ESR Books

Recent reviews and excerpts of books that have run in Enter Stage Right

Spark's Tract satirizes environmental extremism: It's been two decades since Jack R. Stevens' novel Spark's Tract was published and did a marvelous job of taking environmentalism down a peg or two. Thomas M. Sipos is pleased to report it was recently re-released

Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano and the declining dignity of work: Although published back in 1957, Thomas M. Sipos argues that Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano may as well be chronicling modern day America

Gab founder believes ‘Christian nationalism’ is viable, not how the left portrays it: Andrew Torba has come under a lot of fire over his notion of "Christian nationalism" and Rachel Alexander reviews his book, Christian Nationalism: A Biblical Guide For Taking Dominion And Discipling Nations, which explains what it actually is

Slices of Objectivist life: Ayn Rand was no fan of libertarians, once referring to them as hippies of the right, so she probably wouldn't have enjoyed The Pianist Who Liked Ayn Rand. Thomas M. Sipos, on the other hand, thought it wonderful

Don’t waste time or money on Silent Earth: Paul Driessen says this new book is just another junk-science screed against modern civilization and technology

The Border Patrol’s failure to protect our border exposed: - Rachel Alexader reviews Ed Ashurst's Kidnapped: Mystery and Collusion in the Bootheel of New Mexico, a fictional tale of a kidnapping by narcos and a Border Patrol as corrupt as the gangs in Mexico -- a story that has some reality to it

Death by bureaucracy: - Dr. Joel Hirschhorn's Pandemic Blunder: Fauci and Public Health Blocked Early Home COVID Treatment raises some awkward questions for government, the medical community and ultimately Dr. Anthony Fauci himself, writes Steven Martinovich

MSM ignores huge successful border effort against terrorism: America's borders are once again in the news but potentially a greater danger is the possibility that terrorists are using them to gain entry at will, something that's explored in America’s Covert Border War: The Untold Story of the Nation's Battle to Prevent Jihadist Infiltration, writes Rachel Alexander

The ongoing war: Piers Shepherd takes a look at Thomas J. Fleming and Frank Brownlow's A Thousand Years of Jihad, a series of essays which examines the relationship between the West and Islam

Meeting the terawatt challenge: Duggan Flanakin says that Robert Bryce’s latest book, A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations, lays out a powerful case for treating electricity as a human right

Move over, Communist Manifesto, The Capitalist Manifesto is here: Rachel Alexander offers a review of the new e-book by Ralph Benko and Bill Collier entitled The Capitalist Manifesto: The End of Class Warfare, Toward Universal Affluence, an answer to the twisted classic by Marx and Engels

Here are the rules for defeating radicals: Saul Alinsky has long held sway with radical leftists -- and his tactics have been very successful, but Rachel Alexander argues that Christopher G. Adamo's Rules for Defeating Radicals, Countering the Alinsky Strategy in Politics and Culture may be answer to that success

History from the front lines: Henry Kissinger, loved and loathed in equal measure, finally sits down to provide an oral history of the Nixon years in Winston Lord's Kissinger on Kissinger: Reflections on Diplomacy, Grand Strategy, and Leadership and Steve Martinovich is mostly satisfied

The right environmentalist: Bruce Walker's Pseudo-Green Leftism and True Green Conservatism pitches a different kind of environmentalism -- one from the cultural conservative perspective. Steve Martinovich reviews his efforts

Superheroes…super humans?: Can comic book characters be moral role models for us today? Travis Smith's Superhero Ethics: 10 Comic Book Heroes; 10 Ways to Save the World; Which One Do We Need Most Now? argues so and Steven Martinovich reviews his efforts

Fiction for the Milo crowd:  Steve Martinovich reviews Appalling Stories: 13 Tales of Social Injustice, a collection of short stories by three different authors that takes direct aim at the political and cultural left

America’s first year: Steve Martinovich reviews 1776: The World Turned Upside Down, a new monthly serial by The Associated Press and Serial Box that explores the first year of America as a nation

A strident voice for the voiceless: Dr. Lester Jackson is unapologetically in favour of the death penalty and Steven Martinovich reviews his book length treatment on the matter, Equal Justice for Victims: A Blueprint for the Rightful Restoration of Capital Punishment

