Off the Shelf

Frank Furness. A biography of the Fisher Fine Arts Library’s architect. Plus: An interview with the author; Briefly Noted.

Briefly Noted

Darkening Water. New poems from Daniel Hoffman. The Ornament of the World. When Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived in peace.

Coming to Terms

During the High Holidays, a beloved rabbi nearing retirement and an author chronicling the search for his replacement mourn and remember their fathers.

Off the Shelf

Why I’m Like This. Life is sometimes funny, and sometimes not. The Man Who Made Wall Street. A biography of Anthony Drexel. Plus: Briefly Noted

First Visit, Last Farewell

In this excerpt from her new memoir about her “multicultural marriage,” the author writes of her son’s first trip to his father’s country of El Salvador and the death of a family patriarch.

Making the Most of the Material Past

A stint as a “trainee mortician” set Penn English Professor Peter Stallybrass on the path to scholarship. These days, he prowls old bookstores and library stacks in search of the objects that make the past come to life.

Sprawl and the City

In a new book, Penn-affiliated experts provide a crash course on what went wrong with America's cities—and offer some ideas on how to fix them.