For David Zirin, the unexamined sports life is not worth living. While other writers might be content to browse over box scores or dish the dirt on the private lives of athletes, he prefers to look deeper into how the games address (or... Read More

Willie Lee Reed is eleven when he finds God in his fingers. He has just left the Detroit orphanage and come into the home of Reverend Stockton, a cruel man who nonetheless has the sense to recognize Willie Lee’s gift and present him... Read More

The literary feminist fable, for all its PC piety, is hardly a foolproof genre. All too often its didactic intentions succumb to humorlessness, and lifeless, allegorical plotting overtakes the flesh and blood characters. Witness no less... Read More

It’s tough to feel sorry, or feel anything, for privileged losers. Dillen (author of Hero) presents Barnaby Griswold, a wine soaked fluffmeister who eases into million-dollar deals between rounds of drinks and tennis at La Cote country... Read More

The Essex was a 32-gun frigate built in 1799 by the people of Salem, Massachuetts. It was know for its speed and beauty and came to maturity in the War of 1812. Her cruise against the British whaling fleet in the Gallapagos and her visit... Read More

This engaging history of the young white elephant that King Manuel I of Portugal gave to Pope Leo X in 1514 explores far more than Hanno’s brief life as a darling of the public and a catalyst to the burgeoning interest in natural... Read More