‘To Hell With Poets’ by Baqytgul Sarmekova
Peter Gordon in the Asian Review of Books: How is a reviewer, faced with (yet another) excellent short-story collection, supposed to convey to readers a convincing rationale for “why this
Why Do Authoritarians Win?
Not by repudiating democracy but by simulating it, a new book argues. William E. Scheuerman in the Boston Review: Democracy seems in bad shape these days. In contrast, its global
“A Passage to India” on Its 100th Birthday
THIS YEAR marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India. I’ve never loved the novel, nor have I been able to let go of
Love and Let Die: Ian Fleming ‘The Complete Man’
Behind the shaken-not-stirred-martini-drinking James Bond, there was Ian Fleming, whose real life was marked by glamour and tragedy in equal measure. Ian Fleming biography by Nicholas Shakespeare: Pico Iyer reviews
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People-first Leadership, and Serving a Greater Purpose
Find the North Star, the direction. To find the North Star, Resilience and Conviction are needed: “It’s my fault. And for that, I am culpable, I am liable, and I
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Western Christianity Triumphed Not By Destiny But Accident
In the beginning there were many different sons of God John Gray at The New Statesman: In 1950, while travelling in the southern marshlands of Iraq, the explorer Wilfred Thesiger
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Why a New Adaptation of ‘The Master and Margarita’ is Setting Russian Society Aflame
Cameron Manley at Literary Hub: One of the most celebrated lines from Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita emerges from the lips of the devil himself. “Manuscripts don’t burn,” Woland, the
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The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2023 Joumana Khatib at The New York Times: Since its release last summer, James McBride’s latest novel, “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store,”
Maniza Naqvi on Saving Karachi’s Oldest Bookstore
Maniza Naqvi at Literary Hub: Back in December 2016, I was sitting in my office at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., feeling unmoored and disheartened. Every day, I walked
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Téa Obreht’s New Climate Novel, ‘The Morningside’
Originally from the former Yugoslavia, Obreht now resides in Wyoming. “The Morningside” takes place in Island City, a swampy version of Manhattan after climate change has flooded the coast. Rather
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The Science Behind Talking Parrots – and ‘Texting’ Wolves
Why Animals Talk is published by Viking: Arik Kershenbaum’s account of the wonderfully rich and strange evolved behaviours that constitute animal communication. by Steven Poole at The Telegraph: If a
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1984 by George Orwell
Upgrade yourself by reading one of the most influential books of the past 100 years, George Orwell’s dystopian novel about the dangers of authoritarianism has held up decade after decade.