Biography-Memoir – Page 5 – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln & the American Struggle

By Scott J. Pearson | December 31, 2022December 31, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” These words were written by an enslaver who held to white supremacy, yet they inspired a nation and inspire it still. A few (like Dr. King) have reached Lincoln’s heights, but no one has surpassed his personal struggle for a union without…

The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing & the Future of the Human Race

By Scott J. Pearson | December 14, 2022December 14, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

In our generation, codes comprise some of the most interesting subjects of study. We code computers to do work for us; we also are beginning to decode the genetic code to propel life forward. The discovery of CRISPR promises to allow us to edit the human genome, and Professor Doudna sits among this innovation’s prime discoverers. Along with another female scientist Professor Charpentier, she won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2020. This biography, written…

Biography-Memoir Healthcare HIV/AIDS

Nurses on the Inside: Stories of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in NYC

By Scott J. Pearson | November 25, 2022November 25, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

Much has changed since HIV/AIDS first started spreading widely in America. Fortunately, we now have better drugs to treat HIV infections. The healthcare system focuses on prevention through PrEP. America is more accepting of homosexuality, though more progress can always be made. Some things remain similar, though. Preventative vaccines are still a hoped-for but not realized dream. The stigma of a diagnosis still exists, but not nearly as badly as it did in the 1980s…

Biography-Memoir Management-Business

The Snowball: Warren Buffett & the Business of Life

By Scott J. Pearson | November 17, 2022November 17, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

Warren Buffett and his investment corporation Berkshire Hathaway are the stuff of legends. He grew an investment portfolio from just over $100,000 into a $100+ billion enterprise over several decades. He invested primarily in businesses that were undervalued when he bought them but rose in value in the years after he bought them. His investments routinely outperformed the market, often by double-digit percentages. He lived in a humble house in Omaha, Nebraska, and eschewed many…

Biography-Memoir Religion-Philosophy

Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved

By Scott J. Pearson | October 29, 2022October 29, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

In her early career, Bowler had accomplished some of her life’s major goals. She earned a PhD and wrote the first religious history of the prosperity gospel movement. She got a teaching position at a prestigious divinity school (Duke). She was married and started a family with her partner. Then she received a diagnosis of stage IV colon cancer. Obviously, this rocked her life. Soon enrolling in a clinical trial, she responded to chemotherapy, but…

Biography-Memoir Religion-Philosophy

In Memoriam: Frederick Buechner (1926-2022)

By Scott J. Pearson | September 18, 2022September 18, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

It is impossible for me to assess Frederick Buechner’s impact on readers without assessing his impact on my life, which remains profound. Thus, I will start there. At age 16, I chose to take my Christian faith seriously. For a Southern Baptist teenager, that meant not cursing, hanging out with the “right” crowd, and other pieties. I began to pay attention at church more, especially at our youth group meetings, and began to pay more…

Biography-Memoir History

The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt

By Scott J. Pearson | August 30, 2022August 30, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

Alexander Hamilton, America’s first Treasury Secretary, is often credited with forming the nation’s new economic system. Not far behind him (or even beside him) sits Cornelius Vanderbilt. In modern times, his name is most associated with a university in Nashville, but his legacy touched many turning points of nineteenth-century America. In this biography, Stiles describes Vanderbilt’s story beginning with the waning years of the eighteenth century and continuing after the Civil War until railroads united…

Biography-Memoir

No One Crosses the Wolf: A Memoir

By Scott J. Pearson | August 8, 2022August 13, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

Fathers can sometimes present themselves to their children as a tyrannical lot, especially in abusive situations. Young ones can feel trapped in circumstances because they cannot escape their family, yet their circumstances are oppressive to their own personal growth. Coming to peace with their situation and themselves can consume years of early adulthood. Nikolidakis’ story embodies this storyline, yet as a thirty-something, a trip to Greece, her ancestral home, brought her a sense of peace…

Biography-Memoir Religion-Philosophy

Howard Thurman & the Disinherited: A Religious Biography

By Scott J. Pearson | July 12, 2022July 12, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

Howard Thurman is a name that scholars of twentieth-century Christianity and African-American culture know well, but few in the mainstream United States are familiar with it. However, more people should be, and Harvey writes this religious biography to bring his name to the fore. Thurman was known as “the mentor to the movement” and mentored dozens of civil rights’ leaders, including Martin Luther King. He laid the groundwork for the dismantling of Jim Crow and…

Biography-Memoir

War & Me: A Memoir by Faleeha Hassan

By Scott J. Pearson | July 9, 2022July 9, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

Iraq has encountered consistent upheaval for the past half-century. Most Americans know parts of that story from the news. What most Americans, like myself, don’t know is what that story looks like on the ground, in individual lives. They don’t appreciate how US policy has affected common life, mainly because they haven’t come into contact with an Iraqi. Instead, prejudice, bigotry, and/or cultural bias tends to fill that void. To address that problem, Hassan has…