How the West Won
A great Texas novelist whose message succumbed to myth
By Steven G. Kellman Friday, April 10, 2026
Western Star: The Life and Legends of Larry McMurtry By David Streitfeld
Words, Words, Words
How artists turned the canon against congressional inquisitors
By Brooke Kroeger Thursday, April 2, 2026
A Treacherous Secret Agent: How Literature Spoke Truth to Power During the Red Scare by Marjorie Garber
Lede-ing Ladies
How female foreign correspondents transformed journalism
By Anne Matthews Monday, March 16, 2026
Starry and Restless: Three Women Who Changed Work, Writing, and the World By Julia Cooke
An American Prophet of the Natural World
Celebrating the magical mundane
By John Kaag Thursday, March 5, 2026
The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary by Terry Tempest Williams
Who Is Thinking?
The quest to discover the answer to an age-old question
By T. M. Luhrmann Monday, March 2, 2026
A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness By Michael Pollan
The Great Decipherment
Decoding the story of a lost civilization
By Ilan Stavans Monday, March 2, 2026
The Four Heavens: A New History of the Ancient Maya By David Stuart
Think, Again
Reckoning with the elegance of physical laws and the wonders of being alive
By John Kaag Monday, March 2, 2026
Traversal By Maria Popova
Family Trees
Threats to our woods are threats to us all
By Priscilla Long Monday, March 2, 2026
When the Forest Breathes: Renewal and Resilience in the Natural World By Suzanne Simard
Criminal Complexity
What inherited traits can—and can’t—tell us about violent behavior
By Jill Leovy Monday, March 2, 2026
Original Sin: On the Genetics of Vice, the Problem of Blame, and the Future of Forgiveness By Kathryn Paige Harden
The Minotaur’s Muses
The romantic cruelty of a brilliant artist
By Anne Matthews Friday, February 27, 2026
Hidden Portraits: Six Women Who Shaped Picasso's Life by Sue Roe
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
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
