Tag Archives: Essays

Review: They Called Me a Lioness (Ahed Tamimi and Dena Takruri)

Ahed Tamimi and her family have spent their whole lives fighting for a free Palestine. From the village of Nabi Salih in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Tamimi has been an icon of resistance since she was a young girl but gained international attention in 2017 after she was arrested and jailed for eight months at the age of 16 for slapping an Israeli soldier who had just shot her cousin in the head. A video of the slap spread on social media, bringing much-needed attention to the violence in the West Bank. 

Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History (Nur Masalha)

Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History by Nur Masalha ambitiously traces, as the name suggests, four thousand years of Palestinian history, from the beginning of recorded history to the modern Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Masalha is a professor of Palestinian history, former Director of the Centre for Religion and History at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham, and editor of “The Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies,” published by Edinburgh University Press. He studies, among other things, memory, social activism, and decolonizing methodologies.

Review: The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Ilan Pappé)

You cannot read 336 pages of Israel committing ethnic cleansing over 70+ years without having to come to terms with the fact that not having a strong opinion on some things is just being a coward. As it turns out, the situation is really, really simple. 

Writing to Remember

One of the hardest things about living after a brain injury has been scraping together what remains of my sense of self, gluing it all back together with only my notes to guide me. I don’t feel like the person I was before. I’m not the person I was before. She died. It is so easy to feel like a stranger in my own life, to feel like everything I have isn’t really mine. My old friends, my family, and even my writing is someone else’s. I’ve merely inherited them.

Review: The Lost Apothecary (Sarah Penner)

An apothecary named Nella sells poisons to wronged women in 1791 London. Twelve-year-old Eliza seeks her help on behalf of her employer, a woman who wants her husband dead, and soon after, Nella’s world begins to crumble around her. In present-day London, history enthusiast Caroline Parcewell spends her 10th wedding anniversary alone, trying to figureContinue reading “Review: The Lost Apothecary (Sarah Penner)”

Thoughts on How to Stop Time (Matt Haig)

I have often wondered what it would be like never to die. I wouldn’t have to worry about illness, aging, or the slow but inevitable cognitive decline that leads one with varying degrees of dignity into the grave. There would be no sense of personal urgency, but I would live in fear of losing people.Continue reading “Thoughts on How to Stop Time (Matt Haig)”

Human Skin Books and a Family Connection: (Sort of) a Review of Dark Archives by Megan Rosenbloom

When I started college, I thought I wanted to be a doctor, at least until I realized that I really, really don’t like touching people. I knew I would be okay with the icky stuff, but I’ve never been accused of having a bedside manner, and some psychic at the Dickens Fair a decade agoContinue reading “Human Skin Books and a Family Connection: (Sort of) a Review of Dark Archives by Megan Rosenbloom”

Review: Billions and Billions (Carl Sagan)

I was not prepared to cry this much. It’s my fault; I should have done my research before reading Carl Sagan’s last work without tissues on hand. Reading this in 2023 is hard, and not just because of the tear-jerking epilogue by his window, Ann Druyun.  Sagan touches on a number of topics in hisContinue reading “Review: Billions and Billions (Carl Sagan)”

Thoughts on The Stranger (Camus)

I haven’t read much Camus, but I picked up The Stranger to give a more productive critique of a friend’s upcoming novel. She is a big Camus fan, so I decided to give it a whirl. Reading this and Slaughterhouse Five on the same day was NOT good for my mental health, but it made me think, and IContinue reading “Thoughts on The Stranger (Camus)”