Lush Life: Food & Drinks from the Garden by Valerie Rice

Review by George Yatchisin I’d argue that the best cookbooks double as secret memoirs, often telling us more about the author than a straight-ahead account that began, “I was born…

The Baseball 100 by Joe Posnanski

Review by George Yatchisin It took Joe Posnanski three attempts to accomplish the feat that is The Baseball 100. When he finally pulled off the basis of what became this…

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari

Review by Brian Tanguay When I began reading 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, the 2018 book by historian Yuval Noah Harari, I was feeling at loose ends about the…

The Travel Writing Tribe: Journeys in Search of a Genre by Tim Hannigan

Review by Linda Lappin Travel writing has been pronounced dead at various times over the last century, only to spring back with new vigor, enticing new readers to lace up…

The Fall of the House of Dixie by Bruce Levine

The Fall of the House of Dixie is a fascinating account, extensively researched and written in an accessible style.

Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion

Review by David Starkey For those of us who love Joan Didion’s writing, we who can imagine her arched eyebrow as she crafts another perfectly turned phrase that is both…

Graceland, At Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache from the American South by Margaret Renkl

Review by David Starkey Living blue in the red states is no easy matter, but New York Times “contributing opinion writer” Margaret Renkl, whose beat is the “flora, fauna, politics…

How The Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith

Review by Brian Tanguay As the controversy over the removal of Confederate monuments and tumult over critical race theory makes evident, American history is contentious and unsettled, with nostalgia and…

Until Justice Be Done: America’s First Civil Rights Movement, From The Revolution to Reconstruction By Kate Masur

Review by Brian Tanguay Prior to reading Until Justice Be Done by Kate Masur, a historian who teaches at Northwestern University, I assumed that the critical period in the struggle…

Gilded Age Cocktails: History, Lore, and Recipes from America’s Golden Age by Cecelia Tichi

by George Yatchisin If you’ve ever wondered how historical nonfiction can be dry like a martini and not dry like a textbook tome, you need to pick up Cecelia Tichi’s…