Brian Fawcett reviews Philip Marchand’s Ghost Empire: How the French Almost Conquered North America, and finds it so much better than merely good that he apologizes to its author.  

On the centenary of the publication of De Profundis, a meditation on Oscar Wilde.

Somewhat belatedly, Brian Fawcett reviews David Solway’s monograph On Being a Jew, published by David Mason…

Vancouver writer Norbert Ruebsaat offers a view of Stan Persky’s The Short Version: an ABC Book (New Star Books, 2005), which you can order from your local bookstore.

John Harris reviews Gary Geddes’ new book Kingdom of Ten Thousand Things, an Impossible Journey from Kabul to Chiapas

Poet Robert Creeley, who died last week at age 78, is the subject of Stan Persky’s reflections on poetry.

Admirers call Richard Rorty the most interesting philosopher working today. Critics say he doesn’t believe in Truth. Stan Persky surveys a mind. 

Bryan Magee is a philosopher who lets us in on what he’s thinking. Stan Persky finds it all pretty interesting.

Stan Persky saw the so-so minds of his generation prowling the library stacks, picking the books of the year. He was “shocked and appalled.”

The commemoration of the 15th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall last month was a pretty low-key affair. Stan Persky marks it by pondering the life of the German-Jewish author of a book about lies, survival, and storytelling.