Sid Groeneman (Author of America's Sports Fans and Their Teams)

Sid Groeneman finished reading The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson (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
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Sid Groeneman rated a book liked it Ravelstein by Saul Bellow	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
Written by Saul Bellow in 2000 at the age of 85, “Ravelstein” is a roman-a-clef about his larger-than-life friend Allan Bloom. Bloom, a professor of political philosophy and classics at the University of Chicago, had written “The Closing of the Ameri ...more
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Sid Groeneman rated a book liked it The Great Crash 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith	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
John Kenneth Galbraith is one of the 20th century's most influential economists. He has written books on economics, politics, foreign policy, and the arts. Galbraith taught at Harvard for many years and also served as an advisor to presidents Rooseve ...more
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Sid Groeneman rated a book it was amazing 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in History – and How It Shattered a Nation by Andrew Ross Sorkin	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
Andrew Ross Sorkin's "1929" is an exceptional look at the critical actors and events that led up to the stock market crash of that year and continuing through much of the four subsequent years. Sorkin worked on the book for eight years, using investi ...more
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Sid Groeneman rated a book really liked it On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything by Nate Silver	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've been a Nate Silver fan since he became famous as a successful election forecaster and started the website FiveThirtyEight.com, subsequently taken over by ABC News. I knew that he was also engaged--as a researcher and participant--in sports betti ...more
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Sid Groeneman rated a book it was amazing Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right by Laura K. Field	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 is an important book that corrects the under-reporting and misunderstanding about the connection between the New Right and the Trump-led MAGA movement. It does not focus primarily on the rise of Trump, although much of that is revealed in descri ...more
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Sid Groeneman rated a book liked it We Should All Be Birds: A Memoir by Brian Buckbee	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 is an unusual book, both in its content and its structure. The author, a 40-something former teacher whose wife ("L") has left him but whom he's unable to get over, tells the story of his suffering from a mystery illness. At various times, he ex ...more
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Sid Groeneman rated a book did not like it What I Ate in One Year (And Related Thoughts) by Stanley Tucci	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
Stanley Tucci is an actor, director, producer, and writer. His writing focuses on food, especially Italian cuisine, of which he is a gourmet. The book chronicles his life during calendar year 2023, detailing virtually every meal consumed alone or wit ...more
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Sid Groeneman rated a book it was amazing The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes by Zachary D. Carter	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 longish biography (530+ pages) moves swiftly and rarely bores. It follows Keynes from his early days at Cambridge University as a mathematics student and part of the Bloomsbury art scene, through the two World Wars, and with special attention to ...more
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Sid Groeneman rated a book really liked it The Penguin Lessons: A True Story by Tom Michell (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 love penguins and collect penguin artifacts of all kinds. My wife bought me this book, and others who know of my "penguinophilia" have recommended it. The book is non-fiction, based on a story of a young British male teacher at an Argentine boardin ...more
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The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
by Isabel Wilkerson (Goodreads Author)

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Ravelstein
by Saul Bellow

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Written by Saul Bellow in 2000 at the age of 85, “Ravelstein” is a roman-a-clef about his larger-than-life friend Allan Bloom. Bloom, a professor of political philosophy and classics at the University of Chicago, had written “The Closing of the Ameri Written by Saul Bellow in 2000 at the age of 85, “Ravelstein” is a roman-a-clef about his larger-than-life friend Allan Bloom. Bloom, a professor of political philosophy and classics at the University of Chicago, had written “The Closing of the American Mind” (1985), which became a surprisingly popular best-seller, making him rich and famous (for an academic). The Bellow character in the book is “Chick,” a writer who returned to Chicago, where he started as an undergraduate, to teach in the university's Committee on Social Thought.

Ravelstein (Bloom) is a 6 1/2 foot tall, bald, homosexual with numerous eccentricities and peculiar habits (such as continuous chain smoking, mild stuttering, personal sloppiness, zest for gossip, and listening to music at the highest volume) to which he is indifferent how others respond although kind-hearted to his friends and not mean. As a charismatic master teacher, Ravelstein became a kind of cult figure, acquiring dozens of ardent current and former student followers who liked to stay in touch and who sought his advice. His unforeseen riches allowed him to indulge his inclination for the finest clothes, expensive art, the best classical music and stereo equipment, and regular trips to Paris.

