Book Reviews
An Archipelago of Grief: Vanished, The Sixty-Year Search for the Missing Men of World War II
The following are quotes from Hylton’s fascinating and riveting mystery of the whereabouts of the WWII bomber and its crew, known as the Big Stoop. We cannot help but compare it to the present search for the Malaysia Boeing 370 that has been missing since the March 8th departure from Kuala Lumpur on a flight to Beijing. The quotes from Vanished are reactions from family members after the B-24 crew are classified as MIAs. more »
The Moral Merits of Reading Fiction ... Not One of Literature's Strong Suits?
According to Stanford Professor Joshua Landy, literature plays on our emotions instead of giving us rational reasons to adopt new beliefs, so we can easily be manipulated by it. Getting people to change their beliefs based on emotions is not an unambiguously positive thing: "When I do it, it's called persuasion. When you do it, it's called rhetoric. When they do it, it's called propaganda."
Does reading literature make you more moral? Scholars speaking at a Center for Ethics in Society event say the answer depends on who's reading.
By Justin Tackett… more »
CultureWatch Review of Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance
Jill Norgren reviews: Miss Anne in Harlem expands our understanding of the Harlem Renaissance. It is a story about female independence, race, and most of all unconventional lives — lives, Carla Kaplan writes, that are by definition the most difficult ones to live — and to judge. The book commands attention because it joins other memoir, biography, and political works that give us insight into the personalities and power. more »
CultureWatch Reviews: Amsterdam, A History of the World's Most Liberal City; The Virgin of Bennington; DVD Tips: Foyle's War & Doc Martin's Return
Russell Shorto’s gifts include a keen eye for individual little stories that add a delicious depth to his writing, and thus to our understanding of times and events in Amsterdam; A History of the World’s Most Liberal City; The Virgin of Bennington becomes a meticulous and admiringly recorded history of Betty Kray’s dedication, imagination, and development of the Academy of American Poets; DVD Tips include a look at Doc Martin's long-waited Season 6 and the beginning of filming for Foyle's War's next season more »