The Pope and Mussolini
Reading David Kertzer’s The Pope and Mussolini:The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe will be a …
Category Archives: Books
Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War
If you’ve never read anything about life in the trenches during World War One, Birdsong: A Novel of Love and …
Xiao Hong — Women in Rural China
Some months ago I saw The Golden Era, a recent movie by Ann Hui about a ground breaking Chinese woman writer …
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
Can we talk?!” Joan Rivers peppered her routines with her signature riff, aggressive and not a question at all, but …
Revenge, a Poem by Taha Muhammad Ali
For some time Taha Muhammad Ali, a Palestinian from Jerusalem, has been my go-to poet for unexpected images and rare …
The Prison of Belief
“Just because you believe it doesn’t make it true,” reads a bumper sticker I’ve recently seen. It’s not a popular …
The Canal Bridge — Irishmen in WW I
The Great War: A Photographic Narrative
Photography in this day of iPhone snaps and YouTube video is such a part of the fabric of the world …
The First Casualty – A WW I Conscientious Objector as Sleuth
Ben Elton’s 2012 mystery, The First Casualty, is a fine combination of two popular literary genres: men at war and …
America’s Wars by Charles Simic
Charles Simic, if known at all is usually known as a poet. Born in Belgrade, Serbia, then part of Yugoslavia, …
Thinking About Good-bye
It’s been a week of saying good-bye, to those I’ve admired for work done and lives lived, most of whom …
Parade’s End — Benedict Cumberbatch as England’s Last Tory
The 5 hour HBO/BBC mini-series, Parade’s End, (2012) with Benedict Cumberbatch as Christopher Tietjens, is a miracle of lossless compression, …