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Books

An Appreciation: Bernard Waber Made Crocodiles Lovable

Friday, May 24, 2013

One of my favorite writers died this week. He wasn’t a literary lion, he wasn’t recognized as a young prodigy, he didn’t show up on Oprah’s Book Club, he probably didn’t get million dollar advances, and his name may not immediately ring a bell. But what he did, he did exceptionally well. His name is Bernard Waber and he died at age 91 on Long Island. For those of you who still haven’t placed him, Waber is the author and illustrator of the Lyle Crocodile series as well as other books for kids, including the very funny Ira Sleeps Over. Lyle Crocodile made his first …

Money and the Pursuit of Poetry

Friday, May 24, 2013

For a man with his surname, Peter Money picked the one profession in which he was almost guaranteed not to make any: publishing. And not just any kind of publishing, but poetry, which stands about as much chance of raking in millions as the NRA suddenly lobbying for restrictions on gun use. But …

Brownsville Publisher’s Niche Is Rewarding, if Not Monetarily

Friday, May 24, 2013

Excerpt from God’s Body by Alice B. Fogel. Be That Empty,  published by Harbor Mountain Press. “All for show, to win a point for their god they put the bomb on the bus for a ride each miracle of god, each passenger, destined for a small greatness at the next stop: that bareheaded …

An Author’s Confession: She Likes Likable Characters

Friday, May 24, 2013

Quick: What’s the most unforgivable sin a writer can commit in fiction? A writerly crime so awful that major, award-winning novelists are condemning it on the pages of Publishers Weekly and inveighing against it in The New Yorker? …

Ex-Sen. Snowe Presses for Bipartisanship

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Portland, Maine — U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe describes a scene out of a Rockwell painting: With Washington crippled by a blizzard, President Obama worked the week before Christmas with a fire roaring in the fireplace in the Oval …

Rocker-Poet Patti Smith Introduces World to Forgotten Favorite Novel

Sunday, May 19, 2013

The Slate Book Review presents Patti Smith’s introduction to Astragal , the 1965 novel by Albertine Sarrazin, which is being reprinted this month by New Directions. New York — Perhaps it is wrong to speak of oneself while …

Gross National Product

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Whether you feast on truffles or Cheetos, the end result is the same. Defecation is the great leveler. There’s nothing more democratic or unpretentious than what happens in the confines of our commodes — as the children’s book …

A Talk With the Diva of Magical Feminism

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Washington — Isabel Allende has a cold. Bronchitis, actually. She’s normally a hugger. Not today. “Don’t touch me,” she warns, thrusting her arms up to avoid the slightest possibility of skin-to-skin contact. “I’m all germs.” It’s Wednesday and …

At Peace With the Time That Remains

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Karen Speerstra’s home is in the farthest southwest corner of Tunbridge, about as high as you can get on Kelsey Mountain without being a bird. The dirt road to her house keeps narrowing as it nears the top …

Travel Calls to Mind the Limits of Our Expertise

Friday, May 10, 2013

My wife and I are just back from a week and some in the Netherlands, which we spent mostly in Amsterdam, with time out for a couple of glorious days bicycling on the island of Texel. Bicycles are everywhere in that country, which partly explains, no doubt, why …

Dartmouth Historian  Revisits Vietnam War

Friday, May 10, 2013

Like the Civil War, whose origins, outcome and meaning are still vigorously debated, how we remember the Vietnam War is inextricably tangled with what our political views of it are. If you believe that the war shouldn’t have …

‘Eggheads’ in America

Sunday, May 5, 2013

The term egghead has mostly been retired to the Hall of Lost Insults, hung up alongside Poindexter and gomer in the “Making Fun of Nerds” section. But being accused of being an “egghead” in the 1950s wasn’t the …