Friday, June 06, 2008
Urban wildlife ...
... “And the fox is on the town-o…”
I have seen a raccoon in a tree outside Philadelphia's City Hall, as urban a setting as you can imagine, and a dead opossum on Vine Street while walking to Chinatown for lunch. A peregrine falcon has visited my bcak yard a couple of times, and when I lived in the Germantown section, raccoons could often be seen in the middle of the night walking down the street and climbing the trees. The burgeoning urban wildlife population is another of those stories the media seem unaware of.
My kind of people ...
... People, plants and the British psyche.
Henry Miller once said that if he had his life to live over again he would have been a gardener. Me, too. I feel genuinely content when I am in my garden. I go there first thing in the morning, and I usually step out into it before I go to bed.
Temporal and spatial move ...
... Mercantile Library Moves, and Gets a Nudge Into the 21st Century. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Something I missed ...
... Objects in mirror (III).
Scroll down to see James O'Neill, Eugene's father and the model for James Tyrone in LOng Day's Journey Into Night, acting in The Count of Monte Cristo, which made his fortune and ruined his career.
Scroll down to see James O'Neill, Eugene's father and the model for James Tyrone in LOng Day's Journey Into Night, acting in The Count of Monte Cristo, which made his fortune and ruined his career.
This is great ...
... Winter Light. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I'm not too keen on the Holman Hunt painting, either, but Bergman's film is one of my all-time favorites. I wonder why it is that films like Winter Light and this - works saturated with doubt - always have the effect of deepening my faith.
Good Lord ...
... Theodore Dalrymple delivers a Global Warning. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The same streets in England would have been alive with the sound of screaming: down them would have staggered shivering, drunken, scantily clad sluts with bared pudgy midriffs of pasty flesh and bejewelled navels, tattoos on one of their fat shoulders or above the beginning of the cleft in their buttocks. As for the young men, better not to describe them at all, lest they should accuse you of looking at them and smash a glass in your face.
A notice from Hedgie ...
... Avatar Review 10 Is Now Online.
Hedgie's also been doing some interesting reading: Some Books I've Enjoyed Recently.
Hedgie's also been doing some interesting reading: Some Books I've Enjoyed Recently.
Thursday, June 05, 2008
More BookExpo ...
... from Scott McLemee: Books Exposed. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
See also: BookExpo 2008: The Celebs and, Yes, the Books.
See also: BookExpo 2008: The Celebs and, Yes, the Books.
It's back ...
... When Falls the Coliseum, that is.
I plan on posting here myself from time to time. I just have to get some time. In the meantime, there's plenty better than me to read.
I plan on posting here myself from time to time. I just have to get some time. In the meantime, there's plenty better than me to read.
Information, please ...
A visitor to this blog has asked the following: 'I am looking for the Novalis poem that contains the quote, "Water is a moist flame." Does anyone know?'
Someone must, though I haven't been able to find anything myself.
Here is something the ever-intrepid Dave Lull has come upon.
Someone must, though I haven't been able to find anything myself.
Here is something the ever-intrepid Dave Lull has come upon.
Haecceity ...
... `Air Rinsed After Rain'. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Yesterday, I had lunch with Joe Feeney, a Jesuit priest who has just published The Playfulness of Gerard Manley Hopkins. He told that Hopkins thought that if you look at something with attention and care you will sense that it is looking back.
I recently wrote a piece, which I fear may never see the light of print - about T.H. White's The Goshawk and J.A. Baker's The Peregrine - in which I make the point that, more and more, we allow our experiences to be mediated for us, clapping on headphones to go through an art exhibition rather than just using our eyes to look at the paintings. I am often amazed at how much people think they know about nature because of what they read about it - as opposed to actually experiencing and observing it.
Public speaking for dummies ...
... or, The Poverty of PowerPoint. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
To the comment I posted on this, I should have added the unexamined assumptions of terminal secularism.
To the comment I posted on this, I should have added the unexamined assumptions of terminal secularism.
You never know ...
... Found in Books.
I bought a copy of George Barker's Collected Poems a few years ago and found inside a copy of a letter from Barker to the Canadian poet Robin Skelton.
Populatrion explosion ...
... Gulls - What Would Hudson Say?
