Jan. 6 and the Ancient Greek Poet Simonides
Proving that poetry is the path to eternity, we have here a large book on Simonides. While most of the leaders and military generals of that long ago time when…
Building Democracy
The built environment is something we often take for granted. For example, if you were born in London anytime in the last century, the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace…
Diderot: Prose of the World
This book could have been subtitled The Many Faces of Diderot. Like the 1957 film Man of a Thousand Faces, even the world expert on Diderot, who authored this, can’t…
The Story of Undersea Cables
In lively prose that transforms an otherwise dull subject into an exciting adventure story, Dr Bruce Hunt of the University of Texas in Austin has written a book on how…
British Literature in 1,165 pages
There are several landmarks in the study of British/English literature. The latest of these is a 3-volume set published by Cambridge University Press. Covering the period 1557-1714 in an expansive…
Edgar Allan Poe and Science
The title of this book is very provocative; one must read the subtitle to realise it is actually about America’s great poet Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). More than just a…
Stand-Up Comedy in Ancient Rome
To quote playwright Alan Bennett: “If not quite a platform, a play is certainly a plinth, a small eminence from which to address the world, hold forth about one’s concerns…
Bloom’s Last Book
I do not think Harold Bloom believed in immortality, only long life (he died at age 89 in 2019). What he called poetic immortality was merely extreme longevity, for even…
Mary Oliver and Nature
Review written by Conlan Salgado This is not the age of poetry, nor of great personalities. No one really knows at all what this is the age of, but I…
TAYLOR and CLIFT
Review by Dr. M. Emanuele The book Elizabeth and Monty by Charles Casillo is an enlightening glimpse of the intertwined lives of the movie icons Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift.…