‘Mockingbird’ meets ‘Call It Sleep’

Who silenced Harper Lee?

Why would a successful writer like Harper Lee forsake her chosen craft for more than 50 years? Consider a very similar case — Henry Roth, author of the classic Call It Sleep.

Dan Rottenberg

Aug 25, 2015 · Articles · 7 minute read

Harper Lee’s sister: Protector or warden?

Found: The real villain of the Mockingbird mystery

Why the sudden publication of Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee, an aged recluse who had long insisted she would never write another book? No doubt the key event was the death last year of Harper Lee’s older sister Alice. But my perspective as a family therapist suggests that Alice wasn't Harper's protector, but her oppressor.

SaraKay Smullens

Aug 21, 2015 · Articles · 9 minute read

The Sloan Technology Series

Beach reading for the technological society

Thanks to the Sloan Foundation, anyone who enjoys reading histories and biographies can delve into the sagas behind the technologies that shape the modern world.

Tom Purdom

Aug 11, 2015 · Articles · 4 minute read

'Disgruntled' and 'The Star Side of Bird Hill'

The complexities of coming-of-age

Asali Solomon and Naomi Jackson have written similar yet different coming-of-age stories about young women confronting many identities while trying to find their own.

Aja Beech

Aug 09, 2015 · Articles · 2 minute read

‘All the Old Knives’ by Olen Steinhauer

“Maybe love isn’t the way to live”

Imagine your job involves arranging the end of your favorite lover ever; then, imagine you have to question that person first.

Rick Soisson

Aug 01, 2015 · Articles · 3 minute read

John F. Kasson's 'Little Girl Who Fought the Great Depression'

The meaning of Shirley Temple

Shirley Temple struck a chord with the moviegoing public: 1935 was the first of her four-year run as the top box-office star in the country. Her appeal wasn’t just about her innocence, argues John Kasson in his outstanding analysis — she was a powerful political and economic symbol during the Depression.

Judy Weightman

Jul 26, 2015 · Articles · 5 minute read

Recent fiction recommendations

You don’t have to choose between Hannibal Lecter and Emma Bovary

You have to do a little work to find them, but novelists and short story writers are still turning out books about people who aren’t adulterers and serial killers.

Tom Purdom

Jul 25, 2015 · Articles · 4 minute read

Charles Dubow's 'Girl in the Moonlight'

Obsession as a lifelong project

Obsession, even if recognized, is rarely controlled and often involves a blind spot.

Rick Soisson

Jul 21, 2015 · Articles · 3 minute read

Cordelia Biddle’s ‘Saint Katharine’

Who was Katharine Drexel?

Katharine Drexel’s canonization in 2000 has galvanized the faithful but complicated the search for the real woman. It’s tough to write objectively about a saint, especially when the market demands genuflection.

Dan Rottenberg

Jul 14, 2015 · Articles · 9 minute read

George Pelecanos’s 'Martini Shot'

Evenhanded complexity

George Pelecanos has the ability to make us care about people in the humblest walks of life, including those on criminal paths, through dialogue that sounds like real people talking.

Rick Soisson

Jul 07, 2015 · Articles · 3 minute read