Welcome to the July 2010 Print Edition of GalleyCat Reviews
GalleyCat Reviewsfeatures daily book review content, including book reviews,excerpted book reviews from select review outlets, and curated posts linking to the best book reviews on the web. The reviews are written by a mix of professional reviewers and passionate readers in the GalleyCat community.If you are a publicist looking to submit books to GalleyCat reviews, please email your pitches tothis new email address. We are accepting pitches for new books in any genre, but we will only be able to review a fraction of the suggested titles.Want to read more? Check out these links: With this special monthly edition, you canread GCR, print GCR, or download GCR to your favorite reading device. If you wantmore print-able goodness, check out these other links:GalleyCat Reviews February 2010 Print Edition GalleyCat Reviews March 2010 Print Edition GalleyCat Reviews April 2010 Print Edition GalleyCat Reviews May 2010 Print Edition GalleyCat Reviews June 2010 Edition Best Book Reviewers on Twitter Directory
Jonathan Schneer Explores The Balfour Declaration
The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-IsraeliConflict
, historian Jonathan Schneer explores a 1917 agreement that helpedcreate the modern state of Israel. This is a must read for a clearer understanding of the vast changes that took place on the Arabian Peninsulain such a relatively short period of time and the impact of Foreign SecretaryBalfour's declaration of support for the establishment of a Jewish nation.It's common knowledge that the British were responsible the divisions of the Middle Eastafter WWII but the machinations, maneuvers and manipulations truly began at the turn of the 20th Century. The Zionist movement was founded in 1897 in Switzerland and grewand spread very slowly.Over the next few years, Jews bought up large tracts of land in Palestine in an effort toestablish a substantial minority. The emergence of Chaim Weizmann as the Jewish leader expanded their efforts to seek more than that; a Jewish nation was now the goal. Up untilthe outbreak of WWI, England had little use for either the Jewish requests or the petitionsfrom the Arabs to establish an Arabian nation. When Turkey entered the war on the sideof Germany, the British began to listen to both.Hussein Ibn Ali aligned with many of the Arab tribes looking to break away from theTurks and their Ottoman Empire and establish an Arab nation. In 1916 the French andEnglish together wrote the Sykes-Picot agreement, eventually the Tripartite Agreement,dividing up the Arabian Peninsula. There was no input from either Arabs or Jews.The maps that author Schneer provides in this eye-opening book make it perfectly clear that the parties involved in the break up of the Arabian peninsula had very differentimages of the final divisions. The Arabs had no idea the British were promising land tothe Jews. The Jews thought they would be taking over Palestine as an EnglishProtectorate and the French assumed that Syria and most of Northern Arabia would beunder their governance. The English set aside the southern half extending East to Bagdadfor themselves. Anatolia and Constantinople were to be reserved for Russia, though shewas not informed of the agreement until some time later.The book really gives you a complete background for the ill feelings on all sides.We also realize the very simple concessions that could have avoided a great dealof grief and bloodshed.
Louise Leetch
divides her time between Chicago and Wisconsin. Both houses are just crammed with books. She collects her reviews onGoodReads.
Drunk Hulk Unmasked
We've championed thecapitalized literary criticismof Drunk Hulk for months. The pseudonymous reviewer would share opinions about booksand culture on Twitter--earning 33,771 followers and producing gemslike "DRUNK HULK NO BE THIS EXCITE ABOUT BOOK SINCEPIZZA HUT MAKE BOOK IT PROGRAM!"TodayGalleyCat Reviewsis proud to reveal the secret identity of Drunk
Hulk --we caught up with the writer behind the giant green critic for anexclusive interview.SPOILER ALERT: If you wish to remain blissfully ignorant of the realidentity of Drunk Hulk, simply stop reading this post now...The Drunk Hulk Twitter feed was written by author Christian A. Dumais. Dumais(pictured) was most recently published in
and edited the
collection. He currently lectures at universities in Poland, teaching American Literatureand Pop Culture.We caught up with this mysterious writer in an email interview. Dumais shared hisexperiences working as an intoxicated superhero: "The responses from readers have beenoverwhelmingly positive. I've gotten so many emails from people thanking me and thenventing their own problems: 'I wanted to totally Drunk Hulk the guy' or 'If I were Drunk Hulk, I wouldn't have this problem.' And then there are those who've offered me T-shirtand merchandise deals, the guy who offered to buy the Twitter feed, and various other people who had me wishing I'd chosen a public domain character instead. You know,something I could make money from without fear of pesky lawsuits."He continued: "Some of the jokes have offended people, which is something I find funnyonly because those same jokes were also aimed at me. For instance, months ago I madean Ayn Rand joke ('DRUNK HULK FEEL PROUD! AND SELF RIGHTEOUS! LIKETEENAGER WHO FINISH READING AYN RAND BOOK!') that had quite a few people upset. As I was reading their reactions, I'm thinking, I was that teenager too! I'mconfident if I re-read
The Fountainhead
today, I'd be walking around for a week with thatRand High, the one where you feel like you can take on the world. It's what makes her books so great, whether you dig the philosophy or not. She writes the way Nigella cooks.You're in the kitchen saying, 'Yeah! I can cook like that! With ten pounds of butter! AndI'm going to look sexy doing it too!.'"Dumais also discussed the storytelling power of Twitter: "I'm fascinated by Twitter's potential for storytelling. I've always been a big fan of nano-fiction and just how minimalthe writing can be before it stops being a story. Raymond Carver talked about the icebergapproach to storytelling, where what's not being said is as important as what's said, and
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