Books

Literary Remembrance: Homage to Guy Davenport — Brilliance Worth Savoring

May 18, 2020
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The fifteenth anniversary of the death of a grievously neglected writer whom critics almost universally acclaim a creative genius.

Book Review: “The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana” — A Caribbean Hamlet

May 17, 2020
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Told from the perspective of the Global South, this novel enthralls as it explores the urgent economic and cultural contradictions of post-colonialism, globalization, class, and alienation.

Children’s Book Feature: Worried about Home Schooling? Relax — and Read

May 14, 2020
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Even though options for parents abound, the very best option remains the simplest — pick up a book, snuggle up, and read.

Book Review: “Telephone” — Sounding Alternatives

May 12, 2020
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The “choose your own adventure” turns out not to be a gimmick; setting up alternatives makes Telephone more affecting than Everett’s self-consciously directionless narrative may deserve.

Arts Appreciation: Howells in the Dark — William Dean, We Still Hardly Know Ye

May 11, 2020
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A hundred years ago today one of the most influential writers and editors in American history, William Dean Howells, died in Manhattan at the age of 83.

Book Review: “Tyll” — The Thirty Years War, From a Prankster’s Point of View

May 10, 2020
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Daniel Kehlmann’s narrative gift is so prodigious as to be almost aggravating.

Book Review: “Dirt” — Trekking through the French Food Industry

May 10, 2020
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Dirt has the unsurprising effect of making you hungry; if your mind wanders as you are reading, you’ll probably find yourself thinking of food.

Book Review: “The Planter of Modern Life” — A Biography of an Agricultural Visionary

May 6, 2020
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Here is a splendid biography from which you will learn things you never suspected, a book that will renew your faith in passion and what Louis Bromfield called those peculiarly American traits: integrity and idealism.

Book Review: “The Glass Hotel” — Not Transparent Enough

May 5, 2020
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One of the pleasures of The Glass Hotel is how easily digestible it is; the prose rolls off the page, rewarding the reader’s close attention with subtle insights into character and motivation.

Book Review: “Play the Way You Feel” — Jazz on Film, Music and Myth

May 4, 2020
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Play The Way You Feel is the best volume around on the uneasy relationship between film and jazz.

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