Steve Eubanks (Author of All American)

Steve Eubanks rated a book it was amazing Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence in America by Noah Rothman	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
When you’re young and studying history, after the obligatory “why do we need to know all this old stuff?” the first question that pops into your mind is: How did these people go so wrong? What could lead to such bloodthirsty, murderous, awful, and ul ...more
Jul 13, 2026 06:35AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Blood and Progress by Noah Rothman. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Blood and Progress by Noah Rothman <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Steve Eubanks rated a book it was amazing Founder’s Fire: From 1776 to the Age of Trump by Arthur Herman	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 difference between founding and managing is the difference between sculpting Apollo and Daphne and giving tours of the Borghese Gallery to bored high schoolers. Both are important. Only one turns your name into a brand. “Founders Fire” by Arthur ...more
Jul 06, 2026 09:14AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Founder’s Fire by Arthur Herman. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Founder’s Fire by Arthur Herman <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Steve Eubanks rated a book it was amazing Ironwood (Catalina, #2) by Michael Connelly (Goodreads Author)	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
You can tell when genre writers get old and tired and cranky. The formulas become so predictable and rote that even AI would object. You know those authors. They’ve become more enamored with self-promotion – polishing their platforms and brands – tha ...more
Jun 22, 2026 09:13AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Ironwood by Michael Connelly. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Ironwood by Michael Connelly <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Steve Eubanks rated a book it was amazing Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind by Gad Saad	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
How much you will tolerate is how much a tyrant will inflict. If you had to sum up Gad Saad’s book “Suicidal Empathy” in one sentence, that would be it. Like every other good and decent human impulse, empathy can and is being weaponized to take away ...more
Jun 15, 2026 08:36AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Suicidal Empathy by Gad Saad. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Suicidal Empathy by Gad Saad <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Steve Eubanks rated a book it was amazing The Lost Empire of Emanuel Nobel: Romanovs, Revolutionaries, and the Forgotten Titan Who Fueled the World by Douglas Brunt (Goodreads Author)	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’ve come to believe that you need to write novels first, or at least dabble in crafting plot, character, dialogue, and drama from the recesses of your mind, to stare at a blank screen with nothing but your wits and imagination, before venturing into ...more
Jun 03, 2026 08:03AM · 2 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Lost Empire of Emanuel Nobel by Douglas Brunt. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Lost Empire of Emanuel Nobel by Douglas Brunt <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Steve Eubanks rated a book it was amazing The Fourth Option by Jack Carr (Goodreads Author)	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
Remember when we shared, even in those things we did alone? You didn’t have to take anyone to see “The Terminator” to bond with your buddies over it. You quoted Arnold for years. Same with other hits. I was playing golf with a few friends when someon ...more
May 23, 2026 09:43AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Fourth Option by Jack Carr. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Fourth Option by Jack Carr <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Steve Eubanks rated a book it was amazing Alito: The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution by Mollie Hemingway	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
As a veteran editor at The Federalist, Mollie Hemingway has perfected the craft of unmasking outrageous societal and institutional behavior without joining the demagogic chorus. There’s no need. She simply assembles and presents facts in a way that r ...more
May 11, 2026 04:23AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Alito by Mollie Hemingway. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Alito by Mollie Hemingway <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Steve Eubanks rated a book it was amazing Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (Goodreads Author)	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 Book Always Wins The movie is getting rave reviews, but I made the mistake with Weir’s other project, “The Martian” of seeing the movie before reading the book. As always, the book was better. The only exception I have ever found to this rule is ...more
Apr 20, 2026 08:35AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Steve Eubanks rated a book it was amazing Rory: The Heartache and Triumph of Golf's Most Human Superstar by Alan Shipnuck	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
Grand Slam of a Biography Full disclosure, I’ve known Alan Shipnuck since he was a rookie reporter at Sports Illustrated back in the 1990s. We’ve dined and played golf together; shared jokes and attended more events than either of us care to remember ...more
Apr 07, 2026 07:41AM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Rory by Alan Shipnuck. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Rory by Alan Shipnuck <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Steve Eubanks rated a book it was amazing Heartland: A Forgotten Place, an Impossible Dream, and the Miracle of Larry Bird by Keith O'Brien	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 interviewed Larry Bird a few times after his playing days were over. He was always accommodating in an arms-length sort of way. Our only casual chat came at a party before the Indy 500 where he loosened up a little, but not in an inviting way. I fo ...more
Mar 16, 2026 09:14AM · 2 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Heartland by Keith O'Brien. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Heartland by Keith O'Brien <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

