Reviews and News:
How a young Antonin Scalia shaped Canada’s spy agencies.
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Why did Britain’s first road atlas take you to Aberystwyth?
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Lady Jane Grey, a quintessential Tudor: “Four of the six Tudor monarchs who steered England’s destinies through the tumultuous 16th century, three were female. The half-sisters Elizabeth and Mary — who both loom large in Nicola Tallis’s stunning debut — need no introduction, but the third, Lady Jane Grey, the subject of her searching biography, has until now remained in the shadows.”
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Mark Hemingway reviews James Poulos’s The Art of Being Free, “a wholly original, insightful, and crazy deconstructed self-help book that will reshape what you think about everything from sex to adverbs.”
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Mark Twain’s library to be opened to the public.
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Isaac Nowell reviews J. D. McClatchy’s commonplace book: “McClatchy’s selection of quotations is mostly immaculate,” “narrow but high-minded.”
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“Zhou Youguang, the inventor of a system to convert Chinese characters into words with the Roman alphabet, died Saturday at the age of 111. Since his system was introduced nearly six decades ago, few innovations have done more to boost literacy rates in China and bridge the divide between the country and the West.”
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Is Alzheimer’s caused by a bug?
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Essay of the Day:
In The Daily Beast, Allison McNearney retells the story of the 12th-century castle, Crac de Chevaliers, in light of recent damages:
“High on a hill, almost halfway between Homs, Syria, and the Mediterranean Sea, sits a grand and formidable castle. All imposing turrets and towers, winding parapets, and massive stretches of limestone walls, the Crac des Chevaliers is the stuff of Disney-worthy dreams.
“One can only imagine the historical events that this castle has witnessed from that hilltop since the Crusaders began constructing it in 1142 as their latest and greatest fortress.
“But it is in the most recent of these world-shaking crises—the Syrian Civil War—that the UNESCO World Heritage Site has suffered what may be irreparable damage.”
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Image of the Day: The Parthenon
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Poem: Cody Walker, “I’m Like”
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