Rising from the Dead

We tend to think of medicine as a profession that saves life. But not many of us know that countless doctors working in the medical field themselves are dead—not physically…

The Saturday Wife

If I hadn’t read Naomi Ragen’s Chains Around the Grass, the title “The Saturday Wife” would have been a turn-off enough to make me pass on this book. Who wants…

The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe

There are books that you read and you get a whole new worldview owing to the nature of information contained and the excellence of narration via which the information is…

Wilde in America

David M. Friedman’s Wilde in America (Norton, 2014) serves a filling account of Oscar Wilde’s historical trip to America and its implications for both Wilde and America. Starting with Wilde’s…

Hiding in Unnatural Happiness

Hiding in Unnatural Happiness by Devamrita Swami is a fairly short book of essays and commentary that explore the foundation of happiness. The author introduces readers to the nature of…

The Archetype of the Number and Its Reflections in Contemporary Cosmology

Alain Negre’s The Archetype of the Number and its Reflections in Contemporary Cosmology explore a field of study that mainstream science has steered clear of and thus mainstream media also…

Parallel Universes: The Search for Other Worlds

Any detailed discussion of space-time in quantum physics and what it means in terms of classical physical world (one observable to us) is bound to get to the mind-boggling/weird side.…

Gandhi and Beyond

For all the decades of their astounding technological advance and expansion in many fields of education, mankind has persistently faced one big failure: attain peace. In the 21st century, we…

The McDonaldization of Society – 6

The 6th edition of George Ritzer’s The McDonaldization of Society (SAGE Publications, 2010) critically examines the fast food model of social life in modern urban societies. Taking the United States…

The Pine Island Paradox

First published nearly a decade ago, The Pine Island Paradox (Milkweed Editions, 2004) remains a timeless read. Author and speaker Kathleen Dean Moore takes her readers along on her personal…

The Road-Shaped Heart

Free verse doesn’t always instantiate the freedom of voice carried within its lines. Not so with Nick Purdon. The Road-Shaped Heart (Modern History Press, 2011). The poet from South African…

Yearning for Normal

Twenty-two year old Mike was lying in intensive care at the burn unit in a hospital in Ohio. Sitting beside her is his mother. Both are struggling for his life…