'Humbling' lacks much to be enthused about, by Mike Fischer, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, posted: November 7, 2009, review of 'The Humbling', by Philip Roth

The Book of Harry: How the boy wizard won over religious critics -- and the deeper meaning theologians now see in his tale, by Michael Paulson, Boston Globe, August 16, 2009 (via Arts & Letters Daily)

Second Serving of a "Moveable Feast" Sparks Debate, by Steve Paul, Review-a-Day, August 12, 2009, review of ' A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition, by Ernest Hemingway

The sovereign ghost of Wallace Stevens, by William Logan, The New Criterion, October 2009, review of 'Selected Poems', edited by John N. Serio

Arlo & Janis, by Jimmy Johnson, November 9, 2009


Terrible man, celebrated writer, The Economist, November 5, 2009, review of 'Knut Hamsun: Dreamer and Dissenter', by Ingar Sletten Kolloen.

"I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life...", by Doug Brown, Review-a-Day, August 15, 2009, review of 'Walden' and 'Civil Disobedience', by Henry David Thoreau

Recommended Reading for MPs 1: Paradise Lost, by David Womersley, Social Affairs Unit, August 12, 2009

Will Helen Mirren conquer Racine as Phedre? by Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph, June 8, 2009 "Writing at the time of Louis XIV’s absolutism in an era of austerely reflective Catholicism, Racine proposes an all-or-nothing morality, in which there is no grey area of compromise and good and evil cannot be altered or evaded." (via The Huffington Post)


Desert can be arena of the divine, by Timothy M. Dolan, 'Herald of Hope' column, Milwaukee Catholic Herald, March 5, 2009

"we make an act of faith that God is as much with us in the desert as He is in the Oasis.

"As Thomas a Kempis, the author of The Imitation of Christ, observed, 'The Lord visits his elect in two ways: in consolation, and in desolation.'

"There it is again: the desert and the oasis."


Reading Rat: Recommended reading by these authors.


Also of interest: Librophiliac Love Letter: A Compendium of Beautiful Libraries, Curious Expeditions, September 6, 2007 (via Video meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor)