“When I look at that dress and how much intention went into the making of it…it’s like we want to have something that can’t be destroyed, because so much of the past has been destroyed…”
Books
Posted inArts & Culture, Books, History, Nonfiction, Profiles & Interviews, Story
Mathematics as a Cultural Force
Historian Amir Alexander on Euclidean geometry’s far-reaching effects.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books, Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Story
Climate Messaging: A Case for Negativity
Nell Zink, Joy Williams, and a different kind of climate skepticism.
Posted inNonfiction
‘People Can Become Houses’
In her debut memoir, Sarah Broom builds her “obsession” with her family home — destroyed in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina — into a story of how families decide who they are, how they got here, and how they reconstruct themselves over and over again.
Posted inNonfiction
Grandiose and Claustrophobic: ‘Prozac Nation’ Turns 25
Elizabeth Wurtzel’s bestseller is deeply rooted in a specific, Gen-X cultural moment. Can it still speak to us in 2019?
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
Regarding the Interpretation of Others
When attempting to write a review of the official Susan Sontag biography, our reviewer finds himself on shaky ground after learning new information about the author.
Posted inBooks
This Month in Books: ‘I Don’t Want To Become a Giant Insect!’
This month’s books newsletter is a bodily affair.
Posted inNonfiction
Communiqué from an Exurban Satellite Clinic of a Cancer Pavilion Named after a Financier
Anne Boyer encounters a familiar system — that grand and easy-to-mistake-for-everything system — at the cancer pavilion.
Posted inNonfiction
Tramp Like Us
Can an American family learn to become outdoorsy in New Zealand, where the natural world is part of the national DNA? Sort of.
Posted inNonfiction
‘To Be Polite By Ignoring the Obvious’: Jess Row on Unpacking Whiteness in Literature
“I was looking for texts that seem to go the extra mile in hiding something — texts that almost seem to be begging to be interpreted in terms of what’s not being said.”