Currently reading
Hieroglyph: Stories and Blueprints for a Better Future
Ukraine: Zbig's Grand Chessboard & How the West Was Checkmated
The Girl on the Train: A Novel
Our Souls at Night: A novel
Above the Waterfall
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Designs on Film: A Century of Hollywood Art Direction
The Homicide Report: Understanding Murder in America
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
The Gods of Mars
Chapman, a great grandson of Darwin, set himself to report on the modern day Scopes Monkey Trial held in Dover Pennsylvania in 2005, when the local school board attempted to insinuate the notion of intelligent design into the science curriculum of their district. He offers a look at the personalities involved in addition to the political and social forces at play. I was reminded of Capote painting a landscape with the residents of Holcomb, Kansas. He lacks Capote’s singular genius for language, but his descriptions and insights are interesting and engaging. Although I agree with his take on most things, his disdain for religion and alarm at the degree of religiosity in the USA, I wished sometimes that he would have allowed the events and characters to speak more for themselves. While amusing, the snarky running commentary did wear thin after a while