Category: Books & Poetry

“The Democracy Project: A History, a Crisis, a Movement” by David Graeber Spiegel and Grau, 352 pp., $26 (hardcover) Occupy Wall Street ruled the airwaves and imagination of America for about six weeks before its bases of operation were raided by federally co-ordinated government forces. How did it rise to prominence so fast, achieve more…

New Year’s I drank quarter beers and lived in a delirium of lights. The flash of the flash-in-the pan the hooker and the tourist whores working the opposite side of the street. And then running down the dark alley the sucker punch the spray of American Express Checks the denominations, flapping to the ground my…

NO APOLOGY! let’s get something straight. i’m a full-fledged member of the 60s generation! The Generation! not generation x or double x or even xxx. No! i graduated from high school in 1965 and graduated from college in 1969. i am completely, unapologetically a complete product of the crazy, wonderful, mad, hopeful, imaginative, Imaginative, love-crazed,…

“The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption” by Kathryn Joyce PublicAffaird, 352 pp., $26.99 (hardcover) In her recent book, “The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption,” Kathryn Joyce notes that the “default view of adoption” in American society is a “‘win-win’ scenario” for all parties involved: adoptive…

The day after the Boston Marathon my newsfeed is full of red and pink equal signs next to posts from national press about the bombing. In a way, these are the same love: government-sponsored ways of expressing our empathy.   Boston is a rallying point for independence. The marathon is a rallying point for independence.…

The randomness of the streets laid out as they grew, organically, in this Neighborhood City. Home of the Midnight Ride; small enough to bike anywhere; the Walkable City. And first in North America: the T, where every language is spoken, and which originally had Rapid in it’s name–until a rider sued on the grounds that…

Like father, like son, some people say. Joe Hill is Stephen King’s son and the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. As a matter of fact, this apple is even sweeter if you like your books tinged with tales of horror and love. Joe Hill slips you quickly into his world like slipping a…

Boston winter night— streetlight caught in the glass rim of a sun-catcher. Dark birds float to a bare tree. Underneath pages of newspaper blow. A young man reads poems by Lorca on the train, lips moving, body still. Sky of milk and slate— the sails below are whiter, the river bluer. Vs of geese fly…

“Perhaps someday I’ll crawl back home, beaten, defeated. But not as long as I can make stories out of my heartbreak, beauty out of sorrow.” – Sylvia Plath. Fifty years into the demise of Sylvia Plath, her life and work resonate with themes still largely relevant to the plight of the individual today. With a…