Playwright Eugene O’Neill, who was reared on the road by actor/parents who were performing in various cities, lamented of his unstable life: “I was born in a hotel room and God-damn, I’ll die in a hotel room.” While O’Neill turned his tortured experience into great art, including the memorable Long Day’s Journey into Night, he […]
Wednesday, 01 September, 2021 by Ann Henderson Hart
Mark Noll, professor of history at theUniversity of Notre Dame and former long-time professor at Wheaton College, has written a compelling spiritual memoir. The book is a personal and professional journey into the author’s deepening appreciation of the gospel and how it is communicated worldwide. Along the way, we are introduced to the people, institutions, […]
Saturday, 31 October, 2015 by Ann Henderson Hart
One of history's most famous missionary kids, writer Pearl Buck, journeyed from China's remotest provinces to literary fame in New York, and then to an extraordinary home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. There she adopted several mixed-race children and championed the needs of the underclass around the world. The blond-haired child (called the "blue-eyed demon" by […]
Wednesday, 02 March, 2011 by Ann Henderson Hart
Swedish author Stieg Larsson's crime thrillers have built an enthusiastic worldwide audience, selling more than 35 billion copies to date. The anticipation leading up to the recent release of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the third in his Millennium Trilogy, is impressive. In fact, only the readers of Charles Dickens and J. K. […]
Wednesday, 01 September, 2010 by Ann Henderson Hart
In 2008 during the annual book fair in Frankfurt, Germany, novelist Orhan Pamuk criticized how the Turkish government treats writers and artists. He was well aware that Turkey's president, Abdullah Gul, was in the audience that day: "A century of banning and burning books, of throwing writers into prison or killing them or branding them […]
Monday, 01 March, 2010 by Ann Henderson Hart
When Marilynne Robinson came to Philadelphia's Free Library last fall to read from her new novel, Home, she drew a crowd of loyalists. The auditorium wasn't completely packed– she was competing that night with the last of the televised presidential debates. It seemed a fitting juxtaposition, given that Robinson prefers to write about small town […]
Friday, 30 October, 2009 by Ann Henderson Hart
Commuting back and forth to Center City Philadelphia by train, I notice many people absorbed in reading. Beyond the daily newspaper consumers, there are a host of book readers. Unfortunately, judging by the book jackets, too many are indulging in bodice-ripping romances or the “Find Mr. Right and Never Have to Work Again” (or commute […]
Thursday, 01 May, 2008 by Ann Henderson Hart
In her spiritual memoir, Girl Meets God, Lauren Winner writes with refreshing wit and occasional eloquence about her pilgrimage from Orthodox Judaism to evangelical Protestantism (in this case, the Episcopal church). This twenty-something graduate student draws on a wide breadth of knowledge-both personally and professionally-to discuss a variety of religious experiences. Her father was a […]
Tuesday, 15 May, 2007 by Ann Henderson Hart
Playwright Eugene O’Neil, who was reared on the road by actor/parents who were performing in various cities, lamented of his unstable life: “I was born in a hotel room and God-damn, I’ll die in a hotel room.” While O’Neil turned his tortured experience into great art, including the memorable Long Day’s Journey Into Night, he […]
Thursday, 03 May, 2007 by Ann Henderson Hart
"Have you read Gilead yet?" a neighbor asked enthusiastically, approaching me in our city neighborhood. I told her I had just started Marilynne Robinson's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. My friend, a physician from a Unitarian background, went on to describe why she loved the book. The aging protagonist, Reverend John Ames, resonated for her because of […]
Wednesday, 02 May, 2007 by Ann Henderson Hart