Continental Drift by Russell Banks doesn’t show up at yard sales too much. It’s a book people hold onto. Don’t tell anyone I said this, but it’s definitely worth buying at a bookstore. In fiction classes I learned that the goal of fiction was to make the reader hear, taste, […]

What a great find for a quarter! King Philip’s War: America’s Forgotten Conflict by Eric B. Schultz and Michael J. Tougias. I have been deeply engaged in this book because there is so much here to ruminate upon, so much that could be applied to other conflicts around the world. […]

Excuse me, but I have to crow about a tag sale find. I picked up a copy of The Girl from Peyton Place by George Metalious, with somebody or other. Normally you have to view with some skepticism what an ex-husband says, but I believe this book is completely on […]

This blog is supposed to be about great reads for a quarter, and I keep cluttering it up with stuff about my life, which has actually become rather interesting lately, but I have to come up with a bunch of really great reads that you can find at almost any […]

I had a great blog planned about Euripides, but that can keep. The big news is about the Young At Heart Chorus, directed by Bob Cilman, which is famous in Europe because of their tours there, but not as famous in the US… yet! Turns out the Birtish-made documentary about […]

The best opening lines of any novel ever written? I would offer the opening lines of The Satytricon by Petronius, the only Roman novel that ever existed, of which we have only fragments. But we have the opening: A drunkard who is reeling up and down the street decides to […]

I usually write about books, but there’s a vinyl album/ audiotape that has given me lots more enjoyment than any novel by Flaubert, and that would be “Luxury Liner” by Emmylou Harris and the Hot Band. This weekend I found a mint condition copy of this LP and it had […]

Blogging is great fun when you’re “on” and not as much fun when you’re “off.” One thing that gets me back “on” when I’m “off” is reader feedback. At my high school reunion I was talking to a very close buddy whom I hardly ever see, and I usually don’t […]

William Dean Howells, Mark Twain’s mentor and friend, once observed that to be a novelist or a poet requires a certain level of talent, but to be a historian reguires only leisure and means. He’s so right. It’s great to read the works of historians, but remember, they’re people and […]

I don’t go to bookstores much, and that is as it should be. I went to a bookstore the other day to find some challenging sudoku books and I wound up browsing through the history section and I came upon a book about the Battle of Trenton. Naturally I looked […]