Books

Book Review: “Way Down in the Hole” — The Agonies of Solitary Confinement

January 3, 2023
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Some readers may be surprised to learn that a high percentage of the men and women who spend time in solitary confinement have been diagnosed with severe mental illness.

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Book Review: A Beautiful Brick in the Wall — Asian Americans and Whites in Pursuit of the American Dream in Suburban Schools

January 2, 2023
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This is an indispensable study for anyone — including scholars, policy makers, and educators — who yearns to better understand how race and culture play out in a rarefied suburban milieu.

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Arts Feature: Recommended Books, 2022

December 27, 2022
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An eclectic round-up of the favorite books of the year from our critics.

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Book Review: “The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams” — The Very Model of a Plain-Spoken Homespun Patriot

December 27, 2022
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Samuel Adams, a superb political organizer who helped turn the Boston Massacre into a cause célèbre, was more conservative than modern admirers, including biographer Stacy Schiff, want to admit.

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Book Review: How “The Waste Land” Was Won

December 21, 2022
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Poet and professor Jed Rasula makes the case for The Waste Land‘s lasting revolutionary impact in his engaging and insightful, if occasionally discursive, study.

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Book Review: “Reflectory: The Life and Music of Pepper Adams” — An Enigmatic Master

December 21, 2022
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It’s hard to imagine anyone producing a more complete and authoritative biography of baritone sax player Pepper Adams.

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Book Review: “Isabella Stewart Gardner: A Life” — Less Intriguing But Even More Mysterious

December 19, 2022
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As befits an official biography, Silver and Greenwald approach their subject with decorum and respect: they neither hide nor emphasize potentially controversial elements, carefully outlining the sources of money in Isabella’s family and the old Boston Brahmin fortune of her devoted husband.

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Book Review: “The Value of a Whale” — Green Capitalism and the Limits of Market-Based Solutions

December 18, 2022
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In this valuable book, Adrienne Buller assesses the efficacy of leading market-based efforts to address climate change and nature loss and contends that they have largely failed.

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Book Reviews: Art Museums — Anything But Neutral

December 14, 2022
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It’s tempting to frame these books as opposing sides in an argument, Old School Establishment vs. Progressive Left. They are more like parallel universes; their opinions and even their terms rarely converge.

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Literary Appreciation: Grace Paley and the Swiveling Light of Truth

December 13, 2022
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An homage to Grace Paley, one of the great American writers of the 20th century.

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