Steve Eubanks rated a book it was amazing

Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence in America
by Noah Rothman

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When you’re young and studying history, after the obligatory “why do we need to know all this old stuff?” the first question that pops into your mind is: How did these people go so wrong? What could lead to such bloodthirsty, murderous, awful, and ul When you’re young and studying history, after the obligatory “why do we need to know all this old stuff?” the first question that pops into your mind is: How did these people go so wrong? What could lead to such bloodthirsty, murderous, awful, and ultimately self-destructive behavior?

In some cases, the answers are obvious. Japan had no natural resources, and its neighbors did. Conquest seemed logical. But why did the native tribes of North America slaughter each other en masse using some of the most torturous methods in history, practices so barbaric that settlers decided apartheid was the only way to live with a people they deemed “savages”? Same with the Incas and Aztecs who built beheading temples. Scores and perhaps hundreds of tribes are lost to history because their indigenous neighbors slaughtered every man, woman, and child.

Of course, the lesson in genocide taught more than any other is the rise of the Nazis. But somehow, when it comes to violent leftists blowing up buildings in California in the early 1900s, or the killing of police officers, or planting bombs in the U.S. Capital and plotting the violent overthrow of the government in the 60s and 70s, or the burning of cities and vandalizing businesses in the 2010s and 20s, or the assassinations of an innocent business executive or an evangelical who promoted free speech and debate, almost no effort is made to step back and analyze. No classes are taught or societies formed to dive deep into these impulses. No museums are built to remember the dead or display the horrors of left-wing violence. If anything, those actions are swept away as if they never happened. To the extent they are acknowledged, violence is rationalized as necessary for some greater good.

Noah Rothman’s “Blood and Progress” chronicles this murderous ideology and the societal rot that justifies it. From the bombings of the San Francisco Chronicle and the L.A. Times a century ago (the latter of which is the subject of Howard Blum’s great book “American Lightning”) to Luigi Mangioni, Tyler Robinson, and the mass psychosis (much of it engineered) that followed the deaths of Michael Brown and George Floyd, Rothman highlights the bending curve of violence and how “assassination chic” and pretzel logic like “destroying property is peaceful” lead ordinary Americans to arm up as if a Comanche war party is on the move.

The biggest difference, as Rothman points out, between the violence of the 1910s and what we’re seeing today is not the methods or the murderous mindsets – those domestic terrorists were just as driven by bloodlust as today’s Antifa – it’s the institutional acceptance. When major political, educational, and media entities cheerlead for terrorists, things race downhill. A century ago, assassins or bombers were caught, convicted, and hanged within months. We’re almost a year from Charlie Kirk’s assassination and still in the probable-cause stage. That radicalizes victims and pits sides against each other in ways that, historically, have ended in Rwanda-type civil war.

All the examples Rothman cites are worthy of books, and a few have been written about most to them. Alas, too many have been sympathetic to the bad guys. What I think Rothman misses, however, is the real root of this phenomenon. By focusing on the last century in America the reader doesn’t appreciate that this is not recent. In fact, it is the most ancient of things. The impulse to kill outside your tribe dates back to the dawn of humanity. And it is spiritual.

You might not believe in demons, or in a spiritual realm that predates history – although every generation before we became “enlightened” considered those things self-evident – but it’s impossible not to see similarities throughout time. Just in the last 250 years we’ve had the Jacobins, the Nazis, the Communists, the Taliban, Al Quada, ISIS, and countless other smaller groups that were just as vicious and relentless. Dive deeper into history and you see them everywhere, in every generation.

How? Why? If you’re honest and spend more than a day or two away from technology, the answer reveals itself. Evil exists in every man. It always has. And as the Apostle Paul rightly noted, and Rothman, unfortunately, missed, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12).

Even with that miss, though, “Blood and Progress” is worth your time. You will learn more than you expected, and be better prepared for the battles that are almost certain to come. ...more

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Founder’s Fire: From 1776 to the Age of Trump
by Arthur Herman

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The difference between founding and managing is the difference between sculpting Apollo and Daphne and giving tours of the Borghese Gallery to bored high schoolers. Both are important. Only one turns your name into a brand.

