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Ray Harryhausen (09/11)
Harryhausen, the cat at the center of This Must Be the Place, is a living totem of his owner's patron saint, the real-life animator Ray Harryhausen. Ray Harryhausen was a pioneer in the field of animation, and the inspiration behind Racculia's Amy, who builds her life around the surreal art of making model monsters for the ...
The Perfect Squeeze: Julio Lobo's Manipulation of "The Good Neighbor Policy" (09/11)
In The Sugar King of Havana John Paul Rathbone describes one of the most successful and cunning business moves of Julio Lobo's career - a manipulation of FDR's Good Neighbor Policy which, according to Eduardo Kaplan of The Wall Street Journal, 'placed [Lobo] in a different league.'
As part of the Good Neighbor Policy, FDR ...
The Appeal of Doomed Lovers (09/11)
Search the web for 'famous love stories' and you'll find that most sites rank Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in 1st place. Considering how few of the general populous will have actually read or watched a performance of Shakespeare's arguably most famous play in recent years it seems likely that what keeps this pair of star-crossed lovers...
The Israel National Trail (09/11)
In To the End of the Land, the central characters backpack along the northern stretch of the Israel National Trail, which is also known as 'The Galilee.'
The Israel National Trail (INT) is a 597 mile long (955 km) hiking trail that crosses the entire country of Israel, north to south, running from the city of Dan on the Lebanese ...
Why Quebec Speaks French (09/11)
The province of Quebec is Canada's second most populous province, after Ontario. It is the only Candian province to have French as its sole official language, and has a predominantly French speaking population with 4 out of 5 ranking French as their first language, and 95% able to speak it. Eight percent state that English is their first ...
The Tower of London (09/11)
If you've read the The Tower, The Zoo and The Tortoise you'll already have been taken on a veritable history tour of The Tower of London and the Yeoman Warders, popularly known as Beefeaters, who guard it. For those who haven't read the book yet or, for that matter have but would like a quick summary of some of the history of the Tower,...
The British Women's Suffrage Movement (09/11)
Ethel and Maud's agitation for women's suffrage is a critical element in Fall of Giants. According to Follett: 'of all the massive changes that took place in the 20th century, the biggest was equality for women.'
Though there were instances of agitation for a woman's right to vote in Britain prior to the formation of the National...
Real Dogs Portrayed in Fiction (09/11)
The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of his friend Marilyn Monroe creates a believable character in Maf, a character based on Marilyn Monroe's dog. Fiction about or including dogs has a popular and long history.
Wikipedia offers an expansive page listing the dogs in literature including Odysseus's faithful companion Argos, and ...
Schizophrenia (09/11)
What is schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that distorts a person's sense of reality. It impedes a person's ability to regulate his or her emotions and often makes socializing, decision making and logical thinking very difficult. As set forth by the US National Library of Medicine, there are multiple kinds of ...
The Navajo Nation (08/11)
The Navajo Nation is a semi-autonomous political and cultural entity within the United States which covers northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico and parts of southeastern Utah. This is part of the area known as the Four Corners region, where the borders of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah meet, which became USA territory...
Vish Puri's Favorite Dishes (08/11)
Investigator Vish Puri just won't stop his quest for the elusive killer. Unless, of course, it's dinner time. Or lunch time. Or time for an afternoon snack. If you already like Indian food, The Man Who Died Laughing will make your mouth water. And if you haven't tried Indian food, here's a cheat sheet to some of the Most Private ...
Coleridge's Frost at Midnight and The International Dark Sky Association (08/11)
Brilliant provokes much thought on a variety of topics: circadian rhythms; the health dangers of light exposure; the depiction of natural and man-made light in art (Brox discusses three of Van Gogh's night paintings and explains what light and darkness was like for him.); the Columbian Exhibition; the eccentric and visionary Nikola ...
Human Microbes (08/11)
In an article in
The Daily Telegraph, Dr. Roy Sleator, a lecturer at Cork Institute of Technology in Ireland, states that, 'We are, in essence, only 10 percent human. The rest is pure microbe.' In a
June 2011 report, National Public Radio's Science Desk Correspondent, Robert Krulwich, agrees. Yes, he says, our bodies do indeed consist of...
Siobhán Parkinson (08/11)
On May 11, 2010, Siobhán Parkinson (pronounced sh-vawn) became the first Irish
Children's Literature Laureate (aka Laureate Na nÓg) ever. (Na nÓg is an Irish term meaning 'the young' or 'young people'). Held for two years, the main purpose of the position is to expose youths to good, high quality children's literature and ...
Early Cookbooks and Recipes (08/11)
In
The Cookbook Collector, George purchases a large collection of old and rare cookbooks - all of which exist in real-life.
Cookbooks have a wonderful and interesting history. The earliest surviving recipe collection in English are the 200 or so recipes known as the The Forme of Cury ('The Rules of Cookery') which is believed to ...
Art as Devotion: Theyyam Dancers (08/11)
The subjects of Dalrymple's Nine Lives seek transcendence and divine communion in different ways. Some embrace aceticsm, while for others like the wandering Baul minstrel, the reciter of holy epics, or the maker of bronze deities, 'art and religion are one.'
