On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

"I'm not telling you a story so much as a shipwreck - the pieces floating, finally legible." (190) I had this book on order from my local library for weeks before I could get my hands on it and so I'd read some reviews and my expectations were mixed. I'd read Night Sky with Exit … Continue reading On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong →

Maybe Esther: A Family Story by Katja Petrowskaja

Given the prevalence of DNA testing to find out one's ethnic heritage, which I find bizarre by the way, many people will enjoy reading Katja Petrowskaja's story about the search for her family history. When you are searching in the killing fields of Europe, in what Professor Tim Snyder calls the 'bloodlands', the search is … Continue reading Maybe Esther: A Family Story by Katja Petrowskaja →

The Crimean Nexus: Constantine Pleshakov

The Crimean Nexus: Putin's war and the clash of civilizations by Constantine Pleshakov was published in 2017 by Yale publishing. Pleshakov is a former policy analyst who now teaches at the Five-College Consortium in Massachusetts. He was born in Yalta and is now a permanent resident of the United States. Pleshakov provides a clear background … Continue reading The Crimean Nexus: Constantine Pleshakov →

Politics and Activism: not a how-to but a must-read.

Deray McKesson On the Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope (2018) Viking Press: New York. (220 pages) Deray McKesson is one of the key players in the protests in Ferguson that broke out the day after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in August 2014. McKesson would not call himself a leader of this … Continue reading Politics and Activism: not a how-to but a must-read. →