The Sorcerer
/Donald Sturrock's hefty new biography of Roald Dahl shows both the troubled, temperamental family man and the conjurer of wicked, entrancing stories
Read MoreGary Shteyngart, Old Man
/Who is Gary Shteyngart to call thirty-somethings old? Perhaps a thirty-something himself, bringing forth his most mature novel to date.
Read MoreThe Annotated Mix-Tape, #7
/Black cars, night escapes, spinning vinyl, "Why should I care / Driving's a gas / it ain't gonna last..."
Read MoreThe Western Star
/More than any other figure in American history (including his hated rival Andrew Jackson), Henry Clay towered over the political landscape in the decades before the Civil War; two new books look at his legacy.
Read MoreOn the Scent: Difficult Pleasures
/Our regular scentstress extols the difficult: sharp notes, throwbacks, and sweaty musks over easy patchoulis and fruity bores.
Read MoreEVEN AS WE SPEAK
/THERE IS A BEGINNING TO ALL THIS. AN OCCASION. SCOTTISH BAGPIPES ARE ITS EQUIVALENT, BUT IT BEAMS DOWN IN SPECKLED LIGHTS. SPOKEN LIGHTS.
Read MoreEggs Scrambled Differently: A Look at Wayne Shorter
/Saxophonist Wayne Shorter's performances - improvisational, pointed, unpredictably brilliant - were the stuff of legend, and some pivotal examples were caught on film.
Read MoreThe Crossing
/Warmth and pleasure are scarce commodities in Per Petterson's new novel "I Curse the River of Time," but Janet Potter reveals where they're hidden
Read MoreI Don't Find My Jokes Funny Anymore
/The classic epistolary novel is given a new, notably misanthropic turn in Sam Savage's The Cry of the Sloth -- Jeff Bursey reviews
Read MoreTales of the Tales of Monkey Island
/Like paintings or fine wine, video games have a lifespan - a messy birth, a heyday of renown, and a decline. Retrace the epic life, death - and afterlife? - of Tales from Monkey Island.
Read More“Your Princess is in Another Castle”
/In the gaming memoir "Unplugged," one man grapples with the story of his own addiction to video games.
Read MoreSongs for an Invisible Nation
/Rapt in discussion and a bowl of spicy noodles with poet Martín Espada
Read MoreEncountering Kundera
/"Art is dying," Milan Kundera writes in his essay collection "Encounter," "because the need for art is dying"; John G. Rodwan, Jr. assesses his attempt to re-stoke that need
Read MoreFetch My Embroidery!
/Was Eleanor of Aquitaine a power in medieval politics or a glittering figurehead? This wife of two kings and mother of four stars in a new novel by Alison Weir - but will the real Eleanor please stand up?
Read MoreSeptember 2010 Issue
/"Bowling" by Kirsten Lewis
Read MoreA Year with Short Novels: Love, the Limits of Narrative, & The Pilgrim Hawk
/The twisty boundaries of narrative reliability are at the heart of Ingrid Norton's discussion the neglected classic "The Pilgrim Hawk" as "A Year with Short Novels" continues.
Read MoreBeyond the Pillars of Hercules
/In addition to their gods and goddesses, the ancient Greeks worshiped youth and athletic prowess, and their foremost bard was Pindar.
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