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
How We Came Together
America purchased its sense of itself at a high price
By Jill Leovy Tuesday, June 2, 2020
Union: The Struggle to Forge the Story of United States Nationhoodby Colin Woodard
Camouflage
Recalling a past of sound and silence, and secrets that could never be told
By Sheila Kohler Tuesday, June 2, 2020
A Lifelong Habit of Being
Exploring a fundamentally ambiguous attribute
By Elizabeth D. Samet Tuesday, June 2, 2020
Character: The History of a Cultural Obsessionby Marjorie Garber
Our Feathered Friends
They aren’t the intellectual lightweights we take them for
By Sy Montgomery Tuesday, June 2, 2020
The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Thinkby Jennifer Ackerman
The People’s Gallery
A collection that is the brightest light in a city full of them
By Anka Muhlstein Tuesday, June 2, 2020
The Louvre: The Many Lives of the World’s Most Famous Museumby James Gardner
Alpharetta
“Naturally, we feared that some form of retribution would be waiting for us, but to our relief we didn’t see Daddy Perry again until suppertime.”
By Dennis McFarland Tuesday, June 2, 2020
