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Former lovers meet in “a cinematic version of a quaint English village.” (Fairy-tale architecture in Carmel; photo by Jim Nix via Creative Commons/Flickr)

‘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

Whaddya mean, you don’t want to read another serial killer novel? (Anthony Hopkins in “The Silence of the Lambs,” photo © 1991 – MGM)

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

Katharine Drexel: Unlike most saints, an upbeat pragmatist.

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

“Martini Splash” (photo by THOR via Creative Commons/Flickr)

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

Before the memories are forgotten: Jonathan Kozol (photo by BenFrantzDale via Creative Commons/Wikimedia)

Jonathan Kozol's 'The Theft of Memory'

Tackling the memoir

For Jonathan Kozol, summoning up vivid memories as he wrote a memoir of his father's battle with Alzheimer's was mostly a pleasant process. It kept his father, as well as his mother, alive for him after their deaths. But the last few months of concluding the book were hard and painful, he said, because it meant saying good-bye to his parents all over again.