Mark L. Mitchell (Author of 23 Autopsies)

Mark rated a book liked it The End of Everything: A Novel by M. John Harrison	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This novel takes place in seaside England. There are only a few characters, one of whom belongs to a community that collects objects that wash up on the shore and, apparently, sometimes sells them inland. His possibly demented artistic mother lives j ...more
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Mark rated a book it was amazing The Pretender: A Novel by Jo Harkin (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
A brilliant work of historical fiction that I found listed at fivebooks.com. The novel is a bildungsroman about Lambert Simnel, a pretender to the English throne during the Wars of the Roses. It's very entertaining and very clever, both in the choice ...more
Oct 23, 2026 04:22PM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Pretender by Jo Harkin. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Pretender by Jo Harkin <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Mark rated a book it was amazing Black Reconstruction in America (The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois): An Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880 by W.E.B. Du Bois	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I knew who W.E.B. Du Bois was, but I had never read him, except in quotations elsewhere. Du Bois (1868 - 1963) was the first African American to get a doctorate degree from Harvard in 1895. He had studied sociology in Berlin with several famous socia ...more
Oct 18, 2026 06:45PM · 2 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Black Reconstruction in America (The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois) by W.E.B. Du Bois. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Black Reconstruction in America (The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois) by W.E.B. Du Bois <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Mark liked Christopher's review of The Essential Frankenstein: "A 2026 re-read, I read Frankenstein every October and like this version edited by Leonard Wolf because all the sundry notes and comments make it interesting. I also enjoy the edition edited by Shelley scholar Charles Robinson which has both Mary Shell" Read more of this review »
Oct 18, 2026 06:42PM · see review
Mark liked Christopher's review of The Dark Dominion: Eight Terrifying Tales of Vampires and Werewolves: "Published in 1970, connected to the old Dark Shadows novels, the cover matches the series. A pretty bland set of stories, only the Lafcadio Hearn story is good. And the Jane Rice story has a nice ending. The publisher put out another collection of ho" Read more of this review »
Oct 14, 2026 04:37PM · see review
Mark rated a book it was amazing Black Reconstruction in America (The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois): An Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880 by W.E.B. Du Bois	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I knew who W.E.B. Du Bois was, but I had never read him, except in quotations elsewhere. Du Bois (1868 - 1963) was the first African American to get a doctorate degree from Harvard in 1895. He had studied sociology in Berlin with several famous socia ...more
Oct 10, 2026 06:49PM · 2 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Black Reconstruction in America (The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois) by W.E.B. Du Bois. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Black Reconstruction in America (The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois) by W.E.B. Du Bois <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Mark rated a book it was amazing Solaris by Stanisław Lem	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
It was a pleasure to read Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris, the source of two great movies, the 1972 Russian production directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and the 2002 American production directed by Steven Soderbergh including the incredible Jeremy Davies with one ...more
Oct 09, 2026 04:32PM · 2 likes · like · see review
Mark rated a book liked it When There Are Wolves Again by E.J. Swift (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I found this very OK, but I see why it is well-liked. It is very near-future optimistic climate fiction. Plot points are separated by descriptive writing about wolves, birds in rewilding Britain, and YA-quality interpersonal relationships. There are ...more
Oct 09, 2026 04:07PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of When There Are Wolves Again by E.J. Swift. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — When There Are Wolves Again by E.J. Swift <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Mark liked andrew's review of The Things We Never Say: "Short-listed for the 2026 Booker Prize, this work by Elizabeth Strout has a deftly drawn central character. This husband, father, and teacher experiences through his relationships with friends, students, co-workers, and family the profound effects of" Read more of this review »
Oct 08, 2026 08:13PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Mark rated a book really liked it Germantown: A Military History of the Battle for Philadelphia, October 4, 1777 by Michael C. Harris	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
A fine and detailed account and a rare history that both mentions Hockessin and quotes Captain Enoch Anderson of the Delaware Regiment.
Sep 14, 2026 05:22AM · 2 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Germantown by Michael C. Harris. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Germantown by Michael C. Harris <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

Mark rated a book liked it

The End of Everything by M. John Harrison

The End of Everything: A Novel
by M. John Harrison

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This novel takes place in seaside England. There are only a few characters, one of whom belongs to a community that collects objects that wash up on the shore and, apparently, sometimes sells them inland. His possibly demented artistic mother lives j ...more

Mark rated a book it was amazing

The Pretender: A Novel
by Jo Harkin (Goodreads Author)

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A brilliant work of historical fiction that I found listed at fivebooks.com. The novel is a bildungsroman about Lambert Simnel, a pretender to the English throne during the Wars of the Roses. It's very entertaining and very clever, both in the choice ...more

