reviews

All the things I don't like about you... Author:  Kristin Dombek I first encountered the idea in a Chuck Klosterman essay, when he commented that he’d never met anyone “with the ‘correct’ level of self-esteem”.  My thoughts frequent came back to this theme while reading The Selfishness of Others, an extended essay by another cultural journalist, Kristin Dombek. Largely as a result of the complexities of human nature, we’ve probably all had our moments of narcissism.  Although, making that comment probably makes me a narcissist.  It’s seems that a certain kind of circular logic attracted Dombek to the topic.   If [...]

What’s In a Name Author: Louise Penny Armand Gamache and his dedicated wife are taking a holiday from the Sutre, from the blight of the Arnot case, the hostilities of buried human emotions, and the complexities of shattered love and brutal murders. Instead, they are returning to a yearly haven, the Manoir Bellechasse, isolated yet still not too far from Three Pines, the inn where each year they celebrate their wedding anniversary and each other. Only this year, something dark and brooding follows them, and the ghosts of family feuds and parental failures continue to haunt Gamache as he comes [...]

Land of the free, home of the brave... Author:  Erica Armstrong Dunbar American history has no shortage of heroes.  But sometimes the brightness of the light focused on the most acclaimed individuals blinds us to the amazing accomplishments of other heroes in their orbit.  So it was with a young woman named Ona Judge, who with one quiet act provoked the first president of the United States.   Historian Erica Armstrong Dunbar tells her story of courage and strength in Never Caught. President Washington and his family. Having been enslaved her entire life, Judge was Martha Washington’s chief attendant [...]