Culture

Books 2018: Finding Comfort in the Untangling of Mystery

Book(s): Agatha Christie’s Poirot Mysteries Author: Agatha Christie Review by: Leslie Gordon, director of the Rialto Center for the Arts at Georgia State University Lately I have escaped the endlessly dismaying news cycle by reading 35 of the 37 Agatha Christie Poirot mysteries. Stealing an hour for myself, I settle in a quiet place, my […]

Books 2018: How an ‘Ungentlemanly’ British Unit Showed Creativity Amid WWII Conflict

Book: Churchill’s Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler’s Defeat Author: Giles Milton Reviewer: Christopher N. Smith, Attorney at Law & Honorary Consul of the Kingdom of Denmark. “Operation Postmaster” is a little-known piece of World War II history. This daring raid was conducted by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) in 1942 in […]

Books 2018: Taming the ‘Unquiet Mind’

Book Title: An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness Author: Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison Book Review by: Jim Whitcomb, global finance executive An Unquiet Mind is a fascinating fast-paced journey through a very tumultuous period in the life of its author, Kay Redfield Jamison. Dr. Jamison shares with complete candor her personal experience […]

Books 2018: Civil War History in One Painting

Book: Near Andersonville Author: Peter H. Wood Review by: Philip P. Bolton, publisher of Global Atlanta Northern victory in the U.S. Civil War during the summer months of 1864 was far from assured. Even the re-election of President Abraham Lincoln was severely in doubt. Nor was Union Gen. William T. Sherman‘s capture of Atlanta guaranteed; […]

Books 2018: Music’s True Function Found in Old Greece

Book: Lament From Epirus: An Odyssey into Europe’s Oldest Surviving Folk Music Author: Christopher C. King Reviewed by: Glenn P. Hendrix, Chair, Arnall Golden Gregory LLP I’m a fan of the Oxford American magazine’s annual music issue, which comes with a complimentary music CD featuring all manner of Southern artists. The 2016 edition, titled “Visions of the Blues,” […]

Books 2018: Japanese Secrets to Long Life — Good Diet, Passionate Pursuits and Never Retiring

Book: Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life Authors: Héctor García and Francesc Miralles Review by: Sucheta Rawal, author, travel writer and founder of Go Eat Give, a nonprofit This summer, I was reading my newly released children’s book – Beato Goes To Japan at an event in Huntsville, Ala., when an audience member came […]

Books 2018: Coates on What It Really Means to Be Black in America

Book: We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy Author: Ta-Nehisi Coates Reviewed by Cedric L. Suzman, retired founding EVP & Program Director, World Affairs Council of Atlanta Ta-Nehisi Coates is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and this book is a collection of his essays, including his iconic “The Case for Reparations” that […]

Books 2018: How Ordinary People Can Make Extraordinary CEOs

Book: The CEO Next Door: The 4 Behaviors that Transform Ordinary People into World-Class Leaders Authors: Elena Botelho and Kim R. Powell Review by: Doug Shipman, CEO of the Woodruff Arts Center Many books on being a CEO are more pep-talk than guidebook, so I usually avoid reading them. And I must admit — the […]

Books 2018: In Pessimistic Age, Surprisingly Refreshing Facts About Human Progress

Book: Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress Author: Steven Pinker Review by: Martin Richenhagen, Chairman, CEO and President of AGCO Corp., a Duluth-based Fortune 500 agricultural equipment manufacturer Enlightenment Now is a transformative book that brings a much-needed sigh of relief, and perhaps a smile, to anyone concerned or even depressed […]

Atlanta Celebrates Peru’s ‘National Spirit’ With Several Rounds of Pisco Sours and Punches

Pisco Punch is the drink “that can make a gnat fight an elephant,” as one journalist with the San Francisco Chronicle put it in 1912. Or more rapturously as the drink “compounded of cherubs wings, the glory of a tropical dawn, the red clouds of sunset and the fragments of lost epics of dead masters” in […]

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