There was so much "history" in the 20th century that it is easy to forget highly significant but more local events which have been lost among the big picture issues of world wars, evil dictatorships and million-strong massacres.  The destruction of Smyrna in 1922 is one such, and Giles Milton has done us a great favour in writing such a lucid and interesting book, Paradise Lost, about the destruc...

Oh What a Paradise It Seems, published shortly before John Cheever’s 1982 death, is his fifth and final novel. It follows his previous novel, Falconer, by five years and marks a return in tone and style to that of the earlier Cheever novels. If Falconer can be said to be Cheever’s “prison novel,” Oh What a Paradise It Seems is his “environmental novel.”Lemuel Sears may be fast approach...

Over at the Times, a blog post by Stanley Fish, about a new prose translation of “Paradise Lost” into modern English, has sparked a heated debate. The translation, by Dennis Danielson, is meant to...

Trine D. Paulson of Bookspot Central offers a lengthy review of Jem Poster's acclaimed novel Rifling Paradise: "Rifling Paradise is the second novel of the critically acclaimed novelist and poet Jem Poster. The praise is indeed well-deserved – Rifling Paradise is a very well-crafted piece of literary fiction; it is intense, vivid and thoughtful in its exploration of the hidden passions,...

Rifling Paradise is the second novel of the critically acclaimed novelist and poet Jem Poster. The praise is indeed well-deserved – Rifling Paradise is a very well-crafted piece of literary fiction; it is intense, vivid and thoughtful in its exploration of the hidden passions, forbidden desires and the unspoken social codes of Victorian society . . .

Today marks the 400th anniversary of the birth of John Milton. On the occasion, The Guardian offers a Milton quiz and a video of Philip Pullman reading a small portion of Milton's most famous work, Paradise Lost. NPR ran a segment this weekend noting some of the other Milton celebrations, including a 12-hour live reading of Paradise Lost by the faculty of Cambridge University's English d...

I received a copy of My Father’s Paradise from Library Thing in June this year. It was my very first ARC and will always hold a special place in my heart.You can read my review of it here. I loved the book. Last month, I was standing in front of my bookshelf looking for something to re-read. I go through these phases sometimes. This time, I picked My Father’s Paradise (which ...

Coming in February 2009 is a new novel from Jem Poster: Rifling Paradise. Poster, director of creative writing at the University of Wales and author of the critically acclaimed Courting Shadows, has written a atmospheric thriller set in wilds of nineteenth-century Australia. (Neither Nicole Kidman or Hugh Jackman appear in the book). Recently published in the UK, Rifling Paradise tells the tale of...

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Fools Paradise by Jennifer Stevenson.Her entry begins:Fools Paradise is my favorite book about my favorite men—stagehands, those blue-collar knights of chivalry, those workaholic, playaholic, unsung heroes behind the curtain.This book more than any other came about through a collage. I knew it would begin with a Porsche Targa full of live smelt. I knew the hero

Title and Link: Paradise Author: Ariel Tachna Publisher URL: Genre: Contemporary GLBT (M/M), Interracial Length: short story Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5 THE BLURB Jon Simon and Samuel Parker have been seeking the same thing: a serious relationship, one that will last and grow into a lifetime of love. When they meet the attraction is obvious, but they know right away that they need to tread the roa...