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Ancient Near Eastern
Assyro-Babylonian
Australian Aboriginal
Baltic
British and Celtic
Caribbean
Chinese
Classical
Egyptian
Eurasian
Finnish
Greek
Related Topics
Mythology :: Literature in Art
Epic and Narrative :: Forms
Religion and Spirituality
L.A. Times - Books & Talks
'The Second Plane' by Martin Amis
Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700
September 11: Terror and Boredom IT would be too easy to read Martin Amis' slim book on Sept. 11 in a day and to dismiss it with a politically correct glare. The dozen essays, columns and reviews and two short stories in "The Second Plane: September 11, Terror and Boredom" are more illuminating than that, though deeply, sometimes self-indulgently flawed.
'The House of Widows' by Askold Melnyczuk
Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700
Family secrets lie at the end of a dark and twisted path FROM its puzzling opening line ("The most common grammatical error is the lie"), there's an ominous vibe to Askold Melnyczuk's third novel, "The House of Widows," and the sense of unease lingers until the final sentence. It's a mysterious, masterfully taut story in which dread plays a prominent role.
'Marco Polo' by Laurence Bergreen
Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700
An account of the adventures of the celebrated 13th century world traveler. MARCO POLO was only 17 when he departed for China in 1271 with his father, Niccolò, and his uncle, Maffeo. Those two merchants of Venice were known to the boy primarily as storytellers of their fabulous exploits, writes award-winning biographer and historian Laurence Bergreen, for they had been absent more than 16 years, Marco's entire childhood. The pair had followed trade routes east, encountered exotic countries and customs and survived many perils; they had even lived for a time at the court of Kublai Khan, the leader of the Mongol Empire. Eventually they agreed to accompany his emissary west to the pope, vowing to return to Cambulac (Beijing) with several items the Great Khan had requested.
NYT > Books
Dr. King’s Children Battling Over Book
Tue, 14 Oct 2008 03:53:53 -0000
The three living children of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. have feuded before. This time the squabbling is over the legacy and estate not of their father but of their mother.
Report Says Acclaimed Czech Writer Informed on a Supposed Spy
Tue, 14 Oct 2008 05:33:39 -0000
The allegations that the young Milan Kundera may have informed on a Western spy could tarnish his legacy as one of the best-known Eastern European writers.
Books of The Times: Actor Battles to Play a Bigger Role as a Father
Tue, 14 Oct 2008 04:09:43 -0000
Alec Baldwin warns readers up front that his new book, “A Promise to Ourselves: A Journey Through Fatherhood and Divorce,” is not a celebrity tell-all, and he remains pretty faithful to that vow.
Fiction & Poetry
Roddy Doyle: "Sleep"
Roddy Doyle Mon, 13 Oct 2008 04:00:00 -0000
It was the thing he’d always loved about her. The way she could sleep. When they’d just started going with each other, before they really knew each other, he’d lie awake, hoping she’d wake up, praying for it, dying. But even then he’d loved to look at her while she . . .
Gary Snyder: "Mu Ch’i’s Persimmons"
Gary Snyder Mon, 13 Oct 2008 04:00:00 -0000
There is no remedy for satisfying hunger other than a painted rice cake. --Dōgen, November, 1242. On a back wall down the hall lit by a side glass door is the scroll of Mu Ch’i’s great sumi painting, “Persimmons” The wind-weights hanging from the axles hold it . . .
Frederick Seidel: "Poem by the Bridge at Ten-shin"
Frederick Seidel Mon, 13 Oct 2008 04:00:00 -0000
This jungle poem is going to be my last. This space walk is. Racing in a cab through springtime Central Park, I kept my nose outside the window like a dog. The stars above my bed at night are vast. I think it is uncool to call young women Ms . . .
London Review of Books
Cityphobia · John Lanchester: The Crash
Byron wrote that 'I think it great affectation not to quote oneself.' On that basis, I'd like to quote what I wrote in a piece about the City of London, in the aftermath of the Northern Rock fiasco: 'If our laws are not extended to control the new kinds of super-powerful, super-complex and potentially super-risky investment vehicles, they will one day cause a financial disaster of global-systemic proportions.' The prediction was right, but the tense was wrong. The disaster had already happened, it just hadn't yet played itself out in the markets.
Don't Ask Henry · Alan Hollinghurst: Sissiness
The story of Belchamber's publication is probably better known than the book itself, which, like its author, has suffered the ambiguous fate of becoming an accessory to the life of a more important writer. It is his friend Henry James who keeps Sturgis's novel distantly in view, at the same time as casting a long shadow over it. James read it in proof, and wrote a characteristic sequence of letters to Sturgis about it, beginning with neat praise and mild demurrals, but quickly building up to such fundamental criticisms of the book that the demoralised author said he would withdraw it altogether; at which James protested and pleaded, successfully though not with any retraction of the criticisms he had made.