Mark rated a book it was amazing

Black Reconstruction in America (The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois) by W.E.B. Du Bois

Black Reconstruction in America (The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois): An Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880
by W.E.B. Du Bois

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I knew who W.E.B. Du Bois was, but I had never read him, except in quotations elsewhere. Du Bois (1868 - 1963) was the first African American to get a doctorate degree from Harvard in 1895. He had studied sociology in Berlin with several famous socia I knew who W.E.B. Du Bois was, but I had never read him, except in quotations elsewhere. Du Bois (1868 - 1963) was the first African American to get a doctorate degree from Harvard in 1895. He had studied sociology in Berlin with several famous social scientists beginning in 1892 and later taught at Atlanta University. He was one of the founders of the NAACP in 1910. Black Reconstruction: An Essay Toward a History of the Part which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America is an extraordinary work completed in 1935. The author titled it an essay, and I guess it is, but it is 700 pages long. Du Bois assembled a large collection of material, and the essay consists of many quotations from these works interspersed with the author’s analysis. I found it fascinating to read whole speeches by Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens, letters from Karl Marx to Abraham Lincoln, newspaper editorials, comments from freedmen, and comments from white southerners of all social classes. The book provides an excellent view of the coming of the Civil War, of the activities and nature of Andrew Johnson, and of the attempts to write and pass the 13th - 15th amendments to the Constitution. We are reminded that the only way these amendments could be passed was by requiring that the southern states approve them before they could be admitted to the Union. It was interesting to read that freedmen were denied the right to vote, not only in the South where the Black Codes essentially reestablished slavery after the war, but also in many northern states. The author writes using Marxian or Conflict Theory-type language - the proletariat, the northern capitalists, etc.- and he points out reasons why northern businessmen and laborers would be worried about the sudden creation of 4 million new voters of uncertain allegiance. The author shows that the usual histories of Reconstruction from the 19th century through 1935 were bigoted and essentially propaganda blaming the failures of Reconstruction on the freedmen themselves. He says,

What is the object of writing the history of Reconstruction? Is it to wipe out the disgrace of a people which fought to make slaves of Negroes? Is it to show that the North had higher motives than freeing black men? Is it to prove that Negroes were black angels? No, it is simply to establish the Truth, on which Right in the future may be built.

According to the Wikipedia article on Du Bois, this history was largely ignored until the 1960s. Du Bois comments that he was asked to write an essay for the Encylopedia Britannica on the history of the American Negro, but when the editors cut out all of his comments on Reconstruction, he withdrew the article.

==============
I read this as an e-book (Grapevine Books), and it had obviously been scanned. The book has many optical character recognition type errors. The most common error is preservation of a former line break within a sentence as in: …facts but they were clear and un deniable. These are occasionally confusing. Numerals and tables were also frequently confused. ...more

Mark liked Christopher's review of The Essential Frankenstein:

The Essential Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

"A 2026 re-read, I read Frankenstein every October and like this version edited by Leonard Wolf because all the sundry notes and comments make it interesting.
I also enjoy the edition edited by Shelley scholar Charles Robinson which has both Mary Shell" Read more of this review »

Mark liked Christopher's review of The Dark Dominion: Eight Terrifying Tales of Vampires and Werewolves:

"Published in 1970, connected to the old Dark Shadows novels, the cover matches the series. A pretty bland set of stories, only the Lafcadio Hearn story is good. And the Jane Rice story has a nice ending. The publisher put out another collection of ho" Read more of this review »

Mark rated a book it was amazing

Black Reconstruction in America (The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois): An Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880
by W.E.B. Du Bois

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

I knew who W.E.B. Du Bois was, but I had never read him, except in quotations elsewhere. Du Bois (1868 - 1963) was the first African American to get a doctorate degree from Harvard in 1895. He had studied sociology in Berlin with several famous socia I knew who W.E.B. Du Bois was, but I had never read him, except in quotations elsewhere. Du Bois (1868 - 1963) was the first African American to get a doctorate degree from Harvard in 1895. He had studied sociology in Berlin with several famous social scientists beginning in 1892 and later taught at Atlanta University. He was one of the founders of the NAACP in 1910. Black Reconstruction: An Essay Toward a History of the Part which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America is an extraordinary work completed in 1935. The author titled it an essay, and I guess it is, but it is 700 pages long. Du Bois assembled a large collection of material, and the essay consists of many quotations from these works interspersed with the author’s analysis. I found it fascinating to read whole speeches by Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens, letters from Karl Marx to Abraham Lincoln, newspaper editorials, comments from freedmen, and comments from white southerners of all social classes. The book provides an excellent view of the coming of the Civil War, of the activities and nature of Andrew Johnson, and of the attempts to write and pass the 13th - 15th amendments to the Constitution. We are reminded that the only way these amendments could be passed was by requiring that the southern states approve them before they could be admitted to the Union. It was interesting to read that freedmen were denied the right to vote, not only in the South where the Black Codes essentially reestablished slavery after the war, but also in many northern states. The author writes using Marxian or Conflict Theory-type language - the proletariat, the northern capitalists, etc.- and he points out reasons why northern businessmen and laborers would be worried about the sudden creation of 4 million new voters of uncertain allegiance. The author shows that the usual histories of Reconstruction from the 19th century through 1935 were bigoted and essentially propaganda blaming the failures of Reconstruction on the freedmen themselves. He says,

