Category: books

Epoch Booklist: Recommended Reading for April 7–13

This week, we feature a dive into the science behind Sherlock Holmes’s methods and a lovely work of fiction about Teddy Roosevelt’s first love. Historical Fiction ‘If a Poem Could Live and Breathe: A Novel of Teddy Roosevelt’s First Love’ By Mary Calvi This novel takes us to Boston in the late 1870s, when Harvard…


Scientists, Charlatans, and Halley’s Comet

For millennia, comets were believed to be harbingers of disaster and change. No one knew what they were. Their terror faded after Edmond Halley proved they were natural phenomena, following laws of physics. He predicted that a comet visible in 1682 would reappear in 1759. It was named Halley’s Comet when his prediction was realized….


Read Gaelic Folktales: Strange, Inspiring, Funny, and Profound

St. Patrick’s Day has come and gone, but that’s no reason to stop celebrating the heritage of the Irish. The folk stories of Gaelic heroes are a rich source of imaginative literature for children and adults alike. The greatest of these heroes is the legendary Finn MacCool. While Finn is the subject of many legends,…


Book Review: ‘While Time Remains: A North Korean Defector’s Search for Freedom in America’

In her new book, “While Time Remains: A North Korean Defector’s Search for Freedom in America,” Yeonmi Park issues an ominous warning about what the future may hold for America if the present course is not reversed. Park was born in North Korea and endured a horrible existence in her early years, which she wrote about…


Book Recommendation: ‘The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly: Life Wisdom From Someone Who Will (Probably) Die Before You’

I belong to a lunch bunch who meets monthly for friendship and a good meal at a local restaurant. Several months ago, conversation began about Swedish author Margareta Magnusson’s book on “death cleaning.” I hadn’t heard of it (“The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning”), but it piqued my interest as it did for many…


Book Review: ‘Raising Victims: The Pernicious Rise of Critical Race Theory’

Leonydus Johnson book’s “Raising Victims: The Pernicious Rise of Critical Race Theory” is a good salve for treating the cuts and scrapes on a national psyche bleeding from ideologies that seek to divide and separate. In his thoughtful and well-researched book Johnson quietly disassembles the shaky foundation of Critical Race Theory (CRT) with calculated logic,…


Texas Judge Orders Books Banned From Public Libraries Be Returned to Shelves

Dozens of books that were removed from public libraries by officials in Llano County, Texas, due to concerns over their sexual and racial content must be returned to shelves, a federal judge ruled on March 30. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman, in his preliminary injunction, ordered county officials to return all of the books, which cover multiple topics…


A Rebel’s Reading List

Commentary Here is a bitter irony for you. Just as the world’s greatest literature of all ages became available to every person, mostly at no charge, and with only a search and a click, it seems like most people have lost interest. What incredible and tragic timing! For a large part of the 18th and…


Book Review: ‘Field of Corpses: Arthur St. Clair and the Death of an American Army’

When it comes to the Indian Wars, there are names that are familiar to us, like Apache, Comanche, and Cherokee, as well as battles, like Custer’s Last Stand, Battle of Wounded Knee, and Battle of theLittle Bighorn. Less familiar may be the Miamis, the powerful Ohio tribe, and the Battle of theWabash. In his new…


Gentle Persuasion: Mary Roberts Rinehart’s Short Story, ‘Gentle Hand’

Too often, when someone disagrees or opposes us, we respond with force or harsh words. Yet, in her short story, “Gentle Hand,” Mary Roberts Rinehart demonstrates that gentleness is far more persuasive and moving than any amount of force that we can conjure up. In this story, as the day draws to a close, a…