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
Someone’s Gotta Do It
On transforming monotony into meaning
By Lydia Moland Thursday, June 1, 2023
Henry at Work: Thoreau on Making a Livingby John Kaag and Jonathan van Belle
The Sound of Wood and Steel
A new exhibition explores the guitar’s power and influence in American art and life
By Steve Yarbrough Thursday, May 25, 2023
Knowledge Before the Fall
Sometimes you simply can’t prepare for a seemingly inevitable outcome
By Clellan Coe Thursday, May 18, 2023
The Lotus Position
What does one of television’s biggest hits have to say about the nature of a certain kind of American tourism?
By Sharon Sochil Washington Thursday, May 11, 2023
Look Back in Wonder
A father searches for the secret to empathy in the face of unthinkable loss
By David McGlynn Thursday, May 4, 2023
Death in Drohobych
A new biography of a Polish literary master
By Ewa Hryniewicz-Yarbrough Monday, May 1, 2023
Bruno Schulz: An Artist, a Murder, and the Hijacking of Historyby Benjamin Balint
Under Covers
“This is the story Lulu told me when I was little, since before my mom died. There’s a man. He’s very sick. … When girls misbehave, when they don’t do as they’re told, that man comes and takes them.”
By Alejandro Puyana Thursday, April 27, 2023
