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Author Archives: lfpbe
A Review of Lesley Hazleton’s After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam
I’ve been interested in the ancient and medieval Middle East for a long time – since I was a teenager, really, but this current flurry of reading on the subject dates back to my reading of The House of Wisdom … Continue reading
A Review of Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars
Two of my tutoring clients were assigned this book for summer reading, so of course it ended up on my reading list as well. If you’ve been reading this blog for some time, you may have noticed that I have … Continue reading
A Review of Larry Watson’s Justice
I loved this book – probably more than any other book I’ve read this year. This is one of those collections of linked stories that masquerade as a novel. I actually like it better when I think of its chapters as … Continue reading
Yarn Along
I haven’t made too much progress on my Game of Thrones cowl since last week, but I’m still enjoying it. I’m about 30 pages into The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter and am enjoying it, but I’m a little annoyed … Continue reading
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Thoughts on the Silliness of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors and the Pleasures of Seeing It Anyway
Back in grad school I was part of a short-lived Shakespeare reading group. Four or five of us met on weekend mornings to read all or part of a Shakespeare play. We started working through the plays in alphabetical order, … Continue reading
Why Don’t I Know More About Italy? – And Other Thoughts (Actually Not That Many Other Thoughts) on Umberto Eco’s Numero Zero
When I was preparing to write this review, I realized that I needed a really good metaphor to describe what it feels like to read a work of social satire from a culture one doesn’t know well. The closest I … Continue reading
Yarn Along
When I started this project, I called it my Game of Thrones cowl, partly because I was watching Game of Thrones while I worked on it but mostly because of the storminess of its color scheme. It’s exactly the color … Continue reading
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A Review of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Beautiful Struggle
Earlier this year I reviewed Ta-Nehisi Coates’ new and highly-praised memoir Between the World and Me, and you can read my review of that book here. The Beautiful Struggle, published in 2008, is just as good. I read it in … Continue reading
Thoughts on Larry Watson’s Laura
Recently I learned that Larry Watson has written other books besides Montana 1948. I’m not sure why this surprised me, except perhaps is that when an author emerges, publishes one book, and then disappears, that one book is often something … Continue reading
Thoughts on Jack Thorne’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Believe it or not, this review contains few true “spoilers.” I do provide many details from the play, and if you’re a purist who doesn’t want to know ANYTHING about the play before you read it, you should stay away … Continue reading
Postcards From Purgatory 