“In such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners.”- Camus
Say Nothing is the story of the murder of Jean McConville, a widowed mother of ten, by the IRA in 1972. She was accused of being an informer to the British Army. The accusation was false. The book is also the best history of The Troubles yet written, Jean McConville’s murder being described within the larger context of that many-sided civil war. The Barn is the story of the murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black […]
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Cynicism is a kind of disease. Maybe it begins with a doubt that anything that appears to be good will make any difference. Or that this good person or situation must be inherently corrupt, and that it’s just a matter of time before their real nature shows itself. It is a belief that no one holds to his or her integrity in the presence of power or wealth. Cynicism assumes […]
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Christmas comes in 2 days so likely I’m too late with this entreaty, but perhaps you will consider it for a post-Christmas surprise. Buy books for those you love. Buy books to treat yourself. Put your phone in a cabinet, your iPad in a closet, turn the TV off, give your headphones to the dog. Read books and encourage others to read them as well. Let me go to another […]
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The voice was close to my ear. At a corner facing streams of trucks and cars and mad men on electric scooters and skateboards, the voice said, “Careful. Careful. They aren’t looking.” The black man in my ear was dressed in a black cloth coat, a newsboy’s cap and elegant tie. Unnamed, he announced his history to me on that street corner. This is what I remember. “Thirty-two years in the […]
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