There’s an old proverb popularized by Mel Brooks that sums up “Fractured Continent,” William Drozdiak’s fine, eminently readable analysis of European politics that made The New York Times Most Notable 100 Books list for 2017. The proverb is: “Hope for the best, expect the worst.” But even if the “crises” explored by Drozdiak in 14 Western capitals, don’t constitute the worst in the continent’s 70-year-old attempt to achieve unity after World War II, they do exemplify a deepening division within

It’s a forceful and confident title that Jill Bialosky gives her unusual memoir, Poetry Will Save Your Life. She writes “will” not “can” or “may.” I’m not so sure, nor am I convinced that a favorite book wouldn’t do, or music, with its purported power to soothe the savage breast. Because it’s longer and without meter or rhythm, however, a novel is not as likely as a poem to prompt immediate reaction. In any case, there’s no denying that poetry as consolation, if not salvation, worked for

James Conroy’s new novel, The Coyote Hunter of Aquidneck Island not only introduces readers to a still rural bit of paradise set in Narragansett Bay, but to little known facts about indigenous New England Indian tribes…and coyotes. And, starting with the opening dialogue, the novel also introduces some good writing that brings together domestic drama, lore about the environment and some little-known Civil War military history. Conroy, a published poet and novelist from Long Island has an unusual

It may be hard to credit in this age of monster McMansions that the “tiny house movement” which began in the hippie `60s, continues to grow. But so say architectural designer and illustrator David Stiles and his wife, Jeanie Stiles, a writer and photographer. Their attractive newest how-to book, Building Small , their 25th, pitches barns, cabins and sheds as weekend and year-round retreats, whether off the grid or on. Would you believe an adorable 8’ X 11’ backyard Tudor or a two-level Japanese

It may be hard to credit in this age of monster McMansions that the “tiny house movement” which began in the hippie `60s, continues to grow. But so say architectural designer and illustrator David Stiles and his wife, Jeanie Stiles, a writer and photographer. Their attractive newest how-to book, Building Small , their 25th, pitches barns, cabins and sheds as weekend and year-round retreats, whether off the grid or on. Would you believe an adorable 8’ X 11’ backyard Tudor or a two-level Japanese

According to reports, the famous astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, won’t be available to answer any questions during Monday's solar eclipsey. Tyson says he’ll be in an undisclosed location where he will experience this celestial phenomenon in private. But Tyson did share his ideas about the cosmos and the people who have studied it, in his latest book, “Astrophysics For People In A Hurry.” Book critic Joan Baum has this review: Neil de Grasse Tyson knows he’s a science rock star and loves it.

According to reports, the famous astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, won’t be available to answer any questions during Monday's solar eclipsey. Tyson says he’ll be in an undisclosed location where he will experience this celestial phenomenon in private. But Tyson did share his ideas about the cosmos and the people who have studied it, in his latest book, “Astrophysics For People In A Hurry.” Book critic Joan Baum has this review: Neil de Grasse Tyson knows he’s a science rock star and loves it.

In her moving, elegiac new novel The Burning Girl , Claire Messud alludes to childhood as a Wordsworthian time when we still trail “clouds of glory.” For adolescence, though, she invokes the Biblical phrase “through a glass darkly,” meaning that what we think we see and know of life and ourselves is imperfect. That the “weight of the world falls upon us” in adolescence, and pain and fear and uncertainty replace the bliss of being young. The Burning Girl is a haunting coming-of-age story in the

Despite praise for Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films – an assignment journalist Molly Haskell accepted for Yale University Press’s Jewish Lives series, this witty, accessible though sometimes glib inquiry disappoints. But not because Haskell’s not Jewish. She was surprised, she said, that she was asked to do the book, and she readily acknowledges being ambivalent about many Spielberg movies, especially his pre-Schindler work. A feminist critic and an intellectual, she always favored complex,

Despite praise for Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films – an assignment journalist Molly Haskell accepted for Yale University Press’s Jewish Lives series, this witty, accessible though sometimes glib inquiry disappoints. But not because Haskell’s not Jewish. She was surprised, she said, that she was asked to do the book, and she readily acknowledges being ambivalent about many Spielberg movies, especially his pre-Schindler work. A feminist critic and an intellectual, she always favored complex,