I had my first encounter with the eloquent writing of Geraldine Brooks in her novel Year of Wonders (2001), about the 1666 outbreak of bubonic plague in Eyam, an English village. It brings the horrors of the epidemic alive through the eyes of the maid Anna whose life is derailed in unforeseen ways. She evolves … Continue reading Geraldine Brooks: Some Thoughts on her Books
Until recently Stuttgart was virtually a blank page for me. Even though my parents and I visited relatives in its suburbs throughout the years, these social calls were usually in connection with birthdays, or my cousins’ confirmations, and did not entail sightseeing. So it was with fresh eyes that I encountered Baden-Württemberg’s capital during my … Continue reading A Charming Capital along the Neckar River
Imagine a vast mountain valley at an elevation of 8,700 feet. High hills draped with pine and aspen trees line its southern and western borders, the ridges and rugged peaks of the Continental Divide dominate the eastern horizon, and to the north lies the wide expanse of Colorado’s Middle Park. In this picturesque location in … Continue reading Nordic Paradise
It is a stroke of good fortune that my father’s residence is located a mere 3 miles from one of Germany’s 30 so-called “hotspots of natural variety”, islands of re-naturalized habitat wrested from the surrounding agricultural and industrial landscape. They are living proof that nature, given the opportunity, will reclaim its own. Since the regional … Continue reading Birding in Germany
It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the ever-growing canon of literature. Like many readers, I whittle away at the “classics”, and I am (very) slowly making progress (see my review of Don Quixote), but I also want to keep up with more recent publications. To familiarize myself with “good” American writing, I opted to … Continue reading My 2016 Pulitzer Reading List
tanja britton 