Two weeks ago, I had knee replacement surgery, so my posting will be limited through the rest of the month. Here's a great big book to hold you over in the interim. Meanwhile, happy holidays - yes, all of them.....Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, New Year's, etc. See you in 2026! The Sisters, by Swedish writer Jonas …
Continue reading Swedish writer delivers an epic autobiographical novel
The Granddaughter is a pretty straightforward novel by German writer Bernhard Schlink, translated by Charlotte Collins. The time is contemporary Germany, and Berlin book store owner Kaspar comes home to find wife Birgit dead in the bathtub, apparently by drowning. They had met in the early 60’s, in a divided country. They had fallen in …
During my tenure at WCVB-TV, Channel 5, I would write an annual Thanksgiving week editorial railing at all the turkeys in our lives. Favorite targets were members of the legislature who......., drivers who........, people in lines at the store who........., teenagers who............, television advertisers who............ The presentation was dramatically enhanced by the station's super-talented Creative …
1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History – and How it Shattered a Nation by Andrew Ross Sorkin is a spellbinding deep dive into the irrational exuberance of the Roaring Twenties, the amassing of wealth and wild stock market speculations that eventually blew out the fortunes of Wall St. insiders as well as …
Remembering & forgetting: a memoir and other pieces of my life by Miriam Spiegel Raskin is a short but impactful book by a woman who, in 1939, at the age of eight, fled Germany with her parents, Julius and Fannie Spiegel, in the wake of Kristallnacht. Most of the rest of her family did not …
A post-election newsletter from a member of Congress proclaimed “Blue Wave.” Other commentators had similar expressions of euphoria. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Yes, the world felt a lot better on Wednesday. Robust turnouts in a variety of races across the country and double-digit margins for Democrats of different ideological stripes were the …
An Education: How I changed My mind about Schools and Almost Everything Else is an eye-opening and deeply personal memoir, intricately wound up with the story of how our nation has been swept up with and jerked around by changing approaches to education. It's not often that a highly visible scholar or public official admits …
"Chasing Hope: A Reporter's Life" by NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof is a large but rich memoir of an extraordinary career in journalism. Perhaps you remember Kristof’s coverage of the slaughter in Darfur, the bloody civil war and mass starvation in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) or the massacre in Hama during the …
Continue reading Story-teller journalist tells his own story
Imagine this happening to you. You’re a widow “of a certain age.” After years of being single again, you meet a compatible widower and find love. You date for a long time and seem perfect for each other. You move into his place, and you live together for 11 years. All goes well until, late …
The Sisterhood of Ravensbrück by Lynne Olsen is an extraordinary telling of a little-told Nazi horror story, barely hinted at by the subtitle, “How an Intrepid Band of Frenchwomen Resisted the Nazis in Hitler's All-Female Concentration Camp.” This goes beyond any book you’ve read or movie you have seen. The S.S.-run Ravensbruck hard labor camp …
Continue reading Courage in the face of fascism: the warnings of history
Marjorie Arons-Barron 