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
The Great Convergence
How continental art and literature went global
By Anka Muhlstein Tuesday, September 3, 2019
The Europeans: Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan Cultureby Orlando Figes
Reflections on a Silent Soldier
After the television cameras went away, a North Carolina city debated the future of its toppled Confederate statue
By Robin Kirk Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Image Is Not Everything
A definitive portrait of a celebrated American intellectual
By Steven G. Kellman Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Sontag: Her Life and Workby Benjamin Moser
The Crisis of University Research
Academia’s pursuit of corporate and government dollars has undermined its commitment to learning
By Richard Drake Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Spirits in the Material World
Two new books consider the past and present of Christendom
By B. D. McClay Tuesday, September 3, 2019
A Pilgrimage to Eternity by Timothy EganDominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World by Tom Holland
He Contained Multitudes
Exploring the psychology of an iconoclastic architect
By Amanda Kolson Hurley Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Plagued by Fire: The Dreams and Furies of Frank Lloyd Wrightby Paul Hendrickson
Required Reading
Sometimes teachers need to reach beyond the canon
By Anne P. Beatty Tuesday, September 3, 2019
