Nick Schenkel Book Reviews

Nick Schenkel Book Reviews


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Book Review: Middle-Earth
September 13, 2019

What mythical beings eat six meals a day, live in underground homes, and are about two or four feet tall? If you instantly knew the answer was Hobbits then the coffee book Middle Earth: Journeys in Myth and Legend by Donato Giancola may be the perfect

Book Review: Rolling in Dough
September 06, 2019

Would you ever leave a safe, well-paying job and risk everything to start a doughnut shop with your family? That’s what Purdue Professor Glen Sparks’ family did as is told in his memoir Rolling in Dough. A family-run small business making doughnuts sounds

Book Review: The Taiga Syndrome
August 30, 2019

Not many books can say they are of the "Metaphysical, existential, fairy-tale inspired, detective-mystery genre," however The Taiga Syndrome by Cristina Rivera Garza is one of those books. Filled with fascinating, philosophical curiosities and events that

Book Review: A Murder Unmentioned
August 23, 2019

It's the winter holidays 1933, the hottest time of the year in a small town of Australia. However, the temperature isn't the only thing heating up as a local murder left unresolved for over a decade has new evidence. This brings our main character, Rowly,

Book Review: In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond
August 16, 2019

The Great Bear Rainforest is the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world. According to local residents, the mythical sasquatch is a well-known creature of the woods. Author John Zada compiles their stories and more into In the Valleys of the

Book Review: End of the Megafauna
August 09, 2019

Could you imagine gorilla-sized lemurs, 500-pound birds, and giant lizards? This isn’t science fiction, it’s our natural history. End of the Megafauna explores the inexplicable death of the huge creatures that roamed the Earth at a time period that

Book Review: Undeniably Indiana
August 02, 2019

A book for hoosiers about hoosiers. Undeniably Indiana is the first crowdsourced book of stories from Indiana residents about their "wacky and wonderful state." This well-written collection features nostalgic stories of basketball, unpredictable weather,

Book Review: The Secret History of the Pink Carnation
July 26, 2019

A young grad student is struggling to get by, but that all changes when she determines the subject of her dissertation. Even the finest historians have missed this story, and it will knock their socks off. She has discovered The Secret History of The Pink

Book Review: Beastie Boys Book
July 19, 2019

Pop Quiz: What band has released seven multi-platinum albums from 1981 to 2011, recieved three grammy awards, and had the first album of their genre to be #1 on the charts? If you said the Beastie Boys you are correct, and may be fascinated by the Beasite

Book Review: The Samaritan's Secret
July 12, 2019

Omar Yussef is a teacher and administrator for the UN schools in modern day Palestine. When Yussef travels to Nablus, the West Bank's most violent town, to attend a wedding, he little expects the trouble that awaits him. An ancient Torah scroll belonging