This monster book is actually an easy read because the concepts are not difficult. It is a history of the scientific revolution, which took place in Europe in the decades around 1600. The so-called revolution was a change in world-view … Continue reading
Can you infer anything about a writer’s biography from what he or she has written? As a writer of fiction, I have to say, yes you can make valid inferences at a high level of abstraction, but no, you can’t … Continue reading
Setting a novel in a historical period is much more difficult than I had anticipated because of the endless research. I was writing a scene that mentioned a pipe-cleaner when I stopped short: Wait! Did they have pipe cleaners in … Continue reading
Interesting writing kept the pages turning for me. Nguyen has a knack for unexpected description and creative simile. A random example: Two men are talking but notice the chairs: “As usual, he reclined in an overstuffed leather club chair that … Continue reading
The Next Russian Revolution I read this book in preparation for a class I will take in August at the University of Arizona. Reading a course’s books before the lectures gives valuable context. I also hoped the book would answer questions … Continue reading
I’ve been reading ancient Greek tragedies by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and other poets, and trying to wrap my head around a culture that celebrated war and glorious death in battle. It was the unquestioned and unquestionable fate of healthy … Continue reading
In this classic sci-fi adventure from the 1960’s, two warring groups, the Rangers and the Wardens, fight each other in various places and times over the centuries. Time tunnels were built in some distant future that allowed these tribes to … Continue reading
I was convinced by this biographical and literary study, of three things. One, Virginia Woolf was sexually abused by her half-brother, George Duckworth, and two, that her alleged madness was a depressed and confused reaction to that childhood trauma (along … Continue reading
Musical Revelations Winter, Robert, & Martin, Robert (Eds.) (1994). The Beethoven Quartet Companion. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 300 pp. There are few finer pleasures in life than to listen to a recording of Beethoven’s string quartets, while reading … Continue reading