“Founders Fire” by Arthur The difference between founding and managing is the difference between sculpting Apollo and Daphne and giving tours of the Borghese Gallery to bored high schoolers. Both are important. Only one turns your name into a brand.

“Founders Fire” by Arthur Herman, is a litany of American greatness, a bag-of-potato-chips history lesson that runs from George Washington to Elon Musk and is full of fascinating nuggets that get left out of modern lesson plans, either from malice or ignorance. I have my suspicions.

Each chapter takes you through the story of a founder or two that changed the course of history. There’s Washington and the other Founding Fathers, of course, and then Lincoln and the rebirth of the nation. But there is also a list of men who have been wrongly vilified by our intellectual class: founders like John Rockeffer and Cornelius Vanderbilt, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, all the way through Steve Jobs, developer Donald Trump, and Musk in the modern era.

If there is a specific hook that makes this one worth your time it is the contrast drawn between founders and followers. Robert McNamara was a manager at Ford before taking over the Department of Defense and escalating the Vietnam War – one of the men Halberstam ironically called “The Best and the Brightest.” But he didn’t create or found anything after leaving public life other than a nonprofit no one remembers. The same is true for Tim Cook at Apple. Other than making the iPhone a little better at the margins, what earth-changing innovation has Cook ushered in as an executive?

Who followed Commodore Vanderbilt, or J.D. Rockefeller? What happened to Ford when there were no more Fords at the helm? Would Walt and Roy Disney recognize the company that still bears their family’s name? We all know, but we choose to look away because of the uncomfortable truths those answers reveal about our past and about us.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a quick exercise, and don’t cheat: Name a famous dead business manager or accountant whose name everyone would recognize. Now, name a famous dead writer, artist, musician, composer, and founder. Didn’t take long, did it?

That is what American liberty provides and what we cannot lose. Our history is the story of founders, people who had the vision and genetic makeup to create and build and the drive to keep moving.

This book is about inspiration, but it also an introduction. You finish it and immediately want to pick up Issacson’s biography of Elon, or the many great biographies of Washington and Lincoln; you want the real history of the men who have been casually slandered as “robber barons,” and you want to understand the foundation that allowed a brash, foul-mouthed developer from Queens to become the world’s most recognized business and political figure.

It’s a pretty quick read and the stories, while incomplete, are a wonderful starting point for understanding and perhaps igniting the Founder’s Fire in you. Pick it up. You’ll be glad you did. ...more

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Ironwood (Catalina, #2)
by Michael Connelly (Goodreads Author)

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You can tell when genre writers get old and tired and cranky. The formulas become so predictable and rote that even AI would object. You know those authors. They’ve become more enamored with self-promotion – polishing their platforms and brands – tha ...more

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Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind
by Gad Saad

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How much you will tolerate is how much a tyrant will inflict. If you had to sum up Gad Saad’s book “Suicidal Empathy” in one sentence, that would be it. Like every other good and decent human impulse, empathy can and is being weaponized to take away How much you will tolerate is how much a tyrant will inflict. If you had to sum up Gad Saad’s book “Suicidal Empathy” in one sentence, that would be it. Like every other good and decent human impulse, empathy can and is being weaponized to take away your freedoms and break your will.

Don’t believe it? Just pick and issue from the last 20 years and look at it through the lens of Suicidal Empathy.

Back when climate change was global warming, how often did you hear “You don’t care about the children!” or “What kind of world are you leaving for the next generation?” or “You must be greedy and selfish.” Some variation of that rained down on us almost every day. The message was always the same: Do what we say, no matter how absurd and unscientific our arguments, or you’re a monster.

Did you question the efficacy of paper masks and an experimental gene therapy being advertised as a vaccine? Did you believe that when it came to injections, it was your body your choice? Why, you must hate old people. Are you trying to kill grandparents? The Science! “We have been patient, but our patience is wearing thin,” – President Joe Biden.

When hordes of people – mostly military-age males – from scores of third-world countries poured across the Rio Grande and were whisked away on charter flights to Des Moines, Westchester, Macon, Kansas City, you were told to shut up, that if you were alarmed you must hate brown people. It became racist to expect existing laws to be enforced. Why don’t you care about those poor immigrant children who just seek a better life?

Time and again, empathy is used as a hammer. If you believe A or refuse to do B then you are a sociopath, a meany who hates children, puppies, and anyone of a different race. Saad explains this tyrannical tool, and the psychological phenomenon of those who fall for it, with the skill of an academic who is also a great storyteller. “Suicidal Empathy” touches on the history of how our caring instincts have been slowly but steadily used against us.

