Despite the brain’s ability to map out function and behavior in an organized way, the mind transcends this fundamental capacity, and functions in many diverging directions based on a variety of environmental influences. Michael Pollan explores this complex interaction between nature and nurture – the neurological debate of the century – in his most recent …
For the past year I’ve been developing a fascination for Greek mythology. I think it probably started last summer when I read The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood. It tells the story of Homer’s Illiad from the perspective of Penelope, wife of the hero Odysseus, who waits 20 years for her husband to return home from …
I am in the middle of the novel In the Distance by Hernan Diaz right now. The novel tells the story of Håkan Söderström, a young Swedish immigrant to the United States in the nineteenth century. After losing his older brother during the passage from Europe to America, and accidentally ending up in San Francisco …
I am reading One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez and even though my progress is often interrupted by fifty-page readings for anthropology I am still completely engrossed in the book. Set in the town of Macondo the plot follows the glories and defeats of the Buendía family as they struggle with love, …
Since we’re right in the middle of the Multifaith Fellowship, I’ve been reading a lot of books and articles about engaging faith/religion/tradition with society and history. One of my favorites so far is by Miroslav Volf, Flourishing: Why We Need Religion in a Globalized World. Flourishing is the work of professor Volf’s seminar, “Faith & Globalization” …
Russia/USSR has long been a place that fascinates me. As a kid growing up in the 1980’s, some of my earliest memories were of Mikhail Gorbachev’s visits to the US. As a product of a liberal arts college, I took classes in Russian language, history, and literature (in addition to my chemistry classes). The Russia …
If you’re interested in the world of Modern Orthodox Jews, I’d definitely recommend reading any of Tova Mirvis’s wonderful novels. However, Mirvis’s 2017 memoir, The Book of Separation, which documents her decision to leave the Orthodoxy, should be on the top of your reading list. Even if you’re not interested in Modern Orthodox Judaism–which you …
The band The The is performing live for the first time in 16 years. So I snapped up some tickets and went to look for my old CDs of theirs in the basement (remember those shiny round things? I couldn’t find mine, so I am listening on an iPad). Going through their catalogue – primarily Soul …
I’m a strong believer in the wealth of knowledge that comes from TED talks and seminars all over the world. I have learned a great deal, and I’m still learning from these talks. Based on the impending award of an honorary degree to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, I decided to watch all of her videos, TED talks especially, all …
I recently made a new friend who is a bird artist. When he told me what he does for a living, I thought immediately of Howard Norman’s The Bird Artist, a book I loved when I read it twenty-five years ago (around the time I started teaching at Bowdoin). This spring break, my friend and …