The Unjolly Green Giant
How C. F. Seabrook became the Lear of the vegetable fields
By Anne Matthews Monday, June 9, 2025
The Spinach King: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty by John Seabrook
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 Monday, June 2, 2025
Ellmann’s Joyce: The Biography of a Masterpiece and Its Maker by Zachary Leader
The Rascal of Pont-Aven
Reassessing a renowned painter’s troubling life
By Hannah Stamler Monday, June 2, 2025
Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin by Sue Prideaux
Sticking With It
A sobering chronicle of our toxic times
By Juli Berwald Monday, June 2, 2025
They Poisoned the World: Life and Death in the Age of Forever Chemicals by Mariah Blake
Unbuilding the Mystery
What might Indigenous spiritual practices have in common?
By Ilan Stavans Monday, June 2, 2025
Shamanism: The Timeless Religion by Manvir Singh
A Blast of a Time
The scientific underpinnings of Armageddon
By Jeffrey Lewis Monday, June 2, 2025
Destroyer of Worlds: The Deep History of the Nuclear Age by Frank Close
Farmed Out
The uncertain future of the nation’s heartland
By Donald Worster Monday, June 2, 2025
Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie by Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty
Streams of Consciousness
A writer’s intrepid exploration of troubled waters
By Anne Matthews Monday, June 2, 2025
Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane
An Enigma at the Center
The story of the American West in one photograph
By Alix Christie Thursday, May 22, 2025
The Girl in the Middle: A Recovered History of the American West by Martha S. Sandweiss
Doing Nothing Is Everything
An areligious writer finds peace in a Benedictine monastery
By Costică Brădăţan Thursday, April 10, 2025
Aflame: Learning from Silence by Pico Iyer
The Impulse to Exclude
Ralph Ellison wrote one great novel and then lived a life that is hard to admire
By Phyllis Rose Thursday, March 1, 2007
Hearsay
From the divinely inspired to the pathological, a history of auditory hallucination
By Richard Restak Thursday, March 1, 2007
Muses, Madmen, and Prophets: Rethinking the History, Science, and Meaning of Auditory Hallucination By Daniel B. Smith
An Epic in Flux
Gilgamesh, the world’s first great literary work, is still being pieced together
By Sudip Bose Thursday, March 1, 2007
The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh By David Damrosch
Design Problem
Does the internal physiology of animals imply a harmony of structure and function?
By Mary Beth Saffo Thursday, March 1, 2007
The Tinkerer’s Accomplice: How Design Emerges from Life Itself By J. Scott Turner
The Historical Present
Robert Fagle’s bold solutions to the problem of Virgil
By A. E. Stallings Friday, December 1, 2006
The Aeneid By Virgil, translated by Robert Fagles
Pleasure out of Desperation
Thomas Eakins, yearning for the ideal in a materialistic age
By Brenda Wineapple Friday, December 1, 2006
Portrait: The Life of Thomas Eakins By William S. McFeely
Organized Violence
In the last century, where did warfare end and genocide begin?
By Charles Trueheart Friday, December 1, 2006
The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West By Niall Ferguson
Poised Between the Ancient and the New
By Benjamin Balint Friday, December 1, 2006
Isaac B. Singer: A Life By Florence Noiville
Birthday Suit
By Natalie Angier Friday, September 1, 2006
Skin: A Natural History By Nina G. Jablonski
