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Book Reviews

SOMETIMES A BOOK IS LIFE, NOT ART

T. K. touches the searing, life-or-death buttons of life. Would you, dear writer, dare to do the same?

Vladimir Nabokov’s PNIN

On vacation, I always try to fill a hole in my literary knowledge by bringing along a book I aspired to read. This time it was Nabokov and Alice and Wonderland. The only Nabokov I had was a yellowed, or rather browned, version of a book I’d never heard of, Pnin, 1957 edition. The coverContinue reading “Vladimir Nabokov’s PNIN”

HOW NOT TO KILL YOURSELF, by Clancy Martin

A definitive, comprehensive, ultimately optimistic investigation into the suicidal mind.

How To Write A Family Memoir

Anyone interested in writing a family memoir would be well advised to follow Cherington’s progress in writing the book, as she allows the reader to do.

BOOK REVIEW: Augusta, by Celia Ryker

A rags-to-relative-comfort story with a fairytale ending.

AN ADDRESS IN AMSTERDAM

This book all about being human, with all the danger, passion, energy, beauty, and danger that entails.

THE SENSITIVE ONE

As I looked at Morris sitting next to me recently, I wondered how she had survived…but after reading her book, I now know.

HOW TO MAKE A LIFE

This saga contains fodder aplenty for the mind to chew on…or maybe you’d just like to read it as a heckuva a good story.

THE DEATH OF A PEOPLE’S DREAM: Two remarkable books, Black Elk Speaks and Born in Tibet

These are cautionary tales in that they suggest that we should “awake, awake, take heed,” as the Buddhist evening mantra goes, and confront the destruction before it swells to flood stage. Failing that, these stories are also an affirmation that all is never lost. There is gold to be woven from the dross of persecution; we’ve seen it over and over again. Look inward to find it.