A simple description of Tara Westover’s “Educated” would be that is a memoir of a childhood and young adult years in a fundamentalist Mormon
Tag: Books
The Warmth of Other Suns plus “Lift Every Voice” concert: A powerful combination
My experience recently at the “Lift Every Voice” concert at Powell Symphony Hall in St. Louis was much different than it would have
Sharyl Attkisson book measures Obama and U.S. against a false standard
In a recent Occasional Planet post, Susan Cunningham writes: “We can blame the NRA all we want, but the enemy, as Pogo said, is
America loves war
I am reading James Risen’s latest book on how the military-industrial complex has morphed into the military-homeland security-intelligence complex. Risen is a New York
Absolutism in political novels and in political reality: The Iron Heel
One of my favorite essays of all time comes from old-school conservative writer Whitaker Chambers. In the late 1950s he reviewed Ayn Rand’s thousand-page
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Poverty & powerlessness, up close and personal
I’ve just read–two years after everyone else–Katherine Boo’s powerful book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers. It won the 2012 National Book Award, and a blurb
A Sliver of Light: Hiker hostages tell their story in an amazing new book
I’d almost forgotten about the three friends who, while hiking in Kurdistan in 2009, were lured across the Iraq/Iran border and then held prisoner
Read me another: Children’s literature for politicians
Recently the American people were treated to a moment of sweet absurdity on the floor of the United States Senate. You know what I’m
Kingsolver’s new novel, Flight Behavior , delivers a powerful sermon on climate change
I’ve been listening to Barbara Kingsolver read her new novel, Flight Behavior, on my car CD player, and I have to wonder what the