Varieties of Artistic Experience: Three Swiss Exhibition Catalogs: Marisol, Helen Frankenthaler, Swiss Art Brut

Hirmer | Deutscher Kuntsverlag | 5 Continents Review by David Starkey It was a hot summer in Switzerland this year, as it was almost everywhere on our beleaguered planet Earth,…

Judd Apatow, Comedy Nerd: A Lifelong Obsession in Stories and Pictures | Cameron Crowe, The Uncool: A Memoir

Random House | Avid Reader Review by George Yatchisin It would be impossible to write the story of late 20th century-early 21st century pop culture without considering the work of…

The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout

Random House Review by Walter Cummins The title captures the central concern of Elizabeth Strout’s latest novel, which addresses with depth and complexity what a community of individuals is willing…

The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State by Jill Lepore

Liveright Review by Walter Cummins In her latest book, Jill Lepore presents her analysis of how we have reached the creation of the Artificial State where machines set the guidelines…

Endless Endings: The Many Forms of Death and What They Teach Us About Life by Ricard Solé, trans. by Eduardo Aparicio 

Princeton Review by Walter Cummins Endless Endings brings to mind lines from Hotspur’s dying speech in Henry IV, Part 1: “And time, that takes a survey of all the world, …

Madame Chrysanthème by Pierre Loti, trans. by Clèmence Aubert

Espresso French Classics Review by Linda Lappin In 1890, the American writer Lafcadio Hearn stepped off a ship in Yokohama, ready to begin a new life in Japan as a…

Summer of ’71: Five Months That Changed America by John A. Jenkins

Citadel Press Review by Brian Tanguay I was twelve years old in 1971 and oblivious to much of the social and political turmoil happening in Washington D.C. and on university…

The Kindness of Terrible People and Other Stories by Stephanie Dupal

Swan Abbey Review by Walter Cummins This is a collection of original and unusual stories, the characters richly developed as they face essential dilemmas. Some of these people exemplify the…

Sunrise by Téa Obreht

Random House Review by Walter Cummins Téa Obreht’s latest work, Sunrise, while offering seemingly self-contained narratives about events from several different time periods, can also be regarded as a novel…

Please Don’t Touch The Body by Emily Doyle

Bloomsbury Review by Brian Tanguay I appreciate a finely crafted short story and the eleven stories in this collection easily meet that criteria. For a debut collection, Emily Doyle displays…