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Robert’s Year In Books

Robert’s 2024 Year in Books

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Daniel Machado

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Robert Earle

Goodreads Author

Born

in Norristown, Pennsylvania, The United States

Website

http://www.robertearle.me

Twitter

Raponikon

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Historical Fiction, History

Influences

Latin, Greek, the Bible, Mark Twain, Schopenhauer, Rembrandt, Dickens, ...more

Member Since

October 2008

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I began reading intensively when I was 10 or so and writing intensively when I was about 15 or 16. I studied literature and writing at Princeton (undergraduate) and Johns Hopkins (graduate) and then spent two decades earning a living as a diplomat. During that time, I wrote on the side, publishing short stories in little magazines. In my fifties, I was able to retire--sort of--and published my first novel, The Way Home (2004) just before I was recruited to go to Baghdad to help the United States conclude the war its invasion of Iraq in 2003 had started. As you will have noticed, the war kept going, but you can assess my efforts to get us out of that conflict in my book, Nights in the Pink Motel: An American Strategist's Pursuit of Peace in ...more

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Robert Earle’s books

Average rating: 4.03 · 38 ratings · 21 reviews · 15 distinct works

	Suffer the Children 3.46 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 2015	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	She Receives the Night 4.78 avg rating — 9 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Nights in the Pink Motel: An American Strategist's Pursuit of Peace in Iraq 4.63 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 2008 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Way Home 3.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2011 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	In the Blood of Herod and Rome really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2011 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hot Lab liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1970	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Erotique 7: The Wapshott Journal of Fiction by Robert Earle (Goodreads Author), Rosemary Feit Covey (Illustrator), Ginger Mayerson (Goodreads Author) (Editor) did not like it 1.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Identities in North America: The Search for Community by Robert Earle (Goodreads Author) (Editor), John D. Wirth (Editor) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1995 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tuppence Reviews 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2013	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Nowhere Is Always Somewhere 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Robert Earle's Blog

Robert Wright: Why Buddhism is True

Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright hinges on the point of evolutionary psychology as he and others understand it: all life forms seek to perpetuate their DNA, i.e., survive so that they can procreate. This means that human beings in the 21st century carry within them distinct and powerful feelings about their needs for mates, for allies, for food and shelter, for a good reputation…and for child Read more of this blog post »

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Published on November 22, 2019 13:47

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Robert is Currently Reading

Robert is currently reading

Buddenbrooks. Verfall einer Familie

by Thomas Mann

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Nov 14, 2023 07:56PM

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Im Westen nichts Neues

by Erich Maria Remarque

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Apr 29, 2023 05:06PM

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The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With the President

by Taylor Branch

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Jul 29, 2021 10:54AM

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Robert’s Recent Updates

Robert rated a book it was amazing Revolution of the Ordinary: Literary Studies after Wittgenstein, Austin, and Cavell by Toril Moi	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 28, 2025 06:55AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Revolution of the Ordinary by Toril Moi. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Revolution of the Ordinary by Toril Moi <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Robert rated a book really liked it SOKO SYLT - Tödliche Wellen: Nordseekrimi Küstenkrimi (Berger & Claasen ermitteln 1) (SYLT KRIMI) (German Edition) by Nele Nordland	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 19, 2025 05:21PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of SOKO SYLT - Tödliche Wellen by Nele Nordland. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — SOKO SYLT - Tödliche Wellen by Nele Nordland <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Robert rated a book really liked it I've Been Thinking by Daniel C. Dennett	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Daniel Dennett's memoir is a well-paced account of an academic philosopher's peregrinations, through Harvard, Oxford, UC/Irvine, and Tufts, where he taught for many years. Dennett is unapolgetic about how smart he is, but he admits he can't do at lea ...more
Sep 24, 2025 11:54AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of I've Been Thinking by Daniel C. Dennett. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — I've Been Thinking by Daniel C. Dennett <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Robert rated a book really liked it Tabula Rasa: Volume 1 by John McPhee	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I read a few excerpts from Tabula Rasa by John McPhee in the New Yorker and found them clever and entertaining, so I read the whole book. It contains a series of anecdotes and reminiscences largely focused on projects McPhee once thought would be wor ...more
Jun 23, 2025 02:44PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Tabula Rasa by John McPhee. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Tabula Rasa by John McPhee <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Robert rated a book liked it Fame: A Novel in Nine Episodes by Daniel Kehlmann	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Fame, a collection of thematically related short stories that Daniel Kehlmann chooses to call a novel for some reason, is quirky, enjoyable, and funny. I’ve recently discovered that Kehlmann has been a rising star, or is a risen star, in German-speak ...more
Jun 14, 2025 08:44AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Fame by Daniel Kehlmann. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Fame by Daniel Kehlmann <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Robert rated a book liked it Baumgartner by Paul Auster	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Baumgartner by Paul Auster, who died recently, is a good short novel about a man trying to come to terms with the sudden death (an accident) of his wife. Auster has a light, quick touch as he moves through memories of their relationship, Baumgartner’ ...more
May 10, 2025 07:59AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Baumgartner by Paul Auster. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Baumgartner by Paul Auster <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Robert rated a book liked it The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
At some point in writing The Noise of Time, his novel about Dmitri Shoshtakovich, Julian Barnes must have said to himself, “Well, I suppose I have to go ahead and finish this book,” although he knew, as we the readers know, there is only one way the ...more
May 04, 2025 08:23AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Robert rated a book liked it Kennan: A Life between Worlds by Frank Costigliola	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Kennan: A Life between Worlds by Frank Costigliola is a provocative, if far too long, study of a diplomat/scholar whose peculiar mix of talent, industry, and fantasy rendered him famous and admired and scorned and exiled. The picture here is of a man ...more
May 02, 2025 03:19AM · like · see review
Robert rated a book liked it The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism by Tim Alberta	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Tim Alberta’s book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, breaks the contemporary evangelical experience in America into two parts: there is the battered part that clings to the Gospel and seeks to draw worshippers into communion with Jesus and away ...more
Apr 22, 2025 01:31PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory by Tim Alberta. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory by Tim Alberta <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Robert rated a book really liked it To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 by Adam Hochschild	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
To End All Wars: A story of loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918, by Adam Hochschild distinguishes itself from many other WWI histories in that it juxtaposes the stupidity, carnage, and tragedy of the battlefield and the heroic efforts of objectors, who ...more
Apr 10, 2025 02:41PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of To End All Wars by Adam Hochschild. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — To End All Wars by Adam Hochschild <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