It’s a must read, quick with tons a examples and explanations. Parts come off like “Sociology for Dummies” but that’s a good thing. We didn’t become suicidal overnight. Being spoonfed out of this cult might be our only hope.

If I have one quibble, it’s that the spiritual component isn’t as prominent as it might have been. Humans have not always been empathetic. Quite the opposite. For most of history, men protected their families and tribes, but looted and razed neighboring villages, killing every man, woman, and child they could catch. Evolutionists as late as the 20th century told us this was “survival of the fittest,” as natural as a summer rain.

Empathy is an anomaly. There have been pockets here and there, but as a universal trait to be admired and modeled, it sprang up about 2,000 years ago during the peak of the Roman Empire. What happened during that time for such a fundamental human change to take place?

The answer was chronicled by four guys named Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You should read them, along with some letters written by a guy named Paul. It is there that you will discover the roots of the battle we’re waging, and who is behind the weaponization of empathy.

Saad summed up his book on the final page with this: “A society dies when it cares more about exhibiting infinite tolerance and empathy than invoking its survival instinct. It truly is that simple.”

He could have added one addendum to that, a quote from that Paul guy mentioned above: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” ...more

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The Lost Empire of Emanuel Nobel by Douglas Brunt

The Lost Empire of Emanuel Nobel: Romanovs, Revolutionaries, and the Forgotten Titan Who Fueled the World
by Douglas Brunt (Goodreads Author)

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I’ve come to believe that you need to write novels first, or at least dabble in crafting plot, character, dialogue, and drama from the recesses of your mind, to stare at a blank screen with nothing but your wits and imagination, before venturing into I’ve come to believe that you need to write novels first, or at least dabble in crafting plot, character, dialogue, and drama from the recesses of your mind, to stare at a blank screen with nothing but your wits and imagination, before venturing into the tedious and time-consuming world of narrative nonfiction. Great fiction writers learn how to build tension, develop story, force the reader to feel something for the characters, to understand their inner workings and motivations. The biggest compliment you can give a narrative nonfiction book is, “It reads like fiction.”

Enter Doug Brunt who had a bestselling fiction catalogue before shifting gears with the wildly successful “The Mysterious Case of Rudolph Deisel,” which I praised to the rooftops when it hit. But there is always the risk of a sophomore slump. Many great writers have one book in them. The follow-up always tells the tale.

Well, fear not. Brunt’s newest book “The Lost Empire of Emmanual Nobel” is at least as good if not better than his first. Like Deisel, most people only know the name Nobel because of Emmanual’s uncle, Alfred, the inventor of dynamite who created the Nobel Prize. But what you don’t know is that Alfred didn’t conjure his invention out of some dream. His father, Immanual, was an explosives’ expert who created the first contact mine to protect ports in time of war, and Emmanuel, the nephew, stood up to the king of Sweden who wanted the family to contest Alfred’s will. There wouldn’t be a Nobel Prize if not for Emmanual Nobel, about whom you probably know nothing.

When I was in grade school, we were taught that the world’s first billionaire and the richest man alive at the turn at the 20th century was John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil. That is probably untrue. Nobel was likely the richest man on earth prior to WWII. His fortune came from Russian oil, munitions, steel, and other manufacturing endeavors that he ran with incredible success.

Unlike Rockefeller, Nobel was known throughout Europe for his honorable treatment of employees and concerns for his communities. He was the first person to transport oil in a tanker ship – one he created – and the first to create his own currency to stabilize the money supply when the rest of Russia lost its mind.

But this isn’t just a book about an industrialist, although it would be excellent if that was the only storyline. This is the most fascinating history you will ever read about the Romanovs, Rasputin, Lenin, and especially Joseph Stalin. Brunt takes you places your history professors dared not tread for fear of ticking off the cranky old commie department head with dandruff on the shoulders of his tweed jacket and teeth the color of Naugahyde. If you want the real story of the Russian revolution, its devastating impact on the Russian people, Europe, and rest of the world, read this book.

There’s more, though. Brunt never writes this – the best ones don’t – but the subtext of “Nobel” is that the revolutionary impulses that darkened Eastern Europe and led to 70 years of death, haven’t gone away. Like evil itself, they live in the heart of every man. We must recognize that fact and stand against the current rising forces, or we too will be relegated to the obscurity of Emmanual Nobel, once the world’s richest man.

