Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
I read Yaa Gyasi’s first novel, Homegoing, and was impressed and stirred by the emotional punch and the scope of the work, covering many generations and two continents. Transcendent Kingdom is even more emotionally wrenching but much narrower in scope even though the action covers…
Man and His Symbols by Carl G. Jung
The authorship here isn’t quite accurate. Jung provides the introductory essay but his acolytes write the other chapters. However, this didn’t detract from the value of the book. While Jung’s ideas have long percolated up into our cultural soil, I didn’t feel like the soundbite…
An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo
Poet Laureate Joy Harjo has great readings posted on YouTube which is how I first experienced her work. This recent volume is particularly powerful because it is framed as the story of how a people respond to having their land and way of life stolen…
C.P. Cavafy Poems translated by Daniel Mendelsohn
Constantine Cavafy was an Alexandrian Greek poet whose work is steeped in Ancient Greek history. My favorite poem is ‘King Demetrius’ and Cavafy shows how differently a few words can make about what we think of a man’s character. Many other poems about the sea,…
Ulysses Annotated, Notes for James Joyce’s Ulysses by Don Gifford
While contemplating another reading of Ulysses, I longed after this daunting volume, 643 pages containing thousands of notes on the famed novel. I felt that such thoroughness would serve me well when I picked up the book again. Wrong! For some readers I’m sure that…
Ulysses by James Joyce
I first read Ulysses in 2008 and took a class to help me through the experience. It is both a cliche and the truth to say that reading Ulysses changed my life because it exploded my understanding of how to read and therefore how to…
Otherlands, a Journey through Earth’s Extinct Worlds by Thomas Halliday
I hate this type of book. The time machine popularization of science for lay people to go, ‘gee whiz.’ However, Mr. Halliday is a true scientist, a paleobiologist rather a science journalist and also an excellent writer. He takes us back in time from 20,000…
New and Selected Poems 1974-2004 by Carl Dennis
This contains selections from Mr. Dennis’s poetry over forty years. I first came across his work in one of those ‘best of poetry’ collections. I found his prosy, matter of fact style refreshing and illuminating. The poem that caught my eye was ‘The Window in…
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