Dr. Warren Farrell explains The Boy Crisis: Are American boys in a state of crisis? Rachel Alexander reviews The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It which purports to answer the question

Cutting the arteries of terrorism: Harpoon: Inside the Covert War Against Terrorism's Money Masters chronicles and the financial war that Israel is fighting with terrorist groups and Steven Martinovich found it to be an entertaining effort

Berlinski’s brilliant indictment of the angry, irrational ‘new atheism’: Charlotte Cerminaro says David Berlinksi's 2009 book The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and its Scientific Pretensions delivers the goods when it comes to attacking athiesm

A county goes to war: William Geroux's The Mathews Men: Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler's U-boats tells a very under-appreciated branch of service involved in America's fight during the Second World War, says Steven Martinovich

Surviving the meat grinder of Vietnam: Doug Stanton's latest -- The Odyssey of Echo Company: The 1968 Tet Offensive and the Epic Battle to Survive the Vietnam War -- wasn't perfect but Steven Martinovich was impressed nonetheless

When the shark becomes the prey: Dewey Andreas, star of of Ben Coes' series of techno-thriller novels, is back in Trap the Devil, and he's as lethal as ever, writes Steven Martinovich

Yes, Christian women can overcome hurdles to become leaders in Canada: Rachel Alexander says that Faith, Life and Leadership: 8 Canadian Women Tell Their Stories is an inspirational effort for any woman trying to balance faith and life

Lessons to the young: Rachel Alexander says that John Hawkins' 101 Things All Young Adults Should Know is a useful primer for American youth today

Teenagers of the world unite!: Bernie Sanders may be gone but his philosophy continues to resonate, something that Hunter Lewis examines in Where Bernie Went Wrong: And Why His Remedies Will Just Make Crony Capitalism Worse and Steve Martinovich reviews

Good intentions: The New Trail of Tears: How Washington Is Destroying American Indians may be one of the most depressing books you'll read in a long time, writes Steven Martinovich, which is why you should read it

Leading from the front: Another book on how to be an effective leader? Steve Martinovich says he still found a lot of value in Breaking the Trust Barrier: How Leaders Close the Gaps for High Performance

A very well-timed confession: Daniel M. Ryan enjoyed the anonymously written The Confessions of Congressman X, an insider's look at The Beltway that shouldn't surprise too many people with its ugliness

The FDA has the blood of millions of Americans on its hands: Rachel Alexander takes a look at Darcy Olsen's recently released effort The Right to Try: How the Federal Government Prevents Americans from Getting the Life-Saving Treatments They Need

Bringing the factory to the science class: Michael Hiltzik's Big Science: Ernest Lawrence and the Invention that Launched the Military-Industrial Complex tells an engrossing story of how science was transformed and the man at the center of it, writes Steven Martinovich

The eternal optimist: Dana Perino's And the Good News Is...: Lessons and Advice from the Bright Side is an unfailingly positive account of her life in- and outside of the White House, says Steven Martinovich

The king is dead…long live the king: Steve Martinovich thought Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles I was a engaging look at how dreams of freedom gave way to bloodshed in Stuart England

A brave sortie against political correctness (Part Two): Mark Wegierski examines Marxism, Multiculturalism, and Free Speech, a critique of political correctness by Frank Ellis, whose own career was undermined by his dissent from its strictures

A brave sortie against political correctness (Part One): Mark Wegierski examines Marxism, Multiculturalism, and Free Speech, a critique of political correctness by Frank Ellis, whose own career was undermined by his dissent from its strictures

A world of oil: Is putting gas in your car a moral good? Alex Epstein's The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels argues so and Steve Martinovich reviews his efforts

A collection of essays questioning Canada's high-immigration consensus: Mark Wegierski notes that the Fraser Institute goes beyond economics into social and cultural questions in The Effects of Mass Immigration on Canadian Living Standards and Society, edited by Herbert Grubel

Prisoners of fear: Jan Jarboe Russell's The Train to Crystal City: FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp During World War II tells a story that must not be forgotten, writes Steven Martinovich

Capital city: Whether you love or hate New York, writes Steve Martinovich, Supreme City: How Jazz Age Manhattan Gave Birth to Modern America is an engrossing story of one moment in the city's long life

