notanotherbookreview

Great salon.com piece mentions THE 1916 IRISH REBELLION, book & documentary is a good place to begin to understand the event. http://www.salon.com/2016/04/07/how_a_failed_rebellion_changed_the_world_the_easter_risings_strange_centennial/ From BOOKLIST, excerpt of review to run 4/15 ....Rich in fascinating historical photographs and informative and poignant documents that capture each phase of the struggle and its inevitable and tragic outcome, this striking volume tells the complex tale of a singular chapter in the long  war against colonialism in plain and ringing language. https://1916.nd.edu/events/2016/03/31/39351-screening-and-keynote-address/ 3/16, Today, in Ireland, the DIASPORA EVENT for THE 1916 IRISH REBELLION.  Hope to reach 70 million people https://1916.nd.edu/events/2016/03/16/38103-world-premiere/ Trailer for the documentary THE 1916 IRISH REBELLION, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN2dimzxzp8 by Briona Ni...

THE MAGIC STRINGS OF FRANKIE PRESTO by Mitch Albom and GINNY GALL by Charlie Smith seem worlds apart. Albom's novels have sold more than 35 million copies in 42 languages. Charlie Smith, author of eight novels, three New York Times "Notable Books" won the Agha Kahn Prize and has written for the Paris Review and The New Yorker. Albom, who started as a sportswriter, is a screen writer and syndicated columnist. His prose style is simple, at times even flat. Smith is a literary stylist whose "writing can  make the mountains ring." (NYTBR). Albom is a big commercial success without being a literary writer. Smith is a literary success from Iowa's prestigious writing program, whose books have been well received by critics but are not bestsellers. Commercial and literary are marketed in different categories--one makes money, the other gets respect. Why is there a split?  One reason is publishers' infatuation with the products of MFA writing programs, e...

The mothers of famous artists  are often ignored in a myth-making process that assumes artists are completely self-invented creatures. Probably Freud's theories contributed to the infamy of mothers, yet there's evidence women transmit the gene for intelligence to their sons (for daughters it's a split gene). In THE MARRIAGE OF OPPOSITES, Alice Hoffman shows how a son's genius arose from his mother's transformative journey. It is late in this mythic story, when you realize Camille Pissarro is the son most like Rachel, his mother. She's an old lady in 1807 in Paris, when she begins her narrative about her life on the island of St. Thomas. Her family came to the island, as did their small Jewish community, because the King of Denmark proclaimed freedom of religion for all on St, Thomas and gave Jews civil rights. After 300 years of his family's expulsions from countries, her father finally found a haven. The story Rachel learned, was that he owed his lif...

Strategizing Societal Transformation Knowledge, Technologies, and Noonomy Vladimir L. Kvint Sergey D. Bodrunov http://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2016-03-28/professor-kvint-us-needs-to-develop-a-national-strategy-audio “While his strategic analyses and forecasts of events are not infrequently outspoken, controversial, and at times even criticized as outlandish or impossible, in hindsight, they have been remarkably accurate and insightful. Indeed, it becomes evident that his forecasts are soundly grounded in detailed analysis of fact, coupled with a unique perspective and the wisdom gained of a long and unique career.” – James W. Michaels,  Forbes Magazine  "This path breaking book studies the concept of strategy, surveying its development from ancient times to the present and showing how it is basic to both economic growth and the quality of life. Strategies, Kvint explains, work to find new perspectives and to project new scenarios into the future. This or...

Prologue to THE PRIZE, Jill Bialosky's incredibly moving novel of the art world Edward Darby knew that an artist's work had the power to change the way in which art was perceived, for every successful artist must recreate the medium, but he did not know, each time he went to a new artist's studio, if he'd ever find it.  When you see a work of art, it will be as if everything else in relationship to it has faded. Art should transport the seer from the ordinary to the sublime.  His father, a scholar of romantic poetry, told him this when he was a boy. But it was more than that. It was the myths artists created about their art that gave the work authority, and as an art dealer, he was part of that creation. He thought about all this as he looked for Agnes Murray's name on the directory in the vestibile of a crumbling old warehouse in Bushwick. It was a cold and gray morning in April. He hoped he wasn't wasting his time. THE PRIZE (COUNTERPOINT, Berkeley)...