In both her life and her narrow but vivid body of work, Carson McCullers claimed a secure (albeit marginal) perch in American literature’s Southern renaissance Gothic wing. More so than with her kinswomen Flannery O’Connor and Eudora... Read More

Writers spend long hours alone. Because the act of writing is usually done in isolation, there remains a mystery about the process. An aspiring athlete can go to a game and watch an idol in action, studying the master’s jumpshots to... Read More

In walking, you may encounter long-legged emus and even those huge black-winged, white-breasted red-wattled storks mingling with the chickens where corn is tossed in the yard. They are not afraid, as though by experience they know it is... Read More

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” So said Albert Einstein, a man known equally for his brilliant scientific discoveries and for his white mane of unkempt hair. This book provides a concise, easy-to-understand overview... Read More

If one wants to be happy for a lifetime, write the authors, one should become a gardener. Their love of gardening comes through every page of this comprehensive guide to growing 261 plants, with species-by-species information on each... Read More

The Iroquois Theatre opened on November 23, 1903, in downtown Chicago. It was called a “virtual temple of beauty” with its foyer patterned after the Opéra Comique in Paris, its enormous stage (fifty feet deep and 110 feet wide), and... Read More

From rubbing elbows with Ho Chih Minh to knitting for warmth in a Chinese prison, the author’s life story parallels the highs and lows of Communist China-with all its warts. As a neat coincidence that fits with her tale, Anhua Gao was... Read More

When social commentators and politicians talk about what’s wrong with contemporary American society, they rarely blame a lack of cynicism. If anything, most would condemn a perceived excess of American cynicism. This author, however,... Read More