Espresso Shots: Wanting, by Claire Jia
Wanting by Claire Jia is an epic tale of friendship, betrayal, adultery, media, and resentment. Continue reading Espresso Shots: Wanting, by Claire Jia
Wanting by Claire Jia is an epic tale of friendship, betrayal, adultery, media, and resentment. Continue reading Espresso Shots: Wanting, by Claire Jia
The Nights are Quiet in Tehran, by Shida Bazyar, begins with the love story of Behsad and Nahid. Over the course of thirty years, the novel follows the lives of the couple and their children. Continue reading Translation Tuesdays: The Nights are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar
Koh has written an engaging personal history of a mundane supermarket staple. Continue reading Espresso Shots: Foreign Fruit: A Personal History of the Orange, by Katie Goh
Perestroika is a powerful fable about the liberating nature of art and the desire for representative democracy. It is dulled by endless monologuing by cardboard characters. Continue reading Espresso Shots: Perestroika: An Eye For an Eye, A Tooth For a Tooth, by João Cerqueira
“Nationalism is power-hunger tempered by self-deception.” Continue reading Commonplace Book: George Orwell on Patriotism and Nationalism
Russia at War by Alexander Werth is a heart-rending epic about the Great Patriotic War, a chronicle of a tragic cataclysm. Continue reading History Fridays: Russia at War, 1941 – 1945: A History, by Alexander Werth
Form follows destruction. Continue reading How to Detonate the Novel: A Rough Guide to the Later Fiction of Louis Armand
Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion is an indispensable volume, an epic about a man and his times. Continue reading Biography Mondays: Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion, by Gareth Stedman Jones
Mater 2-10, by Hwang Sok-yong, chronicles Jino’s sit-in, weaving together Korean history and Jino’s family history into a multi-generational saga. Continue reading Translation Tuesdays: Mater 2-10, by Hwang Sok-yong
Barbie is a quest narrative. Continue reading Critic’s Notebook: Random Thoughts on the Barbie movie