What is the object of writing the history of Reconstruction? Is it to wipe out the disgrace of a people which fought to make slaves of Negroes? Is it to show that the North had higher motives than freeing black men? Is it to prove that Negroes were black angels? No, it is simply to establish the Truth, on which Right in the future may be built.

According to the Wikipedia article on Du Bois, this history was largely ignored until the 1960s. Du Bois comments that he was asked to write an essay for the Encylopedia Britannica on the history of the American Negro, but when the editors cut out all of his comments on Reconstruction, he withdrew the article.

==============
I read this as an e-book (Grapevine Books), and it had obviously been scanned. The book has many optical character recognition type errors. The most common error is preservation of a former line break within a sentence as in: …facts but they were clear and un deniable. These are occasionally confusing. Numerals and tables were also frequently confused. ...more

Mark rated a book it was amazing

Solaris
by Stanisław Lem

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It was a pleasure to read Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris, the source of two great movies, the 1972 Russian production directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and the 2002 American production directed by Steven Soderbergh including the incredible Jeremy Davies with one It was a pleasure to read Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris, the source of two great movies, the 1972 Russian production directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and the 2002 American production directed by Steven Soderbergh including the incredible Jeremy Davies with one of the best screen weirdo performances ever. (It is only as I write this that I see that there was a 1968 Russian production called Solyaris that I didn’t know about.) The author was a Polish physician (1921 - 2006), and yet another famous person from Lviv. He is one of the most widely read science fiction writers in the world.

The protagonist in the novel, Kelvin, is a solaricist, a scientist (he is a psychologist) who studies the planet Solaris. Solaris was discovered decades before and it had such peculiar properties, e.g. the planet appeared to modify its own orbit around its pair of stars and the planet was covered by a non-water organic ocean that created huge evanescent structures that appeared to mimic buildings or cities, that generations of scientists and others had argued over whether or not it could be sentient. Kelvin arrives at a space station orbiting Solaris and what he encounters there is the plot. Lem has Kelvin describe various books in the station library, and he creates a fascinating complex history of Solaris study, including all of the researchers names and various ideas about Solaris that have fallen in and out of fashion over time. The novel is brilliantly conceived, and there are many beautiful rich descriptions of the planet’s appearance. I won’t mention the essential problem that the characters have, in case you haven’t seen the movies, but if the science fiction aspect of the novel is stripped away we are left with both a great horror story and an unusually insightful psychological study that asks the question, what can we ever truly know about ourselves and each other?

Another aspect of the novel that occurred to me was its applicability to the idea of artificial intelligence, especially artificial intelligence that is self-aware. Lem only mentions artificial intelligence when he comments that the station’s robots (unfortunately called “automats” recalling scenes of 20th century cafeterias) are missing.
====================
The Grand Canyon is erroneously described as being in Colorado.

The translation says that one of the characters face appears lifeless because he is wearing contact lenses. Was that true in 1961? ...more

Mark rated a book liked it

When There Are Wolves Again
by E.J. Swift (Goodreads Author)

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I found this very OK, but I see why it is well-liked. It is very near-future optimistic climate fiction. Plot points are separated by descriptive writing about wolves, birds in rewilding Britain, and YA-quality interpersonal relationships. There are ...more

Mark liked andrew's review of The Things We Never Say:

The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout

"Short-listed for the 2026 Booker Prize, this work by Elizabeth Strout has a deftly drawn central character. This husband, father, and teacher experiences through his relationships with friends, students, co-workers, and family the profound effects of" Read more of this review »

Mark rated a book really liked it

Germantown: A Military History of the Battle for Philadelphia, October 4, 1777
by Michael C. Harris

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A fine and detailed account and a rare history that both mentions Hockessin and quotes Captain Enoch Anderson of the Delaware Regiment.

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	23 Autopsies: A Companion for the Study of Pathology by Mark L. Mitchell (Goodreads Author), Omar Chohan really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Nineteen Autopsies. A Companion for the Study of Pathology it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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