It's bedtime for 2023. It has been an ugly year. Ukraine. Hamas'October 7th attack. Bloodshed in Gaza. Wildfires and floods from global warming. House of Representatives chaos and gridlock. Biden's slump in polls. Social media's pollution of young minds. Misinformation. Disinformation. Need I go on? In this posting, I present my traditional list of headlines we could …
Continue reading Headlines you may – or may not – see in 2024
As the nights get shorter and colder, here are some novels to curl up with by the fire, even if you read them on Kindle. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride is a delightful novel set in Pottstown, Pennsylvania in the 1930’s, largely in a section of town called Chicken Hill. It’s …
For decades, a generation of students, often protected by their parents from information and views that might disturb them, arrived on college campuses demanding that administrators continue to protect them from feeling hurt by uncomfortable ideas or stressed by robust discussions of the harsh realities of a complex world. They called out microaggressions and insisted on trigger …
Continue reading Student embrace of Hamas – willfully ignorant and antiSemitic
No matter how heavy the topic of the following books any one of them can be a temporary departure from the world around us, helping us better understand the seeds of today's chaos . Time’s Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust and the Music of Remembrance by Jeremy Eichler, longtime classical music critic of …
Continue reading Books for autumn reading, pt. 2 – non-fiction
Did W. B. Yeats have it right? "Turning and turning in the widening gyre, The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold." Such are one's fears today. The United States government is a two-legged stool. Israel is at war, and I haven't been able to reach either of my two …
Facing 2024 elections, GOP strategists have come to understand the widespread anger spurred by their opposition to letting women control their own bodies. The issue is galvanizing voters, so Republicans want to seek a new name for the pro-life movement. Democrats, if they are wise, won't let them get away with it. A rose by …
Yes, it's past Labor Day, but it's still summer weather. And, while the calendar is getting more cluttered, it's still easy to cling to the image of long walks in the sunshine, leisurely reading and cold soups for dinner. Here are five works of fiction that will give also you pleasure. Tom Lake by Ann …
Going Back to T-Town: The Ernie Fields Territory Big Band by Boston journalist Carmen Fields is a memoir of her father, trombonist, pianist, music arranger and band leader of the Ernie Fields Big Band. The saga covers many of the swing bands and jazz groups that enlivened the American music scene in the middle of …
The Nazi’s Granddaughter: How I Discovered My Grandfather was a War Criminal by Sylvia Foti was the fulfillment of a pledge Foti made to her dying mother to write a memoir of the author’s highly esteemed grandfather, Lithuanian general and national hero Jonas Noreika. Foti grew up in the Lithuanian community of Chicago, sustained by …
Continue reading Autobiography and memoir for intimate summer reading
This week marks the 50th anniversary of hip hop music, and many platforms, including National Public Radio and the New York Times, are celebrating the phenomenon. For those of us immersed in or more comfortable with Beethoven, the Beatles, Mahalia Jackson or Peter, Paul and Mary, the wonderment should not be underestimated. In fact, I …
Continue reading The birth of hip hop, and how it grew and grew and grew
Marjorie Arons-Barron 