East of Eden book by John Steinbeck reviewed by Jia Lynn Yang
Peter Ibbetson
The buzz on books this summer was all about the non-revelations of a former first lady who stuck by her philandering man and a kid wizard’s new adolescent angst. But…
July 2013
Motown: Money, Power, Sex, and Music book by Gerald Posner reviewed by Marisa Knox
Today, the sound of the Motor City’s name most readily connotes the rap soundtrack of Eminem and the bleak visuals of 8 Mile. In the late 70’s, KISS anointed the…
The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis book by Leon Kass reviewed by Margaret Fox
In The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis, Leon Kass looks at the first book of the Bible to find out just what makes it eternally relevant. He addresses especially the…
Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor book by Paul Farmer reviewed by Ramnath Subbaraman
Despite the remarkable advances in medical knowledge made during the 20th century, the health of the world’s poor has rarely been in such jeopardy. The global AIDS epidemic constitutes the…
Living History book by Hillary Rodham Clinton reviewed by Hilary Hammell
Don’t hate me for liking Hillary. She’s an easy target for cynics, not only for her political maneuvering but also for her anti-charisma: the way she contrasts with Bill in…
The Language Police book by Diane Ravitch reviewed by Toby Merrill
In the aftermath of the Lacedaemonian revolution, Thucydides writes, “Words had to change their meanings and take on those which were now given them.” Diane Ravitch’s Language Police explores the…
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith book by Jon Krakauer reviewed by Kirsti Potter
On a hot and sticky Saturday morning this August, a massive crowd—possibly even 10,000 people—gathered in Montgomery, Alabama to protest, praise, and pray. They had bussed in en masse from…
Conditions of Love: The Philosophy of Intimacy book by John Armstrong reviewed by Allie Stielau
I’ll confess that I am a sappy romantic who enjoys watching teeny-bopper comedies despite their repetitive, unoriginal plots. I sometimes cave to the temptation of reading Rosamunde Pilcher and Maeve…
Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology edited by David L. Ulin reviewed by Alex Lee
Five years ago, the Los Angeles Public Library started a new line of posters, featuring a large picture of a library card, with the slogan “a sign of intelligent life…
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books book by Azar Nafisi reviewed by Sonja Ostrow
Fiction was not a panacea,” Azar Nafisi writes late in Reading Lolita in Tehran, “but it did offer us a critical way of appraising and grasping the world—not just our…