The Book Smugglers: Partisans, Poets, and the Race to Save Jewish Treasures from the Nazis By David E. Fishman Reviewed by Julie Sara Porter The Holocaust is a time when many people took courageous risks to save lives. There were just as many stories of people who took courageous risks to save not only human …
Tesla Inventor of the Electrical Age By W. Bernard Carlson Reviewed by Julie Sara Porter Many believe that genius and eccentricity go hand in hand. The brain that is able to solve complex mathematical equations may also be the one who has to check and recheck their locks before entering or exiting the house. The …
Pablo Picasso-Gertrude Stein: Correspondence Edited by Laurence Madeline and Translated by Lorna Scott Fox Reviewed by Julie Sara Porter The early 20th century saw the rise of Modernism, a movement in art, literature, philosophy, architecture and culture which found new ways of self-expression. It was partly inspired because of the rise of urban living and …
One of the representatives of the new functionalist paradigm in the philosophy and culture of the twentieth century is Jean-Paul Sartre. Nausea, his novel from 1938, describes an individual who becomes aware of the metaphysical crisis that follows the end of substantialism. He expects to see essences, the truth, the old truth, but he sees …
The Creative Process: Reflections on Invention in the Arts and Sciences Edited With An Introduction by Brewster Ghiselin Reviewed by Julie Sara Porter What does it mean to be creative? What is the creative process? Where does inspiration come from? Where do the great thinkers and artists get their ideas? How does someone take an …
The Richest Woman in America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age By Janet Wallach Reviewed by Julie Sara Porter Hetty Green (1835-1916) is not a well known name now but during the Gilded Age she was considered quite notorious. She was notorious partly because she was a sharp and savvy investment broker, one of the …
Wise Women: Over 2000 Years of Spiritual Writing by Women Edited by Susan Cahill Reviewed by Julie Sara Porter There are just as many spiritual practices and religions as there are people and just as many individual ways people approach their deities and the reasons behind their connections or their inspirational words. Women hold a …
When it comes to the meaning of faith, the Bible is the best source for us to understand it. The Bible talks about faith in many ways – faith as trust, faith as belief, faith as assurance, faith as a gift, faith as righteousness, and many more. While faith is also personified as a person …
Women’s Letters: America From The Revolutionary War to The Present Edited by Stephen J. Adler and Lisa Grunwald Reviewed by Julie Sara Porter Primary sources are terrific means of researching history. They are first-person accounts by the people who lived them. Among the most important primary sources are letters. Stephen J. Adler and Lisa Grunwald …
My Confederate Kinfolk: A Twenty-First Century Freedwoman Discovers Her Roots By Thulani Davis Reviewed by Julie Sara Porter We all have connections to our family histories that even a DNA test can’t decipher. We may have a family story about how our ancestors emigrated to their new country. A talent or a physical mannerism seems …