Vain Offerings
In The Know-It-All, A.J. Jacobs reduced learning to the memorization of trivia; now in The Year of Living Biblically he reduces religious faith to growing a beard. Steve Donoghue, in turn, reduces A.J. Jacobs.
Imagination as Witness
Chad Reynolds muses on the power of storytellers to model and even change reality: the harsh reality of Lloyd Jones’ Mister Pip and Stephen Marche’s strange new world in Shining at the Bottom of the Sea.
Tribal Failings
Greg Waldmann wraps his head around The Suicide of Reason and comes away wishing Lee Harris hadn’t tried to talk reason off a ledge.
One Encounter:
On Packing Two Bags for Mexico
In our regular feature, Scott Esposito expands on the sublime agony of filling a suitcase with an entire year’s worth of books.
Richard Russo’s Mirror on America
Thomaston, the setting of his new novel Bridge of Sighs, is the most diverse and complicated town Richard Russo has yet created. Sam Sacks navigates its vivid highways and byways.
The ‘ol Battle Ax
A poem by Josh Lefkowitz
Cross-Dressing Septuagenarian Self-Medicating
Skateboarders of Southeast Bergen County, Unite!
Steve Donoghue reviews pollster-guru Mark J. Penn’s Microtrends, a book that sheds light on the campaign mentality of our most powerful politicians. The weak of stomach must consider themselves duly warned.
Crowned and Anointed
Our esteemed royalty-watcher Ian Manfred St. Cyr settles in with Maureen Waller’s Sovereign Ladies, a biography of “the six reigning queens of England” and suggests that the author’s headcount may be a little low.
Quiet Storm
Jazz composer Terence Blanchard’s score movingly complemented Spike Lee’s documentary When the Levees Broke. David Meadow evaluates whether the music stands alone in the album A Tale of God’s Will: A Requiem for Katrina.
Peer Review:
Kernels of Truth
In our regular feature, Hugh Merwin tucks in to the reviews of Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which alternately acclaim and castigate the bellwether bestseller.
Absent Friends:
I Could Wake Up in Nirvana and Laugh
In this regular feature, Steve Donoghue celebrates the life and letters of John Jay Chapman, an eloquent American wit now forgotten, whose writings once provoked and delighted an enthusiastic public.
The Second End of the War
The American Revolution’s neat conclusion at Yorktown is a familiar story from the history books. Thom Daly reads Perils of Peace as Thomas Fleming’s noble if flawed attempt to add more detail to our easy picture of events.
The Terrifying OLM Quiz:
Trick or Treat!
Lock your doors, turn on all your lights, and attempt October’s ghoulish Halloween-themed quiz…
Our cover photo this month comes to us from Axel Lauerer, out of Regensburg, Germany, whose work can be viewed at his Flickr page
Coming Next Month: John Cotter on Quinnehtukqut, Greg Waldmann on the Israel Lobby, Steve Donoghue on Theodore Roosevelt, Adam Golaski on Silent Horror and much more
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