Books

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Releasing serious music from the serialists. (Photo by Steve Pyke via cantaloupemusic.com)

'Words Without Music' by Philip Glass

From plumber to the gilded prizes with a ‘musical idiot’

Philip Glass's great experiment in sound helped release serious music from the grip of the serialists and academics and Aaron Copland — and opened Glass to older forms and orchestration, longer melody, and other traditions he would explore for the rest of his working life.

Michael Woods

Articles 5 minute read
The soft glow of electric sex. (Photo by the author)

Jean Shepherd: An appreciation

The Great American Christmas Story

As an American humorist and storyteller, Jean Shepherd is right up there with Will Rogers and Garrison Keillor. Jerry Seinfeld has said that Shep “really formed my entire comedic sensibility.” Jerry probably grew up like me, listening to Shep dispense nightly wisdom on WOR radio in New York.
Craig Peters

Craig Peters

Articles 5 minute read
Mary Beard being filmed in Rome. (Photo by Tristan Ferne via Creative Commons/Flickr)

'SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome' by Mary Beard

Rome redux

By presenting a sampling of her insights into the history of Roman civilization in a spirited, learned, and accessible manner, Mary Beard's lecture was not just a good advertisement for and introduction to her long and massive study, it was good performance art.

Richard da Silva

Articles 3 minute read

Patrick J. Kennedy's 'A Common Struggle'

Code of silence, circle of shame

By speaking out and speaking up about mental illness and alcoholism in families, Patrick J. Kennedy is helping those of us who still feel shame, yet live with the fear of what these conditions will do to future generations if we keep silent.

Marge Murray

Articles 5 minute read
Eileen Myles: A countercultural legend (Photo by Libby Lewis)

Poet Eileen Myles at the Penn Book Center

On living twice

Eileen Myles’s reading at Penn Book Center gave fans a glimpse into the writing career of one of contemporary poetry’s biggest names. Her informal, conversational manner made the crowded reading feel unexpectedly intimate, making Myles’s words all the more powerful.

Peter Myers

Articles 5 minute read
Olof Arborelius, “Lake-View at Engelsberg, Västmanland,” 1893, oil on canvas.

What I read on my summer vacation

From The Odyssey to The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, here's what I read over the summer and how it did (or didn't) change my life.
Anndee Hochman

Anndee Hochman

Articles 5 minute read
For such a time kate breslin

'For Such a Time' by Kate Breslin

Is Esther the right model for the heroine of a Christian romance novel?

The Jewish experience might be a good fit for Christian marketing, but like the real victims of the Holocaust, we may soon find ourselves absented from our own narrative.
Wendy Rosenfield

Wendy Rosenfield

Articles 5 minute read
Kennedy and Johnson during the 1960 campaign. (Photo via jfklibrary.org)

Godfrey Hodgson's 'JFK and LBJ'

The last two great presidents?

Was John Kennedy's popularity deserved? Or should it have gone to his successor, Lyndon Baines Johnson?
Armen Pandola

Armen Pandola

Articles 6 minute read
The effect of Dylan’s ’65 Newport set was, well, electric. (Photo of Dylan in Toronto in 1980 by Jean-Luc via Creative Commons/Flickr)

Elijah Wald's 'Dylan Goes Electric!'

Electric Bob

Dylan made it okay to like rock ’n’ roll. He carried the intellectual endorsements to make those who’d disparaged or abandoned rock regard it anew. And he had the genius to make those still-popping fingers rethink rock’s capabilities.
Bob Levin

Bob Levin

Articles 5 minute read
Edith Wharton, whose marriage, apparently, doesn't count.

Kate Bolick's 'Spinster'

The solipsistic spinster

Kate Bolick takes almost 300 pages to analyze her decision not to marry from every possible angle in Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own, while remaining oblivious to her level of privilege.
Judy Weightman

Judy Weightman

Articles 5 minute read