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 …
Story-teller journalist tells his own story
"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 …
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Love – and tenancy – in the golden years
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 …
Courage in the face of fascism: the warnings of history
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 …
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Specks of beauty amidst dark period in U.S. history
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 …
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More than Romeo and Juliet: Israel meets Palestine
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 …
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A novel look at Moral Responsibility in the world of A.I.
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 …
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Myth building around slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk
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 …
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A Novel of Class, Bias, and Crime
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 …
Sewer to sparkle: the cleanup of Boston Harbor
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 …
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Marjorie Arons-Barron 