CHRIS ZUPPA | Times (2009)
6/14/13
Anyone paying attention in the last few decades has seen upheaval and breakdown in American institutions — economic, educational, governmental and more. Often, we perceive them abstractly, in overview: housing crisis, financial meltdown, industrial outsourcing, income inequality, political polarization. In The Unwi …
Nuance is rare on the bestseller list. In most cases, ambiguity is stripped away to appeal to the greatest number and lowest common denominator. So it always renews my faith when a popular novelist shows a decided preference for moral complexity. It suggests that readers crave more than simplistic escape. Or perhaps it …
Rebecca Lee, a creative writing professor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, certainly entrenches her new book, Bobcat and Other Stories, in the world of academia. The collection includes an assortment of stodgy professors and naive students, as well as dreamy campus courtyards …
Nightstand
David Sheff
On this Father's Day, author Sheff offers dads two pieces of advice. "First, if you think something is wrong, then something is wrong. Don't do what I did and be in denial, but along with that allow yourself to be what we all are — flawed,'' he said. Sheff's advice …
Notable
Happy Father's Day, old sport!
For that last-minute Father's Day gift, or for dads with bookseller gift cards burning a hole in their pockets, here is a new crop of books about sports.
Anyone paying attention in the last few decades has seen upheaval and breakdown in American institutions — economic, educational, governmental and more. Often, we perceive them abstractly, in overview: housing crisis, financial meltdown, industrial outsourcing, income inequality, political polarization. In The …
Notable
As the muse requires
Three new books look at the nuts and bolts of the creative process.
On Alder Avenue in Detroit in 1958, husbands go off every morning to work at the nearby factory, and their wives await them at 5:45 sharp in the evening, with supper on the table and the house pin neat.
It may seem improbable these days, but for 15-year-old Thea Atwell, Florida is a kind of paradise: "My mother's family was New Florida, as those families were called, those that went there after the War Between the States when Georgia was no longer a tenable place to live. … My father's family was Old Florida, of …
Nightstand
Tamara Waggoner
When we caught up with Waggoner, a teacher in the language arts department at Largo High, she already had her summer reading list perched on her nightstand ready for action. Waggoner, 43, has taught reading and English at the school for 17 years and also serves as a tutor …
NEW YORK
What do Snooki Polizzi, Ann Romney, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Grumpy Cat have in common?
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