Wednesday Notes

Rachel Donadio,"It's Not You, It's Your Books," NYT, 30 March. As for me, Ayn Rand is a deal-breaker; Khalil Ghibran is a turn-off. If you're reading Reinhold Niebuhr, Garry Wills or John Kennedy Toole, can we talk?

Laura Shapiro,"Greer Tames the Shrew," Slate, 31 March, and Stanley Wells,"Mistress Shakespeare," NYRB, 17 April, review Germaine Greer's Shakespeare's Wife.

Michael Mewshaw,"Algeria's Dirty Wars," Washington Post, 30 March, reviews Martin Evans's and John Phillips's Algeria: Anger of the Dispossessed.

Michiko Kakutani,"The Bricklayer's Sons: The Family That Spawned 9/11," NYT, 1 April, reviews Steve Coll's The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century.

Christopher Hitchens,"The Tall Tale of Tuzla," Slate, 31 March, Michael Crowley,"The Hillary-Bosnia Mystery, Cont'd," The Stump, 1 April, and Jim Lindgren,"Hitchens on Hillary's Trip to Bosnia," Volokh Conspiracy, 1 April, outline the reasons -- Lindren from personal experience -- Hillary Clinton might regret counting Bosnia among the experiences that make her a superior candidate to Barack Obama.