Identity, Revised
“Recreational” DNA tests can have profound impacts.
Drawing Blood
Absorbing and episodic tale of an imperfect heroine.
Illness as Metaphor
An imaginative—and macabre—medical story.
Briefly Noted
Jul|Aug 2020
Courage Through History
From storms to serial killers to shipwrecks, bestselling author Erik Larson has made his name writing about frightening moments in history. When a new one came in the form of a global pandemic, readers found unlikely comfort in his latest book—a story of leadership, perseverance, and hope in the bleakest of times 80 years ago.
Impatient Hope
“Anything was possible, because no one knew.”
Cloak, Dagger, and Card Catalogues
Kathy Peiss on WWII’s librarian-spies. Information Hunters.
Briefly Noted
May|Jun 2020
Book Hunter
Honoring a book collector’s “obsession.”
Rewriting Wright
Paul Hendrickson on Frank Lloyd Wright. Plagued by Fire.
Briefly Noted
Mar|Apr 2020
Briefly Noted
Jan|Feb 2020
Toward a New Boyhood
From toxic masculinity to feminist overreach, angry white men to benevolent sexism, #HimToo to #TimesUp, American manhood is in disarray. Into the fray steps Michael Reichert, with a blueprint for raising the next generation right.
Briefly Noted
Sep|Oct 2019
Healthcare’s Hard Choices (and How to Stop Avoiding Them)
Penn President Amy Gutmann and PIK Professor Jonathan Moreno on their new book, which traces the history of bioethics and tackles some key issues in healthcare—from thorny moral questions to the frontiers of science and the most bitter divisions in American politics.
The Babel of the Mind
Manic erudition. Figuring.