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Robert’s Quotes

“Each day a raid on the inarticulate--T.S. Eliot”
― T.S. Eliot

tags: writing-philosophy

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Robert’s Groups

Connecting Readers and Writers — 3934 members — last activity Dec 03, 2025 08:21AM
We connect adventurous readers with Indie Authors. This group is about connecting writers with readers in a way that has not been done on Goodreads b ...more

Discovering Russian Literature — 2989 members — last activity Oct 20, 2025 06:59AM
Whether you are a newbie or an expert or simply love Russian literature... Welcome! This is a friendly group where you can share your thoughts an ...more

¡ POETRY ! — 22606 members — last activity Dec 08, 2025 06:21AM
No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read it!) Goodreads honors wordsmiths: poets and poetry promoted and prompted here. ~~~ "Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits." -- Carl Sandburg “God has a brown voice, as soft and full as beer.” —Anne Sexton On Clouds – “…what primitive tastes the ancients must have had if their poets were inspired by those absurd, untidy clumps of mist, idiotically jostling one another about…” —Yevgeny Zamyatin “If the poet wants to be a poet, the poet must force the poet to revise. If the poet doesn’t wish to revise, let the poet abandon poetry and take up stamp-collecting or real estate.” —Donald Hall “Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation’s tears in shoulder blades.” —Boris Pasternak “Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket.” —Charles Simic “Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.” —Gustave Flaubert “Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does.” —Allen Ginsberg. ~~~~~ Amy King, Moderator Amy King is the recipient of the 2015 Winner of the WNBA Award (Women’s National Book Association). Her latest collection, The Missing Museum, is a winner of the 2015 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prize. She serves on the executive board of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and is co-editing with Heidi Lynn Staples the anthology, Big Energy Poets of the Anthropocene: When Ecopoets Think Climate Change. She is also co-editing the anthology, Bettering American Poetry 2015, and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at SUNY Nassau Community College. ...more

The Best short stories of the year by Turner Maxwell Books — 87 members — last activity Sep 21, 2012 08:42PM
The Turner Maxwell Books short story competition proved to the contest of the year. Thirty-nine countries. Seventy five thousand website hits. Fiftee ...more

The Best short stories of the year by Turner Maxwell Books — 67 members — last activity Feb 26, 2009 04:44AM
The Turner Maxwell Books short story competition proved to the contest of the year. Thirty-nine countries. Seventy five thousand website hits. Fiftee ...more

Creative Reviews — 3840 members — last activity 8 hours, 45 min ago
This group is a way to gather together people who like to write book reviews as well as advertise their book review blogs. With enough people we will ...more

Q&A with Robert Earle on historical fiction and the life and times of Jesus, Herod, and Augustus — 1 member — last activity Oct 31, 2011 08:11AM
This group will up and running between October 31, 2011 and November 30, 2011. All participants interested in historical fiction, ancient history, lit ...more

Christian Theological/Philosophical Book Club — 1888 members — last activity Apr 22, 2025 06:28AM
The primary guidelines for this group are a sincere love for the true God of the Bible and a commitment to relying on the Word of God (the Bible) as t ...more

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Robert’s Friend Comments

Comments (showing 1-3) post a comment »

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message 3: by David

Jan 13, 2016 02:20PM

Hello Robert. It was good to have your friend request. Thank you.
Knowing new book-readers (and writers) is always welcome. :)

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message 2: by Stela

Mar 21, 2015 08:17AM

Hi, Robert, and thank you for your request. It is funny, but I was also thinking to send you a request, so I am very happy we are GR friends.

Have a nice weekend!

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message 1: by Will

Jun 24, 2013 11:04PM

Hi Robert, thanks for the invite; I have not been very active on GR recently though!

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