I sometimes hear readers say, “Why read fiction? I want to read about things that are real.” What that argument misses is how fiction, while not factual, often holds real truths.
Wowed
New York City subway riders are often on a hurried, harried singular mission to get from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible. During the ride, we cocoon in motion amidst a pressing throng of humanity who are variously occupied with eye avoidance, sleeping, reading, texting, manspreading, panhandling, decibel-deafening earbud listening, and sighing. […]
A New Year’s Resolve
Novel Therapy
These days we are besieged by alarming events, those unfolding in our own backyard and in the yards of far-flung places. We seek refuge from our angst of what is and what might be.
Mental escape is one popular way to cope with worries and as bibliophiles can attest, books are a magical escape route. But, can they provide more than that? Do books offer a novel therapy during turbulent times—in both the literal and figurative sense?
If that seems like hyperbole, consider how well books can influence our perspective on the world or alter our mood; they can engender ideas, tap into emotions, and motivate behaviors—results we often seek from traditional treatments and remedies.
Dust Déjà Vu and The Dirty Thirties
Dusters are making news again (a rare one wreaked havoc in central Illinois this past week). According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, they are increasing in numbers. A dust déjà vu?
Mention the Dust Bowl and people often refer to John Steinbeck’s classic, “The Grapes of Wrath,” and the Joad family’s migrant escape to California. Like the fictional Joad’s, millions of real people fled the Plains States during the Dirty Thirties. What about those who stayed behind?
Spring Fever
I have recently read some very good books on productivity, focus, business ingenuity, perseverance. For all the wisdom bestowed, reality is that my get-up-and-go is off meandering through meadows of dandelions and daffodils. I should be writing, instead I just want to curl up and read about escaping to far-flung places. That’s when it hit […]
None So Blind
We say it about ourselves, about others, and sometimes, about entire groups: “How could I (he, she, we, or they) have been so blind?” This later fallibility is the focus of “Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril.” In it, author Margaret Heffernan combines research and compelling case studies to examine our collective societal ‘ostrichness’.
Hamilton’s Cascade of Creativity
Founding Father Alexander Hamilton’s life has inspired a recent cascade of creativity. First Ron Chernow wrote the Pulitzer-prize winning biography, “Alexander Hamilton,” which begat Lin-Manuel Miranda’s blockbuster, “Hamilton: The Musical.” Since its launch in 2015, the musical was the catalyst for a PBS special, a mixtape, and another book, “Hamilton: The Revolution,” a virtual matryoshka doll of stories nesting inside of stories: autobiography, biography and history.
Here Comes the Sun
The longest night of the year approaches (at least for those of us in the northern hemisphere). Even in a world of electric lights, S.A.D. lights, and an ability to abscond to sunny places, I count down the hours until time’s pendulum adds shaved seconds of stolen light back into these shortest of days.
Then, on the Winter’s Solstice, I do a happy dance.
I wonder what it must have felt like living through the long winter season during the Dark Ages? (A period that most scholars now refer to as the Middle Ages, but which I still think of it as the Dark Ages.) There was surely laughter and love, stories and song, but in general, I imagine a world that was bleak. The common folks probably lived with few pleasures and many hardships‒especially one notable‒a bookless existence.