Cut, Kill, Dig, Drill · Jonathan Raban: Sarah Palin's Cunning
Sarah Palin has put a new face and voice to the long-standing, powerful, but inchoate movement in US political life that one might see as a mutant strain of Poujadism, inflected with a modern American accent. There are echoes of the Poujadist agenda of 1950s France in its contempt for metropolitan elites, fuelling the resentment of the provinces towards the capital and the countryside towards the city, in its xenophobic strain of nationalism, sturdy, paysan resistance to taxation, hostility to big business, and conviction that politicians are out to exploit the common man.
Books | guardian.co.uk
If I were judging the Booker prize
Charlotte Higgins Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:00:01 -0000
Charlotte Higgins: If it were down to me, it would be Philip Hensher for the cheque – much to my surprise
Communist scourge Milan Kundera accused of betraying western spy 58 years ago
Kate Connolly Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:13:55 -0000
Elusive dissident writer Milan Kundera insists he is victim of the 'assassination of an author'
Obituary: Janwillem van de Wetering
Christopher Hawtree Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:31:42 -0000
Obituary: Adventurous Dutch crime novelist, former businessman and policeman
NPR Topics: Books
Talking Columbus On Columbus Day
Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:00:00 -0400
Author David Boyle discusses his new book, Toward the Setting Sun: Columbus, Cabot, Vespucci, and the Race for America and explores the relationship between the three men and their joint venture in crossing the Atlantic.
Columnist Krugman Wins Nobel For Economics
Mon, 13 Oct 2008 08:10:00 -0400
Princeton economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman won the Nobel economics prize on Monday for his analysis of how economies of scale can affect trade patterns and the location of economic activity.
Le Clezio, Portrait Of A Gentle Writer
Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:19:00 -0400
Though born in France, Nobel laureate Jean-Marie Gustav Le Clezio is a nomadic writer, whose work has been defined by his life of travel around the world. For him, storytelling means melting into the background.
Slashdot: Book Reviews
Nagios 3 Enterprise Network Monitoring
samzenpus Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:15:00 -0000
jgoguen writes "Nagios, originally known as Netsaint, has been a long-time favourite for network and device monitoring due to its flexibility, ease of use, and efficiency. Nagios provided, and still provides today, a low-cost, versatile alternative to commercial network monitoring applications. Nagios 3 takes a huge step forward compared to Nagios 2, providing improved flexibility, ease of use and extensibility, all while also making significant performance enhancements. Due to its extensibility and ease of use, no device or situation has yet been found that cannot be monitored using Nagios and a pre-made or custom script, plug-in or enhancement." Read on for the rest of jgoguen's review.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
OpenGL ES 2.0 Programming Guide
samzenpus Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:05:00 -0000
Martin Ecker writes "Mobile phones and other embedded devices are getting more and more powerful each year. The availability of dedicated hardware for 3D rendering is becoming increasingly ubiquitous, and the latest mobile phones come with 3D hardware acceleration that rivals the power of desktop graphics hardware. OpenGL ES 2.0 is the latest version of a cross-platform, low-level graphics API to utilize these new resources available in embedded devices. The OpenGL ES 2.0 Programming Guide published by Addison-Wesley Publishing aims to help the reader make use of the full power of OpenGL ES 2.0 to create interesting 3D applications." Keep reading for the rest of Martin's review.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Advanced Excel for Scientific Data Analysis
samzenpus Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:02:00 -0000
cgjherr writes "If the recent financial meltdown has left you wondering, 'When does exponential decay function stop?' then I have the book for you. Advanced Excel for Scientific Data Analysis is the kind of book that only comes along every twenty years. A tome so densely packed with scientific and mathematical formulas that it almost dares you to try and understand it all. A "For Dummies" book starts with a gentle introduction to the technology. This is more like a "for Mentats" book. It assumes that you know Excel very well. The first chapter alone will have you in awe as you see the author turn the lowly Excel into something that rivals Mathematica using VBA, brains, and a heaping helping of fortitude." Read on for the rest of Jack's review.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Books
Selma
Selma by Val L. McGee is a Civil War historical novel by a retired octogenarian and Alabama trial judge. It’s a moving tale of a community torn by succession and the Civil War, an interesting, well-researched book!
A 9-year-old author tells us ‘How to Talk to Girls’
Yes, he's only 9, but Alec Greven already has a good handle on relations with the opposite sex – and he has a contract with a major book publisher.
‘Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency’
When George W. Bush wrapped up the presidential nomination in 2000, he asked Dick Cheney to manage the search for a running mate. Cheney asked several candidates to give him an enormous amount of financial, medical, personal data and history.
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