The book is thin on plot, concentrating rather on conversations between Chick and Ravelstein, much of it about Ravelstein’s distinctive personality and, later, his multiple physical afflictions. The final quarter of the book revolves around a seemingly unrelated tropical disease contracted by Chick on a Caribbean vacation with Rosamund, his dutiful second wife, who had also been Ravelstein's student. This segment takes place after Ravelstein has succumbed (in real life, to AIDS in 1992).

The book is about friendship, romance, and quasi-philosophical musings about education, being Jewish, illness, and death. Just as Bloom’s best-seller was controversial, so is this book. Many critics accused Bellow of outing Bloom (although he never denied being gay) and an overall unflattering portrait of the scholar. Bellow replied that all was cleared by Bloom in advance. Others hail the book as a great novel; some questioned whether it even has the structure of a novel. Unfortunately, its reputed “greatness” escaped me. My interest in “Ravelstein” had as much to do with its being a story of the poignant relationship between two highly talented and famous real-world intellectuals as it does being a good read. ...more

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The Great Crash 1929
by John Kenneth Galbraith

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John Kenneth Galbraith is one of the 20th century's most influential economists. He has written books on economics, politics, foreign policy, and the arts. Galbraith taught at Harvard for many years and also served as an advisor to presidents Rooseve John Kenneth Galbraith is one of the 20th century's most influential economists. He has written books on economics, politics, foreign policy, and the arts. Galbraith taught at Harvard for many years and also served as an advisor to presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson. "The Great Crash 1929" was first published in 1954. I read--actually listened to--a later edition (1975) that contains an updated forward. Galbraith's account of the crash is considered one of the leading analyses of the greatest cycle of speculation and collapse.

At the beginning, the author debunks the widely held view that pins blame on one or a small handful of nefarious actors (usually bankers, securities traders, and politicians). Per Galbraith, no single person or group was responsible, and no one engineered the speculation that preceded it. Instead, he writes, it was the product of the free choice of thousands of individuals, motivated by greed and encouraged by Wall Streeters and others; also, by the growing prosperity during the 1920s, which enhanced the general mood, affording thousands of new investors to take the plunge. It was a period of heady optimism. Stock prices were also propelled upward by the availability of easy credit and the ability to buy on margin. The special risk became evident when prices fell, demonstrating how disasterous leverage can be when it works in reverse. Like all booms must, it came to an end in October.

The number of speculators was smaller than popularly assumed, surely less than a million, but investing in the stock market nevertheless became part of the culture. Although many in authority worried that speculation was out of control, no individual or institution wanted to be known for breaking the bubble. Four persons/institutions had the power to deflate the speculation--the President, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve in Washington, and the Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. According to Galbraith, President Coolidge neither knew nor cared what was going on. In 1929, the Fed did try to stanch speculation by Open market sales of government securities, but it wasn't then very well endowed, and it didn't want to be accused of stifling business. However, the Fed could have done more if it wished, for instance, by persuading Congress to enact legislation reducing margin buying.

In a pair of "Aftermath" chapters, Galbraith reports on the post-crash status of several of the key WallStreeters at the heart of the action--Charles Mitchell, head of First National Bank and member of the New York Fed who was later convicted of tax fraud; Chase National Bank CEO Albert Wiggin, who sold shares of his own bank's stock; New York Stock Exchange President Richard Whitney, found guilty of embezzlement; and prominent short-seller Jesse Livermore who lost his fortune and committed suicide.

In the end, Galbraith attributes the cause of the crash in the speculation that preceded it. It is hard to know why the speculative orgy began and why it lasted as long as it did. He attributes it to the mood of the country, existence of plentiful savings, and trust in institutions. Additionally, investors had not been "immunized" by any recent harmful speculative outbreak. He dismisses the explanation of cheap credit, a popular explanation at the time.

