Pat Conroy (born October 26, 1945, http://www.patconroy.com/) is an American bestselling author who has written several acclaimed novels and memoirs. Two of his novels, The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini, were made into Oscar-nominated films. He is recognized as a leading figure of late-20th century Southern literature (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_literature). In The Prince of Tides […]
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Graham Priest (http://grahampriest.net/) (born 1948) is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center (http://www.gc.cuny.edu/Home), as well as a regular visitor at the University of Melbourne where he was Boyce Gibson Professor of Philosophy and also at St. Andrews University. He was educated at Cambridge and the London School of Economics. His publishing record
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Jeffrey Eugenides (born March 8, 1960, http://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/jeffrey-eugenides#/) is an American novelist and short story writer. He has written numerous short stories and essays, as well as three novels: The Virgin Suicides (1993), Middlesex (2002), and The Marriage Plot (2011). Middlesex received the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in addition to being a finalist for the National
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Neil Oliver (http://www.neiloliver.com/, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Oliver) must be a busy man. The historian, archaeologist and TV presenter has found time to write a novel. Some find his presentation of the past gripping. Others find the declamatory style off-putting. If you are the former you may enjoy his new book Master of Shadows. The summary is as
The author of Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn (http://gillian-flynn.com/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gillian_Flynn#Books) has also written this rural noir thriller which will entertain you. Dark Places (2009) has a summary is as follows. Libby Day was just seven years old when her Satan-worshipping older brother massacred her entire family while she hid in a cupboard. Ever since then she has been
It’s always misguided to say that ‘the book was better than the film’ or vice versa. They are works of art in two different media, each with their own criteria for success and excellence. In the case of The Hours by Michael Cunningham (http://www.michaelcunninghamwriter.com/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Cunningham), no false comparison need be made between the novel and the
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The fact that we have all moved at incredible speed into a ‘digital age’ is news to no-one. Laurence Scott, a critic and lecturer in English at King’s College London, is not so much interested in technology as the humans that use it – particularly our subtle transformation from analogue to digital beings. The author displays a
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Ever wonder what happens to your mortal remains after your spirit has taken the celestial elevator? Journalist and author Mary Roach (http://www.maryroach.net/) offers us this informative and humorous study of the human corpse. Human beings continue to die with alarming frequency: about 6,350 every hour at the last estimate (http://www.ecology.com/birth-death-rates/). That’s an awful lot of solid
Are you paying attention? Attention, according to Jesse Prinz (http://www.subcortex.com/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Prinz), is the key to understanding the phenomenon of consciousness. We don’t know for sure how the crumpled 3 pound gelantinous mass inside the skull produces the magic lantern show which is our waking experience. There are many theories. Synthesizing decades of research, The Conscious Brain advances
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