“I Am That Is!”: Farewell to Brian Jacques, Who Wielded Words So Well

While Mortals Sleep: So Much That Kurt Vonnegut Left Behind For Us

Nothing Wanting in Found Wanting, by Robert Goddard

Found Wanting by Robert Goddard is a fictional thriller revolving around the facts, both disputed and undisputed, of the Russian Revolution and the question of who benefitted from the vast stores of Romanov riches left behind after the…

Spousonomics: Using Economics To Keep Two Together

Unforgettable: Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

I read Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption over the course of a few days. When I wasn’t reading her tremendous account of Louie Zamperini, I was thinking about him and about all he endured. Now…

Jo Shapcott: Living With Cancer as a Companion

“While There is Light We Will Exist”: The Shadow of What We Were, by Luis Sepulveda

The Shadow of What We Were by Luis Sepulveda is exquisite, a deeply-affecting story of old friendships, long-tested loyalties, and undeniable bonds. Set in Chile decades after Pinochet’s…

Heart Beating for Heartstone, by C.J. Sansom

C.J. Sansom’s Heartstone is the fifth in his Tudor-era series starring hunchbacked…

Naguib Mahfouz and his Dreams for Egypt

My thoughts are with the people of Egypt today and to honor them in their struggle for dignity, I will be rereading one of their greatest — and their world’s greatest — voices for dignity, the writer Naguib Mahfouz. The desire for freedom — of action, of…

Shadow Pass: Treading for Truth Under Stalin

Another book using a mixture of fact and fiction to pull me under the thrall of…