Scribner Review by Walter Cummins We imagine writers doing research as individuals behind a computer screen or in a library carrel surrounded by piles of books and documents, perhaps also…
Category: Nonfiction
The Danger to Be Sane: Creativity and the Eccentric Mind by Rosa Montero, translated by Lindsey Ford
Europa Review by Walter Cummins Novelist Rosa Montero opens this book with an admission that “I’ve always known something in the head didn’t work right,” then illustrates with her age…
Winning The Earthquake: How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds To Become The First Woman In Congress by Lorissa Rinehart
St. Martin’s Press Review by Brian Tanguay Barbara Lee, a Black Congresswoman from California, cast the sole vote opposing the Authorization for the Use of Military Force after the 9/11…
Traumatized: The New Politics of Public Suffering by Catherine Liu
Verso Review by Brian Tanguay Catherine Liu doesn’t write like your typical academic. This is what I noticed first about her latest book, Traumatized, a slender volume that delivers in…
Tin Can Coast: A History of Industry, Greed, and Fishing in the Golden State by Joseph Ogilvy
Bloomsbury Review by Brian Tanguay What do sea otters, abalone and sardines have to do with the settling and development of California? What can these creatures reveal about the age-old…
Cults Like Us: Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America by Jane Borden
One Signal Review by Brian Tanguay I met Jane Borden at the inaugural Santa Barbara Literary Festival. As I listened to her talk about her book, Cults Like Us, I…
Into the Weeds by Lydia Davis
Yale Review by David Starkey Anyone familiar with the wry and tricksy stories of Lydia Davis will not be surprised that in Into the Weeds—her book-length response to the question…
The Man Who Stopped The Sultan: Gabriele Tadino & The Defence Of Europe by Edoardo Albert
Osprey Review by Brian Tanguay Unless you happen to be a historian of the 15th and 16th centuries, or extraordinarily well-read about that time period, I’d bet you’ve never heard…
Dickens in Brooklyn by Jay Neugeboren
Eastover Review by Walter Cummins I met Jay Neugeboren at the book launch for a mutual friend after knowing about his writing for years. We shook hands and had a…
Ghosts Behind Glass: Encountering Extinction in Museums by Dolly Jørgensen
Chicago Review by David Starkey I have to admit that as I was reading through Dolly Jørgensen’s Ghosts Behind Glass: Encountering Extinctions in Museums, I sometimes wondered what, exactly, I…