Riverhead Review by Walter Cummins Before I attempt to say something about a book that theorizes life’s emergence from the perspective of the science of physics, I should admit that…
Category: Nonfiction
Ghost Dogs: On Killers and Kin by Andre Dubus III
Norton Review by Walter Cummins Andre Dubus III explores his vulnerabilities throughout the essays in this collection. Despite his literary regard and economic success as a writer and university teacher…
Freeman’s Challenge: The Murder That Shook America’s Original Prison for Profit by Robin Bernstein
University of Chicago Press Review by Brian Tanguay When William Freeman, a young Black man, stabbed four white people to death in Cayuga County, New York in March 1846, the…
American Outrage: A Testamentary by H. L. Hix
BlazeVOX Review by Walter Cummins With every page of American Outrage—with every listing of the name of a person killed by gun violence, with every accumulating fact about guns in…
Disabled Ecologies: Lessons From A Wounded Desert by Sunaura Taylor
University of California Press Review by Brian Tanguay Environmental justice advocates have long used origin stories to frame experience of disease, displacement and disability, to personalize and collectivize such experiences…
Dogland: Passion, Glory, and Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show by Tommy Tomlinson
Avid Reader Review by George Yatchisin As I was reading Tommy Tomlinson’s Dogland: Passion, Glory, and Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show, something delightful and ridiculous—at least in…
The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoë Schlanger
Harper Review by Walter Cummins My approach to The Light Eaters differs from those who have praised the book for its presentation of the latest findings about plant behavior, including…
The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won’t Save the Planet by Brett Christophers
Verso Review by Brian Tanguay An item in the Harper’s Index in the June 2024 issue of the magazine notes that corporate broadcast news coverage about climate change decreased by…
Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State by Samuel Stein
Verso Review by Brian Tanguay Many years ago I wrote a letter to my county supervisor protesting the proposed development of an avocado orchard near where my in-laws lived. I…
Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory’s Power to Hold on to What Matters by Charan Ranganath
Doubleday Review by Walter Cummins It occurred to me that one approach to reviewing of Ranganath’s explanation of human memory would be to test my own memory as I recall…