Jamrach's Menagerie, by Carol Birch, Doubleday 2011. Jaffy Brown has lived all of his short life among the streets and sewers of London. Everything changes one day when he encounters a tiger in the...
With riots and revolutions—wrought, some have argued, by the inequities of capitalism—dominating the headlines, Terry Eagleton’s Why Marx Was Right enters into the fray at the right time. In...
Frank Schaeffer, son of the late Francis Schaeffer was raised to follow in his father’s footsteps as a luminary of the Christian Right in the United States. He spent his early years in the rarefied...
A year ago, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard had won her first election, silencing grumbles from some corners that she hadn’t properly won the leadership of the Australian Labor Party from...
We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace: business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the...
The Politics of Down Syndrome (Kieron Smith, Zer0, 2011) is an attempt at a primer on some of the social, ethical, and political issues that surround Down syndrome. With chapters on prenatal...
Australia has long struggled with its own institutional xenophobia. From its very beginnings with the infamous “White Australia” policy, the nation has been shaped by racist policies that almost...
Inspector Lewis returns to PBS next week with a fourth season brought over from the United Kingdom’s ITV, a frequent PBS content partner, as fans of Downton Abbey may be aware. Lewis, adapted from...
RORY: Just point and think. AMY: But what do I think? — Doctor Who, “Let’s Kill Hitler.” It’s usually hard to pinpoint the exact moment when a beloved TV series goes off the rails. Fans...
Esi Edugyan’s Half Blood Blues (Serpent’s Tail, 2011) is one of the more outstanding entries on this year’s Booker Prize longlist. A lyrical, complex, layered narrative of friendship, betrayal,...
