Hold the Salt
Reconsidering an ancient city’s bad reputation
By Charles G. Salas Friday, January 23, 2026
Carthage: A New History by Eve MacDonald
Scientists in Dreamland
What might our nightly visions mean?
By Alice Vernon Thursday, January 15, 2026
Nightmare Obscura: A Dream Engineer's Guide Through the Sleeping Mind by Michelle Carr
Conjurer of Worlds
The writer who made fantasy history
By Michael O'Donnell Monday, December 1, 2025
The Tower and the Ruin: J. R. R. Tolkien's Creation by Michael D. C. Drout
The Minotaur’s Muses
The romantic cruelty of a brilliant artist
By Anne Matthews Monday, December 1, 2025
Hidden Portraits: Six Women Who Shaped Picasso's Life by Sue Roe
Compassionate Curmudgeon
Why we must root ourselves in the real world
By Robert Zaretsky Monday, December 1, 2025
Arthur Schopenhauer: The Life and Thought of Philosophy's Greatest Pessimist by David Bather Woods
Swept Away
A gusty tour of one of our planet’s primordial forces
By Juli Berwald Monday, December 1, 2025
The Breath of the Gods: The History and Future of the Wind by Simon Winchester
Making Trouble
A British aristocrat’s leftist noblesse oblige
By Charles Trueheart Monday, December 1, 2025
Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford by Carla Kaplan
All His Biographers Merely Players
Retracing the Bard’s lost years
By Rachel Shteir Monday, December 1, 2025
The Dream Factory: London’s First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare by Daniel Swift
Playwright, Poet, Outsider, Spy
The Wayward Scholar of the London Stage
By Steven G. Kellman Friday, November 14, 2025
A Stranger Everywhere
The inner world of one of America’s great warrior poets
By Nicholas Buccola Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Baldwin: A Love Story Nicholas Boggs
Words and Music
Two ways of thinking about what our brains can do
By Jennifer Michael Hecht Saturday, September 1, 2007
The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human NatureBy Steven Pinker /Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain By Oliver Sacks
The Whirling Princess
How a little rich girl known as Pussy Jones became Edith Wharton, writing her way into the aristocracy of American letters
By Sandra M. Gilbert Friday, June 1, 2007
Edith Wharton By Hermione Lee, Alfred A. Knopf
The Heroic and the Crass
Case studies in American presidential backbone
By Gary Hart Friday, June 1, 2007
Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789-1989 By Michael Beschloss, Simon & Schuster
Wide World
An essayist and activist who makes eloquent connections
By Sarah Fay Friday, June 1, 2007
Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics By Rebecca Solnit
The Meandering Naturalist
By William Howarth Friday, June 1, 2007
A Wanderer All My Days: John Muir in New England By J. Parker Huber
Magical Mind
Albert Einstein’s life
By Stephen Petranek Friday, June 1, 2007
EINSTEIN: His Life and Universe By Walter Isaacson
Dismantling the Dream
By Sandra Beasley Friday, June 1, 2007
The Trap: Selling Out to Stay Afloat in Winner-Take-All America By Daniel Brook, Henry Holt
Happy Talk
What did we know about joy, and when did we know it?
By Wayne Curtis Thursday, March 1, 2007
The Happiness Myth: Why What We Think Is Right Is WrongBy Jennifer Michael Hecht /Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy By Barbara Ehrenreich
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
