Culture wars: Trump’s takeover of arts is straight from the dictator playbook “US president’s attempt to control or dismantle cultural institutions plays into a long history of authoritarians using arts to push their agenda” Sorry not sorry: Prepare to be harangued for the next 4 years. We’ve moved way past politics now here in the […]
I didn’t get much reading done in February. I only read two novels, The Three Lives of Cate Kay, which I’ve already reviewed, and The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus by Emma Knight, which I review below. Last month I promised a later review of The Last Russian Doll by Kristen Loesch, which I read
Reading Notes: February Read More »
For years, the identity of bestselling author Cate Kay was a closely guarded secret; only two people knew the author’s real name. But we, the readers of this novel by Kate Fagan masquerading as a memoir by Cate Kay, know the truth from the opening pages: Anne Marie Callahan —> Annie —> Cass Ford —>
Review: “The Three Lives of Cate Kay” Read More »
A Classic Chronicle of Korean America: On Kim Ronyoung’s Clay Walls “David S. Cho Explores Ideas of Homeland, Belonging and Identity in a Pioneering Contribution to Asian American Literature” Novels that introduce us to people from cultures other than our own contribute to human understanding in a global context. Clay Walls is a truly pioneering
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Related Post: Eleanor Bennett has died and left behind with her lawyer, Charles Mitch, a series of recordings for her son, Byron, and his younger sister, Benny (short for Benedetta) to listen to. Eleanor insisted that they listen to the recordings together, and the accompanying note is directed to B and B, a term she
2 Recent Novels of Life Review Read More »
Hanif Kureishi’s Relentlessly Revealing Memoir “How a tragic accident helped the author find his rebellious voice again” In December 2022, at age 68, writer Hanif Kureishi fell onto a hard floor in Rome and woke up a tetraplegic. Hillary Kelly visited Kureishi in London in December 2024 and here describes that visit and comments on
Introduction: Life Review American psychiatrist Dr. Robert N. Butler made the study of the lives of older adults and of the aging process his life’s work at a time when the last years of life were largely neglected in both medicine and public policy. Butler coined the term ageism, by analogy with sexism and racism,
3 Novels of Life Review Read More »
What We Learn About Our World by Imagining Its End Arthur Krystal ponders the stories humans have devised about when and how the world will end: “Having to come to terms with this eventuality [the end of the world] is the price we pay for being able to imagine it in the first place.” Tash
How Much Does Our Language Shape Our Thinking? Language is perhaps the ultimate social construct. Manvir Singh, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of California, Davis, examines “unease about the erosion of various cultural identities” as English continues to spread around the globe. At issue is the question of whether languages “influence how
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