When I was a kid, living not far from the Delaware, where my brother and I would sometimes go fishing, you never saw gulls along the river. There were birds you saw when you went, as we say around here, down the shore. Now they're everywhere. The fast food restaurants have been a boon to them. Even when I lived in Abington, which is nowhere near the river I would see them in shopping mall near my apartment. Of course, I don't live that far the river now, and they regularly patronize the Italian Market. But then, so do crows, which commute from outside the city.
When I was a kid, living not far from the Delaware, where my brother and I would sometimes go fishing, you never saw gulls along the river. There were birds you saw when you went, as we say around here, down the shore. Now they're everywhere. The fast food restaurants have been a boon to them. Even when I lived in Abington, which is nowhere near the river I would see them in shopping mall near my apartment. Of course, I don't live that far the river now, and they regularly patronize the Italian Market. But then, so do crows, which commute from outside the city.
The decline of civilization ...
... or at least civility: A Train Is Not a Bathroom.
Scarier still is seeing this sort of thing done by someone driving along a superhighway.
Scarier still is seeing this sort of thing done by someone driving along a superhighway.
Can't say I agree ...
... Speaking Up For the Fifties. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Rather a misnomer, since the piece blames the '50s - or least the Beats - for the excesses and failings of the '60s. But I lived through both periods. I remember when I was in high school and On the Road came out and guys who had never thought about poetry or any music other than what they heard on Bandstand were suddenly talking about cool jazz, Zen and even Whitman. OK, we were high school kids and what we had to say wasn't deep and was adolescent. But it wasn't phony. There was no talk of literature in the '60s or '70s - and I had a house that was a magnet for hippiedom and the parties to go with it. All the serious intellectual conversation came from people who had arrived at intellectual and artistic maturity in the '50s - who had hung in Philly's coffee houses and been the city's Beats. The author of this piece forgets that Kerouac lamented how his vision of America - and On the Road is just a continuation of Whitman's Open Road - had been completely misunderstood by the hippies. To defend the '50s you don't have to pit the squares against the hipsters. Their rivalry, such as it was, provided a polar tension the '60s utterly lacked.
Let's improvise ...
... Clip Job: Allen Ginsberg on The Dharma Bums. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
“Suddenly came the drenching fall rains, all-night rain, millions of acres of Bo-trees being washed and washed, and in my attic millennial rats wisely sleeping.”
“Suddenly came the drenching fall rains, all-night rain, millions of acres of Bo-trees being washed and washed, and in my attic millennial rats wisely sleeping.”
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Blogging and enlightenment ...
... or, The blogosphere as a practice.
I once was flamed for something I had written that a particular blogging community took umbrage to. I spent the greater part of a day answering irate emails. As I have pointed out here before, such communications for some reason excite no affect in me. So I never answer in kind (I can, after repeated, futile exchanges, grow impatient and simply stop answering). Late that afternoon, the flaming stopped after one the of my emailers pointed out to his colleagues that I had in fact patiently and without rancor responded to everyone, often more than once, and that, while he didn't agree with me, he had to respect that. I wouldn't want to go through that again, but it was an interesting and rather reassuring experience.
Another of us goes ...
... 'Star-Tribune' Will Keep Book Coverage.
Sally Williams very graciously phoned me up after I left The Inquirer and we had a couple of pleasant chats. I am not exactly surprised at this, and I wish her well.
Sally Williams very graciously phoned me up after I left The Inquirer and we had a couple of pleasant chats. I am not exactly surprised at this, and I wish her well.
I'm not sure ...
... More on Certainty; or is it Moron Certainty? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I like uncertainty. Life consists mostly of judgment calls. One of the reasons I agree with Auden about irregular systems of measurement is that such systems implicitly acknowledge that every measurement is approximate. The decimal system offers the illusion of a precision that cannot be achieved. If Pi only approximates to 3.14159, then it follows that the circumference of a circle can only be approximated. The value of knowledge is not that it brings us closer to certainty, but that it protects us from it. The more you know about something or someone, the more mysterious they become. That is why descriptive criticism is better than evaluative criticism. Evaluative criticism is about me, about how I feel about something. Descriptive criticism has a powerful subjective component as well, but it forces you to look at the thing you are undertaking to judge, and the more closely you examine that and try to describe it, the more you are forced to weigh more carefully those feelings you have about it. Those feelings may even start to change.
To read ...
... or not: Mikita Brottman Reluctantly Enters The Reading Debate. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
"One of the great pastimes of the literati, aside from complaining about the Bush administration and attending live tapings of A Prairie Home Companion, is collective hand-wringing about the sad fact that Americans no longer read."
