Review by Brian Tanguay Refugees are once again in the news and on our screens. Millions of Ukranians have fled their homes to escape Russia’s unprovoked attack, taking whatever possessions…
Category: Fresh Looks
Angela Davis: An Autobiography
Review by Brian Tanguay The cover photograph for the third edition of Angela Davis: An Autobiography, published in 2021 by Haymarket Books, was taken in November 1969 by an unnamed…
We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies by Tsering Yangzom Lama
Review by Brian Tanguay The Dalai Lama is the most recognizable figure of the Tibetan diaspora, but the focus of Tsering Yangzom Lama’s debut novel, We Measure the Earth with…
Free The Press: The Death of American Journalism and How to Revive It by Brian J. Karem
Review by Brian Tanguay In his 1985 book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman sounded a warning about media ownership and the danger to the public when it’s fed a…
To Govern the Globe: World Orders & Catastrophic Change by Alfred W. McCoy
Review by Brian Tanguay What factors contribute to the rise and fall of empires, and what characteristics distinguish an empire from a world order? In To Govern the Globe, American…
The Last Gift by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Review by Walter Cummins Although The Last Gift (2011) is not 2021 Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah’s most acclaimed novel—the Booker Prize short-listed Paradise is—it illustrates his many strengths as…
The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes by Janet Malcolm
Review by David Starkey Janet Malcolm, who died on June 16, 2021, typically referred to herself as a journalist. While that’s certainly an honorable occupation—and working for The New Yorker,she…
The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrim’s Progress by Mark Twain
A Fresh Look by Paul Willis Unlike many of my friends in Santa Barbara, I have never been to Europe. So, when I recently received an invitation to teach a…