Harvey Freedenberg
@harvf.bsky.social
Reader and writer for BookPage, Bookreporter, Shelf Awareness & Kirkus Reviews. Also meditator, golfer, Dickinson College & University of Michigan Law School alum. I care about our democracy, too.
Pinned
Harvey Freedenberg
@harvf.bsky.social
· Nov 21
“When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.” Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
No. 9 on my list of Favorite Books of 2025 is Jess Walter’s novel SO FAR GONE. Here’s my review from @readbookpage.bsky.social: www.bookpage.com/reviews/so-f...
Book review of So Far Gone by Jess Walter
Jess Walter makes an affecting, persuasive case that our deepest happiness is the sort we find closest to home in So Far Gone.
www.bookpage.com
December 5, 2025 at 1:58 PM
No. 9 on my list of Favorite Books of 2025 is Jess Walter’s novel SO FAR GONE. Here’s my review from @readbookpage.bsky.social: www.bookpage.com/reviews/so-f...
From @shelf-awareness.com my review of Anne Fadiman’s FROG and Other Essays: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...
Review: Frog: and Other Essays
As she's shown in her collections Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader and At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays, Anne Fadiman (The Wine
www.shelf-awareness.com
December 4, 2025 at 6:59 PM
From @shelf-awareness.com my review of Anne Fadiman’s FROG and Other Essays: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...
No. 10 on my list of Favorite Books of 2025 is Jill Lepore’s, WE, THE PEOPLE: A History of the U. S. Constitution. Here’s my review from @readbookpage.bsky.social: www.bookpage.com/reviews/we-t...
Book review of We the People by Jill Lepore
Why is it so hard to amend the Constitution? Jill Lepore’s lucid, accessible We the People sets out to explain why the light of popular constitutional change has dimmed.
www.bookpage.com
December 4, 2025 at 6:31 PM
No. 10 on my list of Favorite Books of 2025 is Jill Lepore’s, WE, THE PEOPLE: A History of the U. S. Constitution. Here’s my review from @readbookpage.bsky.social: www.bookpage.com/reviews/we-t...
No. 11 on my list of Favorite Books of 2025 is Donal Ryan’s novel, HEART BE AT PEACE. Here’s my review from @bookreporter.bsky.social: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/hear...
Heart, Be at Peace | Bookreporter.com
In a small town in Ireland, the local people have weathered the storm of economic collapse and now look to the future: The jobs are back, the dramas of the past seemingly lulled, and although the town...
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December 4, 2025 at 6:11 PM
No. 11 on my list of Favorite Books of 2025 is Donal Ryan’s novel, HEART BE AT PEACE. Here’s my review from @bookreporter.bsky.social: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/hear...
Today I begin revealing my Favorite Books of 2025, a dozen selections—fiction and nonfiction—chosen from the 64 I reviewed this year.
No. 12 is Gwendolyn Brooks’s memoir, MEMORIAL DAYS. Here’s my review from @bookreporter.bsky.social: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/memo...
No. 12 is Gwendolyn Brooks’s memoir, MEMORIAL DAYS. Here’s my review from @bookreporter.bsky.social: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/memo...
www.bookreporter.com
December 1, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Today I begin revealing my Favorite Books of 2025, a dozen selections—fiction and nonfiction—chosen from the 64 I reviewed this year.
No. 12 is Gwendolyn Brooks’s memoir, MEMORIAL DAYS. Here’s my review from @bookreporter.bsky.social: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/memo...
No. 12 is Gwendolyn Brooks’s memoir, MEMORIAL DAYS. Here’s my review from @bookreporter.bsky.social: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/memo...
Beginning Monday, December 1, and for each of the following eleven days, I’ll reveal one of my Favorite Books of 2025 of the 64 I reviewed this year. Just in time for you to add one to your holiday gift list for the book lovers in your life.
November 27, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Beginning Monday, December 1, and for each of the following eleven days, I’ll reveal one of my Favorite Books of 2025 of the 64 I reviewed this year. Just in time for you to add one to your holiday gift list for the book lovers in your life.
From @shelf-awareness.com my review of Susan Wise Bauer’s THE GREAT SHADOW: A History of How Sickness Shapes What We Do, Think, Believe, and Buy: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...
Review: The Great Shadow: A History of How Sickness Shapes What We Do, Think, Believe, and Buy
Susan Wise Bauer's The Great Shadow is an informative and lively survey of the history of illness and of humanity's attempts to combat it. Though
www.shelf-awareness.com
November 20, 2025 at 1:16 PM
From @shelf-awareness.com my review of Susan Wise Bauer’s THE GREAT SHADOW: A History of How Sickness Shapes What We Do, Think, Believe, and Buy: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...
From @readbookpage.bsky.social my review of Martha Cooley’s MY LITTLE DONKEY: Essays: www.bookpage.com/reviews/my-l...
