

Literature and Poetry
Culture Watch: Book Review of Did You Ever Have a Family
The precipitating event of the lives intertwined like threads in primitive needlework is the tragedy on their wedding eve of a fatal explosion that destroys the young couple, sons and a lover. The bereavements leave behind survivors who are forever changed. Even the landscape where the exploded house once stood is forever wiped out. Each chapter is told from the point of view of one of the individuals whose existence has been altered beyond their own and others’ comprehension. more »
Jo Freeman's Republican Convention Diary: Cleveland’s Other Gatherings
"Political conventions attract strange bedfellows. Over the weekend preceding the Republican Convention, two other conventions met to talk about issues that were almost polar opposites to those of the Republicans. Both were held in black Baptist churches. The traditional Sunday protest march was small and peaceful."
more »
CultureWatch: Joan L. Cannon Reviews The North Water, "a brilliant book ... but ..."
Joan L. Cannon writes: For readers who like adventure and macho behavior, subdued heroism with a dollop of basic cynicism, this will be a memorable experience. Descriptions are nothing short of brilliant, so vivid and evocative are they. For others who prefer some entertainment with a slice of terrible life, The North Water will be a trial in spite of its artistry. more »
Scout Report: Civil War & Reconstruction, Climate Change, Defense & Security; Buddhism, Fiction; James Madison; Accounting Principles
The US Congress established the James Madison Memorial Foundation to teach the constitution in high schools across the country. In exchange for graduate school funding, students agree to teach history and civics a year after graduation. Discovery Education examines Upton Sinclair's muckraking novel, The Jungle. A Civil War course taught by Prof of American History and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center Yale University, traces the Civil War from its antecedents to its effects in the late 1870s. The Buddhism course uses scriptural and informational readings to take readers into the complex matrix of art, devotional acts, and literary works that make up the ancient religion. more »