The Writer in the Family
The fiction of E. L. Doctorow gave a young man hope of connecting his father and his literary hero
By Jonathan Liebson Wednesday, January 8, 2025
The Weight of a Stone
Searching for stability in an erratic world led Oliver Sacks and other writers to the realms of geology
By Megan Craig Thursday, January 2, 2025
Verde
Learning a foreign language isn’t just about improving cognitive function—it can teach us to sense the world anew
By Jesse Lee Kercheval Thursday, December 12, 2024
Aging Out
Many of us do not go gentle into that good night
By Anne Matthews Thursday, December 5, 2024
Golden Years: How Americans Invented and Reinvented Old Age by James Chappel
Under a Spell Everlasting
Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain, published a century ago, tells of a world unable to free itself from the cataclysm of war
By Samantha Rose Hill Monday, December 2, 2024
Divided Providence
Faith’s pivotal role in the outcome of the Civil War
By Robert Wilson Monday, December 2, 2024
Righteous Strife: How Warring Religious Nationalists Forged Lincoln’s Union by Richard Carwardine
The Fair Fields 
Only rarely did the outside world intrude on an idyllic Connecticut childhood, but in the tumultuous 1960s, that intrusion included an encounter with evil
By Rosanna Warren Monday, December 2, 2024
Ideology as Anatomy
How shifting ideas about women’s bodies have affected their lives
By Sierra Bellows Monday, December 2, 2024
Immaculate Forms: A History of the Female Body in Four Parts by Helen King
Heavy Mettle
A story of oppression and resilience
By Teri Ellen Cross Davis Monday, December 18, 2023
To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soulby Tracy K. Smith
Shooting a Dog
During a deployment in Iraq, a young soldier confronts a fundamental paradox about the masculine temperament in wartime
By Hugh Martin Thursday, December 14, 2023
In the Forest of the Colobus
At a Gambian nature reserve, troops of endangered monkeys—and numerous other creatures—enact a grand drama that plumbs the mysteries of life, death, and regeneration
By Dawn Starin Monday, December 4, 2023
Notes From the Front
Henry Kissinger’s Vietnam diary shows that he knew the war was lost a decade before it ended
By Thomas A. Bass Monday, December 4, 2023
Bodies Grotesque and Beautiful
Searching for aesthetics and meaning in the monstrous
By Sierra Bellows Monday, December 4, 2023
Art Monsters: Unruly Female Bodies in Feminist Artby Lauren Elkin
Song Gatherer
The ghostly Cantares Mexicanos, as rendered by Edgar Garcia
By Langdon Hammer Monday, December 4, 2023
Air Show
What the rise of an NBA superstar tells us about ourselves
By Eric Wills Monday, December 4, 2023
Jumpman: The Making and Meaning of Michael Jordanby Johnny Smith