Book review of My Little Donkey by Martha Cooley
My Little Donkey is a wise, empathetic and consistently surprising essay collection that sparkles with Martha Cooley’s customarily graceful prose.
www.bookpage.com
November 19, 2025 at 1:08 PM
From @readbookpage.bsky.social my review of Martha Cooley’s MY LITTLE DONKEY: Essays: www.bookpage.com/reviews/my-l...
From Shelf Awareness my review of Ian Frazier’s THE SNAKES THAT ATE FLORIDA: Reporting, Essays, and Criticism: www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?i...
Shelf Awareness for Tuesday, November 11, 2025
Welcome to the Web site for Shelf Awareness: Daily Enlightenment for the Book Trade, the free e-mail newsletter dedicated to helping the people in stores, ...
www.shelf-awareness.com
November 11, 2025 at 9:13 PM
From Shelf Awareness my review of Ian Frazier’s THE SNAKES THAT ATE FLORIDA: Reporting, Essays, and Criticism: www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?i...
From @bookreporter.bsky.social my review of Joseph J. Ellis’s THE GREAT CONTRADICTION: The Tragic Side of the American Founding: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/the-...
The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding | Bookreporter.com
On the eve of the American Revolution, half a million enslaved African Americans were embedded in the North American population. The slave trade was flourishing, even as the 13 colonies armed themselv...
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November 8, 2025 at 4:54 AM
From @bookreporter.bsky.social my review of Joseph J. Ellis’s THE GREAT CONTRADICTION: The Tragic Side of the American Founding: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/the-...
“Finally, we were introduced to sentence diagramming, which hacked away at the unruly jungle of English syntax until it became a tidy French garden with its topiary sorted and arranged by function.” Anne Fadiman, FROG and Other Essays (coming in 2026) #sundaysentence
November 2, 2025 at 4:22 PM
“Finally, we were introduced to sentence diagramming, which hacked away at the unruly jungle of English syntax until it became a tidy French garden with its topiary sorted and arranged by function.” Anne Fadiman, FROG and Other Essays (coming in 2026) #sundaysentence
A couple views of the Susquehanna River just north of #Harrisburg, #Pennsylvania . The train is passing over the Rockville Bridge, at 3,820 feet, the longest stone masonry arch railroad viaduct ever built: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockvil...
October 31, 2025 at 9:22 PM
A couple views of the Susquehanna River just north of #Harrisburg, #Pennsylvania . The train is passing over the Rockville Bridge, at 3,820 feet, the longest stone masonry arch railroad viaduct ever built: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockvil...
From @readbookpage.bsky.social my review of WHEN ALL THE MEN WORE HATS: Susan Cheever on the Stories of John Cheever:
www.bookpage.com/reviews/when...
www.bookpage.com/reviews/when...
Book review of When All the Men Wore Hats by Susan Cheever
In When All the Men Wore Hats, John Cheever’s daughter, Susan, makes an appreciative, but often unsparing, assessment of the undeniable intersection of her father’s life and work.
www.bookpage.com
October 29, 2025 at 2:58 PM
From @readbookpage.bsky.social my review of WHEN ALL THE MEN WORE HATS: Susan Cheever on the Stories of John Cheever:
www.bookpage.com/reviews/when...
www.bookpage.com/reviews/when...
“The subject hardened into a public posture, like a pigeon- stained statue of a forgotten general.” Ian McEwan, WHAT WE CAN KNOW #sundaysentence
October 26, 2025 at 5:11 PM
“The subject hardened into a public posture, like a pigeon- stained statue of a forgotten general.” Ian McEwan, WHAT WE CAN KNOW #sundaysentence
From @bookreporter.bsky.social my review of Joe McGinniss Jr’s DAMAGED PEOPLE: A Memoir of Fathers and Sons:
admin.bookreporter.com/reviews/dama...
admin.bookreporter.com/reviews/dama...
Damaged People: A Memoir of Fathers and Sons | Bookreporter.com
Joe McGinniss was a paradox: a brilliant writer whose dazzling achievements were overshadowed by personal demons. At age 26, he became the youngest living person to top the New York Times bestseller l...
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October 25, 2025 at 12:04 AM
From @bookreporter.bsky.social my review of Joe McGinniss Jr’s DAMAGED PEOPLE: A Memoir of Fathers and Sons:
admin.bookreporter.com/reviews/dama...
admin.bookreporter.com/reviews/dama...
From @shelf-awareness.com my review of Peter Handke’s novel, THE BALLAD OF THE LAST GUEST: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...
Review: The Ballad of the Last Guest
Controversial Nobel laureate Peter Handke's novel The Ballad of the Last Guest is a slim, elegant mood piece, intended more to evoke feelings
www.shelf-awareness.com
October 20, 2025 at 12:39 PM
From @shelf-awareness.com my review of Peter Handke’s novel, THE BALLAD OF THE LAST GUEST: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...
