The Tender Hours of Twilight: Paris in the '50s. New York in the '60s, A Memoir of Publishing's Golden Age (Farrar, Straus, Giroux), by Richard Seaver

As editor of Grove Press in the 1960s, Richard Seaver successfully challenged America's censorship laws over the publication of D.H. Lawrence's sexually explicit and long outlawed novel, Lady Chatterly's Lover. He also shepherded Henry Miller...

Abu-Jaber's Soaring 'Birds of Paradise'

The sunny city of Miami takes center stage in Diana Abu-Jaber's engrossing new novel, Birds of Paradise. The Florida hot spot becomes the backdrop for a dynamic familial tale of identity, loss and forgiveness. The Muirs are a typical yet fractured...

Bernie Gunther Returns in 'Prague Fatale'

Genre master Philip Kerr pens another gem

What an unusual household Philip Kerr's must be, what with his wife and children presumably living a fairly conventional life in contemporary Britain and he a most unconventional one in the middle of Europe in the middle of the previous century...

Silence: 50th Anniversary Edition (Wesleyan University Press), by John Cage

John Cage the composer was almost inseparable from Cage the essayist. They were facets of the same persona. Prefacing the handsome 50th anniversary edition of Cage's seminal collection of writings, Silence, is an introductory essay...

Growing Power's Will Allen Sparks 'Good Food Revolution'

Growing Power began in 1993 as a program that offered inner-city Milwaukee teens an opportunity to work by growing food for their community. Since then, Growing Power has received national attention for its efforts and expanded into one of the most...

Esoteric Nazism in 'Hammer of the Gods'

David Luhrssen's Hammer of the Gods: The Thule Society and the Birth of Nazism (Potomac Books) evaluates a little-examined element of Nazism and does so...

The Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation (W.W. Norton), by Gavin Flood & Charles Martin

In their introduction, Oxford Hindu studies professor Gavin Flood and American poet Charles Martin make their case for the enduring relevance of the Bhagavad Gita. Aside from its canonical status in the Hindu scriptures, with its emphasis...

Jenni Radosevich's 'DIY Style' Fashion Tips

Thanks to do-it-yourself (DIY) fashion, runway looks have become much more affordable. DIY style has gained widespread acclaim in recent years, as countless blogs and websites have devoted themselves to teaching others how to cost-effectively...

'Butterfly in the Typewriter' Remembers John Kennedy Toole

John Kennedy Toole, author of the venerated cult classic A Confederacy of Dunces, was (the following may be a well-worn maxim, but its relevance remains steadfast in this case) a brief, bright comet in the dark skies of the literary night...

The Lovecraft Anthology: Volume 1 (Abrams), edited by Dan Lockwood

H.P. Lovecraft probably didn't care for comic books, yet his remarkable stories at the cusp of horror and science fiction emerged from a parallel pulp-fanzine...

Rethinking Herbert Hoover

New Biography of a President and a Humanitarian

Perceptions of U.S. presidents can often stray into the realm of myth where truth and fact become indistinguishable. History is, after all, largely a matter of perspective, and when it comes to viewing presidents as human beings, it becomes difficult...

The Boxer Rebellion and the Great Game in China (Hill & Wang), by David J. Silbey

They were called the Boxers for their martial arts skills and, whether with fists, cudgels or guns, those Chinese insurgents came close to defeating a powerful coalition of foreign armies as the 20th century began. The Boxers have usually been depicted...

Feingold Offers Vision in 'While America Sleeps'

Wisconsinites are familiar with longtime Sen. Russ Feingold and his progressive foreign-policy vision. Now, readers everywhere can take in his ideas. Feingold...

On and Off Bass (Three Rooms Press), by Mike Watt

Not unlike Black Flag's Henry Rollins, the Minutemen's Mike Watt took up photography as a hobby and assembled some of his pictures (along with accompanying musings) into a book. On and Off Bass features photos of his beloved hometown of San Pedro...

Mike Seeger's Folk Tradition

'True Vine' biography details vital musician

Mike Seeger was a founding member of the folk-blues revival string band the New Lost City Ramblers as well as a distinguished solo artist, concentrating on early American music. He was a virtuoso on many instruments, such as banjo...

House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), by Anthony Shadid

Foreign correspondent Anthony Shadid had often been praised for bravery in covering Iraq and Libya, but the Pulitzer Prize winner's greatest characteristics were intelligence and insight. Before his death early this year in Syria (from an asthma attack...

'The Hunger Angel' Lifts the Silence

Müller takes readers inside Soviet labor camp

For a past writing project I interviewed about two-dozen ex-POWs concerning their experiences in a Chinese-run POW camp in North Korea. When asked what topic or issue most occupied their thoughts and conversation, almost to a man they said it...

Thomas Hart Benton: A Life (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), by Justin Wolff

Thomas Hart Benton embodied the New Deal aesthetic as solidly as any painter. A public-minded artist who found high ideals in the everyday life of America, his most characteristic works were the murals he painted in public libraries and statehouses to inspire...

Humane Society's Pacelle Shares 'The Bond'

With more than 11 million supporters in the United States, the Humane Society is doing its part to ensure a hopeful future for animals by helping to connect them with loving people. Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the...

The Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food (Penguin Press), by Lizzie Collingham

Napoleon famously observed that an army marches to war on its stomach. Seldom was this truer than in World War II, a globe-spanning conflict in which millions of men marched, flew or sailed toward battle. In The Taste of War, Lizzie Collingham...

Woodland Pattern Hosts Joshua Clover

Plus: Earth Poets at Urban Ecology Center

Joshua Clover is an accomplished writer, critic, teacher and journalist specializing in poetry and poetics, with an emphasis on the contemporary. Clover, who currently teaches in the Department of English at UC-Davis, is the author of two books of poems...

Early Signs of Kerouac in 'Sea Is My Brother'

Long-lost novel reveals promise

Drawing from his brief service in the Merchant Marines, Jack Kerouac wrote The Sea Is My Brother in the 1940s. Discovered recently among his papers, Kerouac's long-lost first novel has...

Design After Modernism: Furniture and Interiors 1970-2010 (W.W. Norton), by Judith Gura

After modern, what's next? That question began to trouble architects, philosophers and artists well before the 20th century slipped into the new millennium. As Judith Gura stresses in Design After Modernism, 21st-century designers embrace the eclecticism...

Humans Are 'The Storytelling Animal'

Gottschall explains how narrative shapes our world

Jonathan Gottschall has written a smart, concise book on the history and implications of storytelling, providing a refreshing and insightful overview...

Kingdom Come (Liveright), by J.G. Ballard

J.G. Ballard's final novel before his death in 2009 offers an almost apocalyptic picture of darkness festering in the shadows of suburbia and the emptiness of a society constructed only for consumption. A murder mystery and a bizarre shooting in...