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Books for Opera Buffs
Source: thomas-merton, Flickr. Chicago Lyric Opera recently announced its next season, and while only subscriptions are currently on sale (tickets for individual performances become available in July),...
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Have Some Fun With Science Fiction Action!
Source: maleny_steve, Flickr. Sometimes I get tired of reading serious books on serious themes and need to cleanse my reading palate. These science fictions novels are good for when you don't want to...
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Love and War: Novels of World War II
Source: statelibraryofvictoria_college, Flickr. Nothing in the 20th century seems to capture the imagination quite like the Second World War. Lots of books have been written by and about men, but there...
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Art and Power
Source: icantcu, Flickr. Samuel Goldwyn, the movie studio head, told his writers: "If you want to send a message, call Western Union." What he meant was that he was not interested in scripts that...
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Meet Samuel Beckett, Master of the Absurd
Source: lwr, Flickr. I have just finished reading the delightful A Country Road, A Tree by Jo Baker. This is the new fictional account of the writer Samuel Beckett's sojourn through WWII. Knowing he...
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Funny Tough Guys
Source: craigwalkowicz, Flickr Novels about crime can be gripping, but there's nothing saying that they can't be funny, too. Throw in the unique stylistic touches of the varied authors below, and...
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Tudor Queens
Waxworks of Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, and Jane Seymour at Warwick Castle. Source: by_the_bay_gal, Flickr. As Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her birthday last weekend, it might be fun to take a...
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Noir in Space
Source: ogre64, Flickr Science fiction is a big genre, with room for just about everyone. Today, I'd like to focus on modern noir set in orbit, whether around Earth or someplace else. The title of...
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Murder Among the Ruins: Ancient Roman Mysteries
Casket from the Roman necropolis. Source: 69716881, Flickr. For fans of historical novels, the ancient Romans are an entertaining bunch. If you like mysteries as well, there are definitely authors who...
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The How and the Why: Stanley Fish
Source: thefishbowl, Flickr. I like to think of myself as a rather well-read person, but I had not heard of Stanley Fish until I picked up his latest book. Turns out, he's a bit of a polymath and Dean...
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Neo-Southern Gothic
Source: lwr, Flickr. While the term "Southern Gothic" may bring to mind Carson McCullers and Flannery O'Connor, there are writers working now that are of close if not equal quality. What is Southern...
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…So Close to the United States
Source: auntiep, Flickr. While Pancho Villa lamented Mexico's proximity to the United States in relation to its distance from the Almighty, those of us in El Norte can rejoice as we have these books,...
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Another Opening, Another Show…
Source: raindog, Flickr. Shakespeare-in-the-park season is almost over, and the regular theater season is about to pick back up again. Here are a few books to keep you occupied, whether you're waiting...
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Tough Broads 3: Broads In Space
Peggy Whitson, Commander of the International Space Station. Source: iip-photo-archive, Flickr. Are you a fan of captains Kathryn Janeway and Susan Ivanova? Think Rey may be the best new character in a...
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Who Was Mata Hari?
Source: 8725928@N02, Flickr. With the recent publication of Mata Hari's Last Dance, Michelle Moran expertly paints fiction between what we know for sure about the famed dancer, courtesan, and terribly...
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Autumn in New York: 3 Recent Stories of the Gilded Age
Coney Island, 1904. Source: 7726011@N07, Flickr It's time to celebrate Autumn, and what better way to do it than with books about New York? Of course, with so many books about that place, one has to...
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We Come In Peace: Benevolent Aliens
Source: locateashwin, Flickr. While aliens have often been a good excuse for books and movies in which to blow stuff up, occasionally they are actually friendly and trying to look out for us. The...
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A Woman in Charge of her Life: 3 Recent Feminist Memoirs
Source: qxz, Flickr. Going with the idea that the personal is political, those involved with women's liberation often write first-person narratives of their lives and work. These are three of the most...
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Save The Books!
One of the Timbuktu manuscripts. Source: minusma, Flickr. It is said that those who burn books have no problem burning people, and that has certainly been true over the past century. Whether Hitler,...
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The Passion! The Drama! The Death! Opera Mysteries
Source: alfa, Flickr. Like history? Like mysteries? Like opera? These books have plenty of all three. If you're not so sure about opera, read for the other stuff and you might come around. None of...
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