Orhan Pamuk wins the 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature! Aren't you glad now that you've read Snow and My Name Is Red?

Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss: A Novel has won the Booker Prize.  Coverage from Publisher's Weekly: Desai Nabs Booker.

Add to your reading list!

In case you missed it in Bill Cofone's comment, here's a great Decameron site: Decameron Web

Thanks, Bill!

The Virtual Finland site has an informative and enjoyable series of pages dedicated to the Kalevala:

• Kalevala - The Finnish National Epic
• The Kalevala's contents - poems  (take a look at this for a summary of the story and action)
• Jean Sibelius  and the Kalevala

A diverse collection of Kalevala related links: http://www.helsinki.fi/kasv/nokol/kalevala.html

A pronunciation guide at:  http://www.edj.net/mc2012/pronun.htm
A brief article on the Sampo: http://www.edj.net/mc2012/sampo.htm

[Compare the prominence of the Sampo with variations on the "wish-fulfilling jewel". For example, read the description of the seal of Bhutan's Royal Court of Justice (scroll down to section II): Justice Crest ]

For a view of the encounter, here are links to two maps posted on Wikipedia:
Persian invasion
Thermopylae & movements to Salamis

For an historical account of the Battle of Salamis, consider this highly accessible scholarly book by Barry Strauss: The Battle of Salamis: The Naval Encounter that Saved Greece -- and Western Civilization. Plenty of references to Aeschylus' account included:

Sad to write that PublishersWeekly.com reports that Coliseum Books will be closing, following a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy filing. We are losing yet another excellent independent.

Here's a link to the NY Times Review of the National Theatre of Greece's recent production of Persians at City Center in NYC.