“Sensitive people feel intense emotions, are aware of others’ feelings, are deeply impacted by others’ emotions, and can’t shake off painful feelings because all these things are directly due to empathy.” From this standpoint,... Read More

“The erotic contains the least that repels the mind, and the most that inevitably attracts.” So states the Indian sage Abhinavagupta in the headnote of the opening chapter of Garrison’s book on the erotic as a force in the art,... Read More

For many, to be a poet is to love Emily Dickinson. There is an inevitability to this affair, and her influence on American poetry elicits a form of worship in the poems written to, for, and because of her. This slim, but weighty... Read More

Had Charles Dickens lived at the same time as Eldridge Cleaver, the pair’s expositions of child abuse and racism might have rocked the world. Instead, Hügel-Marshall’s searing account of growing up in 1950s Germany, the daughter... Read More

Ben wished he could trade in his sister, Allison, for a happy-go-lucky puppy! While Ben and his friends were having a snowball fight after school, Allison showed up in the middle of it. When his friends made fun of Allison for being in... Read More