“The difference between a flower and a weed is a judgment.” Unknown Imagine yourself as a beautiful orange and black Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), fluttering around the North American continent east of the Rocky Mountains. Come autumn, you embark on an incredible journey, traversing up to 3000 miles to the mountains of Mexico where, for … Continue reading Milkweed and Monarchs
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
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
It is difficult to resist the siren song of Paris when I am so close to its attractions. I find myself with a three hour layover between my arrival from Auxerre, and my departure for Germany. Traveling on the Metro to the Gare de L’Est entails two changes, and already I begin to feel immersed … Continue reading Paris, but not Quite
Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote loomed on my literary horizon for over 30 years, ever since I enjoyed a portion of a German translation as a teenager. Still venerated as one of the masterpieces of world literature, Cervantes (1547-1616) published part one in 1605, but required the impetus of a fake sequel by another writer … Continue reading Back to La Mancha-Some Thoughts
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