As for the likely causes of the subsequent Depression, the author poses five contributing factors: (1) the bad (sharply unequal) distribution of income; (2) the bad corporate structure (meaning an excessive amount of corporate larceny from promoters, grafters, swindlers, and frauds); (3) the bad banking structure (the large number of small independent units); (4) the dubious state of the foreign trade balance, partly the result of tariffs; and (5) the poor state of economic intelligence (most of the economic advice had the effect of making things worse).

Although "The Great Crash 1929" is a useful succinct account what unfolded during the 1920s and 1930s, the 171-page paperback edition is too thin today to be either a comprehensive history or a complete economic analysis. But readers unfamiliar with the topic or wanting a short review will benefit. Others willing to invest more time will be rewarded by reading the much newer and longer "1929" by Andrew Ross Sorkin, published in 2025. ...more

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1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in History – and How It Shattered a Nation
by Andrew Ross Sorkin

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Andrew Ross Sorkin's "1929" is an exceptional look at the critical actors and events that led up to the stock market crash of that year and continuing through much of the four subsequent years. Sorkin worked on the book for eight years, using investi Andrew Ross Sorkin's "1929" is an exceptional look at the critical actors and events that led up to the stock market crash of that year and continuing through much of the four subsequent years. Sorkin worked on the book for eight years, using investigations, legal cases, and newly available private letters. The book has been acclaimed as one of the top books of 2025. I listened to the audio version.

"1929" is not a comprehensive analysis of the causes (still being debated) or consequences (a more difficult task) of the October crash, as one might be assigned in a college Econ class. Rather, it is a gripping, descriptive record of the historical-cultural background of the period, including the hopes, fears, and actions/inactions of key players in Wall Street banking, securities trading, and politics. Sorkin leaves it to readers to draw their own opinions about why it happened, and whether the crash and the severity or prolongation of its consequences could have been prevented.

Those highlighted in "1929" include Charles Mitchell (head of National City Bank, the largest in the nation), Thomas Lamont (J.P. Morgan), W.C. Durant (founder and CEO of General Motors), Albert Wiggin (President of the Chase National Bank, the second largest bank), Jesse Livermore (prominent short-seller who committed suicide), Virginia Senator Carter Glass (co-author of the Glass-Steagall Act that separated commercial and investment banking), Richard Whitney (head of the NY Stock Exchange), John Raskob (Chair of the Democratic National Committee and backer of constructing the Empire State Building), Presidents Hoover and FDR, and many others. Even Winston Churchill, who was fascinated by Wall Street and who lost money from the crash, makes an appearance.

Sorkin describes the then common, though often shady, practices of banks and brokers--"pump and dump" schemes (executed by cabals that artificially increase the price of a stock, only to rapidly sell out after luring other investors to buy), issuance of cheap loans that encouraged speculation, insider trading, dubious trades to avoid capital gains taxes, and other disreputable practices. Many of them were henceforth outlawed, but too late to prevent the widespread hardships and misery caused by the crash.

I learned that the crash did not occur on a single day, but instead over at least one week consisting of three very bad trading days--Black Thursday (Oct 24), Black Monday (Oct 28), and Black Tuesday (Oct 29). I also learned that the prosperity of the 1920s, the confidence and trust in the securities markets, cheap loans to borrow on margin, and the general level of optimism, in part due to reassurances of Wall Street bankers and President Hoover, spurred the frenzy of speculation, which could not be sustained.

Most ominously, I was made aware of the economic parallels between the 1920s and today--the unequal distribution of income and wealth, the import tariffs imposed by the U.S., antagonistic views toward immigration, and especially the rapid emergence of untested tools and mechanisms for making a quick killing (then: loans facilitating high leverage investing and non-transparent unregulated investment trusts; now: promotion of crypto and sports betting). In both periods, promotion of these risky types of investments were and are now being justified as democratization of "investment" options, affording the masses equal access.

