Transit Books Review by Gabriel Tanguay Ortega I don’t like the amount of time I spend on social media, though it does turn me on to books I might never…
Category: Fresh Looks
The Captive Mind by Czeslaw Milosz
Vintage International Essay by Brian Tanguay Joseph Stalin died in 1953, the same year The Captive Mind by the Polish poet, writer and diplomat Czeslaw Milosz was published in the…
The Prelude by William Wordsworth
Brandeis Review by David Starkey The subtitle to this edition of William Wordsworth’s The Prelude provides a hint of just how jam-packed the book is with ancillary material. “Newly Edited…
The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East by Eugene Rogan
Basic Books Essay by Brian Tanguay Many of the books and articles I’ve read about the Middle East during the past year make passing reference to the Ottoman Empire, often…
The Chutnification of History: Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children
Penguin Essay by Brian Tanguay I first read Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie thirty years ago, but hadn’t thought about the book again (though in that time I have read…
The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917 – 2017 by Rashid Khalidi
Metropolitan Books Review by Brian Tanguay Of the many books Rashid Khalidi has written about Palestine, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine is by far his most personal one. Khalidi…
That Old Country Music: stories by Kevin Barry
Doubleday Review by Brian Tanguay “It informed me that there had been others before as deranged by matters of the heart and loins as I was now.” This line from…
In the Eye of the Sun by Ahdaf Soueif
Penguin Review by Gabriel Tanguay Ortega At nearly 800 pages, Ahdaf Soueif’s 1992 debut novel is a rewarding undertaking, a sort of modern Anna Karenina set in mid-20th century Egypt,…
The Second Sleep by Robert Harris
Knopf Review by Jinny Webber In the lead article in the New York Times morning newsletter of September 25, 2024, Steve Lohr, who covers technology and the economy for the…
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
Bloomsbury Review by Brian Tanguay The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak had been on my reading list for more than a year, but the book of hers that came…