The most vivid practitioner of art as devotion is Hari Das, the dalit &#...
Self-Publishing Successes (08/11)
Hilary Thayer Hamann self-published her novel with the help of her former husband's print and design company, consciously choosing to forego the typical path of agents, editors, and salespeople. The book found a disparate but fervent audience and started winning awards. A film producer inquired about movie rights and encouraged Hamann...
A Quick Tour of Chinese Cities Found in Rock Paper Tiger (07/11)
Since the 2008 Olympics, China has become more of a tourist destination than ever. For those of us who haven't ventured that far, here is an overview of the cities where Ellie Cooper tried to elude her pursuers.
Beijing
Also known as Peking, Beijing is the capital of The People's Republic of China as well as its political, educational...
Catherine de Medici (07/11)
Catherine de Medici was born on April 13, 1519 in Florence, Italy. Her mother, Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne, died a few days later either of plague or of syphilis contracted from her husband, Lorenzo II de Medici, Duke of Urbino (a sovereign state in northern Italy), who died from the disease a few weeks later. Madeline and Lorenzo had...
The History of The Hardy Boys (07/11)
Shortly after Will and Devon begin investigating the mysterious death of their high school quarterback, they name themselves the Hardy Boys. Here they are texting as they create this new identity:
Smiley_Man3000: With all the inside info I get from my dad and your big brain, we can solve this Chambers thing!
HamburgerHalpin: ...
The White Mountain National Forest (07/11)
It is no wonder that Elliott Hansen chose the White Mountains of New Hampshire
to restore health and hope to his friends and family. The White Mountains have long been revered as a deeply spiritual place by the Abenaki, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Micman, Maliseet, and other Native American tribes in the region. With its breathtaking scope...
Colony Collapse Disorder (07/11)
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is a phenomenon in which bees mysteriously disappear from their hives. 'The main symptom of CCD is simply no or a low number of adult honey bees present but with a live queen and no dead honey bees in the hive. Often there is still honey in the hive, ...
Bonobos (07/11)
Vanessa Woods with bonobos in a wildlife sanctuary
in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Sydney Morning Herald
Bonobos (Pan paniscus) are one of the two species that make up the genus Pan,
along with Pan troglodytes, the Common Chimpanzee. Chimps and bonobos are the
closest extant relative to humans, sharing almost 99% of our...
Emma Donoghue (07/11)
Emma Donoghue is an award-winning Irish writer who lives in Canada. She has published seven novels, three collections of short stories, three works of non-fiction and various productions for stage, radio and screen.
In her own words: 'Born in Dublin, Ireland, in October 1969, I am the youngest of eight children of ...
The Swallows of San Juan Capistrano (07/11)
All my life, the swallows returning every March 19th to San Juan Capistrano, California, has been a symbol of the strength of nature and of how some things never change. Except they do and, what's more, maybe it never happened anyway, or, even worse, we may be responsible when things do change.
For over a century, St. Joseph's Day ...
Bautzen, Germany (06/11)
Bautzen, located in the Upper Lusatia region, along the Spree River in Saxony, dates back to the Stone Age, though it was not mentioned in writing (as 'Budusin') until the eleventh century. The city acquired its present name in 1868.
Its history has been marked by several widely documented events, including the pogroms on ...
Giant Waves (06/11)
Giant waves were once the stuff of nautical tall tales, filed alongside stories of mermaids and giant squid, but today we know better.
The force of waves is hard to comprehend. According to The Wave, an 18 inch wave can topple a wall built to withstand 125-mph winds; a breaking 100-foot wave packs 100 tons of force per square ...
Scarlett Thomas (06/11)
For inspiration to write a novel about a novelist trying to write a novel, Scarlett Thomas didn't have to look very far—her own life was the template. Thomas was born in London in 1972. She wrote her first novel at age six and her second one in her early twenties, but literary fame eluded her. She, like her character Meg, turned ...
An Interview with Goldie Goldbloom (06/11)
Australian author Goldie Goldbloom discusses her debut novel,
The Paperbark Shoe, with Lisa Guidarini. The following are selected excerpts from the
full interview.
You chose to set the book in your native Australia. Do you believe it would have been as effective if the setting had been, say, the 1930s Dust Bowl in the United States, ...
Books about Midwives and Midwifery (06/11)
Blessing becomes her grandmother's apprentice midwife in Tiny Sunbirds Far Away, becoming part of a long and proud historical tradition in her family, and in the human family.
The word 'midwife,' is from Old English midwif, meaning 'with woman', which frames the idea of midwifery - to be with a woman during the birthing ...
Mormon Fundamentalists (06/11)
Estimates of the number of Mormon fundamentalists residing in the western United States, Canada and Mexico range from 20,000 to 60,000 (compared with over 10 million mainstream Mormons worldwide). Although there are numerous sects, the largest two are the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS Church) and the ...
An Interview With Lily King (06/11)
When you began your new novel, Father of the Rain, what was the initial idea or image that got the story rolling?
I think it started with the puppy, a father buying his daughter a puppy that she wouldn't be able to keep because she knew, though he didn't, that she would be moving out of the house with her mother in a week. And her...