The book has been criticized for portraying the crash and Depression from the point of view of elites rather than the common man, 25% of whom were unemployed during much of the 1930s; also for being too easy on the malefactors Sorkin profiles. I am agnostic on both claims.

Arguably the book's foremost contribution, as I write in February, 2026, is its implicit warning to current-day investors. In the epilogue, where the author reflects on the current state of the economy, Sorkin reminds us that "no system is foolproof . . . humility is the keyword." He propounds, somewhat cynically, that Americans will forget or disregard the lessons from the past, instead continuing to believe during economic booms that "the good times will last," and that they will act accordingly, to their detriment. ...more

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On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything
by Nate Silver

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I've been a Nate Silver fan since he became famous as a successful election forecaster and started the website FiveThirtyEight.com, subsequently taken over by ABC News. I knew that he was also engaged--as a researcher and participant--in sports betti I've been a Nate Silver fan since he became famous as a successful election forecaster and started the website FiveThirtyEight.com, subsequently taken over by ABC News. I knew that he was also engaged--as a researcher and participant--in sports betting/forecasting and high-stakes poker. This book combines several of those interests, although not election polling, by focusing on gambling (especially poker), artificial intelligence, and game theory. It is a pastiche that is unusual but works well enough. The book introduces terms from gambling and mathematics that many readers will be unfamiliar with (such as expected value, Prisoner's Dilemma, effective altruism, and lots of poker jargon), although mostly not inaccessible if one takes the time for close reading .

Silver divides the world of elites into two camps--those who are part of the "river" (Riverians) and their rivals, who are part of the generally liberal, conforming "village" (the establishment). Many people and institutions fall into neither category. Riverians, many of whom are found in Silicon Valley, Las Vegas, and Wall Street, are characterized by two clusters--a cognitive cluster (analytical, abstract, and decoupling [the ability to block out context] ), and a personality cluster (competitive, critical, independent-minded [contrarian], and risk-tolerant). Silver stands clearly in the Riverian camp.

As the book's back cover explains, the world of the River consists of people who "move markets and change the fabric of society: poker legends, hedge fund titans, crypto speculators, and those willing to bet the world's future on AI." On the Edge profiles many of them including Sam Altman of ChatGPT, Sam Bankman-Fried, poker star Doyle Brunson, and Elon Musk, describing how the Riverian temperament contributes to individual riches and societal advance, through their risk taking and inventiveness, while carrying grave threats if pushed too far.

In the end, Silver attempts to reconcile the complementary values of the River and the Village by envisioning a world where there's agency (having good options), plurality (disallowing any person, group, or ideology to have a dominant share of power), and reciprocity (treating others as intelligent and capable of reasonable strategic behavior). While this formulation sounds reasonable and is obviously well-intentioned, it is only one possible 21st-century utopian structure.

Careful readers who expend the effort will learn a lot about poker, Las Vegas and casino games, AI and its estimated risks, wagering on sports, and the quirks and qualities of some well-known and some obscure personalities who make up the River. Nate Silver's extensive interviews and personal involvement makes On the Edge compelling, if not always easy, reading. ...more

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Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right
by Laura K. Field

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This is an important book that corrects the under-reporting and misunderstanding about the connection between the New Right and the Trump-led MAGA movement. It does not focus primarily on the rise of Trump, although much of that is revealed in descri This is an important book that corrects the under-reporting and misunderstanding about the connection between the New Right and the Trump-led MAGA movement. It does not focus primarily on the rise of Trump, although much of that is revealed in describing the broader emergence of the New Right as well as Trump's reciprocal role in promoting it. In the process, Furious Minds details the ideas and actions of many of the key figures, including lesser-known facts about prominent personalities such as Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance, Tucker Carlson, Christoper Rufo, as well as weirder, fringe figures like Curtis Yarvin, Raw Egg Nationalist, and Bronze Age Pervert. What might surprise some readers is the number of PhDs and other highly educated individuals who played a major part in forming the intellectual underpinnings of MAGA. Some of them were/are out and out enthusiastic supporters of Trump; others viewed him as a "useful idiot" that would advance their goals.

