Books, Poetry & Short Stories

Foreign Ministry hits Japan’s use of Mein Kampf

Fascism and militarism “must be held thoroughly accountable and eradicated” and Japan must educate its young people with “the right view of history”, a Foreign Ministry official said on Tuesday. The comment came after reports that the Japanese Cabinet approved using what it described as “helpful and appropriate” content from Adolf Hitler’s infamous book, Mein […]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International

Egyptian author gives voice to homosexuals in taboo-breaking novel

Mohammed Abdel-Nabi’s novel on homosexuality is one of six works competing for the Arab world’s top literary prize on April 25. Even though same-sex relations remain taboo in his home country, the author tells dpa that Egyptian society is becoming receptive to discussion on issues long regarded as off-limits. Cairo (dpa) – For the second

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International

BOOK REVIEW: ‘John Quincy Adams and the Politics of Slavery’

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS AND THE POLITICS OF SLAVERY By David Waldstreicher and Matthew Mason Oxford University Press, $29.95, 308 pages Good biography should not just bring the subject individual into clearer focus, it also should inform us about how that life has something to tell us about current events. This meticulously annotated selection from the

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, USA

Trump’s First Easter Egg Roll Was One for the Books

President Donald Trump’s family and cabinet did more than just host 21,000 people for the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday—they finally got caught reading. First lady Melania Trump perched on a seat before a crowd of children and read aloud “Party Animals,” a 2010 book by TV host Kathie Lee Giffords, telling

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, USA

Hemingway’s love letter to Marlene Dietrich goes on the auction block

“Dearest Marlene: I always love you and admire you and I have all sorts of mixed up feelings about you […] please know that I love you always and forget you sometimes as I forget my heart beats. But it beats always.” The letter was addressed to Marlene Dietrich and written by Ernest Hemingway, one

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

A memoir of travel, encounters with the famous

As I Remember It by Cynthia Citron, © 2017 Xlibris; ISBN 9780152-4571627. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Given that Nancy and I are mentioned in Cynthia Citron’s book, I feel a bit embarrassed recommending it to you. But the fact is, Cynthia also writes in her memoir about important people with whom she

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Cynthia Citron, Donald H. Harrison, International, Science, Medicine, & Education, Travel and Food, USA

A young author profiles his grandmother

Finding Maria: A young man’s search for his grandmother, and himself by Peter Szabo; © 2016;; ChickadeePrince; ISBN 9780991-327447; 138 pages; $11.99. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Late in his grandmother Maria’s life, Peter Szabo came to realize that as a cultured woman who had survived the Holocaust in Hungary and had withstood

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

Cli-fi, quidditch, latte art among new words

By Dan Bloom CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — When the Oxford Dictionaries in Britain made a list of new words it was accepting into its chambers for 2017, J.K. Rowling’s ”Harry Potter” novels had its “quidditch term accepted, along with “latte art,” “floordrobe,” “snoozefest” and ”cli-fi.” Words matter, and the editors of this British dictionary in London

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Travel and Food

Lauded Russian poet Yevtushenko buried in Moscow

The much lauded Soviet-era writer and poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko has been laid to rest in Moscow. Had lunch at CDL Central house of Writers in Moscow. Beautiful establishment witch was a Mason’s lodge pic.twitter.com/MrzJXBiArH— Telemacus (@msiah) July 28, 2016 Mourners paid their respects at a civil ceremony at the ‘Writers House’ in the Russian capital.

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Obituaries & memorials

Ardian Syaf, Marvel artist, promoted anti-Christian, anti-Semitic Koran verse in ‘X-Men Gold’ book

Marvel artist Ardian Syaf will face “disciplinary action” after it was revealed over the weekend that he promoted an anti-Christian and anti-Semitic verse from the Koran in one of its books. Superhero fans know the X-Men as a team of “mutants” that fights against intolerance. The newest issue of “X-Men Gold,” however, included a reference

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, USA

Ten reasons for the demise of the Shah of Iran

Untethered The True Children of Cyrus By Joe Gandelman Editor-in-Chief, The Moderate Voice SAN DIEGO — There is a moment in 1974’s Godfather 2 when Michael Corleone sees the determination of Fidel Castro-led rebel forces. The scene is quick and later Michael notes it to the ill-fated crime bigwig Hyman Roth: “I saw an interesting

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Joe Gandelman, Middle East

‘Babi Yar’ poet Yevtushenko dies

  TULSA, Oklahoma (WJC) — Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, whose 1961 poem about the Nazi massacre at Babi Yar near Kiev helped to expose rampant anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union, died Saturday at 84. Yevtushenko passed away in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He had been a faculty member at the University of Tulsa since the mid-1990s.Some 34,000 Jews were

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Obituaries & memorials

500-year-old ‘Prague Haggadah’ found

Just prior to Pesach (Passover), the National Library of Israel revealed that it had acquired the velum Prague Haggadah two months ago, when the library purchased the famed Valmadonna Collection of Judaica. The Haggadah was printed in Prague in 1556. A previous Haggadah was printed in 1526, but no copy survived. Several elements of the

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle East