Controversies in the world of literature and articles on authors and their books.
Last Sunday, October 4, 2020, many pets were ‘blessed’ in churches around the world on what is known as the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. St. Francis is the patron saint of animals (as well as ecology and merchants), and he died on October 4, 1230, in Assisi, Italy. Buried in the crypt with St. Francis is a little-known woman named Giacoma dei Settesoli.
This coming year, whatever book club meetings may look like, people will be discussing The Splendid and The Vile, Erik Larson’s latest narrative nonfiction. The purpose of this post is NOT to talk about The Splendid and The Vile but rather to look at Erik Larson as an author and to review a few of his other books. In a recent interview appearing in the
No, ‘The Bookshelf Detective’ is not the title of a new book. It is a person the New York Times has designated to examine the bookshelves of people while they are being interviewed remotely from home–sometimes on talk shows or news hours or the like. I can only suppose that these ‘detectives’ take still shots and enlarge them enough to see the titles of books
Two views on This Tender Land If you expect “This Tender Land” to live up to expectations set by “Ordinary Grace”, prepare to be disappointed. It lacks the intriguing mystery, the rich character development, the skilful plotting, and the thought-provoking themes of “Grace”. Better to turn to his Cork O’Connor mystery series, which follow a police detective and his family through page-turning crime solving in
Did anyone notice a book that was published in 2019 entitled The Pandemic Century: One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria and Hubris? The book was written by Mark Honigsbaum. Needless to say, it did not make the best seller list or become an instant book club hit. Who knew, right? Honigsbaum is a medical historian and lecturer in journalism at the City University , London.
FACT–The real horseback librarians A group of “book women” on horseback in Hindman, Kentucky, 1940. KENTUCKY LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES They were known as the “book women.” They would saddle up, usually at dawn, to pick their way along snowy hillsides and through muddy creeks with a simple goal: to deliver reading material to Kentucky’s isolated mountain communities. The Pack Horse Library initiative was part of President Franklin
