Friends of the Newark Free Library

TO RULE THE WAVES: HOW THE BRITISH NAVY SHAPED THE MODERN WORLD

By Arthur Herman (HarperCollins, 2004; 648 pp.)

Reviewed by Roy H. Lopata

Codfish, salt, wheat, rice or perhaps sugar and molasses, Irish medieval monks or Spanish conquistadors, the printing press or the paper used for printing, black coal or the Black Death, the Greeks or the Romans, Newton or Einstein, the automobile or Steve Jobs, Elvis or the Beatles, and how about gunpowder (of special relevance in little ...

SEINFELDIA -How a Show About Nothing Changed Everything

By Jennifer Keishin Armstrong (Simon & Schuster; 307 pp.)

Reviewed by Roy H. Lopata

“Yada, Yada, Yada;” “No soup for you;” and “Not that there is anything wrong with that.” Yes, these are lines from perhaps one of the most remarkable television situation comedies of all time – Seinfeld. But you knew that already, didn’t you? And that to a significant extent is the ...