Peter Skinner, Book Reviewer

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Book Review

The BBC Talks of E.M. Forster, 1929-1960

by Peter Skinner

Mesdames Lago, Hughes, and Walls, in their excellently edited volume of E.M. Forster’s radio-talk scripts, take us back to a golden age of low-key, quietly thoughtful, and gently mind-broadening book talks: no celebrity-driven ratings... Read More

Book Review

The Alphabet

by Peter Skinner

The first sentence of Silliman’s forty-years-in-the-making opus, “If the function of writing is to ‘express the world,’” is unfinished to a strict grammarian. But Silliman goes on to do just that, and the world he expresses... Read More

Book Review

Hitler's Man in Havana

by Peter Skinner

Schoonover tells a hilarious story: the Abwehr sought the best but in Heinz Lüning got the worst. It needed an agent in Havana: given naval routes and schedules, U-boats could wreak even greater havoc on ships carrying war materiel... Read More

Book Review

The West The Railroads Made

by Peter Skinner

Bold entrepreneurs, big visions, daring engineering, great scenery, a huge new economy, and sweeping social change are among the elements that Carlos Schwantes and James Ronda masterfully describe in their exuberant and lavishly... Read More

Book Review

Venomous Animals of the World

by Peter Skinner

Anyone fearful of death by bite, sting, or simple contact with nature in the wild should prepare to be a great deal more fearful. Biologist Steve Backshall introduces us to venomous creatures great and small, familiar or little known,... Read More

Book Review

The Castle of Dreams

by Peter Skinner

Jouvet, a scientist specializing in sleep and dreams, presents the papers of Hugues la Scève, happily found in a chest bought at auction. In the papers, la Scève, an amateur scientist, records his investigations into the genesis and... Read More

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