reviews

A Different Kind of Beauty, a Swashbuckling Kind of Beast Author: Edmond Rostand Famous for its tragic romance and the mismatch of ugly faces with beautiful hearts, Cyrano de Bergerac is more than a comedy of love-sick errors and far more than a moral lesson. Expecting a heart-rending “here is the fallacy of visual love” twist combined with the requisite repentance of the shallow and the finding of true love, Cyrano gave me (and his fictional compatriots) more than we bargained for.  Brash and dashingly warrioristic, Cyrano is a fierce character ready to do battle in flippant style. Life is as nothing to him, [...]

God, Young Love, and Beaches Author: Ray Blackston Listening to Ray Blackston’s Flabbergasted while the warm summer air flowed through the car windows, both me and the hubby freshly back from our glorious beach honeymoon, was the best possible way to be introduced to a funny, refreshing, and upbeat series. It all starts with Jay Jarvis, a 20-something stockbroker (ok, it’s fiction), who’s moved east and is consequentially looking for love. Thanks to a tip from his real-estate agent, Jay randomly starts attending a nearby Presbyterian church as a way to meet local girls. What he truly isn’t prepared for is a [...]

Colorful childhood... Author:  Trevor Noah We all have them; childhood stories are a dime a dozen.  Usually, only the most indulgent of family or friends are likely to be willing to put up with any sort of recounting of them.  But that’s not true for stand-up comic and Daily Show host Trevor Noah.  His upbringing during the final days of South African apartheid was anything but typical.  Born of mixed race, he didn’t really fit in anywhere.  Neither black (like his mother), nor white (like his father), nor colored (like his skin suggested) he was a misfit from the day [...]