Gerald H. Priest: His life and crime against a 'company of fools': - A Rock Fell on the Moon: Dad and the Great Yukon Silver Ore Heist tells the story of one man's modern era silver heist in the wilds of the Yukon and Jane Gaffin enjoyed every word of it

The deliberate underclass: Jason L Riley's Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed attacks programs that are designed to help Black America and Steve Martinovich reviews his efforts

The gentleman's guide to change: Dr. Ben Carson's One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America's Future calls for civility and a return to American values, writes Steven Martinovich

Knights of the sky: A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II tells a remarkable story of men during war, writes Steven Martinovich

The high cost of freedom: Brothers Forever: The Enduring Bond between a Marine and a Navy SEAL that Transcended Their Ultimate Sacrifice is a celebration of the lives of two of America's finest, writes Steve Martinovich

American legend: Enduring Courage: Ace Pilot Eddie Rickenbacker and the Dawn of the Age of Speed proves that the pioneering pilot deserves every bit of praise he continues to receive, writes Steve Martinovich

The man who would be king: Steven Martinovich wasn't entirely convinced by Catherine S. Neal's efforts in Taking Down the Lion: The Triumphant Rise and Tragic Fall of Tyco's Dennis Kozlowski but still found it interesting

A Prince of war: Blackwater founder Erik Prince attempts to defend himself with Civilian Warriors: The Inside Story of Blackwater and the Unsung Heroes of the War on Terror and Steven Martinovich reviews his efforts

Six that saved the war: Five men and one woman helped save the the United States during the Revolution and Steve Martinovich was gratified to learn more about them in George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution

Witness to history: Under the Wire: Marie Colvin's Final Assignment is a fitting memorial to Marie Colvin, the American war correspondent who died last year in Syria, writes Steven Martinovich

The problems of war: David Mamet's novella Three War Stories wasn't a complete success but Steve Martinovich found enough in the playwright's latest effort to keep him satisfied

The battle between language and liberty: The far left and right the same thing? Sinisterism: Secular Religion of the Lie: How the Myth of an Ideological Spectrum Helps Evil in Our World, 3rd edition, Vol. 1 makes that and other argues and Steve Martinovich was a fan

The rise of the machines: Today's kids have taken to technology in a way that few older generations can understand, argues The App Generation: How Today's Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in a Digital World, which Steve Martinovich reviews this week

King of news: Steve Martinovich thought Roger Ailes: Off Camera an enjoyable effort that revealed quite a bit about the controversial founder and president of Fox News

Failed revolution: Jerry Clinton Oliver returns with The Diary, a sequel to his 2008 novel in which residents of a small town spark a second American Revolution and Steve Martinovich reviews his efforts

Modern general: Steven Martinovich was sorely disappointed by one aspect of retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal's My Share of the Task: A Memoir but overall thought it was a worthwhile effort

Letters to the future: With Dear Chandler, Dear Scarlett: A Grandfather's Thoughts on Faith, Family, and the Things That Matter Most Mike Huckabee speaks with experience and love, writes Steven Martinovich

Leadership when the sky is falling: As management Steven Martinovich has endured a lot of seminars on the topic. He was pleasantly surprised by Into the Storm: Lessons in Teamwork from the Treacherous Sydney to Hobart Ocean Race

American story: Steve Martinovich has read a hundred books exactly like Sen. Marco Rubio's An American Son: A Memoir but he still couldn't help but enjoy it

Clich?s: For when truth is relative: Steven Martinovich greatly enjoyed Jonah Goldberg's The Tyranny of Clich?s: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas, though didn't find it a perfect effort

Why liberals are like zombies: Alan Caruba says R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.'s The Death of Liberalism speaks much about the state of the political left today

My way, your way or the not-so-Third Way: Bill Bradley perhaps wanted to write a book that moved past partisan politics but Steven Martinovich says he failed with We Can All Do Better

Ray Bradbury: A writer's writer: Ray Bradbury was a consummate writer, says Thomas M. Sipos, and that shined through both his work and how he treated people

The conservative legacy of Ray Bradbury: Bruce Walker argues that Ray Bradbury and his work were a beautiful example -- and defense -- of conservatism

Bull in a china shop: Steven Martinovich is an unabashed fan of Richard Zacks and with Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York the author has another winner

American hero: Steven Martinovich was impressed by Paula Broadwell's All In: The Education of General David Petraeus and the man and the career that it chronicles