“In America, pessimists are more likely to be right, optimists more likely to succeed.” Richard Russo #sundaysentence
October 19, 2025 at 12:39 PM
“In America, pessimists are more likely to be right, optimists more likely to succeed.” Richard Russo #sundaysentence
From @shelf-awareness.com my review of Nobel Laureate Olga Tokarczuk’s novel, HOUSE OF DAY, HOUSE OF NIGHT: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...
Review: House of Day, House of Night
Polish Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk (Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead) has described her literary works as "constellation novels
www.shelf-awareness.com
October 16, 2025 at 12:48 PM
From @shelf-awareness.com my review of Nobel Laureate Olga Tokarczuk’s novel, HOUSE OF DAY, HOUSE OF NIGHT: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...
"Childhood is a darkened, fantasy-filled theater in which, after a long or short while, the houselights are turned on, and the brightness makes you blink, and then you see the candy wrappers under the seats and the lines for the bathrooms." Ian Frazier, THE SNAKES THAT ATE FLORIDA #sundaysentence
October 12, 2025 at 11:04 PM
"Childhood is a darkened, fantasy-filled theater in which, after a long or short while, the houselights are turned on, and the brightness makes you blink, and then you see the candy wrappers under the seats and the lines for the bathrooms." Ian Frazier, THE SNAKES THAT ATE FLORIDA #sundaysentence
From @bookreporter.bsky.social my review of Patricia Lockwood's WILL THERE EVER BE ANOTHER YOU:
www.bookreporter.com/reviews/will...
www.bookreporter.com/reviews/will...
Will There Ever Be Another You | Bookreporter.com
Amid a global pandemic, one young woman is trying to keep the pieces together --- of her family, stunned by a devastating loss, and of her mind, left mangled and misfiring from a mystifying disease. S...
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October 11, 2025 at 2:43 AM
From @bookreporter.bsky.social my review of Patricia Lockwood's WILL THERE EVER BE ANOTHER YOU:
www.bookreporter.com/reviews/will...
www.bookreporter.com/reviews/will...
Sorry, Donny, you don’t get a Nobel Peace Prize when you’re busily working to destroy democracy and undermine the rule of law in your own country.
The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado who lives in hiding after attempting to run against President Nicolás Maduro.
Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Venezuela's María Corina Machado
"When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist," the committee said.
nbcnews.to
October 10, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Sorry, Donny, you don’t get a Nobel Peace Prize when you’re busily working to destroy democracy and undermine the rule of law in your own country.
My #sundaysentence a day late (I was out of town yesterday.)
“Light came right down the middle of the street like a delivery.” Ian Frazier, THE SNAKES THAT ATE FLORIDA (coming January 2026)
“Light came right down the middle of the street like a delivery.” Ian Frazier, THE SNAKES THAT ATE FLORIDA (coming January 2026)
October 6, 2025 at 12:42 PM
My #sundaysentence a day late (I was out of town yesterday.)
“Light came right down the middle of the street like a delivery.” Ian Frazier, THE SNAKES THAT ATE FLORIDA (coming January 2026)
“Light came right down the middle of the street like a delivery.” Ian Frazier, THE SNAKES THAT ATE FLORIDA (coming January 2026)
“Suddenly she is fluttering near the wood-and-mud root cellar ceiling above her—not like a butterfly but more like a bit of ash or ember, carried off on the night breeze, pulled upward like a spark in the narrow trail that leads from a campfire to the dark sky.” D. Chaon, One of Us, #sundaysentence
September 28, 2025 at 1:53 PM
“Suddenly she is fluttering near the wood-and-mud root cellar ceiling above her—not like a butterfly but more like a bit of ash or ember, carried off on the night breeze, pulled upward like a spark in the narrow trail that leads from a campfire to the dark sky.” D. Chaon, One of Us, #sundaysentence
From @bookreporter.bsky.social my review of Dan Chaon’s new novel, ONE OF US: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/one-...
One of Us | Bookreporter.com
It’s 1915, and life is falling apart for 13-year-old twins Bolt and Eleanor. When their mother dies, they are forced to leave home under the care of a vicious con man who claims to be their long-lost ...
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September 27, 2025 at 1:36 AM
From @bookreporter.bsky.social my review of Dan Chaon’s new novel, ONE OF US: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/one-...
From @shelf-awareness.com my review of Stewart O’Nan’s new novel, EVENSONG: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...
Review: Evensong
Stewart O'Nan's body of work is noteworthy for its diversity across 18 works of fiction, with settings that include post-Civil War Wisconsin
www.shelf-awareness.com
September 25, 2025 at 1:51 PM
From @shelf-awareness.com my review of Stewart O’Nan’s new novel, EVENSONG: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...