What a wonderful encapsulation of America's bien-pensant class.
Once again, Richard Rodriguez is on the money: ' "I suppose I am," he replies when asked whether he is ambivalent about the value of reading. "But then again, I am ambivalent about many things in life that are also good. Everything comes at a price. To be a good student separates the child from his uneducated parents. That doesn't make education bad. It merely means that education has social consequences, not all of which are easy or pleasant." '
Like Richard, I am ambivalent about a lot of things.
Two final points:
First, the strongest argument against Plato's objection to books and reading is that you have to read a book to get at them.
Second, what is the point of the debate other than that some books are worth reading and others not, that the book you like someone else may not like, and that books are a supplement to living not a substitute for it.
"One of the great pastimes of the literati, aside from complaining about the Bush administration and attending live tapings of A Prairie Home Companion, is collective hand-wringing about the sad fact that Americans no longer read."
What a wonderful encapsulation of America's bien-pensant class.
Once again, Richard Rodriguez is on the money: ' "I suppose I am," he replies when asked whether he is ambivalent about the value of reading. "But then again, I am ambivalent about many things in life that are also good. Everything comes at a price. To be a good student separates the child from his uneducated parents. That doesn't make education bad. It merely means that education has social consequences, not all of which are easy or pleasant." '
Like Richard, I am ambivalent about a lot of things.
Two final points:
First, the strongest argument against Plato's objection to books and reading is that you have to read a book to get at them.
Second, what is the point of the debate other than that some books are worth reading and others not, that the book you like someone else may not like, and that books are a supplement to living not a substitute for it.
The art of gibberish ...
... Inflated phrases.
Wonderful.
Most texts which accompany contemporary art production are so alarmingly twisted and woolly that they could easily pass for self-parody. Clucking hysterically they describe works "which hover on the border between the visible and the invisible", which - in the most wonderful way - "function as a link between geology and biology", which - how could it be anything else - "tackle aesthetic-political questions on cultural difference and the migration of form", which - it goes without saying - "reference the key artistic avant-guards of the 20th and 21st centuries", while naturally "incorporating the key questions of architecture, design, philosophy and science" and representing, in their spirituality, "a realisation of the present".
Wonderful.
Two more from Maxine ...
... who, by the way, has perfected her own form of blog post, for which she deserves much credit, because they can't be that easy to do. So here's A labour of love and expertise and Print 'blogs' given value by The Times.
Thank you, Maxine ...
... Frank Wilson and Nigel Beale.
I have to say I'm surprised at how much favorable comment this is getting. Of course, I can think of some people who might think it was so hot.
I have to say I'm surprised at how much favorable comment this is getting. Of course, I can think of some people who might think it was so hot.
Could it be?
... It's The Society, Stupid.
Meanwhile, over here, we seem to be back to the preposterous notion that the solution to every social problem can be provided by government, whereas in fact virtually none can be, since every increase in government power results in a corresponding decrease in social power.
Meanwhile, over here, we seem to be back to the preposterous notion that the solution to every social problem can be provided by government, whereas in fact virtually none can be, since every increase in government power results in a corresponding decrease in social power.
Landmarks ...
... The 10 Oldest Bars in the United States.
The White Horse Tavern is where Dylan Thomas has the last drinks of his life. The White Horse seems to be the most literary of the bunch.
Bryan comments: Bikers, Bars and Bog Roll.
(Post bumped.)
The White Horse Tavern is where Dylan Thomas has the last drinks of his life. The White Horse seems to be the most literary of the bunch.
Bryan comments: Bikers, Bars and Bog Roll.
(Post bumped.)
Let's begin the day ...
... In Italy with Derek Walcott.
Debbie saw this in her dermatologist's office and was so impressed by it - small wonder - she had me see if I could find a copy online. Love that line, "my hair rhymes with those far crests." I know what he means.
Debbie saw this in her dermatologist's office and was so impressed by it - small wonder - she had me see if I could find a copy online. Love that line, "my hair rhymes with those far crests." I know what he means.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
The least I can do ...
... Interview: Author Lou Ureneck on "Backcast".
I put Lou's book out for review, but the review never got turned in - or hadn't by the time I left. Too bad. By all accounts it's excellent.
I put Lou's book out for review, but the review never got turned in - or hadn't by the time I left. Too bad. By all accounts it's excellent.
On and on ...
