To fully comprehend that the roots of the human soul extend all the way to hell, as Jung implied, is to grasp the essence of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. This seemingly mundane tale, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, recounts a single day in the life of Ivan...
I have some exciting news to share. Last week, after a little over two years I posted my 100th blogpost! This milestone is worth celebrating since it is a testament to how far I have come as a blogger and more importantly as a writer. When I first launched my author...
As a writer I have learned to observe people and study their behavior very closely. In so doing I have been training myself to pick up on the subtle traits and idiosyncracies of people’s unique personalities. I then use these insights as to help me to develop...
This was my third Murakami book (after Kafka on the Shore and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running), and I found it to be quite a departure from the dream-like fantasy and World War II themes for which he is renowned. South of the Border, West of the Sun is...
The Gulag Archipelago is without a doubt the heaviest book I have ever read in my life. It took enormous mental fortitude and discipline for me to perservere to the end. This was in no way due to any fault of the author, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who deserves full...
In today’s blogpost I want to talk about the voice of indigenous peoples in the historical record. As you can imagine, history books are by and large witten from the perspective of the dominant social group or power. In the case of the Americas, and specfically...
With the last frosts of Winter slowly giving way to the warm, dewy optimism of Spring in Europe, I find myself pre-occupied with many divergent thoughts. Beyond what is transpiring on a geopolitical scale in Ukraine and the seeming fading of the Covid pandemic, I am...
This week’s blogpost comes from Berlin, my favorite city in Europe, where I’ve spent the past four days unwinding by meeting friends and soaking up the artistic sights and sounds of the city. This short holiday was much needed to rekindle the embers of my...
I found Road to Wigan Pier quite a difficult book to read. I started and stopped several times, but in the end managed to persevere to the finish. Although George Orwell is a widely acclaimed fiction author, this particular non-fiction work from him felt bland and...
“I’m black and I’m proud: yet I suppose that the most accurate term, now, for this history, this particular and peculiar danger, as well as for all persons produced out of it and struggling in it, is: Afro American. Which is but a wedding, however, of two...
