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Books
Book Review: “The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien” — Ignoring the Poetry
This is a beautifully produced book, replete with illustrations. Full-page photos of evocative landscapes are supplemented by both maps and smaller shots detailing architectural features.
Book Review: “Immigrant Architect — Rafael Guastavino and the American Dream,” a Splendid Book about Design for all Ages
A book to cheer you in these challenging times, providing destinations to explore when this pandemic is over, and a story to inspire the more inventive young among us.
Book Interview: Zena Hitz on the Pleasures and Values of the Intellectual Life
“We’re at the end, or toward the end, of an extended collapse of the institutions that made it possible for many of us to make a living through intellectual or creative activity. We’ll have to find another way.”
Book Commentary: “Pandemic!” by Slavoj Žižek — Choosing Reality and Survival Over Panic and Barbarism
“In a crisis we are all Socialists,” goes an old adage. But can that instinct be trusted in an increasingly barbaric world?
Book Review: “I Belong to Vienna” — The Merit of Not Doing the Wrong Thing
The value and virtue of I Belong to Vienna is that it personalizes and humanizes a global reign of terror into an understandable drama.
Book Interview: Heather Cox Richardson on “How the South Won the Civil War”
“Politics is driven by language, and America’s peculiar history has given oligarchs the language to undercut democracy.”
Book Review: “Here We Are” — Philip Roth’s Boswell
This glimpse into the relationship of two American Jewish writers makes for good reading during the pandemic: an intelligent, gracefully written memoir of friendship.
Poetry Review: “I Aint Yo Earthmama” — Poets Susan Barba and Wanda Coleman
The two books reviewed here represent the launch of the reborn Black Sparrow Press under the auspices of David R. Godine, Publisher. Very exciting. Let’s give them a big warm Boston welcome!
Book Review: Art Critic Peter Schjeldahl — Connecting Readers to the World in a New Way
Good essays about art help us learn to see. Wonderful essays about the artists in our lives — which means all the artists through history, because, as Peter Schjeldahl so eloquently puts it, “all art is contemporary” —- help us learn how to live.