Feature Titles
Wolf: The Lives of Jack London
Wolf refers not only to London's Alaskan adventure stories but also as an ever-deepening symbol of his life. Wolf implies that London's was a life of ravenous hunger. Wolf also alludes to London's dominant philosophy of life, evolutionary naturalism. It is a life of survival for those who adapt to their environments successfully and a life characterized by the violent struggle of tooth and fang.
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Faceless Killers
I watched him carefully. He was one-handedly texting on an iPhone, with a laptop perched on his knee, one eye on the television. What was he doing? Was he talking to a friend? Playing a game? Hopefully writing an essay for school? Just hanging out with his parents watching a movie? I’d say, “none of the above.” He’d say, “all four in a perfectly harmonized multi-tasking way. Welcome to the Twenty-first Century, dad!”
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The Return of the Dancing Master
In the prologue of Henning Mankell’s The Return of the Dancing Master, I thought I recognized a character from a recent TV movie called 'The Last Hangman', featuring the life and times of Albert Pierrepoint. I was wrong about the character's identity, but the move was a helpful template in disovering one of Mankell's crucial themes: impartial justice.
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Introduction To The Psalms
The title Introduction to the Psalms: A Song from Ancient Israel by Nancy L. deClassié-Walford belies the true value of this volume. The book goes far beyond the standard introductions insofar as the reader senses they are entering a multiplicity of psalm-shaping communities.
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The Truth of These Strange Times
In Adam Fould's novel The Truth About these Strange Times we meet Howard McNamee, an everyman of the heart. On nearly every page lies the contention that heart is at the centre of our humanity. The questions: what is the heart? how do we judge the heart? and how do we repair it? are eloquently approached.
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The Last Dickens
The Last Dickens was a great improvement upon the Poe Shadow; it was more akin to Matthew Pearl's first novel, The Dante Club. Both of these books are extremely well researched and tied to both the text and the tonality of the era in which they are set.
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The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Once I got over the Dickensian style, especially the delicate china doll description of his woman protagonist, Rosa Bud, I was hooked. This sadly foreshortened-by-death novel reveals as much in its superb descriptions, including a humanly depicted dish set, that speaks to the reader, as it does in its plot.
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