Vampires - Monsters or Romeos? (06/11)
The vampires of folklore are hideous and frightening figures, walking corpses that feast on the blood of the living. But during the Victorian era, writers began to create stories about a different kind of vampire, typified by an aristocrat who represented both death and sexual desire, a possible reaction to the repressiveness of the...
The Philippines (06/11)
The Republic of the Philippines, a tropical archipelago in Southeast Asia, is comprised of more than 7,000 islands. The major island groups include Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, Negros, and Cebu. The country is believed to have been first settled by the Aetas (who the Spanish settlers named
Negritos). Although the Aetas' short stature, ...
The United States Marine Corps (06/11)
The United States Marine Corps (USMC) serves as a force-in-readiness within the United States security structure. Among other branches of the US military, it is unique in its ability to rapidly deploy a combined-arms task force to almost anywhere in the world within days. It is capable of entry into hostile or dangerous situations from ...
A Beginner's Guide to Hip-hop (05/11)
Hip hop, as a cultural movement, had its origins in the New York City Bronx in the 1970s, mostly among African Americans, with some Jamaican and Latin American influences.
Keith 'Cowboy' Wiggins (of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five) is often credited with coining the term hip hop in 1978 while teasing a friend who had just...
Metafiction & Unreliable Narrators (05/11)
What is Metafiction?
It depends on whom you ask, as the term is somewhat slippery, meaning that various authors and literary critics define it differently. William H. Gass coined the term in 1970 in an essay entitled 'Philosophy and the Form of Fiction'. Commenting on American fiction of the 1960s, Gass pointed out that a new term ...
California Punk (05/11)
Although Jennifer Egan now lives in New York, she grew up in California, and her knowledge of the Bay Area/Los Angeles music scene gives the book a gritty authenticity, with references to bands rarely mentioned in the pages of literary fiction: the Dead Kennedys, the Nuns, Black Flag, the Avengers, the Germs, and Negative Trend are ...
The Caribou (05/11)
Although Donald's growing suspicions about Hans Mohring and other Europeans cross the line into obsession, some American readers may be surprised to learn just how active German U-boats were in Canadian waters during World War II. (U-boat is the anglicized version of unterseeboot, meaning undersea boat, i.e. a submarine).
During...
The Equality Trust and Happiness (05/11)
Authors Wilkinson and Pickett work to enact the ideas they put forward in
The Spirit Level on their
Equality Trust website and its campaign for economic equality. Visit this site for blog entries and updates on their work.
Watch a video of Wilkinson and Pickett talking about the ideas in
The Spirit Level:
If money doesn't buy ...
Medgar Evers (05/11)
As Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny begin their project, the Civil Rights Movement is boiling to high heat. It is 1963 and President Kennedy has just spoken out in support of Civil Rights; however, the message has yet to penetrate Mississippi where Medgar Evers was just brutally murdered by segregationist whites. This example of racial ...
The Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness (04/11)
Location is integral to Laura Bell's memoir; not only does the land around her serve as a subtle metaphor for her emotions, but it also gives her a complex and compelling backdrop for her narrative. Though Bell's memoir stretches across the state of Wyoming, the majority of her story is concentrated in and around the Absaroka-Beartooth ...
Flotation Tanks (04/11)
'My head will keep on racing throughout this, I have no doubt,' declares the speaker at the beginning of 'Saturday Teatime' as she embarks on her first experience in the device known as a flotation tank, sensory deprivation tank, or isolation tank. And as she predicts, her thoughts do indeed surge in multiple directions, dredging up ...
Just What Is a Poet Laureate? (04/11)
The United States Poet Laureate* is appointed annually by the Library of Congress, and is poetically described by the LOC as the 'official lightning rod for the poetic impulse of Americans.' (Personally, I like the very idea of a 'collective poetic impulse,' and find its acknowledgement and promotion by an institution of the federal ...
The Maine Warden Service (04/11)
'The woods. The state. Everything. More and more people keep coming up here, up to Maine, and they don't understand what's special about this place... They have these distorted ideas about nature... and I didn't want to live that way. I thought that if I joined the Warden Service maybe I wouldn't have to, and maybe I could help a few ...
E. O. Wilson, the Scientist (04/11)
One of the aspects that makes Anthill unique is author E. O. Wilson's long career in biology and entomology. Anthill merits recognition for its literary merits alone, but the author's unique qualifications for the novel's subject matter deserve attention as well.
E. O. Wilson's long career as a natural scientist began in the late ...
The Mummers of Newfoundland (04/11)
Two vivid and lively scenes in Galore reflect the occasion of mummers performing house-visits in the fictional outport community of Paradise Deep, Newfoundland. The practice of mumming (also known as mummering or janneying) in Newfoundland originated with the early immigrants from Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Mumming ...
221b Baker Street (04/11)
In
The Brothers of Baker Street, Reggie Heath's law office resides at 221b Baker Street, the same address as the fictional residence of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John H. Watson between 1881 and 1904, according to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. Today at that location, you will find the
Sherlock Holmes Museum, a non-profit organization ...
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