Interior States: Essays by Meghan O’Gieblyn. Anchor, 2018. Paperback, 240 pages, $16. Reviewed by Veery Huleatt I learned to see myself as an anachronism when I was about nine, when I caught sight of my reflection overlaid on the posters of beautiful women advertising...
Two Tolkiens on View Tolkien: Maker of Middle Earth [Exhibition catalogue] Edited by Catherine McIlwaine. Bodleian Library, 2018. Hardcover, 416 pages, $65. Reviewed by Alexi Sargeant The red jumps off the page. You’re in the middle of a letter from Father Christmas...
Circe by Madeline Miller. Little, Brown and Company, 2018. Hardcover, 400 pages, $27. Reviewed by Colleen M. Curran Madeline Miller’s 2011 debut novel, Song of Achilles, presented a recasting of Homer’s Iliad that retold the familiar tale from the perspective of...
These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore. W. W. Norton, 2018. Hardcover, 960 pages, $40. Part One: The Idea (1492–1799) Reviewed by Craig Bruce Smith “The United States is founded on a set of ideas,” says eminent historian Jill Lepore in the opening...
These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore. W. W. Norton, 2018. Hardcover, 960 pages, $40. Part Two, The People (1800–1865) Reviewed by Daniel N. Gullotta Sweeping histories of the United States by a single scholar always worry me. This is not to say...
So easy to forget that the best way to educate yourself is to read great works of literature and philosophy, then talk about them. Bring back the salon!