After I finished Rajiv Chandrasekaran's Imperial Life in the Emerald City, I couldn't help but feel a little dissapointment. The idea of the book, the promise of it, is so bright, that I think the book, in the end, doesn't quite live up to it. But there was one passage that I thought was absolutely brilliant. Between the chapters telling his story ( Read more... )

Separated from his Iraqi minder for a moment, Washington Post reporter Rajiv Chandrasekaran came upon a book merchant dealing in classics in a bazaar in Bagdad. Seeing his chance, the bookseller pulled out a copy of Julius Caesar, flipped it open to a page and pointed to this passage:I was born free as Caesar and so were you
Having relayed his ( Read more... )

Jill Carroll, an American journalist who had been kidnapped in Iraq, returned to Massachusetts today. I haven't written at all about Carroll, although she is a UMass grad and her kidnapping has been front page news around here. The Daily Collegian at UMass has been covering the story closely, having a whole special issue on her release. Carroll was ( Read more... )