In the meantime, read this and recommend it to others. You won’t regret it. ...more

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The Fourth Option
by Jack Carr (Goodreads Author)

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Remember when we shared, even in those things we did alone? You didn’t have to take anyone to see “The Terminator” to bond with your buddies over it. You quoted Arnold for years. Same with other hits. I was playing golf with a few friends when someon Remember when we shared, even in those things we did alone? You didn’t have to take anyone to see “The Terminator” to bond with your buddies over it. You quoted Arnold for years. Same with other hits. I was playing golf with a few friends when someone said, “Where’s the tour this week?” I said, “Meelee-Waw-Kay, which means ‘The Good Land.’” Everyone chuckled, not because it was funny, but because it brought back a shared memory of Alice Cooper in “Wayne’s World.”

There were once all kinds of those experiences among men from “Magnum P.I.” to Maverick Mitchell in “Top Gun.” Books, too. A new Tom Clancy novel was a cultural event, much the way Ian Fleming’s works were in the 1950s. Men drove to bookstores to buy fiction, most of which, after “The Hunt for Red October” were thicker than the dictionary. And we talked about them, not in chatty book clubs like women, but in passing references, the way men talk.

When and how we lost that is anyone’s guess. Movies became preachy, torturous screeds, and many of our favorite authors couldn’t suppress the urge to insert scolding political messages. One famous cops-and-robbers author had his characters demanding people wear facemasks during covid, and in a later book had a subplot involving white supremacists trying to blow up some rally or another. He’s never recovered, at least with men. The spell was broken.

Enter Jack Carr, the most successful of many former Navy SEALs to enter the author space, not because he has a Shakespearean mastery of language or the compelling social insight of Mark Twain, but because Carr does what everyone else forgot. He entertains.

For the first time in forever, men have fiction that they can’t put down. It isn’t complicated. Create a hero that men fantasize about being like, foibles and all, put that hero in a realistic enough situation that the reader can suspend disbelief, have dialogue that rings true to the way men speak, and fill it with action that doesn’t seem cheap or contrived.

That’s it. That’s all it takes. Do that and print money.

The notion that men don’t read is a lie. They don’t read when you don’t give them anything worth reading. And they sure won’t read anything that insults them for their sex, race, religion, politics, or sense of duty. Respect those things and you’ve got a hit.

Jack’s latest, “The Fourth Option,” is an amazing addition to his collection. I’ll admit being concerned at first. It came, I thought, too quickly on the heels of “Cry Havoc,” which was great. And he worked with a co-author, M.P. Woodward, which raised a caution flag. Partnerships require compromise. I wasn’t sure how this one would go.

One chapter in and all those concerns vanished. Jack and M.P. did the near impossible: they wrote in one voice, seamlessly, and crafted a story that will have you carrying this one around until you’re finished. The main character is just different enough from James Reece (Jack’s protagonist from “The Terminal List” series) to feel fresh, but the rhythms and details of the SEAL world remain familiar.

This book hits some hard themes – the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the people we left behind; the abandonment and depression experienced by so many of our veterans; the soulless corruption of our alphabet agencies, and how good men are punished for doing what’s right – but it also inspires the reader to not just root for the good guys, but to also stand up and be counted.

You will love it. There are plot twists you didn’t see coming, strong female characters crafted with realism and taste – and without the normal girl-wins-fight-with-250-pound-linebacker nonsense – but more than anything, this book never once has you facepalming and saying “Oh, for goodness sake.” That alone is worth the hardcover price.

Buy it. Add it to the collection. And mention it in passing to your mates in the gym or at the golf course or on your next hunting trip. It’s one of those connective elements, experienced alone, but shared with many, many others. ...more

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Alito: The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution
by Mollie Hemingway

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As a veteran editor at The Federalist, Mollie Hemingway has perfected the craft of unmasking outrageous societal and institutional behavior without joining the demagogic chorus. There’s no need. She simply assembles and presents facts in a way that r As a veteran editor at The Federalist, Mollie Hemingway has perfected the craft of unmasking outrageous societal and institutional behavior without joining the demagogic chorus. There’s no need. She simply assembles and presents facts in a way that reminds you of an old “David Brinkley Report,” a narrative crafted with economy, precision, and the perfect word choices to make her point. Her stories always start with a spark and some kindling. She then adds fuel one seasoned log at a time. No literary stoking needed.

