[Editor’s note – Ann has been sending dispatches on her experiences in Dubai, and I am compiling these into blog posts and putting them on Facebook and Twitter. We’d love to hear your thoughts on her trip. – Melanie Blake] The Emirates Literary Festival is wrapping up, and as I […]
‘s note – Ann has been sending dispatches on her experiences in Dubai, and I am compiling these into blog posts and putting them on Facebook and Twitter. We’d love to hear your thoughts on her trip. – Melanie Blake] In this latest update, just a few words about my […]
[Editor’s note – Ann has been sending dispatches on her experiences in Dubai, and I am compiling these into blog posts and putting them on Facebook and Twitter. We’d love to hear your thoughts on her trip. – Melanie Blake] I thought Toronto was a diverse city. But it is […]
It is easy to arrange a trip to visit the top attractions in any destination. It is also easy to select great literature, art and music to use as a lens to better glimpse the heart and soul of our destination. I also know how to find fantastic leaders and […]
I am preparing for our trip to Richmond Virginia in early March to explore the American Civil War from the point of view of eloquent first-hand witnesses, Walt Whitman (Union) and Mary Chestnut (Confederate). My mind is attuned to material not just about the bloodiest conflict in American history, but […]
My most pleasurable reading is invariably returning to a beloved novel, poem, essay, or story for another visit. It is then I often discover details or information or an exquisite turn of phrase that eluded me during an earlier encounter. Sometimes, it is an entirely different book – like reading Anna […]
Today, when I was proofing Lisa Pasold’s GUEST BLOG on her walks four our Belle Epoque trip to Paris, I came across this phrase, “…writer Emile Zola—whose famed letter J’Accuse courageously spear-headed the defense of Jewish army officer Alfred Dreyfus.” I paused at the word defense. Should it be defence? I […]
Am I the last literate person alive to discover The Proust Questionnaire? Having stumbled on a reference today, I see it is (and has been) everywhere for a long time. If you, too, have had your head buried in a different book, here is a little background, abbreviated from Wikipedia. […]
(Three days ago) I am in a hotel room in the dense resto and bar heart of Madrid. I am here for a layover before stage 2 of this trip, Vietnam and Cambodia. After tonight, the next time I will lay my head on a pillow, I will be in […]
I was musing last night, over a sumptuous Galician meal of many courses, that I know of no other place where persons of all ages, nationalities, faiths (or non), levels of income, and political persuasions come together in such harmony. We remain distinctly different from one another, but something about […]