Retelling the Past for Today's Young Readers
Long Way Down, by Jason Reynolds, is a highly original novel in verse. It is clever, artful, provocative, and desperately important. Original: The story takes place in a single elevator trip from the eighth floor to the lobby of Will’s … Continued
Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies are not starving someplace, they are starving Somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils. Elizabeth Abbott’s “bittersweet” history of sugar is heavy on bitter, light on sweet. Slavery and exploitation dominate her compelling 400-page … Continued
I had a friend not so long ago who espoused a libertarian point of view. I enjoyed talking with him about politics, debating issues. His outlook was new to me. I learned a lot. Many of his ideas appealed. His … Continued
Susan Cheever’s Drinking in America is a strange book. It is interesting, entertaining, and informative, but it is also a bit odd. Deciding between it and Lender and Martin’s 1987 book of the same title, I opted with Cheever’s for … Continued
The seventieth puzzle in my Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me! crossword puzzle book had me a little stumped. The actress in The Unbearable Lightness of Being? “This shouldn’t be looked at on the job” letters? Popular baijiu brand? I chiseled away … Continued
Uprooted by Albert Marrin breaks many of the “rules” that I have, correctly or not, picked up from other nonfiction writers–or perhaps mostly from my critique group. I have been discouraged from shifting out of the historical narrative to refer … Continued
I read John Rocco’s How We Got to the Moon this summer, 10-12 pages a day until I had read all 250. David McCauley calls it “Nothing short of stunning!” on the cover. He’s right. The book has a lot … Continued
I picked up The Swerve to get closer to the Epicurean ideas of Lucretius. I expected an intellectual history. But Stephen Greenblatt’s book is not that. Or, it is not only that. It tells a very earthy story of how … Continued
Rip Van Winkles from our remembered past, link to an unsure future; prime number of years separating us from what has been and will be. Predictable: no arcane algorithm, just layman’s addition. A city composed of those … Continued
CICADAS Ceding seclusion, They escape their dank caves of seventeen years, Scrape and dig unaided skyward, Seek the shady side of leaf or stick, Stick there upside-down all day, Squeeze achingly, red eyes wide, Discarding nymph’s husk: A sacred … Continued