Heart of Semi-Darkness

A writer’s delectable quest for rare flavors

Masters of Horror and Magic

The German folklorists who helped build a nation

For Want of Touch

The astonishing breadth of our passions

Imperiled Planet

The ecological havoc we’ve wrought

The Burning Earth: A History by Sunil Amrith

Ground Truth

A story of dirt, dollars, and death

The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi by Wright Thompson

Insisting on the Positive

A popular historian’s philosophical musings

On Freedom by Timothy Snyder

A Stranger in the Seven Hills

A refugee’s experience in the Eternal City

Roman Year: A Memoir by André Aciman

Mortal Coils

We aren’t alone in facing the inevitable

Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death by Susana Monsó

Silent Partner

The union that may have made possible a writer’s late flourishing

A Wilder Shore: The Romantic Odyssey of Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson by Camille Peri

Schmaltz of Significance

How the first talkie treated the myth of the melting pot

Only in America: Al Jolson and The Jazz Singer by Richard Bernstein

The Best Course

A beloved professor’s long shadow

Splendor of Heart: Walter Jackson Bate and the Teaching of Literature By Robert D. Richardson

The After-War

Some wounds don’t bleed

Thank You for Your Service By David Finkel

Dean of Satire

A writer’s many masks

Jonathan Swift: His Life and His Work By Leo Damrosch

Abolition Gone Wrong

Despite good intentions, some opponents of the Atlantic slave trade caused more harm

Ship of DeathBy Billy G. Smith /The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World By Greg Grandin

Ministry of Talent

JFK’s thousand days of crisis

Camelot’s Court By Robert Dallek

Soaring Ambitions

Early hot-air balloonists ascended to previously unimaginable heights, stirring humanity’s sense of perspective and possibility

Falling Upwards By Richard Holmes

Southern Son

The wit and wisdom of a master

The Letters of C. Vann Woodward Edited by Michael O'Brien

Upward Bound

Abraham’s merciful stay of hand

But Where Is the Lamb?: Imagining the Story of Abraham and Isaac By James Goodman

Priestly Powers

A comic writer’s critical eye

Suitable Accommodations: An Autobiographical Story of Family Life: The Letters of J. F. Powers, 1942–1963 Edited by Katherine A. Powers

On the Brink

How safe are our nukes?

Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety By Eric Schlosser

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