Achilles and the Black Cloud of Grief
In this book on the futility of longing for the dead, Professor Emily Austin of the University of Chicago explores the reaction of Achilles to the loss of his compatriot…
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…
Unexpected Joy
The musical dramady Unexpected Joy, currently playing at Ground Floor Theatre in Austin, is a delightful but flawed exploration of lesbian activism, fractured family and religious fundamentalism. “The entire creative…
An Actor’s Fraught Relationship with Christmas
“What is it about Christmas lights that brings your heart to life?” Bernadette Nason poses this rhetorical question in her one-woman play, Stealing Baby Jesus. The question arises in the…
12 Dates of Christmas
The 12 days of Christmas become transformed in this one-woman monologue into The 12 Dates of Christmas. Mary, played by Lara Toner Haddock, makes a hash of the twin holidays…
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…