Books

Poetry Review: “One Hundred Visions of War” — Haiku in No Man’s Land

December 1, 2022
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This is a grim and uncomfortable book to read because it forces us to contemplate each small poem separately and then take them all together, a hard but necessary exercise.

Book Review: Exile, Violence, and Cunning — Two Russian Authors After the Invasion of Ukraine

November 25, 2022
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“It’s easy to see why we have such a lousy life and such great literature.”

Book Review: “Charlie’s Good Tonight” — A Rare Gift of Groove

November 20, 2022
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Charlie’s Good Tonight does a fine job of illuminating Charlie Watts’ personality and paying homage to the drummer’s admirable legacy.

Poetry Review: Iman Mersal’s “Threshold” — Exploring the Idea of Home

November 20, 2022
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Underlying all of these pieces is the sensibility of the émigrée, the person who has had to reinterpret everything in her life.

Book Review: Mr. Wilder, Are You Ready for Your Closeup?

November 18, 2022
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A funny, bittersweet novel by British writer Jonathan Coe portrays the great American film director Billy Wilder on the downside of his career

Poetry Review: “Burning at the Same Time” — José-Flore Tappy’s Mysterious Poem-Portraits

November 17, 2022
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Deeply indebted to her relationship to persons and places, José-Flore Tappy uses poetry as a way to revisit them, honoring the absent through poems co-created by memory and imagination.

Children’s Book Review: “Discovering” Thanksgiving

November 17, 2022
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Many Thanksgiving myths are dispelled, but the effort to reverse decades of misinformation leads to oversimplification at times.

Book Review: “A Fan’s Life” — A Species of Madness?

November 16, 2022
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In A Fan’s Life, Paul Campos makes a valiant stab at reconciling his avowedly progressive views on American politics and iconoclastic intellectual pursuits with his lifelong obsession with spectator sports.

Book Review: “The Idea of Prison Abolition” — An Unconvincing Case

November 15, 2022
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The Idea of Prison Abolition is a worthwhile book, but Dr. Shelby’s case, philosophically strong as it might be, is not very likely to convince prison abolitionists.

Book Review: “Suzuki — The Man and his Dream to Teach the Children of the World”

November 14, 2022
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Eri Hotta’s biography of Shinichi Suzuki is about optimism, gentleness, doggedness, belief in children, humanity, and the affirmative properties of art in the face of violence and ignorance.

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