Here is written a review of a book narrow, but deep, and although described as essays, actually containing a group of creative short stories, each a one-sentence wrap-up of a life, as if inscribed upon a headstone, and these inscriptions... Read More

One can know everything about a language and nothing about a culture. So it is with French academic Dr. Alexandre Lautens, who travels to India to study the dialect Telugu in Annapurna Potluri’s first novel, "The Grammarian". It is... Read More

Henning Mankell is best known as a crime writer. "The Shadow Girls" is a novel about a different sort of crime: the treatment of desperate immigrants in the country where they hoped to find safety and freedom. Tea-Bag, from Nigeria,... Read More

“Childhood is the most dangerous place of all. If we had to live there forever, we wouldn’t live very long,” observes the narrator of Heading Out to Wonderful, a lyrical meditation on longing, childhood, and the loss of innocence.... Read More

With a tsunami about to overrun their home, the islanders of East Pukapuka stand with hands linked, facing the end that their gods have created for them. But one small girl named Butter is missing, as she desperately tries to rescue the... Read More

This book is about the evolution of a scientist, the science of evolution, and the evolution of science itself. Rudolf A. Raff, Distinguished Professor of Biology at Indiana University, traces his interest in science to boyhood summers... Read More

“When the last transit season occurred the intellectual world was awakening from the slumber of ages, and that wondrous scientific activity which has led to our present advanced knowledge was just beginning. What will be the state of... Read More

“The real problem is that we live in a society where the male is both the opponent and, at the same time, the referee.” So observes Safia, a smart and funny young Egyptian woman living in Rome with her devout Muslim husband. He... Read More