The Guest Lecture by Martin Riker

Black Cat Review by Walter Cummins In its opening section Martin Riker’s The Guest Lecture appears to be a critical study in disguise, a consideration of John Maynard Keynes based…

Bored in Arcane Cursive Under Lodgepole Bark by H. L. Hix

Middle Creek Review by Walter Cummins In yet another of life’s serendipitous coincidences I happened to read Mark Hillringhouse’s 1982 interview with Howard Moss, the New Yorker’s long-time poetry editor,…

The Third Reconstruction: America’s Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century by Peniel E. Joseph

(Basic Books) Review by Brian Tanguay Like many Americans, I saw the election of Barack Obama in 2008 as a long awaited turning point in race relations in this country.…

The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present by David Treuer

Riverhead Books Essay by Brian Tanguay This past February marked the fiftieth anniversary of the armed standoff between the US Marshall Service, FBI, and members of the American Indian Movement…

General Release from the Beginning of the World by Donna Spruijt-Metz

Parlor Review by Catherine Abbey Hodges I can’t remember when I last read a book of poems that I’d call suspenseful. Donna Spruijt-Metz’s new poetry collection, General Release from the…

Coolest American Stories 2023 Edited by Mark Wish and Elizabeth Coffey

Coolest Stories Press Review by Jack Smith Coolest American Stories 2023 is the second in a series of anthologized short stories, edited by Mark Wish and Elizabeth Coffey.  In numerous…

Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope by Sarah Bakewell

Penguin Review by Walter Cummins Sarah Bakewell begins Humanly Possible by delineating the characteristics of humanism and then goes on to describe how these ideas emerged and were developed through…

Forgetting: The Benefits of Not Remembering by Scott A. Small

Crown Review by Walter Cummins One of the frequent plaints that emerges when two or more people of my age get together is lamentation over what we’ve been forgetting, primarily…

The Museum: From its Origins to the 21st Century by Owen Hopkins

Frances Lincoln Review by David Starkey In The Museum: From its Origins to the 21st Century, Owen Hopkins, Director of the Farrell Centre at Newcastle University, focuses on three key…

Chilean Poet by Alejandro Zambra, translated by Megan McDowell

(Penguin) Review by Brian Tanguay Discovering a new author is one of the unparalleled joys of reading. Like the box of chocolates made famous by Forrest Gump, one never knows…