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

Harlem Notes

A writer goes uptown

Harlem Is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America By Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts

Bard Justice

Shakespeare and the law

A Thousand Times More Fair What Shakespeare’s Plays Teach Us About Justice By Kenji Yoshino

Math & Magic

The roots of Western science

The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society & the Birth of the Modern World By Edward Dolnick

Tangled Up in Dylan

The enduring appeal of a legendary American songwriter

Bob Dylan by Greil Marcus: Writings 1968–2010By Greil Marcus Bob Dylan in America By Sean Wilentz

Ode to Joy

What makes us happy?

Exploring Happiness: From Aristotle to Brain Science By Sissela Bok

Girl Power

The enigma who ruled her world

Cleopatra: A Life By Stacy Schiff

Tour de Horse

A masterly retelling of a death on the Plains

The Killing of Crazy Horse By Thomas Powers

Man of Letters

A novelist finds his classic voice

Saul Bellow: Letters By Benjamin Taylor

City Ways

Urban visions past and future

Makeshift Metropolis: Ideas About Cities By Witold Rybczynski

Big Muddy

The river before Mark Twain

Wicked River: The Mississippi When It Last Ran Wild By Lee Sandlin

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