Literature and Poetry

Joan L. Cannon reviews: Hay describes loves lost, pasts savaged by shock and horror, hopes defeated in the wake of happenings not yet consigned to experience. She describes vividly a landscape that enriches each of the main characters, and that beguiles the reader as brilliantly as any travel brochure. Bajaj is a master at creating suspense; it's hard to put the story down. The journey with Max will leave memories and likely questions for a very long time. more »

Editor's Note: Now that the curtain is being drawn on the Downton Abbey saga we have to quickly turn to the resumption of Grantchester, Season Two, and the handsome priest, Sidney Chambers. We found ourselves disarmed by actor James Norton as Sidney and admit we were previously drawn to Robson Green, playing Inspector Geordie Keating. Green was seen in the series, Wire in the Blood, so the combination of the two actors makes Grantchester even more appealing. There is a dark note to the first episode, but a second season must, by all accounts, startle on some level. more »

This book reminds us how far we have come when there are more highly educated women everywhere than at any other time in history. Still unresolved is the question of friendships between women and men. The difficulty of engaging in this fashion is emphasized by the need repeatedly to declare to doubters that sex is not a component of such a relationship. more »

The young and audacious artists who called themselves the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood revolutionized the British art establishment of the nineteenth century with their medievalist aesthetic. This National Gallery of Canada exhibition illustrates how John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and their fellow Pre-Raphaelites strove to uproot the Royal Academy teachings. Don't overlook the shop! more »