by Richard Subber | Mar 19, 2026 | American history, Book reviews, Books, History, Politics, Power and inequality
it’s about money, not journalism
Book review:
Newspapers and Democracy:
International Essays on a Changing Medium
Anthony Smith, ed.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1980
Newspapers and Democracy may be of most interest to informed readers who understand the basics of the history and the modern business model of newspapers, and want more historical context.
The essays were published in 1980. There is no mention of the internet or Google or social media or any of the digital manifestations that have crowded the traditional newspaper audience into a small corner.
There is no substantial or convincing assessment of the putative public service mission of “the press” that has been blatantly claimed by newspaper owners and journalists for at least more than 60 years.
Newspapers and Democracy is a museum piece, not an explanation of the alleged “power” of the alleged “free press.”
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
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Seeing far: Selected poems with 47 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Mar 17, 2026 | Books, Joys of reading, My poetry, Poetry
not just any book…
old books
A book is not just a book.
The writer knows the book,
at least, the wholeness of it,
and what was left unscribed.
Each reader knows the book,
at least, the meaning of the words
in their order,
and in their revelation,
and in their singularity,
their growth as understanding molds them.
An old book is a shell of its time,
a memento of its era,
a souvenir of thought and thinking,
a precious invitation
to live in the past,
a reality of expectations,
generations of meaning,
a companion of other words.
December 24, 2025
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: Sketches by Boz
…the Miss Willises are a scream…
by Charles Dickens
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As with another eye: Poems of exactitude with 55 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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by Richard Subber | Mar 15, 2026 | Book reviews, Books, Joys of reading, Language
We’re all connected…
Book review:
The Mother Tongue: English & How It Got That Way
by Bill Bryson (b1951)
New York: Harper Perennial, 1990
270 pages
The Mother Tongue is a fascinating collection of details you haven’t dreamed of about the English language. It’s easy enough to skim the parts that you don’t need to read in detail.
If you think that English stands alone as our primary means of communication, think again, and then think again.
We’re all connected by words, and the connections are everywhere.
As it happens, English is the pre-eminent language of the world. Of course, that doesn’t mean that English speakers are pre-eminent, but it does mean that if the little guys ever step out of the spaceship from Mars, it won’t take them long to figure out which language they want to learn first.
There is a really elaborate bibliography if you want to know more.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: Shakespeare’s Wife
Germaine Greer went overboard a bit…
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Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 74 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Mar 3, 2026 | Book reviews, Books, Human Nature
good and bad, a great story
Book review:
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)
Scottish novelist
141 pages
Originally published in 1886 as Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, this iconic novella was an immediate hit and sold 250,000 copies in the United States.
(Later publishers added “The” and punctuation to the title in a gratuitous fit of grammatical purity).
It’s a masterly drama and a quaint exploration of the Manichean theme of good and evil in man. In my most recent re-reading, Jekyll seems to be a much less respectable character than in my previous experience with this classic: he is weak, licentious and mostly unrepentant.
His alter ego, Hyde, is still a bad boy.
The narrator’s reflections on human nature are thoughtful and instructive.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Old Friends (book review)
Tracy Kidder tells truth about old age…
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Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 74 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Feb 21, 2026 | Books, Books Commentary, Joys of reading, Tidbits
no such thing as too many books
“O quam dulcis vita fuit dum sedebamus in quieti . .
inter librorum copias.”
Alcuin of York (c735-804)
Advisor to Charlemagne
“Oh, how sweet life was when we sat quietly . . .midst all these books.”
All of the books in Alcuin’s library were written by hand, of course.
Read his reflection on books a couple of times, you may see a different image each time…
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review:
John Eliot: “Apostle to the Indians”
…a righteous man of his times
by Ola Elizabeth Winslow
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As with another eye: Poems of exactitude with 55 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Feb 19, 2026 | Book reviews, Books, Human Nature, Joys of reading, Language
Faulks has so many words that mean “ache”…
Book review:
The Girl at the Lion d’Or
by Sebastian Faulks (b1953)
New York: Vintage International/Vintage Books/A Division of Random House, Inc., 1989.
246 pages
Sebastian Faulks writes about the vagaries of life, the daily choices in our lives, the uncountable futures, and the singularity of the past. We think we remember various pasts, and we may struggle to reconcile them.
In The Girl at the Lion d’Or, Faulks invites us to live in the minds of Hartmann and Anne. Sometimes the reader realizes that confusion is in their minds, usually their failures are clear enough, and their successes of the moments must be cherished for their bounty.
Richly Gallic, redolent of the interwar period in Europe, The Girl at the Lion d’Or is a cumulative revelation of Anne (the girl) and a steadily burdensome understanding of the sad hindrances in her life. She comes to love Hartmann, who is ultimately contemptibly weak and viciously temporizing.
I wanted to read faster near the end so I could learn the outcome, but I resisted the impulse.
Faulks makes it worthwhile to read every word. His prose is tenaciously literate and evocative; he has no mere words—he writes passages that invite the reader to understand deeply and to feel deeply.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Proud Tower
…a lot more than a history book…
by Barbara Tuchman
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many waters: more poems with 53 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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