Serving House Review by David Starkey In an interview with Mark Hillringhouse, poet Anne Waldman responds to a question about the literary scene with a quote that could apply to…
Author: David Starkey
Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival by Stephen Greenblatt
Norton Review by David Starkey It’s appropriate that the painting on the cover of Stephen Greenblatt’s Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival may, or…
Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks
Viking Review by David Starkey It’s the specter that haunts the lives of every happy, long-married couple: one of them suddenly dies. In the case of Geraldine Brooks’s memoir Memorial…
Insectopolis: A Natural History by Peter Kuper
Norton Review by David Starkey Peter Kuper’s book-length comic, Insectopolis: A Natural History, begins with an entomologist and her brother walking to the New York Public Library to see an…
Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus by Elaine Pagels
Doubleday Review by David Starkey The subtitle of Elaine Pagels’s new book, Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus, isn’t meant to question whether Jesus existed—Pagels finds plenty of…
After Lives: On Biography and the Mysteries of the Human Heart by Megan Marshall
Mariner Review by David Starkey Megan Marshall, a writing professor at Emerson College, won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Biography for Margaret Fuller: A New American Life. However, in After…
American Artifacts by Matt Black
Thames & Hudson Review by David Starkey In 2021, photographer Matt Black published American Geography, a record of his 100,000 mile, 46-state journey to more than 1,200 of the most…
Expatriates of No Country: The Letters of Shirley Hazzard and Donald Keene, Edited by Brigitta Olubas
Columbia Review by David Starkey Shirley Hazzard and Donald Keene are far from household names. Granted, Hazzard was the author two widely acclaimed novels—The Transit of Venus (1980), winner of…
Golden State: The Making of California by Michael Hiltzik
Mariner Review by David Starkey The first time I really noticed the bumper stickers on the cars in front of me was when I began driving, in the late 1970s.…
Audubon as Artist: A New Look at The Birds of America by Roberta J. M. Olson
Reaktion Review by David Starkey Before turning to Roberta J.M. Olson’s Audubon as Artist: A New Look at the Birds of America, in a gorgeously reproduced edition by Reaktion Books,…