Books
389 results
Page 38
"The Rotation': Baseball's ups and downs
The greatest baseball team ever assembled (but only on paper, unfortunately)
In my youth, Philadelphia baseball fans took losing for granted, so we found other attractions in the game. Today they take winning for granted— a dangerous delusion, as we've seen this year.
Articles
6 minute read
Frances Diem Vardamis's 'Time Running Out'
Apocalypse at the top of the world
Frances Diem Vardamis's Time Running Out, the latest installment of her Yannis Lavonis detective series, carries her hero to the top of the world for a confrontation with a breed of Christian apocalypticists spawned by the new Russia. Vardamis is a shrewd observer of the contemporary scene with a sharp eye for character and detail, and her protagonist is worth caring about.
Articles
7 minute read
Carlin Romano's "America the Philosophical'
Who you calling a meliorist? Or: Romano contemplates the bust of Socrates
What's a former philosophy major to do when his favorite literary critic writes a 688-page book denigrating Socrates as an authoritarian wuss? Carlin Romano's America the Philosophical is a ragged grab-bag of ideas. But what enlightening disorder!
Articles
4 minute read
"Tubes': Andrew Blum travels the Internet
That cloud is expensive!
So you think Internet service should be free? Andrew Blum's cyber-travelogue demonstrates just how much time, effort, expertise and costly material our brave new cyberworld requires.
Articles
4 minute read
A life lesson from Ray Bradbury (3rd tribute)
The novelist who loved theater: How Ray Bradbury changed my life
The late author Ray Bradbury— best known for his novels, children's books and TV scripts— appreciated above all the irreplaceable value of live theater. A chance meeting more than 20 years ago led to a lifelong friendship that inspired me to launch and nurture my own theater company.
Ray Bradbury: science fiction writer (2nd tribute)
Can a serious writer contemplate the future?
Literary pundits embraced Ray Bradbury because they mistakenly saw him as someone who shared their distaste for technology. On the contrary, he was a science fiction writer to the core, captivated by technology and its implications for humanity's future.
Articles
5 minute read
Robert Caro's Lyndon Johnson
Be careful what you wish for: Lyndon Johnson assumes power
Just below the surface of Robert Caro's praise for Lyndon Johnson's assumption of the presidency in 1963 lurks an underlying, fundamental belief that LBJ's demons outnumbered his angels.
Articles
10 minute read
A Ray Bradbury remembrance (1st tribute)
My summer on the tongue with Ray Bradbury
After years of reading the late Ray Bradbury's work, I heard his voice: a genuine melody of words and images tumbling in mid-air until they hit the ear just as they hit the page.
Articles
3 minute read
E.L. James's "Fifty Shades of Grey'
Not the whips and chains again!, or: Fifty Shades meets the voice of experience
Just what the world needs: another romance novel about a blushing virgin who's ravished by a wealthy, attractive and powerful sadomasochist. As an older woman who has known genuine pain and loss, I have a better idea.
Articles
3 minute read
Carlos Fuentes as I remember him
The writer who bit his own tail
The magical but realistic novels of Carlos Fuentes are compendiums of pulsating narratives and capacious realms of knowledge. He wrote in a genre that raises questions at a time when all forms of story are suspect and knowledge is represented as what anyone can locate on the Internet.
Articles
7 minute read