I’d been thinking about Stephen King’s plague novel The Stand since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. In that novel, a flu virus engineered (unlike the real…
Tag: literature
In today’s random reading, I bump into Neil Gaiman’s explanation of why the Chinese Communist Party started encouraging young people to read science fiction and…
Kevin Woster’s essay on his Divorce Bike (that’s what he calls his 30-year-old two-wheel trail machine) includes an inspiring note on the importance of reading…
Back in July, Brookings writer Phyllis Cole-Dai offered me an early copy of her new historical novel, Beneath the Same Stars, if I would just write…
The C-SPAN Cities Tour has spotlighted the literary life and history of over 120 American Cities. Next week, the bi-monthly broadcast project finally comes to South…
Julia when the leaves turn from green to brown and autumn shades come tumbling down Julia to leave a carpet on the…
I substitute-taught today—economics and British lit. Students in the latter are reading George Orwell’s Animal Farm. While students diligently completed their worksheets (grammar! vocab! reading questions!), I…
My post of Indian voting rights in Jackson County last Wednesday leads to a discussion of taxation, county consolidation, UFOs (really!), economic development, and, ultimately, Bill Dithmer’s…