Out of the fire, into the pot: Dr. Jack Kerwick says that Into the Cannibal's Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa has an uncomfortable message for the United States

The high price of excellence: Steven Martinovich rarely loves a book but that's what happened with American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History

Paging Dr. Future: Steven Martinovich had some problems with The New Health Age: The Future of Health Care in America but he found a lot to praise as well

The beginning of the end: Steve Martinovich finds Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis to be a very sobering look at at the economic trouble the world finds itself in

Sending the education system back to school: Laugh at for profit, private colleges like Kaplan and DeVry? Change.edu: Rebooting for the New Talent Economy is a powerful argument why you shouldn't, writes Steve Martinovich

Solutions for our most pressing problems: Rachel Alexander has nothing but praise for Bill Ponath's Verdict for America: Critical Issues Facing Our Nation, a catalogue of America's problems and possible solutions

Mr. Optimism: Steve Martinovich likes Gov. Mitch Daniels and his new book Keeping the Republic: Saving America by Trusting Americans

Mining the past: The Patriot's History Reader: Essential Documents for Every American a companion to a famous effort was an effort that Steven Martinovich did enjoy

New world disorder: Steven Martinovich still isn't quite sure what Damon Vickers was trying to do with The Day After the Dollar Crashes: A Survival Guide for the Rise of the New World Order

Letting the artists play: Steve Martinovich found Bob Lutz's Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business to be an enjoyable effort despite some problems with it

Enter the dragon: China as the biggest threat the U.S.? So says Death by China: Confronting the Dragon - A Global Call to Action and Steve Martinovich offers his opinion

Marx in the classroom: Kids say the darnedest things and they probably learned it in the classroom. Steve Martinovich takes a look at Your Teacher Said What?! Defending Our Kids from the Liberal Assault on Capitalism

One against the world: Steven Martinovich is no great lover of self-published novels so it's natural to wonder if he loved Jeffery M. Anderson's debut effort Ephemera

A cogent look at Hitler and Stalin -- as mega-killers and mutual enablers: Sixty-seven years since the launch of the fateful Warsaw Uprising of 1944, Mark Wegierski offers a somber review of a very important book, Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin

Both sides now: Daniel M. Ryan says Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon will do much to vindicate conservatives even if written by liberals

The playwright as polemicist: David Mamet's The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture is equal parts mournful and joyous and Steve Martinovich loved every word

Trying cases in the other court: Like it or not the media plays a role in America's courts and Steve Martinovich found attorney Kendal Coffey's Spinning the Law: Trying Cases in the Court of Public Opinion to be informative and enjoyable

Learning to love the rodent wheel: Steven Martinovich used part of a national holiday to review Rush: Why You Need and Love the Rat Race, proving perhaps that he's incapable of relaxing and Todd G. Buchholz's kind of guy

Zero tolerance world: It wasn't perfect but Steven Martinovich still enjoyed Alina Tugend's study of getting it wrong with Better by Mistake: The Unexpected Benefits of Being Wrong

Seeing the future in the past: If you have money in the market -- any market -- Steve Martinovich says you could do worse than reading Boombustology: Spotting Financial Bubbles Before They Burst

The unknown known man: Steven Martinovich enjoyed Donald Rumsfeld's Known and Unknown: A Memoir to the point that he wanted more from the former secretary of defense

Raising real women: Raising Righteous & Rowdy Girls is a guide to raising girls into women who can shoot a rifle, stand up for themselves and not turn into Lindsay Lohan. Paul A. Ibbetson says its a winner

What would Jefferson do?: Dr. Larry Schweikart argues in What Would the Founders Say? A Patriot's Answers to America's Most Pressing Problems that the Founders likely wouldn't have created TARP. Steven Martinovich can't help but agree

All that glitters: Steve Martinovich reviews The Dollar Meltdown: Surviving the Impending Currency Crisis with Gold, Oil, and Other Unconventional Investments, an investment guide for some very troubled times

Enter Stage Right's Best Books of 2010: Steven Martinovich has seen better years for books but he still managed to round up a list of what he thought the best books of 2010 were

The ties that bind: For all of his class warfare, writes Steven Martinovich, Bought and Paid For: The Unholy Alliance Between Barack Obama and Wall Street shows how much Barack Obama and Wall Street owe to each other

