March 4, 2007
By Carlin Romano
“Philosophy,” goes a two-part gibe that Daniel C. Dennett drolly attributes to Anonymous, “is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned.” Guess Mr.
March 2, 2007
By Laura Miller
Today's posts will focus on Michael Pollan's “The Omnivore's Dilemma” (Penguin Press), which is a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction. “Industrial food,” Michael Pollan
February 28, 2007
By Celia McGee
Today's posts will focus on Dave Eggers' novel, “What is the What,” a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. War, famine and ethnic hatreds have,
February 23, 2007
By NBCC
Today's posts will focus on Simon Schama's “Rough Crossings” (HarperCollins), which is a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction. Simon Schama’s “Rough Crossings: Britain, Slaves
February 22, 2007
By Art Winslow
Today's posts will focus on “Flaubert: A Biography” by Frederick Brown (Little, Brown), which is a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award for biography. In mid-nineteenth-century France, law school “was
February 21, 2007
By J. Peder Zane
Today's posts will focus on Bruce Bawer's “While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within,” a finalist for the 2006 NBCC prize in criticism. NO
February 20, 2007
By Elizabeth Taylor
Today's posts will focus on “At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68” by Taylor Branch (Simon & Schuster), which is a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award
February 19, 2007
By Margo Hammond
Today's posts will focus on “Stuart: A Life Backwards” by Alexander Masters (Delacorte Press), which is a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award for memoir. “Stuart: A Life Backwards”
February 16, 2007
By Ellen Heltzel
Today’s post focuses on “The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher,” by Debby Applegate (Doubleday), a finalist for the 2007 NBCC prize for biography. The
February 13, 2007
By NBCC
Donald Antrim’s mother, Louanne, dies in the first sentence of his poignant and mordantly funny memoir, The Afterlife. Only a few pages later, in what seems a stunning non sequitur,