Books
393 results
Page 33
Bill Watterson: An introvert's appreciation
Happy birthday, Mr. Watterson, wherever you are
When Bill Watterson worked on Calvin and Hobbes, he had no need (and even less desire) to leave the house seeking acclaim or inspiration. Everything he needed was inside his own head.
Articles
3 minute read
Andrew J. Bacevich's 'Breach of Trust'
The great betrayal
In Breach of Trust, career officer turned political scientist Andrew J. Bacevich traces the woes of today’s military, and much of our politics as well, to the volunteer army instituted after Vietnam. Is a return to the draft a solution?
Articles
6 minute read
'An Officer and a Spy' by Robert Harris
A retelling of the Dreyfus affair
The Dreyfus affair, as presented by novelist Robert Harris in An Officer and a Spy, raises issues around secrecy and spying that still resonate today.
Articles
4 minute read
'The Master and Margarita' by Mikhail Bulgakov
Sympathy for the devil?
Mikhail Bulgakov dealt with the twinned madnesses of Stalinism and his expectation of a short life through the full, flailing exercise of will, intelligence, and faith.
'Let Us Now Praise Famous Men' by James Agee and Walker Evans
Let Us Now Praise James Agee
This is a book of stunning honesty and self-awareness and inspired observation. Its humanity is as blinding and magnificent and humble as its prose is magesterial.
Articles
5 minute read
Bill McKibben’s ‘Oil and Honey’
The Jeremiah of global climate change
In his new book, Oil and Honey, Bill McKibben, America’s foremost environmentalist, describes his own journey from prophet of disaster to political activist. It’s a crusade with the highest of stakes: our planetary future.
Articles
4 minute read
Carville and Matalin's 'Love and War'
Twenty years later, James Carville and Mary Matalin’s dog and pony show has morphed into hackneyed dialogue suitable for reality TV.
Articles
3 minute read
A memory of Anne Sexton
Cleft
Poetry didn't move the young Bob Levin, until Anne Sexton left him wobbling, dizzied — but exposed, somehow, through pain to hope.
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Evan Mandery’s 'A Wild Justice'
The Nine Lives of Capital Punishment
Opponents are more optimistic than they have been in almost 50 years that the death penalty is a dying institution. But such hopes have been dashed before, as Evan J. Mandery’s Wild Justice points out.
Articles
5 minute read
Eric Schlosser’s ‘Command and Control’
Nuclear roulette: Nothing can go wrong, go wrong….
Relax: We made it through the Cold War without a nuclear attack. Don’t relax: The U.S. still holds 4,500 nukes, all vulnerable to the mishaps and malfunctions that plague every complex human endeavor.
Articles
4 minute read