Toxic culture: The Deepwater Horizon catastrophe may have happened only a few months ago but Drowning in Oil: BP & the Reckless Pursuit of Profit shows its roots were planted years ago, says Steve Martinovich

Author attacks economic dependency: Joseph Quesnel has nothing but praise for Calvin Helin's The Economic Dependency Trap: Breaking Free to Self-Reliance, an argument against government-created dependency

The brain gap: Steven Martinovich wanted to like The Watchman's Rattle: Thinking Our Way Out of Extinction but felt it was an effort undone by its own author

Same place, same problems: Graham Fuller's A World Without Islam wonders what a geopolitical world without Islam looks like. Steven Martinovich isn't particularly satisfied with the effort

Wisdom for the age: Steven Martinovich hugely enjoyed Bruce Walker's Poor Lenin's Almanac: Perverse Leftist Proverbs for Modern Life as a funny and insightful critique of progressive thought

Working the levers of power: Steven Martinovich thought Joseph Gibson's Persuading Congress could have been more in-depth but he still found it to be a worthwhile effort

The dirty game: Steve Martinovich rather enjoyed Oil: Money, Politics, and Power in the 21st Century, the telling of the oil industry's recent history

Hollywood's spell: Thomas M. Sipos parodies Hollywood and political correctness in Hollywood Witches and Steve Martinovich found it to be a humorous effort

More than preaching to the choir: Steve Farrell has nothing but ringing praise for Tom Pauken's Bringing America Home: How America Lost Her Way and How We Can Find Our Way Back

The problem with free trade: Dr. Joseph L. Martos found Free Trade Doesn't Work: What Should Replace It and Why to be a persuasive argument why free trade is damaging to America

The enemy within: Rachel Alexander has high praise for Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer's The Post -American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America

Leader of the pack: It wasn't perfect but Steven Martinovich still found Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One to be a rather enjoyable portrait of America's most prominent pundit

The rest of the story: Steven Martinovich found a lot to recommend Larry Schweikart's Seven Events that Made America America: And Proved that the Founding Fathers Were Right All Along

The always on world: Want to live in a world where you're always connected? Steve Martinovich says Anywhere: How Global Connectivity is Revolutionizing the Way We Do Business is your kind of book

Navel-gazing can pay: Want to be methodical about things? Daniel M. Ryan says Think Twice: Harnessing The Power Of Counter-Intuition might be right up your alley

Insuring future wealth: Steven Martinovich says that although Pamela Yellen undermined herself somewhat with how she presented her financial health program, Bank on Yourself: The Life-Changing Secret to Growing and Protecting Your Financial Future is still an interesting read

Eliminating the terror that is April 15: Eliminate the federal income tax? With some caveats Steve Martinovich thought Ken Hoagland's The FairTax Solution: Financial Justice for all Americans was on the right path

Not quite a bull's-eye: Daniel M. Ryan says Panderer to Power: The Untold Story of How Alan Greenspan Enriched Wall Street and Left a Legacy of Recession makes some good points but it's not quite successful

Half of the story: Steven Martinovich liked Complicit: How Greed and Collusion Made the Credit Crisis Unstoppable, he just wished it told the whole story of what caused the financial meltdown

Good old days: Daniel M. Ryan says Richard Duncan talks a bit like a libertarian in Corruption of Capitalism: A strategy to rebalance the global economy and restore sustainable growth but unfortunately not enough like one

Enter Stage Right's Best Books of 2009: Book guy Steven Martinovich rounds up his favourites for 2009 in what was a surprisingly decent year

Why Palin is "going rogue": Rachel Alexander hugely enjoyed Sarah Palin's Going Rogue: An American Life, a book that reads as if the author was there with you

The war on faith: Steven Martinovich found Secular Sabotage: How Liberals Are Destroying Religion and Culture in America a lively defence of religion and its importance

Are you there Allah? It's me Ali: Children of Dust: A memoir of Pakistan may be the story of a young Muslim coming to terms with himself but Steven Martinovich says it's a universal story

Bringing the peace: David Finkel's The Good Soldiers isn't perfect but Steven Martinovich thought it was a powerful account of a Ranger battalion's time in Iraq during the initial surge

