How to Raise an Elephant Alexander McCall Smith (2020) This latest installment in Smith’s enormously popular No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series—the 21st—is newly released (as of November 24), and if you are a fan of the series, you will find it a very comfortable read. Within a few paragraphs you are back in Botswana with… Continue reading How to Raise an Elephant
Author: Jay Ruud
Mank
Mank David Fincher (2020) Facts for You: Where to Watch: Streaming on Netflix Length:2 hours, 12 minutes Rated: R for language Names You Might Know: Gary Oldman,Amanda Seyfried, Charles Dance, Lily Collins He Said: “You cannot capture a man’s entire life in two hours, you can only hope to leave the impression of one,” says Herman J.… Continue reading Mank
Dryden’s “Portrait of Zimri” from “Absalom and Achitophel”
The Order
The Order Daniel Silva (2020) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Shakespeare-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’76’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] Like several of Daniel Silva’s previous espionage thrillers featuring Israeli spy Gabriel Allon, his most recent novel (the 20th in the Allon series) premiered at No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list this past August, so I… Continue reading The Order
Run
Run Aneesh Chaganty (2020) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/SusannTennyson.jpg’ attachment=313′ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] The mental disorder generally known as “Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy” seems to be having a moment in popular culture. The term describes a condition in which caregivers deliberately report nonexistent symptoms or, more alarming, cause… Continue reading Run
Robert Lowell’s “Robert Frost”
A Book a Day: The 365 Greatest Books of All Time
Ever wish you had a different book for every day of the year? Me neither, but I created this list anyway. I went down a rabbit hole looking at the Modern Library’s list of the “100 Best Novels of the 20thCentury” and comparing it to Time Magazine’s “100 Best Novels Since 1923,” and decided they were… Continue reading A Book a Day: The 365 Greatest Books of All Time
Life and Death are Wearing Me Out
Life and Death are Wearing Me Out Mo Yan (2006) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Shakespeare-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’76’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] Most American readers don’t really know much about contemporary Chinese novelist Mo Yan, or if they’ve heard of him at all it’s because they remember he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in… Continue reading Life and Death are Wearing Me Out
Wendell Berry’s “The Peace of Wild Things”
Bloomsbury’s Late Rose
Bloomsbury’s Late Rose Pen Pearson (2019) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Shakespeare-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’76’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] If you’ve never heard of the Edwardian British poet Charlotte Mew, you’re not alone. Mew is these days as little known as she was during most of her life. In Bloomsbury’s Late Rose—her fictionalized story of Mew’s… Continue reading Bloomsbury’s Late Rose