For nearly an entire week earlier this month, the global climate crisis managed to grab hold of headlines. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had released its […]
book review
AUTHORS
Revealing the Intimacy of Sex With Strangers
Michael Lowenthal explores the nexus of love, loneliness, and desire
“Intimacy is about the experience of saying to another person — not necessarily in words — ‘This is who truly I am and what I want. Who are you? What […]
BOOK REVIEW
Once Behind Bars, Forever Barred Entry
Reuben Jonathan Miller reckons with America’s ‘carceral system’
Michelle Alexander changed conversations about race-based discrimination in 2010 when she published The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Alexander explained that four in five Black […]
BOOK REVIEW
The Talented but Deplorable Patricia Highsmith
A new biography depicts a deeply flawed human being
In most biographies, the subject begins as a larger-than-life figure. Then, after we learn about imperfect relationships and personal quirks, he or she becomes more human. That’s not the case […]
BOOK REVIEW
The Mothers Behind the Civil Rights Movement
Anna Malaika Tubbs gives their story a Black feminist affirmation
It is easy to pan Anna Malaika Tubbs’s The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation, released last month […]
BOOK REVIEW
The Many Faces of Adrienne Rich
Hilary Holladay’s portrait of a complicated artist
Hilary Holladay’s The Power of Adrienne Rich is an accessible biography of the celebrated American poet. Published last month, it is the first comprehensive exploration of both the person and […]
BOOK REVIEW
In the Ravages of Ebola, Paul Farmer Finds Pandemic Roots
A tireless doctor gives infectious disease a global perspective
Dr. Paul Farmer and three friends toured an Ebola treatment unit (E.T.U.) in Monrovia, Liberia, in October 2014. They watched as two brothers vomited and soiled themselves with diarrhea as […]
BOOK REVIEW
Dolly Parton as a Natural Woman
Sarah Smarsh empowers the country legend’s impoverished roots
Dolly Parton, 74, has been singing and performing as a self-described “backwoods Barbie” for over half a century. With chart-topping hits such as “Jolene,” “I Will Always Love You,” “Here […]
NEIGHBORS
Grace Freundlich Is Healing in Truro
Her memoir, Enough of All That, turns a troubled past into art
Grace Freundlich is a survivor in our midst. Retired and now 80, she lives in Truro year-round and counts it as a blessing. She has written a memoir of her […]
BOOK REVIEW
Marilynne Robinson’s Prodigal Son Returns
Her latest novel, Jack, explores race, grace, and literature
Jack Boughton, the protagonist of Marilynne Robinson’s much-anticipated novel, Jack, is a thief, a liar, and an alcoholic. He is also exquisitely sensitive, self-deprecatingly funny, and finely attuned to the […]
BOOKS
A Personal Assistant’s Postcard From the Edge
Byron Lane’s roman à clef, 'A Star Is Bored,' is a humorous, touching romp
“Do a lot of people call you Cockring?” So begins the relationship between Charlie Besson and movie star Kathi Kannon in Byron Lane’s hilarious debut novel, A Star Is Bored. […]
BOOK REVIEW
Becoming a Teacher: The Perils of Success
Melinda D. Anderson writes of a teacher of color’s conflicts and skills
What is the likely career trajectory of an inventive, gifted Teacher of the Year who is passionate about racial and social justice and who works in an urban public school? […]
BOOK REVIEW
In x + y, Eugenia Cheng Envisions a World Without Gender
New terminology would prioritize ‘community over self’
Watch a video clip of mathematician Eugenia Cheng making puff pastry with Stephen Colbert, and you’ll quickly appreciate why her students at the Art Institute of Chicago surely consider themselves […]
BOOK REVIEW
Matthew Yglesias Envisions a Better, Much Bigger America
What we need, he suggests provocatively, is One Billion Americans
Faced with impending climate doom, extreme housing shortages, and a global pandemic that spreads through close human proximity, most people hope Americans will get fewer and farther between. In his […]
AUTHORS
Cooper Lee Bombardier Turns His Transgender Story Into Art
He’ll give a virtual reading of his new memoir in Provincetown
“Before I knew I was a human being and not a dog, my earliest sense of myself was male. I am just a funny sort of guy. I don’t hate […]
