None Of Us Can Avoid

What Dazzles Us In Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra Are Not The Alluring Mythologies About The Evasive Queen, But The Astonishing If Rare Historical Facts That Schiff Has Meticulously And Lovingly Excavated. Schiff Offers Not Just Cleopatra's Story But The Story Of An Amazing Era, One That Has Vanished But Still Affects Us, Questioning The Way We Look At Myth, History, And Ourselves.

She Was One Of Those People Who Are Irrevocably, Incurably Honest And Therefore Both Inflexible And Vulnerable At The Same Time.

Khatami Is A Symptom And Not The Cause Of Change In Iran.

Empathy Lies At The Heart Of Gatsby, Like So Many Other Great Novels-the Biggest Sin Is To Be Blind To Others Problems And Pains. Not Seeing Them Means Denying Their Existence.

This Is A Good Time To Ask Apologists For The Islamic Regime, Who Degrades Islam? Who Imposes Stoning, Forced Marriage Of Underage Girls And Flogging For Not Wearing The Veil? Do Such Practices Represent Iran's Ancient History And Culture, Its Ethnic And Religious Diversity? Its Centuries Of Sensual And Subversive Poetry?