In Empress, Ruby Lal tells a story that many have tried to erase from history. Her lyric writing at times also paints a stunning opulence of a royal ruling class that out does what can be found in a lot of fiction. By piecing together fragments from different sources, Lal traces the history of Nur… View more
Times are strange right now. Because of the corona virus, all of a sudden we are practicing Social Distancing- a term that most of us have probably never heard of before. We’ve also kicked up our personal hygiene by three notches, namely by washing our hands with soap and water for 20 seconds. Not five… View more
Ladies, gentleman, and non binary friends- I have news. Winter is here. We can deny it all we want, but we know it is just around the corner. This time it is not playing by any rules either. I don’t think I have ever before seen fall leaves on top of winter snow. Have you?… View more
Personal stories. We all have them. Some might be better than others, but that also depends on how you tell them. Reading each other’s personal stories is one way we connect with one another. We’ll read someone else’s memoir and might find a nugget of fact that corresponds to our own lives. Suddenly we have… View more
I’m trying to be less reliant on my phone for everything. Between work, playing games, and those time sucking social media apps whose purpose I’m always questioning, I am on my phone way too much. I didn’t want to find another use for it, but then two great forces converged and made it well worth… View more
I’m fascinated with epic stories tied to different religions. Although I was familiar with some of principles of Buddhism and knew some details on the story of Gautama Buddha, I didn’t realize how much of the story I was unaware of till I read Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha that is available from the Downtown Library. This… View more
I fell in love with the wonders of Mythology in college. It was the similarities between mythologies that grabbed me at first, like the reoccurring stories of younger gods defeating older gods. But as I delved deeper into it, I became equally fascinated with how different cultures in different landscapes view the world with fascinating originality. There… View more
I appreciate sci-fi that takes me into a fantastical place and simultaneously reminds me of the wonders of the real world. From the beginning it was clear that this trilogy was going to do that for me. Set in a future with plenty of alien cultures and interactions, our protagonist Binti is a member of the… View more
I’ve been a comic book fan for quite a while. I’ll read a whole series of trade paper backs by one writer on one character at a time. My ongoing adventure is with the writer Greg Pak and the Hulk. To the new reader, or to those following his cinematic interpretation in the Marvel movies, The… View more