... Bryan Appleyard on Becoming immortal. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
This has been adapted from Bryan's book How to Live Forever or Die Trying, which I have read and can heartily recommend.
This has been adapted from Bryan's book How to Live Forever or Die Trying, which I have read and can heartily recommend.
I wonder if this preoccupation with life extension isn't something that appeals principally to the middle-aged. The young already feel they are immortal and perhaps, as one grows older, one finds oneself "half in love with easeful death." There is, to me at least, something unaesthetic about going on and on and on.
Guess I can't blame her ...
... Wendy Cope: 'I don't want to be laureate'. (Hat tip, Dave Lull and Rus Bowden.)
I thought it was a lifetime appointment. Is Andrew Motion the first to give it up without the aid of the Grim Reaper?
I thought it was a lifetime appointment. Is Andrew Motion the first to give it up without the aid of the Grim Reaper?
Three friends ...
... make it onto Wikipedia:
... Harold Boatrite. (Be it noted that yours truly gets a mention in the list of selected works).
... John Davison. (John was one of the most learned and dearest people I have ever known. A lot of goodness left the world at his passing.)
... Temple Painter. (I have never heard anyone play Scarlatti's sonatas better.)
... Harold Boatrite. (Be it noted that yours truly gets a mention in the list of selected works).
... John Davison. (John was one of the most learned and dearest people I have ever known. A lot of goodness left the world at his passing.)
... Temple Painter. (I have never heard anyone play Scarlatti's sonatas better.)
Indeed ...
... Phillip Johnson, Put Down that Kool-Aid! (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I have long thought that the problem with ID theory is its notion of God as some everlasting Edison puttering about in His celestial laboratory.
I can't help thinking that this is a passage from Aquinas that has somehow eluded our evangelical Darwinists:
I have long thought that the problem with ID theory is its notion of God as some everlasting Edison puttering about in His celestial laboratory.
I can't help thinking that this is a passage from Aquinas that has somehow eluded our evangelical Darwinists:
Nature is nothing but the plan of some art, namely a divine one, put into things themselves, by which those things move towards a concrete end: as if the man who builds up a ship could give to the pieces of wood that they could move by themselves to produce the form of the ship. (Commentary on Physics II.8, lecture 14, no. 268; h/t Mariano Artigas)
Haiku ...
That green alley door
Street beneath a cloudless sky
Where am I headed?
Street beneath a cloudless sky
Where am I headed?
Update: Art Durkee posted a most interesting comment, which I have answered in turn. This could prove interesting, especially if others join in.
(Post bumped.)
This is getting interesting.
(Post bumped.)
This is getting interesting.
And so it is ...
... `Everything is Interesting'.
I have found that you can get through almost anything if you try to see what it is interesting about it.
I have found that you can get through almost anything if you try to see what it is interesting about it.
Job's question ...
... Holiday in Hellmouth. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Leon Shestov suggests somewhere - I think in Postestas Clavium - that the God of the Bible could be defined as "Infinite Caprice." There is, at the heart of being and life, something terrifying. Many of us, myself included, think that there is a Personality to be found there as well, from Whom everyone and everything lives and moves and has its being. A few of us, myself included, decline to affirm much in particular about that Personality, while acting on the hunch that the mystery at the center of it all is somehow resolved in love and mercy. The notion that God is there to make sure nothing bad ever happens to us and to kiss our boo-boos strikes me as disgustingly naive. That evil happens, that "God maketh his rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike," in no way argues against God's existence, however much it may confound certain notions of God. It may well be that God does not correspond very exactly to the preaching of prophets, the doctrines of theologians, or the ideas of philosophers. Faith, Cardinal Newman said, means "being capable of bearing doubt." It also means having the courage to face the sheer terror of being with the hope that "all will be well and all manner of thing will be well." Poets do a better job than the philosophers and theologians. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God," the Psalmist warns. Look at the sun, that vast and terrifying sphere of exploding gases. It is the source of all life on our planet, but ultimately unapproachable and not at all inviting, or cute, or cuddly. But Wallace Stevens was on to something with that phrase "as a god might be":
Supple and turbulent, a ring of men
Shall chant in orgy on a summer morn
Their boisterous devotion to the sun,
Not as a god, but as a god might be,
Naked among them, like a savage source.
Supple and turbulent, a ring of men
Shall chant in orgy on a summer morn
Their boisterous devotion to the sun,
Not as a god, but as a god might be,
Naked among them, like a savage source.
