Properties of Thirst by Marianne Wiggins is a mighty book, in length (544 pages) and in the majesty of the natural world that is its backdrop. The writing is often captivatingly poetic and deeply philosophical. Each of the major characters is sui generis and memorable. The sometimes stream-of-consciousness method giving voice to each of their …
Continue reading Specks of beauty amidst dark period in U.S. history
The Anatomy of Exile by Zeeva Bukai is a riveting novel about an Israeli-born woman, a Sabra named Tamar, married to a Syrian Jew, Salim, who has migrated to Israel. She has been raised with the noble founding values of Israel as an egalitarian society. His experience, however, is that of a Mizrahi, darker-skinned Jews …
Continue reading More than Romeo and Juliet: Israel meets Palestine
Culpability by Bruce Holsinger reminds me of nothing so much as Harvard Law Professor Michael Sandel’s course on justice and making ethical decisions, especially when choosing between two, equally problematic alternatives. Holsinger’s novel is set in the era of artificial intelligence. Attorney Noah Cassidy and his wife, Lorelei Shaw, a prominent leader in the field …
Continue reading A novel look at Moral Responsibility in the world of A.I.
Help me out here. I’m struggling with conflicting messages about Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA and inspirational leader especially to young, college-age conservatives. In our ever-escalating culture of violence, his horrific assassination has become the latest prominent expression of solving political disagreements with the trigger or the blade. What perplexes me is the …
Continue reading Myth building around slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk
Clean by Alia Trabuco Zeran, translated by Sophie Hughes, is a probing novel about class, bias and a crime. The reader is hooked on the first page, told that a child has drowned, under mysterious circumstances. The narrator, sitting in a cell, speaks directly to the reader. The narrator, Estela Garcia, had moved from a …
When I was a child, my mother took me on a "cruise" of the Charles River. What do I remember of it? The closer we got to Boston Harbor, the worse the smell. You could see the luminous blue/green oil slicks on the surface. Your stomach would churn from the sewage routinely dumped from the …
Continue reading Sewer to sparkle: the cleanup of Boston Harbor
The Age of Acquiring: A Portrait of Etta and Claribel Cone by Mary Gabriel is a lush portrait of the burgeoning world of modern art, especially in Paris, in the early 20th century. If you love Paris, if you love Matisse, Degas, Picasso, Cezanne and other giants of the time, and if you have always …
Compliments of Hamilton and Sargent: A Story of Mystery and Tragedy on the Gilded Age Frontier by Maura Jane Farrelly is a perfect book for someone who revels in the process of researching a story, over and above being swept up in the story itself. It is set in the late 19th century, the closing …
After the Last Border by Jessica Goudeau should be required reading for people who fear or loathe strangers coming to the United States to avoid persecution, war and chaos in their home countries. The author tells of two such women, weaving between their alternating stories the history of immigration and refugee resettlement in this country. …
Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford is a quickly unspooling, cinematic mystery set in the fictional city of Cahokia, during the 1920’s. (The real Cahokia had vanished by 1200 C.E., leaving behind only mounds of grass-covered dirt in Illinois, near the meeting of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.) The population of author Spufford’s Cahokia is divided …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 