Few in the digital publication lane transfer that skill to cotton-textured, paper-and-ink, Smyth Sewn books with a dust jackets and shelf lives. It’s not a criticism. Columnist to author is the difference between writing a jingle and an opera. Both require skill, art, discipline, maturity, and time. But the storytelling is different. Books are not simply more words, just as La Boheme isn’t just more notes than “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.” With grand scope comes great responsibility. That’s why the people who say, “I could write a book” can’t, and those who write for a living view authorship as an emotional and spiritual bloodletting.

For the third time in a row Hemingway has done what the best always do: make the near impossible look easy. After her bestsellers “Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court” and “Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections” Hemingway made it three in a row with “Alito: The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution.” And this might be her best yet.

What makes “Alito” so compelling – and you will find yourself keeping it in the car with you so you can read it at stoplights and in traffic jams – is that, like most great biographies, it’s much bigger than the man. Alito’s life is not that interesting: college, military service, Reagan administration, and the federal bench. Nothing that would keep you turning pages. But Hemingway takes an ordinary life and shows the extraordinary courage and intellect it takes to stand in the breach of what sometimes seems like a demonic assault. From the political maneuvering of Obergefell to the assassination attempts and coordinated leaks and delays during Dobbs, two men – Alito and his philosophical brother Clarence Thomas - held our entire judicial system together.

The question Hemingway’s book can’t answer, but raises through anecdotes on every page, is: How long?

The public laughs at the notion of blind justice. “Nobody is above the law” has become an ironic meme. Elementary school kids recognize the fundamental inequities in our system based on race, class, and connections. Mentally ill murderers roamed the streets of major cities while grandmothers who took a guided tour of the Capital in 2021 had their lives destroyed. John Eastman has been disbarred and is surviving on donations while Fani Willis still prosecutes cases in Fulton County, GA and collects a taxpayer-funded check. The dwindling number of lawyers and pundits who still use lines like “envy of the world” of the American legal system have become a dark joke.

The legal ship is sinking. Everybody sees it.

When you finish Hemingway’s terrific book – and you should buy it in hardback before digital literature is censored forever - you’re left with a couple of other daunting questions:

Alito is 76. Thomas is 77. Who’s next? And what is the price of doing nothing as we watch a systemic judicial collapse. ...more

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Project Hail Mary
by Andy Weir (Goodreads Author)

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The Book Always Wins

The movie is getting rave reviews, but I made the mistake with Weir’s other project, “The Martian” of seeing the movie before reading the book. As always, the book was better. The only exception I have ever found to this rule is The Book Always Wins

The movie is getting rave reviews, but I made the mistake with Weir’s other project, “The Martian” of seeing the movie before reading the book. As always, the book was better. The only exception I have ever found to this rule is “L.A. Confidential,” which I consider a perfect film that exceeds the source material. That was 30 years ago when Russell Crow was unknown and in decent shape. Since then, Hollywood has put out schlock. So, before buying overpriced popcorn and sitting in a dark room with strangers, I got “Project Hail Mary” in book form, which I missed in first release but picked up once they put Ryan Gossling on the paperback cover.

It’s great. Just as in “The Martian,” Weir’s work is far more science than fiction. Of course, there are a few areas where you say, wait a minute, what about…, but those are the exception rather than the rule.

The trick to any fiction, science or otherwise, is getting the reader to suspend disbelief. That’s tough in sci-fi, because you are creating fantastical settings and plotlines. It works when you do two things: give a nod to known science in a way that makes the reader say, “yeah, that’s plausible” and create characters that behave, at least aspirationally, the way the reader might in similar circumstances.

For example, compare the original “Star Trek” to its recent face-palm spinoffs. Why did the Kirk-Spock-McCoy-Uhura version work and that recent abomination with Holly Hunter collapse faster than Nero’s Romulus? They were both set in the future, on the starship Enterprise; they both had aliens and conflict, a mission and a hierarchy. What made the former universally popular the latter a joke?

Simple. Authenticity. Okay, sure, Starfleet defied the laws of physics and time-space relativity, but the characters did so in a way that made you believe, because if you were in the same circumstances, you would hope to act as they did. They weren’t superheroes. They were humans (or aliens) with souls. They faced moral dilemmas that transcended time and space.