A well-nigh perfect ...
... blog post: Hidden Valley.
I mean formally (though I am in agreement with the substance). The writing is lovely, and it is just the right size. (I am preoccupied these days with the notion of blog form.)
I mean formally (though I am in agreement with the substance). The writing is lovely, and it is just the right size. (I am preoccupied these days with the notion of blog form.)
Literary history ...
... Today in Literature reports that in this date in 1964 T.S. Eliot and Groucho Marx finally met.
Monday, June 02, 2008
BookExpo America ...
... All right, I lied. Well, not really. I probably won't blog again until tomorrow, but I did want to link to these pieces by Bob Hoover: BookExpo America: This year's event lacked zip.
... BookExpo America: Rubbing an elbow or two with celebs.
... BookExpo America: Zogby, Friedman offer two views of the future.
... BookExpo America: Rubbing an elbow or two with celebs.
... BookExpo America: Zogby, Friedman offer two views of the future.
Blogging may resume ....
... later tonight, but maybe not until tomorrow. I want to spend some time with Debbie.
But that's the point ...
... isn't it? Blogging and Self-Contradiction.
Not only is "Do I contradict myself, etc." one of my own favorite Whitman quotes, but self-contradiction is one of the values of blogging, and what I think it has in common with the Montaigne method. A Montaigne essay is an attempt to keep track of a train of thought. Such trains of thought are always filled with contradictions. It is by tracking such that we get to know who we are. Emerson was right. A foolish consistency really is the hobgoblin of little minds.
Not only is "Do I contradict myself, etc." one of my own favorite Whitman quotes, but self-contradiction is one of the values of blogging, and what I think it has in common with the Montaigne method. A Montaigne essay is an attempt to keep track of a train of thought. Such trains of thought are always filled with contradictions. It is by tracking such that we get to know who we are. Emerson was right. A foolish consistency really is the hobgoblin of little minds.
The trouble with experts (cont'd.) ...
... When Worlds Collide: The American past meets modern museum doctrine. (Hat tip, Paul Davis.)
"The ancient Americans weren't regular folks. They lived strange, spectacular lives on strange, spectacular continents untrod by man and more remote for them than Mars--or the world of museum curation--is for us. The ancient Americans were tough as hell. They did their share of nasty stuff. But even the Aztec don't deserve to be patronized, demeaned, and insulted by what is--or is supposed to be, or once was--one of the white man's great institutions of learning."
The oleaginous sanctimony is especially repellent.
The oleaginous sanctimony is especially repellent.
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Wonder what the paperback will go for?
... Michelangelo for Readers With Deep Pockets. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Well, sure ...
... Put a Little Science in Your Life. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I'm all for science education. When I was the editor of my college newspaper I wrote an editorial suggesting that the college drop the pro forma, non-lab biology course all arts majors had to take and replace with a two-year course in the history and methods of science, for the simple reason that to be educated means to acquainted with both arts and sciences.
I'm all for science education. When I was the editor of my college newspaper I wrote an editorial suggesting that the college drop the pro forma, non-lab biology course all arts majors had to take and replace with a two-year course in the history and methods of science, for the simple reason that to be educated means to acquainted with both arts and sciences.
But let's also be precise. "The reason science really matters runs deeper still. Science is a way of life. Science is a perspective. Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding in a manner that’s precise, predictive and reliable — a transformation, for those lucky enough to experience it, that is empowering and emotional." We will charitably overlook the use of that ghastly term empowering, but must add that what is being talked about here is knowledge, one form of which is science. Science may be a "process that takes us from confusion to understanding," but it is not the only such process. And scientists would do well to listen to more Debussy, look at look at some Poussins, and read some Wallace Stevens.
In the meantime, take a look at this Astronomy Picture of the Day. Also read carefully what the text says, note the dates, and think about it.
In the meantime, take a look at this Astronomy Picture of the Day. Also read carefully what the text says, note the dates, and think about it.
Hey, another favorite of mine ...
... The first famous New York Knick.
I still remember a couple of very pleasant summer days when I was a kid and read Washington Irving's The Sketch Book.
I still remember a couple of very pleasant summer days when I was a kid and read Washington Irving's The Sketch Book.
Amen, amen ...
