No Country for Love by Yaroslav Trofimov, the Ukrainian-born chief foreign affairs correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, covers Ukraine from 1930-1954 and is based on the real-life experiences of his own grandmother, whom he interviewed right up to the time of her death at 96. What was happening at the time is historically accurate, …
Continue reading Ukrainian novel reveals history of suffering
There’s a new crime boss in town, and he’s the old crime boss with the gloves off. There was plenty of crime in the first Trump administration, but much of it was behind a gauzy veil. It mostly had to do with conflicts of interest. He never divested himself from his businesses and, according to …
Continue reading Government taken over by mafia Don and his consigliere
The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali is a timely read, a coming-of-age story by the author of The Stationery Store, which also draws on her Iranian background. Dedicated “to the brave women of Iran,” it is told in the first person, primarily by its chief protagonist, an Iranian girl named Elaheh or Ellie, …
Continue reading An Iranian novel that resonates politically
The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes is an amazing and accessible book on the history of Russia, the central theme of which traces Russia’s mythologies as a key to the Russian character, leadership and major events. There are lots of maps (ever-changing due to Russia’s thirst for acquiring lands and people near its always-expanding …
Trump world is giving us the "madman theory of foreign policy" and a reign of terror domestically. Around the world, he is fashioning himself as unpredictable and irrational, which comes naturally to him and doesn't have to be "fashioned." Just ask Greenlanders and Panamanians, fearful that he said he'd use force if necessary to take …
January 20, 2025. The sun is shining, but it gives no warmth. The air is frigid, and we’re told that it’s going to be getting much colder. Irrespective of changing seasons, things might be consistently unpleasant for the next 1461 days. Donald Trump today took the oath of office to become the 47th president of …
It was a scorcher of a day in the summer of 1975, more than a year before the presidential election to determine whether Jerry Ford could withstand public contempt for his decision to pardon Richard Nixon and win a four-year term on his own. Foot traffic in Concord, New Hampshire was subdued under the blazing …
Polls show that two thirds of Americans are mentally exhausted and taking a break from a steady diet of news consumption. Count me among them, at least aspirationally. Since the election, mainstream newspapers, cable and network news have bled readers and viewers, most significantly at CNN and MSNBC. I, too, have simply overdosed on national …
Congratulations to our do-little 118th Congress, which, after weeks of inactivity and chaos, has finally passed funding to keep the U.S. government open until March. It's no surprise that only 21 percent of the American people approve of its performance. It was 19 percent in September. I'm surprised its favorability rating is that high! The …
Former Massachusetts Attorney General Francis X. Bellotti is dead at 101. One of my first interviews with him, shown to the left, with my six-year-old son Daniel Arons looking on, was in 1973 at a local political picnic when he was launching a campaign for Attorney General. Between 1958 and 1990, he ran for office …
Continue reading Frank Bellotti: a street fighter with a liberal heart
Marjorie Arons-Barron 