Nonfiction

Our Ancestors Murdered Their Mother Tongue, Thankfully

Reviewing Laura Spinney’s ‘Proto: How One Language Went Global’

Sep 24 •

Mystery to Ourselves: The Brain’s Black Box

The Human Self in Literature and Science: Reviewing Eric Hoel’s ‘The World Behind the World’

Aug 20 •

‘And Lead Us Not into Distraction’

What Monks and Nuns Know about Staying Focused. Reviewing Jamie Kreiner’s ‘The Wandering Mind’

Aug 16 •

Note to Self: Watch Your Mouth

When We Don’t Speak Our Minds: Reviewing Glenn C. Loury’s ‘Self-Censorship’

Jun 28 •

Narrative Control: How Stories Dominate Our Lives

Reviewing Alissa Wilkinson’s ‘We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine’

Jun 14 •

Books Before Print, Paper, and Pixel

The Art and Function of Medieval Manuscripts: Reviewing ‘The Lindisfarne Gospels,’ ‘Imperial Splendor,’ and ‘Performing the Gospels in Byzantium’

May 24 •

3 Ways to Make New Stuff Happen

Lessons in Innovation from Buckminster Fuller, Martin Luther King Jr., Milton Friedman, and Sonny Rollins

Apr 5 •

Ideas Are Tools, and Words Can Heal

An African American History of Literacy and Liberation, and What Their Words Mean for Us All

Feb 1 •

How to Predict the Future Better than a Dolphin

Imagining What’s Next. Reviewing ‘The Invention of Tomorrow: A Natural History of Foresight’

Nov 27, 2024 •

Thinking Is a Group Sport

A Guide to Clear Thinking in a Confusing World: Alan Jacobs’s ‘How to Think’

Nov 13, 2024 •

Finding Your Needle in Chesterton’s Haystack

A Peek at Joseph W. Sprug’s Remarkable 1966 Index to 92 Books by Larger-than-Life G.K. Chesterton

Nov 6, 2024 •

First Draft, Last Draft: How Hemingway Became Hemingway

Reviewing the Celebrated Novelist’s Classic Memoir, ‘A Moveable Feast’

Oct 5, 2024 •

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