White Dog Fell From the Sky, a novel by Eleanor Morse
Isaac Muthethe, a young medical student from South Africa, witnesses the brutal murder of a friend by the South African Defense Force. Fearing for his own life under the apartheid regime of the mid-1970s, he flees his homeland
Whose Names Are Unknown, a novel by Sanora Babb
Whose Names are Unknown by Sanora Babb tells the story of the Dunne family, their struggle to survive the drought and dust storms of the 1930s, and their exodus to California.
Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
When Atlas Shrugged was published in 1957, critics dismissed it as melodramatic, overwrought, and didactic. The dialogue, they said, was incredibly boring, repetitive, and long-winded. Characters launched into philosophical diatribes that had little to do with the action or scene
The Orchardist, Amanda Coplin
They were two girls dressed in raggedy clothes, standing beneath the awning of the hardware store. Their faces were dirty, their hair tangled, their bodies distended. They were pregnant. Both of them. And hungry. William Talmadge had driven his wagon filled with apples and apricots to town that Sunday morning. He set up his fruit […]
The Republican Response
On January 20, 2009, the day Obama was inaugurated, twelve Republican lawmakers gathered in a private dining room of an exclusive Washington restaurant. The meeting lasted for four hours. Before they parted, each of the Senators and Representatives
Drift, The Unmooring of American Military Power, by Rachel Maddow
Drift, by Rachel Maddow, explores the ways in which our country has drifted from what was once a peace-loving nation to a country constantly at war. Where once we fought wars
A Separation, Best Foreign Film in 2012
A Separation, the movie that won the Oscar for Best Foreign Picture, begins in an Iranian court of law. Simin (played by Leila Hatami) and Nadar (Peyman Moaadi), an upper-middle class couple, are seeking a divorce. They sit before a judge and argue their case: Simin wants to take their eleven-year-old daughter out of the […]
Secular Law Trumps Religious Law
“Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” unless religion goes off a cliff. When that happens, secular law trumps religious law. History is full of examples
