Island Royalty
A new biography of a Caribbean revolutionary
By Madison Smartt Bell Monday, January 13, 2025
The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe by Marlene L. Daut
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
Poet of the Extreme
A noted novelist considers the life of an American master
By Steven G. Kellman Monday, October 18, 2021
Burning Boy: The Life and Work of Stephen Craneby Paul Auster
Holding the Reigns
Four queens condemned to live in interesting times
By Ingrid Rowland Monday, October 4, 2021
When Women Ruled the World: Making the Renaissance in Europeby Maureen Quilligan
Whatever Happened to Frankie King?
A tale of Brooklyn, basketball, brothers, and madness
By Jay Neugeboren Thursday, September 30, 2021
At the Corner of Byron and Shelley
Poetry and philhellenism at the Greek bicentennial
By A. E. Stallings Thursday, September 16, 2021
Mumbai: A Nation Betrayed, A People Forsaken
An existential crisis
By Murzban F. Shroff Monday, September 13, 2021
On Our Knees
What the history of a gesture can tell us about Black creative power
By Farah Peterson Tuesday, September 7, 2021
