Monthly Archives: December 2010

I just saw Colin Firth, playing Prince Albert (“Bertie” to his family,  later to become King George VI), Geoffrey Rush as Speech Therapist Lionel Logue , and Helena Bonham Carter as Queen Elizabeth, the former queen Mother, in The King’s Speech. … Continue reading →

I’ve recently finished  reading “Gilead” (2004) by Marilynne Robinson. Her first novel, “Housekeeping” (1981) got a Pulitzer Prize nomination, and Gilead got a Pulitzer Prize. It is one of the strangest books I’ve ever read. The book is essentially a … Continue reading →

This isn’t so much a book review as a few thoughts sparked off by Aayan Hirsi Ali’s “The Caged Virgin.” The book is a collection of essays, but Hirsi Ali sums up some of her positions in the preface to … Continue reading →

Book review: I Am Nujood, Aged 10, Divorced. I don’t know where or how I bought this book. Perhaps, having read Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s account of growing up in Somalia, I was attracted by the title, wondering what life was … Continue reading →