The inordinate power of the United States under George W Bush according to Jim Garrison president of State of the World which is based in San Francisco disturbs people on the American left but excites people on the American right Conservatives view the fall of the Soviet empire as Ronald Reaga

Not long ago an English critic and essayist Geoffrey Wheatcroft cast a cold eye on the rash of memoirs written by Irish Catholics from both sides of the Atlantic Would there ever come a day Wheatcroft wondered when an Irish-Catholic memoirist would have something good to say about his or her f

In the very useful Penguin Book of Irish Fiction 2000 editor Colm T ib n ultimately selected but one short story from the prolific Benedict Kiely an unenviable task to say the least T ib n chose Homes on the Mountain a modest-seeming tale about a 12-year-old boy and his extended family tw

A former Algerian army officer named Mohamed Moulessehoul writing under the pseudonym Yasmina Khadra paints a graphic picture of Afghanistan and Kabul under Taliban rule that is as troubling as it is unforgettable His evocative prose describes a once proud city brought to its knees by Islamic fund

This book as its subtitle indicates is a history of the Jesuits from their origins up to the present day It is well researched broadly learned sophisticated fast-paced sympathetic yet critical somewhat impressionistic in approach and sometimes breezy in style I recommend it Jonathan Wright

Journalism can be a difficult and tricky trade for those whose heads are on straight and whose hearts are in the right places It is hard to get past the people those looking for decent housing the immigrants who seem to hold so much of the rest of this country up on their brave and persevering sho