Showing 1 - 10 of 24
Desert graveyard
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 27/06/2019
» While not as prestigious as Nobel Laureates, Pulitzer Prize awardees are highly regarded in the US. The annual recipients are rewarded for works a giant step above their colleagues.
Tongue-in-cheek
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 19/01/2018
» It has been a while a since I smiled while reading a book. My sense of humour is good and I don't hold back my laughter at something that tickles my funny bone. I find Thai double-entendres most amusing. This reviewer wishes books were funny. Those called hilarious by critics simply aren't.
A Chinese empire?
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 17/11/2017
» As a youngster in the Big Apple during the Great Depression, I recall men with billboard signs with "The world is coming to an end -- REPENT". The people they passed on the streets shrugged them off. l didn't fully understand what it meant, but I knew that threats aren't to be taken lightly.
Open season on IS
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 27/04/2017
» Though the president of the United States is a character in more than a few novels, he is a product of the authors' imaginations and bears little if any resemblance to the actual incumbents. In some stories he's idealised, in others vilified.
A crisis of faith
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 21/04/2017
» While martyrdom indicates the intensity of belief in, not the truth of, a religion, religious wars have been bloody throughout human history. Though not regarded as a war of religion, six million Jews died in the Nazi Holocaust. Christianity in general, Catholics in particular, experienced persecution for centuries.
Combating the beasts
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 24/03/2017
» The world is a jungle and its beasts -- humans and animal -- are out to get us. Can the forces, sworn to protect and defend us, keep them at bay? It's touch and go. The basic task is not to catch them after they've struck, but to prevent them from striking.
Two wives, one husband
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 17/03/2017
» For multi-millennia, marriage has been about possession. Hands of he/she belong to me. To be sure, in most societies the husband got the best of it as the wife's belongings became his. Why else wed? Well-to-do widows, with both her and her late spouse's goods in her hands, were the prize catch.
The actual arch-enemy
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 03/02/2017
» For several years after the start of the Counter Crusades -- the Middle East's invasion of Europe -- it was unhealthy for the European media to say or write anything that was negative to the Holy Book. Its extremist adherents attacked the source and blood flowed. Fleeing the scene, no suicide bombers they, so-called Islamic State proudly boasted of the murders.
A bit rich
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 06/01/2017
» I learned the oldest of lessons as a social investigator in the Big Apple. The great wish of the poor is to become rich and the rich want to become richer. It was interesting to observe how they went about it. Unlike the middle class, the poor didn't have a work ethic. They felt entitled to unearned income.
Tackling IS
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 21/10/2016
» After a delay that has tried my patience, this reviewer congratulates Britain's Stephen Leather for coming through for us. For half-a-decade authors have given IS (Islamic State) a wide berth, aware of their practice of murdering those disparaging their faith. Unlike suicide bombers, they have every intention of fleeing the scenes of their atrocities.