Books
“Goyhood” can be larger than life, and its plot is a real doozy, but this isn’t a lightly comic excursion: the religious and social consternations that roil the brothers Belkin are as earnest as they are outlandish.
Read More
Fred Waitzkin’s beautiful, sad book will stay with me forever.
Read More
This unconventional memoir suggests that music can do more than just change ideas or beliefs — it can transform minds, overhaul brains.
Read More
The revolving cast members of the FTA road show were determined to reinforce the belief among members of the military that the Vietnam War was at best pointless and at worst criminally insane as well as murderous.
Read More
Part of what makes “Under a Rock” special is Chris Stein’s open-eyed fascination with New York City.
Read More
California beach culture didn’t spring full blown from the ocean riding a longboard, but the closest you will come to a founding figure is the legendary native Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku.
Read More
This is not a dry, academic look at Thom Gunn’s life: the biographer supplies a loving — though at times unflinchingly honest — view of the self-punishing poet.
Read More
Many of us think of Harriet Tubman as a lone heroic figure. But the truth is she was never alone; she did things that other people did not do.
Read More
Today, Elizabeth Kolbert’s book remains an important reminder of what is at stake — nothing less than the future of life on earth.
Read More
Book Review: “Big Fiction” — Is the Author Hive-Mind or Queen Bee?
On closer inspection, Dan Sinykin’s notion of a “conglomerate author” is largely a fiction.
Read More