That same interplay is what makes “Project Hail Mary” a great book, and if the directors have been true to the source material, a great movie. The science is realistic and, at times, overwhelming, but the humanity makes it compelling and worth your time.

Also, Weir is not preaching some political or social message. There is no scolding about this or that group; no ridiculous villains that make you roll your eyes. This is entertainment, and it succeeds in being just that.

Now I can’t wait to go to the theater. I know the book is better. It always is. But at least I’ve consumed this story in the right order.

You should, too. ...more

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Rory: The Heartache and Triumph of Golf's Most Human Superstar
by Alan Shipnuck

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Grand Slam of a Biography

Full disclosure, I’ve known Alan Shipnuck since he was a rookie reporter at Sports Illustrated back in the 1990s. We’ve dined and played golf together; shared jokes and attended more events than either of us care to remember Grand Slam of a Biography

Full disclosure, I’ve known Alan Shipnuck since he was a rookie reporter at Sports Illustrated back in the 1990s. We’ve dined and played golf together; shared jokes and attended more events than either of us care to remember. And I was present for a lot of the on-course drama that Alan chronicles in his latest book RORY, which is a thumping biography of Rory McIlroy, one of the most open and complicated sports figures of the last quarter century. Alan would agree that we’re the kind of friends who have never met each other’s spouses and don’t know the names of each other’s kids. We are part of a dwindling fraternity of sportswriters who have been on the golf beat for most of our adult lives, but friends, nonetheless.

With that out of the way, RORY is an outstanding book. It’s the kind of page-turner that’s focused on action. Too many biographers try to become amateur psychologists, or try to make some broader social commentary that fits neither the time nor place of their subject. Alan avoids those traps and lets McIlroy’s words and actions - along with a few from his close friends and family - tell the story of his life. Other than a brief aside into The Troubles of Northern Ireland, which are important to understanding the world in which Rory grew up, this is the story of a prodigy who hailed from humble, working-class beginnings, whose devoted parents endured great personal sacrifice to support their only child, and who has navigated the demands of superstardom well with a few head-scratching hiccups along the way.

Unlike Shipnuck’s biography of Phil Mickelson, which almost caused an international incident, there are no “headline news” revelations in RORY, although something new and poignant comes out on every other page. It’s just a solid work of biography. There’s greatness, honesty, heartbreak, anger, petulance, thoughtfulness, searching, scandal, rumors, tears of joy and despair, and all the other complexities and ridiculousness that make human beings fascinating.

This Masters week, go get this one. You can read it in a couple of sittings – I did – and you’ll enjoy every page. ...more

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Heartland: A Forgotten Place, an Impossible Dream, and the Miracle of Larry Bird
by Keith O'Brien

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I interviewed Larry Bird a few times after his playing days were over. He was always accommodating in an arms-length sort of way. Our only casual chat came at a party before the Indy 500 where he loosened up a little, but not in an inviting way. I fo ...more

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	All American: Two Young Men, the 2001 Army-Navy Game and the War They Fought in Iraq 3.95 avg rating — 133 ratings — published 2013 — 5 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
	Augusta: Home of the Masters Tournament 3.79 avg rating — 75 ratings — published 1997 — 11 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
	To Win and Die in Dixie: The Birth of the Modern Golf Swing and the Mysterious Death of Its Creator 4.10 avg rating — 52 ratings — published 2010 — 5 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
	Golf Freek: One Man's Quest to Play as Many Rounds of Golf as Possible. For Free. 3.74 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 2007 — 5 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
	Quotable King: Words of Wisdom, Inspiration, and Freedom by and about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., One of America's Great Civil Rights Leaders 4.50 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 2001 — 3 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
	Quotable Reagan: Words of Wit, Wisdom, Statesmanship By and About Ronald Reagan, America's Great Communicator 4.83 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 2001 — 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
	I Know Absolutely Nothing About Golf: A New Golfer's Guide to the Game's Traditions, Rules, Etiquette, Equipment, and Language by Steve Eubanks (Goodreads Author), Whitney Crouse liked it 3.00 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 1996 — 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
	At the Turn : How Two Electrifying Years Changed Golf Forever liked it 3.00 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 2001 — 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
	Hot Laps 3.50 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 2007 — 8 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
	Golf's Ultimate Eighteen: Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Amy Alcott, and Other Golf Greats Reveal Favorite Holes to Create the Ultimate Fantasy Course really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2010 — 3 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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