In Defense of Difficult Reading
The tomes of the past cultivate the lost art of sustained attention
By Todd Shy Friday, June 5, 2026
What’s So Great About the Great Books?: Why You Should Read Classic Literature (Even Though It Might Destroy You) Naomi Kanakia
Inside Man
A young reporter’s devastating exposé of the amoral elite
By Anne Matthews Monday, June 1, 2026
How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University By Theo Baker
Things Fall Apart
A meditation on entropy, obsolescence, and death
By Steven G. Kellman Monday, June 1, 2026
How We Disappear: A Personal History of Information By Thomas S. Mullaney
Into the Wilds
The tangled terrain of untrammeled lands
By Miranda Weiss Monday, June 1, 2026
The Savage Landscape: How We Made the Wilderness By Cal Flyn
The Painter Time Forgot
An overdue reckoning of an artist’s volcanic genius
By Rebecca Bedell Monday, June 1, 2026
Glorious Country: How the Artist Frederic Church Brought the World to America and America to the World By Victoria Johnson
Where Are We?
Finding our bearings has never been so risky
By Peter Turchi Monday, June 1, 2026
Little Blue Dot: How GPS Shaped the Modern World By Katherine Dunn
Canonical Contempt
Even in the 18th century, Edward Gibbon’s misogyny set him apart
By Michael O'Donnell Monday, June 1, 2026
The Conversions of Edward Gibbon: A Modern Biography By Martha Saxton
Books Are a Star’s Best Friend
The little-known reading habits of a Hollywood icon
By Noah Isenberg Thursday, May 28, 2026
Marilyn and Her Books: The Literary Life of Marilyn Monroe by Gail Crowther
Who Is Thinking?
The quest to discover the answer to an age-old question
By T. M. Luhrmann Thursday, May 7, 2026
A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness By Michael Pollan
An Israeli-Palestinian Peace Encounter
Under raining bombs, is healing conceivable?
By Erik Gleibermann Wednesday, April 15, 2026
The Egoist
When a Zen master loses his way
By Michael O'Donnell Tuesday, September 2, 2025
Treu Nature: The Pilgrimage of Peter MatthiessenLance Richardson
Time for a Demotion
We aren’t as special as we think
By Sy Montgomery Tuesday, September 2, 2025
The Arrogant Ape: The Myth of Human Exceptionalism and Why It MattersChristine E. Webb
God on the Syllabus
A century after Bryan took on Darrow, battles over public school curricula rage on
By Sam Kean Tuesday, September 2, 2025
The Hundred Years' Trial: Law, Evolution, and the Long Shadow of Scopes v. TennesseeAlexander Gouzoules and Harold Gouzoules
Dada Mama
The writer who made modernism mainstream
By Anne Matthews Tuesday, September 2, 2025
Gertrude Stein: An AfterlifeFrancesca Wade
Divided Front
A conflict’s conflicted history
By Jon Zobenica Tuesday, September 2, 2025
The Wounded Generation: Coming Home After World War IIDavid Nasaw
The Seeker and the Sought
A prominent Buddhist scholar’s quest to unify East and West
By Costică Brădăţan Thursday, August 21, 2025
Buddha, Socrates, and Us: Ethical Living in Uncertain Timesby Stephen Batchelor
Streams of Consciousness
A writer’s intrepid exploration of troubled waters
By Anne Matthews Thursday, August 7, 2025
Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane
Sticking With It
A sobering chronicle of our toxic times
By Juli Berwald Thursday, July 31, 2025
They Poisoned the World: Life and Death in the Age of Forever Chemicalsby Mariah Blake
A Blast of a Time
The scientific underpinnings of Armageddon
By Jeffrey Lewis Thursday, June 26, 2025
Destroyer of Worlds: The Deep History of the Nuclear Ageby Frank Close
A Portrait of the Scholar
The life of Ireland’s towering literary figure became a work of art in its own right
By Michael O'Donnell Thursday, June 19, 2025
Ellmann’s Joyce: The Biography of a Masterpiece and Its Makerby Zachary Leader
