Books

Book Review: “The Wrong End of the Telescope” — A Stunning Achievement

November 8, 2021
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This is a wonderful novel about a pressing humanitarian subject, Syrian refugees and the people who helped, as well as an exploration of identity and loss and triumph.

Book Review: “Mr. Beethoven” — Alternative Musical History

November 7, 2021
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Beethoven never left Europe. But he could have. And the possibility that he might have visited Boston is the basis of Paul Griffiths’ touching, witty, and thought-provoking new novel.

Book Review: “Running Out” — Drought Time

November 3, 2021
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The sense of loss that necessarily pervades Running Out is balanced is by Lucas Bessire’s lyrical prose, whose consistently crisp beauty serves as a welcome respite.

Book Review: To Compromise With the Mystery Tramp — A Vocal Dissection of Bob Dylan

November 2, 2021
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The book’s main contention is clearly correct: Dylan’s lyrics aren’t everything, and his vocal delivery is eminently important. But, according to Larry Starr, every period is a golden one, and the most minor effort deserves major respect.

Book Review: “Walk With Me” — The Heroism of Fannie Lou Hamer

October 30, 2021
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A three-dimensional portrait of one of the most powerful and eloquent leaders of the civil rights movement in Mississippi.

Poetry Review: Ruth Lepson’s “on the way” — Basking in the Glow

October 28, 2021
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Ruth Lepson’s poetry, at its most successful, creates the evocative and stimulating effect of a koan.

Book Review: “The Notes” of Ludwig Hohl — “Everything Ever Created Was a Fragment.”

October 28, 2021
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Ludwig Hohl belongs in the line of such lucidly contentious thinkers as Karl Kraus, Pascal, and Lichtenberg, commentators whose writing oscillates between the traditions of literature and philosophy.

Book Review: Ohio Bound — “Far From Their Eyes”

October 27, 2021
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This anthology, for all its occasional sadness, is optimistic about the future of immigration to America.

Book Review: Cowboys and the Wild East — “In the Dragon’s Shadow: Southeast Asia in the Chinese Century”

October 25, 2021
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Proceeding largely country by country, Sebastian Strangio penetratingly explores Southeast Asia’s multifaceted struggle with its behemoth Chinese neighbor.

Book Review: “What Strange Paradise” — Unforgettable

October 23, 2021
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Run, do not walk, to pick up your copy of this novel about little person caught up in a very big world.

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