My life, like yours, I suspect, can feel like it has been ingeniously designed for the sole purpose of strangling serendipity. What an awesome first line, not my own words, but an extract from a New York Times opinion piece published today. In high school English class I remember working on first lines, typically constructed... Continue Reading →
In a previous blog I offered a review of Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future: A Novel. Peppered throughout Robinson’s story are hundreds of aphorisms which have me pause for cause (or cause me to pause), to take notice, and reflect. I find these words to be variously powerful, insightful, pithy, analytical, emotional,... Continue Reading →
“This is the best book I have ever read.” These are not my words but those of a Berkley liturgical scholar who reads and publishes on Christian worship. Her unexpected outburst concerned Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future: A Novel (Orbit, 2020). Described on the cover by American novelist Jonathan Lathem as “the... Continue Reading →
Well actually, JRR Tolkein has been dead for some time. He died on Sept 2, 1973, four years before I held in my hand copies of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. How little I knew how that particular literature would shape my future life. Prior to moving to London, England for musical... Continue Reading →
Take Note - Reflections on life, music, politics, retirement and more by Ken Gray 