Category: From the armchair
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Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth by Andrew Smith
What did Apollo mean? And for that matter, what does it mean today, decades later? Andrew Smith chooses to ask those questions, with intriguing results and deeply personal insight.
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Sin in the Second City by Karen Abbott
Today, the site on Chicago’s near south side is a neo-expressionist public housing project — but 100 years ago, it was the home of the world’s most famous, lavish, and exclusive brothel.
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James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips
For whatever reason, when I’m given books as gifts, I often don’t read them for a very long time afterward. They sit on the “pending” shelf in my library, gathering dust like all the rest, taunting me by tacitly saying, …
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The French Connection: A True Account of Cops, Narcotics, and International Conspiracy by Robin Moore
The excellent 1971 film of The French Connection, starring Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider, has been running quite frequently on the Fox Movie Channel of late. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s usually on late at night, so my …
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Forging a Fateful Alliance: Michigan State University and the Vietnam War by John Ernst
Here is a surprising and little-known fact: from 1955 to 1962, Michigan State University was contracted by the U.S. government to provide “technical assistance” in Vietnam, teaching aspects of civil service and police administration to the government agencies of South …
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The Test by Walter Adams
A memoir of his nine-month tenure as president of Michigan State University in 1969, this book by Professor Walter Adams lies at a perfect crossroads of several of my interests. I’m a graduate of that pioneer land grant institution, with …