friends

Of Words and Dogs and Little Fishes*

I feel so blessed that I can “work” from home as a book reviewer, essayist and occasionally as a literary editor, and to comfortably say that I read for a living. It’s like living the dream (well, until the bills come in, but that’s neither here nor there). But I […]

LitStack Review: Bodies of Water by T. Greenwood

Bodies of Water T. Greenwood Kensington Books Publication Date: September 24, 2013 ISBN 978-0-7582-5093-3 In an interview with the San Diego Reader, author Tammy Greenwood talked about getting caught by Hurricane Irene while visiting her family in Massachusetts in August 2011. “We were totally stranded. I couldn’t drive through the […]

Birthdays

On this day, April 9, in 1967, Sam Harris was born in Los Angeles, California. Possessing a Ph.D. in
cognitive neuroscience from UCLA, he used magnetic resonance imaging to conduct research into the neural basis of belief, disbelief, and uncertainty. Growing up in a progressive secular household, his books explore morality, free will, and the questioning of religion (he is a leading figure in the New Atheist movement); he also established “Project Reason”, whose main aim is the promotion of scientific knowledge and secular values within society, and in 2018 he released a meditation app, Waking Up with Sam Harris. Currently the host of the podcast Making Sense, today he turns 54.

Birthdays

On this day, December 3, in 1857, Joseph Conrad was born in Berdichev, Imperial Russia (modern
Ukraine, then a part of Poland). While he settled in England and wrote in English, he always considered himself a Pole. Heart of Darkness, one of the most famous of his 20 novels (which explores colonialism and the attitudes regarding what constitutes a barbarian versus civilized society) is considered one of the best English novels of the 20th century, as is his novel Lord Jim, which chronicles a crew’s abandonment of its disabled ship. Conrad died in England in 1924 at age 66.