Books

Music Interview: Michael C. Smith on the Boston Caribbean Carnival and How “Culture Lives Here”

August 20, 2019
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Michael C. Smith’s new Boston Carnival photo book proves that “Culture Lives Here.”

Book Commentary: “Portnoy’s Complaint” at 50

August 19, 2019
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Doctor, do you understand what I was up against? My wang was all I really had that I could call my own…

Media Commentary: Walter Lippmann and the Need for Reliable News

August 13, 2019
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99 years after Liberty and the News, Walter Lippmann’s hopes for journalism remain largely unfulfilled.

Book Interview: Susan Larson’s “The Murder of Figaro” — Mozart Goes Sleuthing

August 5, 2019
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Susan Larson’s The Murder of Figaro is spiced with raunch, witticisms, and behind the scenes verisimilitude of rehearsal life.

Book Review: “We Are All Good People Here” — From All Sides

August 3, 2019
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We Are All Good People Here is an enormously insightful examination of how dangerous suggestible people can be, to those around them and to themselves.

Book Review: “Lady in the Lake” — The Complex Tapestry of Urban Decay

August 2, 2019
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This fine novel is portrait of Baltimore as a city at war with itself.

Poetry Review: “Come Closer and Listen” — Is Brusque and Amusing Enough?

July 26, 2019
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In his new book, poet Charles Simic employs his customary strategies, but he seldom achieves the intensity he once did.

Book Review: “The Ministry of Truth” — Writing a Blueprint for Disaster

July 20, 2019
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Words from George Orwell to live by:  “To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.”

Poetry Review: “Frozen Charlotte” — Plenty of Pleasure

July 17, 2019
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In Frozen Charlotte, Susan de Sola provides readers with enough aesthetic pleasure and thoughtful commentary about today’s world to remind us of just how good — and necessary — poetry can be.

Book Review: Unburied

July 16, 2019
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David Treuer’s expansive new history of native America from 1890 to the present looks with skeptical, Indian eyes from inside simplistic American symbols and narratives.

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