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A Thrilling TV Adaptation Of John Le Carré's 'Night Manager'

John Powers, heard on Fresh Air NPR
Le Carré's 1993 novel comes to life in a six-part AMC series. John Powers says the show, which jets from Egyptian streets to posh Alpine lodges, is one of the most enjoyable thrillers he's seen on TV. Over the years, le Carré's anger at those in power has become less ambiguous and more sharply focused, whether he's going after drug company profiteering or America's approach to the War on Terror.

FOR THE SAD WAITRESS AT THE DINER IN BARSTOW

Alexis Rhone Fancher San Pedro River Review
With a sharp eye for detail and an unrelenting instinct for trouble, Los Angeles poet Alexis Rhone Fancher presents the sad working woman behind the counter.

Lost Illusions:The Americans Who Fought in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939

Caleb Crain The New Yorker
Based on personal stories of Abraham Lincoln Battalion survivors, Hochschild writes of their courage in an unequal contest where the Fascists had the unstinting support of German and Italian governments while the Democracies embargoed all arms to the Spanish government, an alliance of centrist and leftist parties-this while the Soviets worked to tamp down popular land and factory seizures for fear of inciting those capitalist Democracies to outrightly side with the Right

"Democracy and Education" at 100

Catharine R. Stimpson Public Books
John Dewey's classic has had a profound impact on how progressives and others think about education. In this review, Catherine R. Stimpson evaluates this landmark book of educational theory and finds that it has a lot to tell us about social life outside the classroom as well.

‘Junction 48’ Film Review: Permission to Rhyme

Khelil Bouarrouj Palestine Square
Udi Aloni's Junction 48 is a melodic drama set Isreal in the town of Lydd (Lod) with a nearly all-Palestinian cast that forcefully confronts anti-Arab racism in Israel by shining a light on the oft-forgotten Palestinian citizens of Israel (PCIs). (The title Junction 48 presumably refers to Lydd’s historic transit-point between Palestine and Egypt and the designation often applied to PCIs as “’48 Palestinians.”)

THE TEST TUBE CHEF

Bianca Bosker The Atlantic
At a time when much of the culinary world believes in farming like pioneer settlers and looking its meat in the eyes, This wants us to abandon peas and carrots (“Middle Ages!”) for their constituent parts—glucose, sucrose, cellulose, amino acids, and more.

To be a Mexican

Hugo Esteban Rodriguez Castañeda Heartjournalonline
The Mexican-born Texas poet Hugo Esteban Rodriguez Castañeda suggests a Latino identity based on hardship, danger, fear, but also an enduring spirit of survival that is as indigenous as el huizache--the acacia tree--which also happens to be the name of "The Magazine of Latino Literature."

Camus on Trial

Jeffrey C. Isaac Dissent Magazine
While Camus was a vocal advocate of Arab rights since the 1930s, his fictional universe seemed blind to their existence. . In 1957 Albert Camus uttered a widely misquoted criticism of terrorism. What he meant to say, what he in fact said, is that a policy of killing innocent civilians - whether his own mother or the mother of his adversary - is not properly named "justice."

Taking It to the Street

Jill Leovy American Scholar
In this review, Jill Leovy looks at two new studies of contemporary US poverty.