I deeply regret not discovering Elie Wiesel's "Night" until recently. Despite having read extensively about the Holocaust, this poignant work had eluded me. It wasn't until my visit to the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo last year that I found a copy in the gift shop. The exhibit on Elie Wiesel, the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, had piqued my interest.
At just over 100 pages, "Night" seemed like the perfect companion for my upcoming train ride. Its brevity, however, belied the profound impact it had on me. Wiesel's harrowing account is unforgettable, and his transformation into a peace activist rather than a revenge seeker is a testament to his extraordinary character.
Completing the book, I was struck by the sobering realization that millions who could have shared comparable stories were silenced during one of humanity's darkest chapters.
Born into a Jewish ghetto in Hungary, as a child, Elie Wiesel was sent to the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. This is his account of that atrocity: the ever-increasing horrors he endured, the loss of his family and his struggle to survive in a world that stripped him of humanity, dignity and faith. Describing in simple terms the tragic murder of a people from a survivor's perspective, Night is among the most personal, intimate and poignant of all accounts of the Holocaust. A compelling consideration of the darkest side of human nature and the enduring power of…
Like many avid readers, I maintain a list of books that I hope to read in my lifetime. My list includes numerous classics of English literature, and I recently had the pleasure of crossing Emily Brontë's sole novel, "Wuthering Heights," off my list.
Brontë's masterful use of language, evident in both her characters' dialogue and her poetic descriptions of the northern English countryside, reminded me of the power of great writing. Reading "Wuthering Heights" while on sabbatical in Sheffield, located in South Yorkshire and near where Brontë grew up in West Yorkshire, allowed me to connect with the novel's moorish setting, a landscape I've become familiar with through my hikes in the English countryside. Brontë's descriptions of the setting resonated with me due to their accuracy.
Though I found many of the characters in "Wuthering Heights" to be detestable, the novel served as a reminder of the profound influence that one's upbringing has on one's character as an adult.
One of the great novels of the nineteenth century, Emily Bronte's haunting tale of passion and greed remains unsurpassed in its depiction of destructive love. Her tragically short life is brilliantly imagined in the major new movie, Emily, starring Emma Mackey in the title role.
Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition of Wuthering Heights features an afterword by David Pinching.
One wild, snowy night on the Yorkshire moors, a gentleman asks…
I discovered the British television show "Vera" shortly before my wife and I moved to Sheffield, England for my sabbatical. I instantly became a fan of DCI Vera Stanhope, played brilliantly by Brenda Blethyn. Vera's age, work ethic, and humorous lack of adroitness with technology resonated with me, and I found her to be a truly clever character.
After a few months in England, my wife gifted me "The Seagull" by Ann Cleeves, the eighth book in the "Vera" series. Although I'm usually quite particular about reading books in order, my curiosity got the best of me, and I read most of the "The Seagull" on a train ride during a weekend getaway. I enjoyed Vera even more in the book than on the television show. The crime story was so captivating that I quickly made my way through the nearly 400 pages, and I found myself cheering "Go, Vera!" more than once.
Having now seen the final episode of Series 9, also titled "The Seagull," it's clear that the book's story had to be compressed and altered for television. As book lovers often say, "The book is better!"
I'm looking forward to reading more of the "Vera" books and then exploring Ann Cleeves' books that inspired the show "Shetland," another series my wife and I enjoyed.
The Seagull is the eighth book in Ann Cleeves's Vera Stanhope series - which is now a major ITV detective drama starring Brenda Blethyn as Vera.
Obsession never dies . . .
When prison inmate and former police officer John Brace says he's willing to give up information about the location of a dead body in return for protection for his family, Vera knows that she has to look into his claims.
But opening up this cold case strikes much closer to home than Vera anticipates as her investigation takes her back in time to The Seagull, a once-decadent and…
Krav Maga, developed in the 1930s by Imi Lichtenfeld as a means of protecting Jewish neighborhoods in Bratislava from rising anti-Semitic violence, is a martial art that prioritizes practical street fighting over the elegant katas found in other disciplines like karate. In "The Physics of Krav Maga," I use my expertise as a sports physicist to examine the science behind a martial art that I myself trained in for several years.
Though my book is devoid of equations, which may disappoint fellow math enthusiasts, it aims to engage a broader audience with its conceptual descriptions of the physics involved. Written during my time training under the excellent Krav Maga instructor Clif Eli Abercrombie, my book is not intended as an instructional manual. It instead delves into the physics underlying Krav Maga's effective techniques.
Knowledge is power, and a deeper understanding of why a technique works can only enhance one's execution of that technique.
