Nava Hall, Book Reviewer

Book Review

Louis

by Nava Hall

Two things stand out in Stevenson’s phenomenal but short life: the amount of time he was seriously ill and the amazing amount of travel he undertook in an age long before automobiles and airplanes. Stevenson wasn’t simply prone to... Read More

Book Review

Alfred Brendel On Music

by Nava Hall

“Piano playing, be it ever so faultless, must not be considered sufficient.” Addressed to the Mozart performer, this is Brendel’s piece of advice in his first essay. Given that, one could say the famous pianist proceeds in the... Read More

Book Review

In Focus

by Nava Hall

There is a poignant silence to these photographs taken of Paris at the turn of the previous century. They are pictures of storefronts, alleys, parks, riverbanks, streetscapes, street vendors, sculptures, bridges, stairways, details of... Read More

Book Review

Oxford

by Nava Hall

During the first year of every new century, the ritual of the Mallard Hunt takes place in Oxford as a sort of homage to a duck found in an ancient drain in the fifteenth century. The point being, that what stands out most about Oxford is... Read More

Book Review

Plagues of the Mind

by Nava Hall

The following accusation appears in the introduction: “We are, despite being awash in information, just as prey to misinformation, half-truths, gratifying superstitions, pleasing myths, and outright lies as any seventeenth-century... Read More

Book Review

Writing In Flow

by Nava Hall

The term “flow” describes a state of mental absorption in which a person’s mind is so focused on a task that he or she loses awareness of both self and time. Or as writer Richard Jones describes it: “When I’m in flow, all of a... Read More

Book Review

The Wandering Womb

by Nava Hall

“The womb is an animal that longs to generate children. When it remains barren too long after puberty, it is distressed and sorely disturbed, and straying about in the body … it … provokes all manner of diseases.” This statement... Read More

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