If you enjoy your crime fiction hard boiled and street tough try this one for size. The synopsis is as follows. Maureen Coughlin is in a rut. At twenty-nine, the strong Staten Island native fears she may become a ‘lifer’ at the Narrows, the faux-swank bar where she waits tables five nights a week. Nursing […]
The Devil She Knows Read More »
The ideas of deep thinkers in religion are often at great variance from the average congregational member. Here, John Macquarrie (d.2007, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Macquarrie and http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/world/europe/03macquarrie.html?_r=0), Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford, gives us a superb account of exactly those theories which have been at the frontiers of religious thought in the twentieth century. You may be surprised
Twentieth Century Religious Thought by John Macquarrie Read More »
For the lover of travel writing Patrick Leigh Fermor is iconic, an intriguing blend of romance and mindfulness. He could be Matthew Arnold’s scholar gypsy of the twentieth century. In ravishing prose he recalls adventures walking all over Europe in titles such as A Time of Gifts, Between the Woods and the Water, and Mani:
Patrick Leigh Fermor Read More »
Alfred North Whitehead (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_North_Whitehead) was one of the most brilliant minds of his age. In Adventures of Ideas (1933) he offers the most accessible statement of his conception of ‘process philosophy’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Process_philosophy). In a nutshell this challenges over 2000 years of popular philosophical assumptions. Namely, he rejects those philosophies that value static notions of being over
Adventures of Ideas by Alfred North Whitehead Read More »
The runaway success of last year. Even if you do not read this for its fictional value it might offer protective insight into the sexual fantasies (one must be careful to say) of some women. Overwhelmed by the wealth and sophistication of businessman Christian Grey, ingénue Anastasia Steele is lured into a simpering compliance with
Fifty Shades of Grey Read More »
A noted author of several books as well as articles in such publications as The Washington Post, The New York Times, Newsday, and Vogue, Susan Jacoby (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Jacoby) attempts to set the record straight by demonstrating just what sort of role both individual freethinkers as well as more general movements and groups have had on significant
Freethinkers by Susan Jacoby Read More »
The Scots are a small nation living in the north west corner of the British Isles remote from the traditional centres of power in England and the European continent. Yet miraculously the Scots have contributed an enormous amount to Western culture and civilisation. Their contribution has been quite disproportionate to their population. Eighteenth century Edinburgh was
Capital of the Mind Read More »
Andy Clark (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Clark), Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at Edinburgh argues for the position of the Extended Mind (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Extended_Mind and http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/embodied-cognition/). In its crudest form the contention here is that our minds are not something confined to what’s going on inside our skulls. As Clark says.. “certain forms of human cognizing include inextricable tangles of feedback,
Supersizing the Mind by Andy Clark Read More »
Prolific author Andrew (‘A.N.’) Wilson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._N._Wilson) takes us on a delightful tour of the recent past, the age of Elizabeth II. Starting from the year of the coronation in 1953 Wilson covers such familiar topics as the Suez crisis, Vietnam, The Beatles, Princess Diana, the miners’ strike, the Cold War, the Angry Young Men, the
Our Times by A.N. Wilson Read More »
