Books
“In Their Names” argues that the best way to help victims of crime is to create circumstances that will diminish the chance that they will become victims again.
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Rachel Hadas’s book of prose poems is a set of meditations grounded in a life well lived and much observed, an experimental field for examining the nature of [human] potentialities.
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At its best, Mark Twain emerges in this biography as much a live wire as ever: brash, outspoken, and overflowing with exasperating contradictions.
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On the hard wooden benches of a jail in Lowell, dialoguing with his street-fighting antagonists, we sense the emergence of organizer Michael Ansara’s strategy for working-class political action.
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“The Slip” raises issues of race and entitlement, as well as the malleability of identity, all in one big, sloppy, and occasionally gorgeous package.
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Poet Adrienne Rich’s journey serves as a model for meeting the challenge posed for artists and the rest of us today, confronted with the rise of authoritarian forces in America.
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There are reassuring lyrics here that suggest that, no matter what terror comes along, our noble charge is to fight to the end, joyously.
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In a time when the work of scientists is itself endangered, these two picture books provide detailed and fascinating insights into how science helps us live in the modern world.
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Hearing the novel’s poignant voices, we can’t help but think that in many respects the plight of poor young men in the ’hood is everywhere alike.
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Chronicling acts of feminist sisterhood, “Girlfriend” memorializes a mutual support system that has been among the backbones of American life.
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Arts Commentary: From the Editor’s Desk — By Popular Demand, 2026