Political theorist Laura Field (BA-University of Alberta; PhD-University of Texas) is ideally situated to tell this story from her academic training (Straussian), her relationships with and later research on conservatives including many in the New Right and their precursors. Furious Minds documents the emergence and coalescence of this movement and its key institutions (the Claremont Institute, Hillsdale College, the Heritage Foundation, among others) between 2016 and 2024.

A distinctive feature of Field's analysis is her 4-fold typology of the New Right, which divides its institutions and personalities: "Claremonters"--e.g., Michael Anton, John Eastman, and Charles Kesler-- those originating or working at the Claremont Institute (at Southern California's Claremont McKenna College); "Postliberals" (including, among others, Notre Dame professor Patrick Deneen, Harvard Law professor Adrian Vermeule, and J.D. Vance); "National Conservatives" (such as Yoram Hazony, Josh Hawley, Christopher Rufo, Kevin Roberts, and Viktor Orban), and Hard Right Conservatives (e.g, Stephen Wolfe, "Bronze Age Pervert" Costin Alamariu, and "Raw Egg Nationalist" Charles Cornish-Dale).

I'm not convinced this is the most useful classification scheme, as the members of different quadrants, respectively, often have more in common with one another than differences. Although dissimilar in their certitude and propensity for advocating violence, what unites all or nearly all members of the New Right is their right-wing anti-liberalism--their opposition to democracy, wokeness and DEI, pluralism, globalism, the rule of law, moral relativism, LGBTQ, elites (hypocritically for many), and secularism (most New Rightists); and their emphasis on manliness and misogyny (in varying degrees), their rightist populism, flirtations with anti-Semitism, racism, and fascism; and their ethnocentrism, "blood and soil" nationalism, or Christian nationalism (again in varying degrees).

A minor nit is the book's copious references to Greek and ancient literature and philosophies. As someone not well-versed in those writings, I'm sure I missed some points the author was making.

Overall, Furious Minds is most informative and should appeal to anyone seeking a greater understanding of the MAGA movement from the perspective of the broader thinking that feeds it. Be advised that the book deals only with MAGA’s intellectual underpinnings; it is not at all an empirical analysis of the mass public’s Trump-related beliefs or voting behavior. ...more

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We Should All Be Birds: A Memoir
by Brian Buckbee

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This is an unusual book, both in its content and its structure. The author, a 40-something former teacher whose wife ("L") has left him but whom he's unable to get over, tells the story of his suffering from a mystery illness. At various times, he ex ...more

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What I Ate in One Year (And Related Thoughts)
by Stanley Tucci

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Stanley Tucci is an actor, director, producer, and writer. His writing focuses on food, especially Italian cuisine, of which he is a gourmet. The book chronicles his life during calendar year 2023, detailing virtually every meal consumed alone or wit ...more

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The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes
by Zachary D. Carter

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This longish biography (530+ pages) moves swiftly and rarely bores. It follows Keynes from his early days at Cambridge University as a mathematics student and part of the Bloomsbury art scene, through the two World Wars, and with special attention to This longish biography (530+ pages) moves swiftly and rarely bores. It follows Keynes from his early days at Cambridge University as a mathematics student and part of the Bloomsbury art scene, through the two World Wars, and with special attention to the aftermath of WWI and Versailles. The book lays out Keynes's economic theories and political aspirations, as well as their reception by the leading economists (Friedrich von Hayek, Joseph Schumpeter, John Kenneth Galbraith, Paul Samuelson, Milton Friedman), and statesmen of the time (Lloyd George, Churchill, FDR, Bill Clinton, Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, and others). Not a salient part of The Price of Piece is Keynes's bisexuality, which he describes only in the early portion of the book. Affairs with men continued even after his marriage to the Russian ballerina Lydia Lopokova, ten years his junior.

