Utopia

Did you know?

Utopia is an imaginary perfect place or state of ideal perfection as described in Sir Thomas More's book Utopia.

Earlier in his life More wrote a book describing an island where everyone and everything seemed in perfect harmony. Probably realising that no place can ever exist, he named the island "Utopis" derived from the Greek words 'ou' (not) and 'topos' (place), meaning 'nowhere'.


Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), was a lawyer who became Lord High Chancellor of England. He was arrested and beheaded because he refused to acknowledge Henry VIII as the sole head of the English church.

(c) October 2007.  Tel. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved. 

Alice Munro's Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage

Spotlight from my bookshelf.

Something from one of my all-time favourite short story writers, Alice Munro.  I first read this book sometime December, 2001. 


Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage
by Alice Munro
(2001, A Douglas Gibson Book, M&S)

A collection of stories by Canadian short story writer Alice Munro. There are nine stories, each one being complex yet satisfying. The characters in these stories range from fourteen-year-old school girls to a retired professor in his seventies... characters are immediately recognizable in our daily lives.

The stories deal with the adult life elements: love, sex, success, failure, hope and death. So what's new?  Munro demonstrates perfect pitch when revealing inter-class tensions. Through her unique magic, these stories don't have plots; instead things simply happen, with a convincing inevitability. A truly great read for the ages. Munro just gets better and better!



(c) October 2007. Tel. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved.