Sidebar: Three Translations of “The Odyssey” by Homer
In preparing my review of Daniel Mendelsohn’s new translation of The Odyssey, I made a detailed comparison of how it matched against Emily Wilson’s 2018 version and the 1967 rendering [...]
Poem: Vacant lot Pope
Vacant lot Pope By Patrick T. Reardon Walk the goofy walk of the Galilee clown, laughing at denarii or spilling the coins in anger amid the pigeons and lambs, [...]
Book review: “The Face of Battle” by John Keegan
John Keegan opens The Face of Battle, his groundbreaking 1976 book on war, with an examination of generations of military historians and finds them wanting. For instance, he quotes at [...]
Book review: “Saint Francis of Assisi” by Gabriele Finaldi and Joost Joostra, with Andre Vauchez, Susanna Avery-Quash, Ayla Lepine, Laura Llewellyn, David Sobrino Ralston and Jennifer Sliwka
At any number of points in Saint Francis of Assisi, the book’s writers make the point that the thirteenth-century Italian mystic and friar has been many things to many people [...]
Essay: I choose the spring of hope instead of Trump’s winter
Each morning, I wake up to two stories. One is loud and distressing, shrilly demanding attention. The other is quiet, gentle and calm. One is like being caught in a [...]
Book review: “A History of the Railroad in 100 Maps” by Jeremy Black
The 1897 image on pages 110-111 of Jeremy Black’s A History of the Railroad in 100 Maps is a striking bird’s-eye view of Chicago, looking out across the downtown to [...]
Essay: Rejoice. I say it again: Rejoice
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be apparent to all. The Lord is near.” That’s St. Paul writing to the Philippians. [...]
Book review: “The Avian Hourglass” by Lindsey Drager
The young woman and Sulien, an older man from another part of the world, are talking about birds and their movements together. “It’s just amazing to me how they moved, [...]
Book review: “You Suck: A Love Story” by Christopher Moore
It’s a few days before Christmas in San Francisco in the mid-1990s, and Chet is a long-haired obese cat. How obese? Well, his human, a homeless guy “dirty beyond age [...]
Book review: “The Queen of Steeplechase Park” by David Ciminello
David Ciminello’s 2024 novel The Queen of Steeplechase Park is a wild and wacky foul-mouthed fantasy about free-spirit Belladonna Marie Donato and her circle of boundary-breaking friends in the tight, [...]