There are times when I feel utterly incapable of expressing my appreciation and admiration for a particular book. This is the case with Perhaps the Stars, Ada Palmer’s magnificent conclusion to her Terra Ignota Quartet. Please know, dear reader, that even if you read this entire review, and my reviews of the other three Terra Ignota books (Book 1, […]
The loss of a loved one is one of the most devastating events in human life, and this is especially true when the loss is unexpected. Megan Devine discovered this when she witnessed the tragic drowning of her partner in the summer of 2009. In the wake of this traumatic accident, Devine realized that her […]
I chose Madeline Miller’s Circe to cap off my recent exploration of Greek Mythology. It didn’t grip me as strongly as The Song of Achilles, but it had its own witchy charms. It’s a first person account of Circe’s life, starting with her birth into the family of Helios, the Titan sun god. Circe is considered a nymph––not particularly powerful […]
Stephen Fry’s Troy is the third and final book I read in preparation for Ada Palmer’s upcoming finale to her magnificent Terra Ignota series. This last stop in my self-education about the Trojan War is by far the most comprehensive source I’ve consulted, but also the least enjoyable. Fry’s obvious wit and passion for Greek Mythology notwithstanding, Troy felt more like […]
Homer’s The Iliad plays a critical role in Ada Palmer‘s amazing Terra Ignota series, so while I wait for the last book to come out I thought it might be fun to familiarize myself with some of her source material. Knowing only the bare basics of Greek history and mythology, I found this a strange but engaging journey […]
Greetings, dear friends of the present and curious citizens of the future. When I got vaccinated back in the spring, I thought I was done with the COVID-19 pandemic, at least personally. Well, as it turns out, the pandemic wasn’t done with me! The vaccines, we were told, were our ticket out of the months […]
Anyone who turns their attention to the world of modern psychotherapy will quickly start finding references to Gabor Maté all over the place. He has made a special contribution to how mental health professionals approach trauma, addiction, and––as his book Scattered Minds demonstrates––attention deficit disorder (ADD). Like many others before me, I was excited to explore Maté’s […]
Lots of writers use science fiction as an imaginary playground for suggesting ways that artificial intelligence might reshape human experience and civilization. Few, however, are ambitious enough to devote an entire novel to exploring the internal, conscious perspective of an AI living in a human-dominated world. For this alone, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun deserves our […]
I belong to the tiny fraction of science fiction enthusiasts who didn’t read Andy Weir’s phenomenally-successful breakout novel, The Martian. For whatever reason, it just didn’t appeal to me, although I enjoyed the film adaptation. But when my wife, friends, and favorite podcasters started gushing about Project Hail Mary, I decided it was time to send myself rocketing into Weir’s geeky […]
Consolations are words, strung together utterances, that explore experience but allow the essential mystery of existence to remain hidden. They come to us, through air, through ink, offering an embrace just comforting enough to help us bear the painful and frightful realization that we are alone, so starkly alone, that the words dancing through our […]