Old world order: Jay Kinney's The Masonic Myth: Unlocking the Truth About the Symbols, the Secret Rites, and the History of Freemasonry attempts to sort fact from fiction and Steve Martinovich enjoyed the effort

The responsible liberal's world view: He didn't agree with every thing that Thomas P.M. Barnett argued in Great Powers: America and the World After Bush but Steven Martinovich still liked it

Out of small things: Jerry Clinton Oliver's novel A Time to Stand had some problems but Steven Martinovich thought it was still an enjoyable effort

Canada's conservatives get a "C" for effort: Steven Martinovich says that Blue Thunder: The Truth about Conservatives from MacDonald to Harper tells the often sad tale of the Canadian conservative movement

Voice of genius: Steven Martinovich thought that Orville Vernon Burton did a superlative job with The Essential Lincoln: Speeches and Correspondence

Victory from the saddle: Steven Martinovich says Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan is an epic testimony to the bravery of a few good men

Uprising: In this excerpt from Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan, Doug Stanton chronicles a pivotal moment in the Afghani war

Back from the darkness: Steven Martinovich says The Islamist: Why I Became an Islamic Fundamentalist, What I Saw Inside, and Why I Left presents a very unsettling view of things which may yet come to pass

Towards a new old foreign policy: Steven Martinovich wasn't persuaded by Leslie Gelb's Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy

Just do it: Steve Martinovich likes the author but his self-help book Get Off Your "But": How to End Self-Sabotage and Stand Up for Yourself gets low marks

The content of a man: Rachel Alexander has nothing but praise for Ward Connerly's Lessons from My Uncle James: Beyond Skin Color to the Content of Our Character

Hearts of darkness: It wasn't a perfect effort but Steven Martinovich still greatly enjoyed Kyle Mills' African-based thriller Lords of Corruption

How to be the next big thing: Anne-Marie Fink offers advice to both managers and investors in her valuable The Money Makers: How Extraordinary Managers Win in a World Turned Upside Down, writes Steve Martinovich

A triumph of storytelling: David Huntwork says that Dancing Under the Ugandan Skies is an inspirational story of a missionary and her work in Africa

Latin America's socialist Ahmadinejad: Steven Martinovich says The Threat Closer to Home: Hugo Chavez and the War against America is a good wake-up call for those who have forgotten how dangerous the Venezuelan president is

America's worst nightmare made real: The super spy saves the world genre has been done to death but Steven Martinovich still found The Silent Man engaging

Answering Israel's critics: Steven Martinovich says Alan Dershowitz makes a credible argument in The Case Against Israel's Enemies: Exposing Jimmy Carter and Others Who Stand in the Way of Peace

How to be a nice capitalist: Bruce Howard's Charting the Course: Values for Navigating Life in the Marketplace wants you to bring morality to the marketplace. Steven Martinovich says the effort is welcome

Enter Stage Right's Best Books of 2008: We've seen better years for books but Steven Martinovich says there were eleven in 2008 which grabbed our attention

End of the road: Happy New Year! Now get ready for the coming financial apocalypse predicted by The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets: How to Keep Your Portfolio Up When the Market is Down, says Steven Martinovich

Society's cesspool: Overexposed: The Price of Fame promises to a deep look at how celebrity and entertainment journalism intersect but Steven Martinovich found it almost as shallow as the starlets discussed

Giving education a failing grade: The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need--And What We Can Do About It argues that American education is failing and purports to have the cure, reports Steven Martinovich

How America became the arsenal of freedom: Steve Martinovich thought American Rifle: A Biography was one of the best treatments of firearms history he's ever read

Graduating into war: Steve Martinovich found Bill Murphy Jr.'s In a Time of War: The Proud and Perilous Journey of West Point's Class of 2002 a great bit of storytelling

Why they talked, and what they want: Why did the soldiers of In a Time of War talk to Bill Murphy Jr.? Because they have a simple request for their fellow Americans

The less righteous side of American history: As Failures of the Presidents: From the Whiskey Rebellion and War of 1812 to the Bay of Pigs and War in Iraq proves, nobody is perfect. Steve Martinovich says neither was the book but he still enjoyed it

High court, low humour: Steve Martinovich really wanted to like Christopher Buckley's latest satirical novel, Supreme Courtship, but thinks it failed

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