Books and Ideas

My So-Called ‘Post-Feminist’ Life in Arts and Letters

My So-Called ‘Post-Feminist’ Life in Arts and Letters My So-Called ‘Post-Feminist’ Life in Arts and Letters

Slut-shaming, name-calling and no respect: welcome to life in literary America for a twenty-first-century female author.

Apr 9, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Deborah Copaken Kogan

ADHD Diagnoses Rise Sharply ADHD Diagnoses Rise Sharply

So hyperactivity’s now on the rise, Though overprescribing is also suspected. Could this be a hyperactivity plague? At least we know Congress has not been affected.

Apr 3, 2013 / Column / Calvin Trillin

Kircher’s Cosmos: On Athanasius Kircher

Kircher’s Cosmos: On Athanasius Kircher Kircher’s Cosmos: On Athanasius Kircher

How did a man who got so many things wrong become an intellectual celebrity in his own lifetime?

Apr 3, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Paula Findlen

Hunter-Blatherer: On Jared Diamond Hunter-Blatherer: On Jared Diamond

An unreliable anthropologist of traditional societies is a no less dubious diagnostician of the contemporary world.

Apr 3, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Stephen Wertheim

Republican Brawl Republican Brawl

First Palin said that Rove had spent a lot Of other people’s money, and had got For all of that a largely losing slate— Suggesting Rove’s gone past his sell-by date. So Rove, in search of subtle ways to hit her, Implied that she’d turned out to be a quitter. Then John McCain, with careful choice of words, Said Rand and Cruz behaved like “wacko birds.” O’Reilly said that Bachmann’s speech was trite. We can’t choose sides, since everyone is right.

Mar 27, 2013 / Column / Calvin Trillin

Made in the USA? Letter From London

Made in the USA? Letter From London Made in the USA? Letter From London

Books about London in its Olympic year and after see Americanization eroding the city’s gift for democratic gradualism.

Mar 27, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Leo Robson

Shelf Life

Shelf Life Shelf Life

Paul Hoover’s second edition of Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology.

Mar 27, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Ange Mlinko

One Issue That Seems to Be Getting Bipartisan Support in the Senate One Issue That Seems to Be Getting Bipartisan Support in the Senate

When Cruz begins a crude bombard, He speaks with reckless disregard. So even those who share his views Tend not to want to shmooze with Cruz.

Mar 20, 2013 / Column / Calvin Trillin

Unreal Choices: On The Feminine Mystique

Unreal Choices: On The Feminine Mystique Unreal Choices: On The Feminine Mystique

For Betty Friedan, feminism was humanism: a question of growth, maturation and identity.

Mar 20, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Julia M. Klein

Neighborhood Neighborhood

Our brick houses had one floor, storm windows to install in October, heavy brass doorknockers, screened-in patios, lawn jockeys, and front porches with wrought iron railings. The rusty bicycles flopped on the driveways, the smell of peat moss in wheelbarrows, the hum of fans from Sears Roebuck, sidewalks turning the color of grocery bags when wet. The luck of a clover with one appended leaf. We had board games like Monopoly shared by three families, the little green hotels disappearing just like the old market and the Bargain Center. The braided oaks with crooked tree houses, the burnt leaves, black fish swimming in air. And on an unseasonably sunny day in late October, I found my mother's floral umbrella and went strolling into the breeze under its spinning canopy, sucking a lemon.

Mar 20, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Judith Harris

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