February 28, 2010

A Month of Reviews

Since its launch on February 9 (and even before then, in pre-publication media) my new book has been reviewed in print, on the radio and online. More reviews, I’m told, are on the way. But for now, here’s a roundup of some of the notables:

• Mark Kramer in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune
• Taylor Antrim in the Los Angeles Times
• Jeb Brugman in Publishers Weekly
• Tess Taylor in the Barnes & Noble Review
  “Let’s face it: it’s hard to write a book about infrastructure. The ties that bind us together are enormously complex but difficult to make interesting. The sewer system of New York is collapsing as we speak, but who cares? Garbage dumps? Highways? What a snooze. That’s why Ted Conover’s book about roads — by turns philosophical, witty, and hang-onto-your-seats adventurous — is such a tour de force. … Conover doesn’t so much solve the problems he finds as pose them wisely, leaving us open to their dangers and possibilities. We leave our journey renewed, feeling how the most familiar parts of our world can also be its most puzzling.”
• Richard B. Woodward in the New York Times
• The Economist
• Peter Lewis in the San Francisco Chronicle
• Steve Weinberg in the Dallas Morning News (and Portland Oregonian and Denver Post)
  “Conover has thought deeply about the multiple meanings of roads built thousands of years ago, as well as those built more recently. He has placed himself in peril to travel dangerous roads of today, searching for anecdotes and the meaning of those anecdotes. As a result, this always compelling book serves as both a philosophical narrative and an adventure tale.”

Book reviewing is a lot of work for little pay, and I’m grateful to these writers.