Keynes's philosophy is often misunderstood as consisting solely of deficit financing to stimulate the economy. The type of spending doesn't matter in this misreading. But it isn't just ANY type of deficit spending; rather, Keynes favored spending that would best goose the economy, resulting in mass spending, which in turn would produce greater tax revenues, thus blunting the effects of running deficits. Ultimately, Keynes wanted to reduce inequality, allowing the economically less privileged to share in the fruits of general prosperity, including the arts. In this way, he was trying to reconcile Edmund Burke's conservatism with the socially radical views of Rousseau.

Keynes's opus, the General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money is considered one of the great works of modern times. The General Theory is a warning of the dangers and limitations of financial markets, in part because of the future's uncertainty. It is at once a theory of democracy and power, of psychology, and of historical change. It is dangerous because it demonstrates the necessity of power. It is liberating because it reframes the central problem at the heart of modern economics as the alleviation of inequality, pivoting away from the demands of production and the incentives facing the rich and powerful. It is a work of genius because it proves a simple truth--that prosperity is not hard-wired into human beings; it must be carefully orchestrated and sustained by political leadership (p.256).

During the early 1940s, just as Keynes's domestic policies in the U.S. were being widely hailed as successful, a backlash set in among right-wing Republicans, McCarthyites, and some of the old-line banking elite. Many on the right, including William F. Buckley, viewed Keynesianism as socialism. The political winds were shifting. Joan Robinson, Keynes's progressive colleague and co-author, told the 1971 assembly of the American Economic Association that the Keynesian Revolution was a tragedy rather than a great intellectual triumph because the school of thought that has come to be associated with the name of Keynes no longer has much to do with the moral and political ideals Keynes himself prized (p.529). A new economic paradigm had taken hold by the 1990s under Bill Clinton, spurred in part by the successes of Silicon Valley and the growth of the internet.

Nevertheless, John Maynard Keynes will be remembered as one of the greatest economists and, to a lesser extent, political theorists, of the 20th century. Far from being an ivory tower academic, he liked involvement in real-world affairs, having held high-level posts in the British government and acting as advisor to political leaders in Europe and the U.S. during the tumultuous first half of the 1900s. ...more

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The Penguin Lessons: A True Story
by Tom Michell (Goodreads Author)

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I love penguins and collect penguin artifacts of all kinds. My wife bought me this book, and others who know of my "penguinophilia" have recommended it. The book is non-fiction, based on a story of a young British male teacher at an Argentine boardin I love penguins and collect penguin artifacts of all kinds. My wife bought me this book, and others who know of my "penguinophilia" have recommended it. The book is non-fiction, based on a story of a young British male teacher at an Argentine boarding school who adopts a Megellanic penguin he rescues from an oil spill off the coast of Uruguay. It takes place during the mid-1970s, in the backdrop of Argentina's military dictatorship, a circumstance which is of only modest centrality.

Like the similar themed "My Penguin Friend" (2024), which I've seen--about the bonding between a penguin and a Brazilian fisherman--"The Penguin Lessons" has also recently been made into a movie.* Both stories are intended to appeal to adults as well as kids. (Who doesn't like penguins?) I plan to watch the movie version soon.

It is hard not to be touched by this true story, especially how the penguin, named Juan Salvado, comes to trust Tom Michell (the author and co-protagonist), and how the penguin thrives around other humans as well. Michell admits to attributing human traits to Juan Salvado more than he should. Readers can't help but wonder how guilty he is of excessive anthropomorphizing. In one emotional sequence, a shy and hesitant student at the boarding school is brought out of his shell to reveal his expertise as a swimmer after befriending the penguin, and watching him glide swiftly and gracefully through the pool.

An appendix contains a list of thoughtful "Reading Group Questions" about the relationship between animals and humans. This was probably meant as a template for youthful classroom discussions, but it could easily be used by adult book clubs too.

One quibble is the author's repeated use of the term "wings" to refer to Juan Savado's flippers. Anyone who knows even a little about penguins would, like me, be aghast at this faux pas.

* Two days later, after watching the film: The movie version of “The Penguin Lessons” is very different than the book—more political tension and a dollop of romance. ...more

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