At home. Mentioning Ulysses might conjure up a range of associations – important, classic, difficult, even unreadable – but “at home” isn’t likely to be one of them. Sixteen people felt anything but comfortably home on a Monday morning this past July as they awaited the start of a Toronto […]
Today in Literature
TODAY IN LITERATURE—Who Is a Twoo Pilgwim?
Ann will be off on the Camino in a couple of weeks. She is busy putting in long miles, checking her feet, gathering her gear, and rechecking her feet. Along with taking long daily walks through some of the most beautiful countryside imaginable, the group will gather over wine […]
GUEST BLOG — Why We Discuss?
I’ve spent the better part of my professional life encouraging people to talk about books, and not just any books, great books. It turns out that these great books are often times difficult books too. Occasionally I get the prickly questions: Why would a bunch of equally ignorant people even […]
TORONTO PURSUITS – Evolution of the Darwinians
In July 2013, at Toronto Pursuits, a bunch of inquiring adults gathered each morning for a week to discuss the works of Charles Darwin. Some in the group were anxious and uncertain about their choice of material – calling to ask about switching seminars because they found the material tough […]
ON THE ROAD WITH ANN – Dubai Slideshow 2014
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TODAY IN LITERATURE – Dirty Gerty
Bloom on the Beach was its usual enchanting self in Toronto, the customary clear, dry, sunny, breezy day. Falling on a Saturday did not seem be bring out more than the usual 50 or so regulars with several new faces. Perhaps the early start, 8:30am, keeps away some. Others may […]
TODAY IN LITERATURE – ReJoyce! on Bloomsday, June 16
For many years now, I have celebrated Bloomsday with Mary Durkan in Toronto. Mary is the genius behind the wonderful events that take place each June 16. In fact, in 2005, Mary led a Classical Pursuits trip to Ireland to celebrate Bloomsday and several samples of the vast Irish literary […]
TODAY IN LITERATURE – Vanishing Worlds
“It’s in the nature of things that whole worlds disappear,” writes the poet Robert Hass in the foreword to Jimmye Hillman’s insightful memoir Hogs, Mules and Yellow Dogs: Growing Up on a Mississippi Subsistence Farm . “Their vanishings, more often than not, go unrecorded or pass into myth, just as they […]
TRAVEL PURSUITS – Why a new book for Vietnam?
Here was the headline in the book review section of the Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper that caused me to stop and take notice. “Vincent Lam’s first novel, about Vietnam, has makings of a masterpiece.” Vincent Lam is an emergency physician Toronto who also writes – very well. His […]
TODAY IN LITERATURE – “The Day Always Belongs to the Sun,’ by Tran Thanh Ha
On of the things that strikes me over and over on our Classical Pursuits trips is the confirmation that however we may appear to differ across the ages, oceans and culture, in all essential ways, we are one human family. Maybe Shylock said it as well as any, “If you prick us, […]