Nostalgia is perhaps too strong an emotion, but I felt something akin to it when I walked into The Warrior Emperor and China's Terracotta Army exhibition at . . . More	Sometimes one stumbles across a gem of an art exhibit while concentrating on a seemingly more important show in the same institution. This happened while I spent a morning at . . . More	If you like to be delighted by art and you are not a Luddite, then take yourself off to the Royal Ontario Museum . . . More
The Last Empress - Madame Chiang Kai-shek and the Birth of Modern China by Hannah Pakula is not merely a biographical sketch of May-ling (Mei-ling) Soong (Madame Chiang), but a fascinating . . . More	There is a new interest in a seemingly forgotten novel by the late William Lindsay Gresham. Aptly named Nightmare Alley . . . . More	Sophia Tolstoy, wife of Russia's most widely read author, is the subject of a well-researched biography by Alexandra Popoff. Sophia has more often than not been portrayed . . . More
The Canadian Opera Company's (COC) 2011/12 season might well be described as 'something old, something new, something borrowed, and something of undefined color'. . . . More	Anne Boleyn had as her greatest asset her daughter Elizabeth I. Yet, she never witnessed the Virgin Queen's . . . More	Author Beth Powning, in her latest novel, The Sea Captain's Wife, brings those final years of the sailing ships powerfully to life. . . to read more click here
It may not necessarily follow that if one enjoys Peking Opera that one will also enjoy Kabuki, for each not only   . . . More	The mention of the island of Tahiti brings a dreamy look of something desirable but impossible to reach crosses just about anyone's face . . .More	The Paper Garden is an extraordinary biography about an extraordinary woman. Poet Molly Peacock has used her writing skills and gift of observation . . . More
The music CD, The World at War, is a strange mixture of stark reality from brief snippets of speeches that have become a cliché, popular music, and a score for the 1973 television series. . . More	A sense of loss and displacement hangs above everything that Irish author Colm Tóibín writes. That does not necessarily mean . . . More	John Donne's poetry arouses either adulation or scorn. There appears to be no middle ground that allows for the liking of some of his poems and the dislike for others. So, to be up front . . . More