Expanding The Mind

Just finished the Summer Issue (August - September) of The New York Review of Books and, golly, it was a corker. Not a single duff article in there. I hesitate to pick the stand-outs, but the Charles Simic essay The Prisoner of History lingers in the mind, and Hugh Eakin's piece on Oman made me keen to get to grips with what's going on these days in the quieter spots in the Middle East. But, then, every review made me keen to get hold of the material under scrutiny - but since this is just not humanly possible I guess I'll have to settle for second best and accept it as the excellent second best it is.