on your Amazon purchases. So the only way you can contribute to Head Butler’s bottom line is to become a patron

Julia Child and Simone Beck: Mastering The Art of French Cooking, Volume One - The movie "Julie & Julia" is built around the astonishing idea that a fan of "Mastering The Art of French Cooking, Volume One" would cook her way through the book’s

Julia Child Rules: Lessons on Savoring Life - “Life is meals,” James and Kay Salter write in their book about food and friends, and I agree. Not so much for what was served and how it was cooked,

Julia Child: My Life in France - Julia Child would be 104, so it's understandable that, for many Americans, she looks and acts like Meryl Streep in the Nora Ephron film that burnished her eccentricities. But in

Julia Reed’s South: Spirited Entertaining and High-Style Fun All Year Long - Julia Reed is from Greenville, Mississippi (population: 33,000), and on the first page of this, her sixth book, she acknowledges the history of her home town: “An 1840s slave-built levee

July 4, 2016: Stay safe. Read a book. - This is so obvious it shouldn’t need to be said, but real patriotism is the exact opposite of what those fools --- mostly male --- mean when they chant “USA!

Kabir: Ecstatic Poems - Did you know there were stand-up comedians in India in the 1400s? Me neither --- until I read Kabir. Why? Because Kabir was playing the greatest comic role of all --- God's