In Chapter I of “The Novel, Who Needs It?,” Joseph Epstein includes this snippet of dialogue from Bernard Malamud’s novel “The Assistant”: He asked her what books she was reading. “’The Idiot,’ do you know it?” “No. What’s it about?” “It’s a novel.” “I’d rather read the truth,” he said. “It is the truth.” “The…
Aesop’s Fable ‘The Bear and the Bees’: To Bear in Silence
When we fail to restrain our passions or impatience, we cultivate harmful habits that can lead us to act out in detrimental and intractable ways. However, rather than being the slaves of these habits, we can prevent disaster by cultivating the virtues that counter these vices: temperance and patience. In the fable, “The Bear and the…
Saints and Sinners: Leo Tolstoy’s ‘Twenty-Three Tales’
“‘What am I asking?’ he said to himself. ‘I’m asking about the relation to the Deity of all the various faiths of mankind. I’m asking about the general manifestation of God to the whole world with these nebulae. What am I doing? To me personally, to my heart, unquestionable knowledge is revealed, inconceivable to reason,…
An Aestival Festival: Some Poems for the Summer
From generals to lieutenants, the best military commanders study the lay of the land and the weather ahead of any mission. How steep are the hills? Are the valleys bare of vegetation or thick with vines and trees? What’s the heat index? Is rain likely? Failure to account for these factors can lead to defeat…
A Pork’s Guide to Virtue: “Five Little Pigs”
This little piggy went to market, This little piggy stayed home, This little piggy had roast beef This little piggy had none, And this little piggy cried wee wee wee all the way home. This toe wiggling Mother Goose rhyme usually comes with many giggles. Yet very few people know the moral story behind this…
Book Review: Hitler’s Maladies and Their Impact on World War II: A Behavioral Neurologist’s View’
The mental health of Adolf Hitler has been an ongoing discussion since before his death in the spring of 1945. Historians and psychologists have endeavored to get to the bottom of what made Hitler arguably the most evil person in human history. Perhaps they are all right. Perhaps not so much. Tom Hutton, a clinical…
Epoch Booklist: Recommended Reading for June 16–22
This week, we feature a winning romance with a time-hopping heroine and a comprehensive history that explores how the Allies won World War II. Fiction ‘In This Moment’ By Gabrielle Meyer The heroine in this time-traveling romp through history is known as Margaret or Maggie or Meg. It all depends on which time period you’re…
Book Review: ‘Desert Armour: Tank Warfare in North Africa’
For those interested in the minute details of how tank warfare was conducted during 1940 and 1941 in North Africa, Robert Forczyk has written an exhaustive work in his new “Desert Armour: Tank Warfare in North Africa: Beda Fomm to Operation Crusader, 1940–41.” Forczyk is not merely a military historian, but also served 18 years as…
Book Review: ‘Miracles’: A Novel of the Unbelievable
In John Coleman’s “Miracles,” his protagonist, Jaime Halasz, is a young, ambitious reporter with a newspaper in Atlanta, Georgia. She is, by nature, skeptical and would not consider herself a person of faith. She is more likely an agnostic, or a nonbeliever. Her gathering of the facts in this story requires much more than a notepad,…
Book Review: ‘Overrun: How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest Border Crisis in U.S. History’
“Immigration is tough. It always has been because, on the one hand, I think we are naturally a people that wants to help others. And we see tragedy and hardship and families that are desperately trying to get here so that their kids are safe. … At the same time, we’re a nation state. We…
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