Articles written for the California Literary Review:

• Faking It by William Ian Miller
  Posted on 10 Jun 2007 in Non-Fiction Reviews, Psychology
  

  At turns erudite and droll, it reads like the collaborative effort of Harold Bloom and Dave Barry.

• What The Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula
  Posted on 24 Apr 2007 in Non-Fiction Reviews, Religion
  

  What The Buddha Taught accurately describes itself as a reliable introduction to Buddhism. As a religion with an unrivaled track record for living up to its ideals, Buddhism will certainly be tested as it is absorbed more and more by the West.

• The Trade - By Shirley Palmer
  Posted on 24 Apr 2007 in Fiction Reviews, Thrillers
  

  Matt Lowell is a character straight out of central casting for the Lifetime Network. He’s a down to earth, single guy living on the beach in Malibu. He restores old warehouses (in touch with his creative side) into beautiful lofts in rundown parts of Los Angeles. But he has one big problem – the big “C.” No no, not that big “C”, the other one – Commitment.

• September Swoon: Richie Allen, the ‘64 Phillies, and Racial Integration - by William C. Kashatus
  Posted on 24 Apr 2007 in Non-Fiction Reviews, Sports
  

  For Philadelphians over a certain age, the year 1964 evokes bitter memories of a Phillies team securely ensconced in first place by 6 ½ games with only 12 games left to play in the season.

• Present Value - By Sabin Willett
  Posted on 24 Apr 2007 in Crime Fiction, Fiction Reviews
  

  If Present Value was being pitched as a film one might describe it as Bonfire of the Vanities meets It’s A Wonderful Life. Sabin Willett has written a very entertaining novel that follows an upper-echelon New England couple and their two children from hubris to humiliation to redemption.

• Denial of Death - by Ernest Becker
  Posted on 11 Apr 2007 in Classics, Death, Non-Fiction Reviews, Philosophy, Psychology
  

  According to Becker, man is torn between his symbolic, self-conscious awareness and his animal nature. The same creature that names himself, imagines, explores and speculates is in the end, food for insects.

• American Sucker - by David Denby
  Posted on 10 Apr 2007 in Biography, Business, Economics, Non-Fiction Reviews
  

  The emotional trauma exposed a vulnerability that lay beneath all outward signs of success: a career as film critic for New Yorker magazine, a resident of New York’s upper west side, and the father of two children.

• Absolute Friends - by John Le Carré
  Posted on 10 Apr 2007 in Espionage, Fiction Reviews, Politics
  

  He finished his schooling in England and then moved on to a period of sexually charged radical politics where he met Sasha, a diminutive, hobbled, leftist action junkie who will reappear throughout his life.

• Where No Gods Came - Sheila O’Connor
  Posted on 16 Mar 2007 in Fiction Reviews
  

  Twelve year old Faina McCoy was living an idyllic life with her father near the beach in San Diego when he broke the news that she needed to live with her mother for awhile in Minneapolis. Something about gambling debts and leaving to work on an oil rig off the Australian coast – just until he can earn enough money to get out of the hole he’s in and come back for her. Faina must make the transition from laid back 60’s Southern California to barren inner city Minneapolis and begin life anew with an ailing, alcoholic, agoraphobic mother and Faina’s drug addled delinquent teenage sister.