reviews

Knowledge and Silence... Author:  Rebecca Solnit It doesn’t stand out much, just an unremarkable storefront on Main Street.  I happened upon the accompanying historical marker as I was enjoying an ice cream cone last summer while wandering around the tiny town of Dayton, Wyoming, located just east of the Bighorn Mountains.  But despite the humble trappings, the building was home to an extraordinary resident.   A schoolteacher and single mother of two who raised her family on her own following the death of her husband, Susan Wissler was elected mayor of Dayton in 1911, by a vote of 31-22, becoming the [...]

 A somber staple... Author:  Thomas Larson Even if you’re not a music expert, you can probably recognize the piece after hearing just the first two or three notes.  But even though it’s undoubtedly one of the most famous pieces of classical music ever penned by an American, most of Samuel Barber’s fellow citizens would be hard pressed to name it.  Consistently used at times of national mourning from FDR’s funeral to the aftermath of the 9/11 bombings, Barber’s Adagio for Strings has a convoluted and curious backstory that is thoughtfully and  harmoniously presented in The Saddest Music Ever Written. For [...]

Family Secrets... Author:  Nina Bunjevac No matter how tragic the war, no matter how many millions perish, there will always be those who try to take advantage of the disaster and seize power.  They will attempt to rise victorious from the rubble, often perpetuating the cycle of violence endlessly.  So it was on the Balkan Peninsula during World War II when various ethnic and political groups battled to gain control in the turmoil created by the occupying and resistance forces.  In what was then known as Yugoslavia, the conflict was particularly intense – with communists fighting royalists, Croats killing Serbs [...]