Exploring new regions: the Balkans & North Africa

In 2021, I explored two regions of the world that I knew little about—the Balkans and North Africa—and came away with a deeper knowledge of the ‘barbarians’ and an even deeper appreciation of the Allies’ victory in WWII. We take far too much for granted in our Western...

A memoir, 4 novels & a medley

Talk about being behind! This was the original intro to this blog: Every year, I make a list of books I’d like to see under the Christmas tree. Every year, I am delighted to tear off the wrapping and find just what I asked for. Like Christmas, the delight never fades,...

Cometh the hour, cometh the man*

What a man and a book to match—Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts, 982 pages of reading pleasure about this giant of the 20th century! I always knew Winston Churchill was admirable, indomitable, optimistic, but I did not know the obstacles in his way...

Another tedious novel

Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak I read the review in TLS—a magazine that, while dominated by lefties as all literary, academic and cultural outlets are today, publishes some detailed and thought-provoking reviews not drowning in the progressive point of view—so...

Four good books

When I am beset with anguish and worry about our Western civilization being gored, maybe fatally, by the leftist cant of equality, I console myself with Plato’s (424-347 BC) lament: “What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey...

Picking diamonds from a sea of rhinestones

I love rhinestones in fashion because they add sparkle to a day suit and glamour to an evening on the town. But in fiction, only diamonds will do, with a story that absorbs me during its reading and continues to intrigue long after the reading is done. Intrigue me to...