... The Blogger’s Lament. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I have been trying to discipline myself to blog for only a certain amount of time every day. It is so easy - and so distracting - for one link to lead to another. I also want to have some time to develop some thoughts of my own - and I have, surprisingly enough, quite a few deadlines to meet. Also, Debbie is in flight from Athens and I figure, if I'm lucky (or maybe if I'm not), I have perhaps two decades left on this plane of being. So I actually want to spend as much time as I can savoring the joys of life. Perhaps the best way to judge the value of what you're doing is to ask whether you are doing it simply because you like it, or love it - and not because it can do anything for you or your bank account.
I have been trying to discipline myself to blog for only a certain amount of time every day. It is so easy - and so distracting - for one link to lead to another. I also want to have some time to develop some thoughts of my own - and I have, surprisingly enough, quite a few deadlines to meet. Also, Debbie is in flight from Athens and I figure, if I'm lucky (or maybe if I'm not), I have perhaps two decades left on this plane of being. So I actually want to spend as much time as I can savoring the joys of life. Perhaps the best way to judge the value of what you're doing is to ask whether you are doing it simply because you like it, or love it - and not because it can do anything for you or your bank account.
The question of ...
... multiple meanings. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Basically, I also agree that the "many meanings" claim can be a cover-up for lack of content or skill. On the other hand, the question of what a poem "means" doesn't usually occur to me. I figure the poem means what it says. If I find it incomprehensible, I move on to something else. I am not into explications. I read the poem, and the first thing I am interested in is whether it sounds good. If it does, I run with it. I may read it again right away if it really grabs me. But I don't try to puzzle out any meaning, because a poem is not an acrostic. One of the things that makes great poems great is that, with each new reading over the years, they reveal more and more of themselves to you. Some of that comes simply from your being more experienced than you were when you first read them. Some from your having read more. Either way, those poems have become life companions.
Nige gets a nod ...
... from Andrew Sullivan for Nigeness: Nige Blogs.
Does Andrew know Nige's true identity, we wonder. If so, will he reveal it? Nige's post this morning, however, is anything but funny.
Does Andrew know Nige's true identity, we wonder. If so, will he reveal it? Nige's post this morning, however, is anything but funny.
Come one, come all ...
... Is there a price to pay for free art?
This, of course, is why I no longer attend blockbuster art shows. I can't bear the crowd decked out in headsets. I prefer to go off and find a painting I like and just look at it for it few minutes. That may be enough. A really good painting - say, Fantin-Latour's Portrait of Sonia - demands as much of your attention as a 20-minute tone poem - if you really engage it. It should provide aesthetic nourishment for the remainder of the day.
Why mow ...
... when your lawn can look like this: Dandelions. (Hat tip, Dave Lull, who writes that "right now my lawn and my neighbors' lawns all look like this.")
The magic of books ...
... The Book Collection That Devoured My Life. (Hat tip, Paul Davis, who writes, "My books are my history. I recall what phase of my life I was in when I bought them, read them, and enjoyed them. They are mementos, much like my photos and maps. I like being surrounded by books. I find them comforting.")
Dave extends his influence ...
... no sooner does Dave Lull append to this post a link to a review of mine from last year, but the same review appears on The Inquirer's online book page: The edges of character.
It surprises me to see that this ran only last July. I did not suspect at the time that I would soon be on the way out the door. My own personal Black Swan.
It surprises me to see that this ran only last July. I did not suspect at the time that I would soon be on the way out the door. My own personal Black Swan.
Today's Inquirer reviews ...
... Madison Smartt Bell reviews Andre Dubus III: Tales of Fla. strip club just days before 9/11.
... David Hiltbrand is not charmed by the latest Donna Leon: Solving the crimes second to soaking up Venetian charm. Leon sounds like she's starting to take herself a tad too seriously - and her job not seriously enough.
... Karen Quiñones Miller reviews Eric Jerome Dickey: Sexy novel, unlikable heroine Urban hospital is full of real-life dramas
... David Hiltbrand is not charmed by the latest Donna Leon: Solving the crimes second to soaking up Venetian charm. Leon sounds like she's starting to take herself a tad too seriously - and her job not seriously enough.
... Karen Quiñones Miller reviews Eric Jerome Dickey: Sexy novel, unlikable heroine Urban hospital is full of real-life dramas
Bryan encounters ...
... Nassim Nicholas Taleb: the prophet of boom and doom. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
In connection with this, though, this is interesting: Europe needs to do some catching up.
In connection with this, though, this is interesting: Europe needs to do some catching up.
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