Review | FrogenYozurt.Com - Online Literature Magazine

China Hand: An Autobiography (Haney Foundation Series) by John Paton Davies Jr.

On May 13, 2012, in Biographies & Memoirs, Book Reviews, History, Nonfiction, by Editor

At the height of the McCarthyite hysteria of the 1950s, John Paton Davies, Jr., was summoned to the State Department one morning and fired. His offense? The career diplomat had counseled the U.S. government during World War II that the Communist forces in China were poised to take over the country—which they did, in 1949. Davies joined the thousands of others who became the victims of a political maelstrom that engulfed the country and deprived the United States of the wisdom and guidance of an entire generation of East Asian diplomats and scholars.

Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948 by Madeleine Albright

On May 13, 2012, in Biographies & Memoirs, Book Reviews, History, Nonfiction, by Editor

The book takes readers from the Bohemian capital’s thousand-year-old castle to the bomb shelters of London, from the desolate prison ghetto of TerezÍn to the highest councils of European and American government. Albright reflects on her discovery of her family’s Jewish heritage many decades after the war, on her Czech homeland’s tangled history, and on the stark moral choices faced by her parents and their generation.

Net Smart: How to Thrive Online and Use Social Media Intelligently by Howard Rheingold

On May 12, 2012, in Book Reviews, Business & Investing, Nonfiction, Technology, by Editor

Rheingold points out that there is a bigger social issue at work in digital literacy, one that goes beyond personal empowerment. If we combine our individual efforts wisely, it could produce a more thoughtful society: countless small acts like publishing a Web page or sharing a link could add up to a public good that enriches everybody.

Talking Back to Facebook: The Common Sense Guide to Raising Kids in the Digital Age by James P. Steyer

On May 12, 2012, in Book Reviews, Nonfiction, Social Studies, by Editor

Now, more than ever, parents need help in navigating their kids’ online, media-saturated lives. Jim Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, the nation’s leading kidsand- media organization, and the father of four children, knows that many parents and teachers—unlike their technology-savvy kids—may be tourists in the online world.

The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-Century Spain by Paul Preston

On May 12, 2012, in Book Reviews, History, Nonfiction, by Editor

Long neglected by European historians, the unspeakable atrocities of Franco’s Spain are finally brought to tragic light in this definitive work. Evoking such classics as Gulag and The Great Terror, The Spanish Holocaust sheds crucial light on one of the darkest and most unexamined eras of modern European history.

I Am an Executioner: A Collection of Love Stories by Rajesh Parameswaran

On May 12, 2012, in Book Reviews, Fiction, Short Stories, by Editor

An explosive, funny, wildly original fiction debut: nine stories about the power of love and the love of power, two urgent human desires that inevitably, and sometimes calamitously, intertwine. In I Am an Executioner, Rajesh Parameswaran introduces us to a cast of heroes—and antiheroes—who spring from his riotous, singular imagination.

“A Rich Spot of Earth”: Thomas Jefferson’s Revolutionary Garden at Monticello by Peter J. Hatch

On May 11, 2012, in Book Reviews, History, Home & Garden, Nonfiction, by Editor

Were Thomas Jefferson to walk the grounds of Monticello today, he would no doubt feel fully at home in the 1,000-foot terraced vegetable garden where the very vegetables and herbs he favored are thriving. Extensively and painstakingly restored under Peter J. Hatch’s brilliant direction, Jefferson’s unique vegetable garden now boasts the same medley of plants he enthusiastically cultivated in the early nineteenth century. The garden is a living expression of Jefferson’s genius and his distinctly American attitudes. Its impact on the culinary, garden, and landscape history of the United States continues to the present day.

The Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Reader by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

On May 11, 2012, in Book Reviews, Essays, Nonfiction, Political, by Editor

Educator, writer, critic, intellectual, film-maker—Henry Louis Gates, Jr., has been widely praised as being one of America’s most prominent and prolific scholars. In what will be an essential volume, The Henry Louis Gates Reader collects three decades of writings from his many fields of interest and expertise.

Moving the Mountain: Beyond Ground Zero to a New Vision of Islam in America by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf

On May 11, 2012, in Biographies & Memoirs, Book Reviews, Nonfiction, Religious Studies, by Editor

Muslims in America who reject extremist or fundamentalist expressions of Islam at home and abroad feel the urgent need for a voice that can represent them in the escalating irrationality of the current debate about Islam, America, and the West. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf—the so-called Ground Zero Imam—has become that voice.

The First 20 Minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We Can: Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer by Gretchen Reynolds

On May 11, 2012, in Book Reviews, Health, Mind & Body, Nonfiction, by Editor

At one point or another, nearly every person who works out wonders: Am I doing this right? Which class is best? Do I work out enough? Answering those questions and more, The First 20 Minutes helps both weekend warriors dedicated to their performance and readers who simply want to get and stay fit gain the most from any workout.