In this recapitulation of the universe’s evolutionary thrust-and humanity’s part in it-Howard Bloom proves to be a provocative, even an inspiring, thinker. But he is not wholly persuasive. Capitalism succeeds, he argues, because it... Read More

Like Dim Sum for the intellectually curious and literary-minded, Gioia’s chronicle of the birth and death of cool samples a variety of genres and disciplines. In the end, the reader has not consumed great portions from any literary... Read More

Who hasn’t spent too much time wishing about the past or worrying about the future? Who hasn’t considered friends or mates in light of their potential rather than the works-in progress that they really are? How can one overcome the... Read More

Heather McHugh’s reviews are swarmed by words like “clever,” “play,” and “language games.” She puns, she’s wry, and she foregrounds seriousness in the title of her latest collection. Still the wit, McHugh startles with a... Read More

Lindisfarne Island, just off Great Britan’s northeast coast, was the site of a turning point in Anglo-Saxon history. A monastery founded there survived nearly 160 years until “heathen men miserably devastated [it] by plunder and... Read More

Bold, exact, and unflinching, Tim Johnston’s second book-length release is a display of adept, agile storytelling. Winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in short fiction, judged this year by Janet Peery, this book omits... Read More

George Sueño, agent for the Criminal Investigation Division of the 8th U.S. Army in Seoul, makes a visit, out of curiosity, to a fortune teller named Auntie Mee. She begs Sueño to find the missing bones of a soldier who was murdered... Read More

No matter how much the Holocaust is studied, it always manages to yield more horrifying details. "Kristallnacht 1938" presents new research about the pogrom that took place in cities and towns across Germany, while challenging... Read More