This is the perfect little handbook for the English major, or literary wit in your life. Simple and compact, it is a compilation of interesting facts surrounding the myth and mystery of William Shakespeare. Author Stephen Marche notes that when he embarked on his PhD dissertation, “I chose Shakespeare because I thought he would never…
REVIEW: THE WHITE DEVIL by Justin Evans
I can’t be sure how I became entirely sucked into this story. Perhaps it was the easy, seductive charm of the setting; or the way the era was not obvious at the outset; maybe how it took on the genres of ghost story, coming-of-age tale and historical fiction all at once. It is set in…
REVIEW: THE ORACLE OF STAMBOUL by Michael David Lukas
I desperately wanted to love this book. As a self-proclaimed Orientalist, I sought to be swept away by the magic of the Black Sea and the secrets of the Bosporus. I was hoping to find a bit of myself in the young protagonist — an innocent, with a nagging sense of urgency about the disappearing culture…