Sara Wheeler
Conquistadors & Cubaneros
Biographical portraits of cities are in vogue. This lively addition to the genre is essentially a history, beginning with Columbus and the incursions of French pirates and ending with the fortunes of the Industriales, Cuba’s most popular baseball team. A former Latin America correspondent, Mark Kurlansky visited the island regularly in the 1980s and 1990s. At the start of that period, he met Cubans who had known their African-born grandparents: ‘Slavery lasted longer in Cuba than anywhere else in the Americas,’ writes Kurlansky.
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'"Dutch Light" roots its subject in his local environment, explaining, for example, how an abundance of sand for making glass led naturally to a thriving business in optical instruments in Holland.'
Patricia Fara on the life & work of Christiaan Huygens.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/through-the-magnifying-glass
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'We may not be able to shield ourselves from irrational passions such as hatred, anger, envy, mockery and pride, or from the buffetings of circumstance, but we can rise above them by obtaining insight into their nature and their causes.'
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