• The Devil Rocks Out: The Legacies of Aleister Crowley

    The Devil Rocks Out: The Legacies of Aleister Crowley

    Why did an Edwardian occultist become the darling of the Age of Aquarius? Bill Tipper on two new books examining the lasting influence of “The Wickedest Man in the World.”

  • Ghosts: A Natural History

    Ghosts: A Natural History

    By ROGER CLARKE

    Do phantoms walk among us? Looking at the spirit world through the lens of science doesn’t preclude thrills. Review by Peter Lewis.

  • Autumn Killing

    Autumn Killing

    By MONS KALLENTOFT; Translated by NEIL SMITH

    A Stockholm detective struggles with a brutal killing, and her own self-destructive spiral. Review by Anna Mundow.

Latest Posts

REVIEWS & ESSAYS

Women

Women

By CHLOE CALDWELL

From a young writer’s heartache come mature ideas on lost love and the will to carry on.

Posted by × October 29, 2014 ×

INTERVIEWS

Herbie Hancock: Breaking the Rules

Herbie Hancock: Breaking the Rules

The jazz innovator talks about finding Buddhism, his relationship with Miles Davis, and teaching the ethics of an artform.

Posted by × October 28, 2014 ×

DAYBOOK

We Annihilated the World

We Annihilated the World

This week in history: the Mercury Theatre stages an invasion, and Ichabod Crane takes his fateful ride through Sleepy Hollow.

Posted by × October 28, 2014 ×

INTERVIEWS

John Grisham

John Grisham

The author of Gray Mountain on his first stories, work ethic, proudest moments, and the books he still wants to write.

Posted by × October 28, 2014 ×

THE SPECULATOR

The Peripheral

The Peripheral

By WILLIAM GIBSON

A virtual reality experiment opens into a rabbit hole of conspiracy in the latest from the cyberpunk pioneer.

Posted by × October 28, 2014 ×

REVIEWS & ESSAYS

The Secret History of Wonder Woman

The Secret History of Wonder Woman

By JILL LEPORE

The strange genesis of a star-spangled symbol of female empowerment.

Posted by × October 27, 2014 ×

A READING LIFE

The Days Trilogy, Expanded Edition

The Days Trilogy, Expanded Edition

By H. L. MENCKEN; Edited by MARION ELIZABETH RODGERS

The “Sage of Baltimore” looked back on a life obsessed with the written word. Review by Katherine A. Powers.

Posted by × October 24, 2014 ×

REVIEWS & ESSAYS

J: A Novel

J: A Novel

By HOWARD JACOBSON

The Booker Prize–winning author creates a vision of tomorrow eerily haunted by Melville’s white whale.

Posted by × October 22, 2014 ×

REVIEWS & ESSAYS

Nora Webster

Nora Webster

By COLM TÓIBÍN

A young Irish widow returns to an abandoned profession as a means of feeding her children – and stifling loneliness.

Posted by × October 22, 2014 ×

REVIEWS & ESSAYS

From Bell Jar to Magic Barrel: Emily Gould, Joanna Rakoff, and Anya Ulinich

From Bell Jar to Magic Barrel: Emily Gould, Joanna Rakoff, and Anya Ulinich

In memoir and fiction — and sometimes online — three women chart a generation’s uneasy passage into adulthood.

Posted by × October 22, 2014 ×

GUEST BOOKS

Peyton Marshall

Peyton Marshall

“These books all start with the infusion of chaos into a person’s life. They keep posing the question – what happens next?”

Posted by × October 22, 2014 ×

DAYBOOK

We the Peoples

We the Peoples

This week in history: a charter is signed in the name of postwar cooperation, and a realist learns he must turn the sail rather than the wind.

Posted by × October 22, 2014 ×

INTERVIEWS

Marilynne Robinson: A Good Inheritance

Marilynne Robinson: A Good Inheritance

The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Lila (a 2014 National Book Award finalist) on the benefits of loneliness, how characters come to her, and the most important advice she gives to aspiring writers.

Posted by × October 21, 2014 ×

REVIEWS & ESSAYS

All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid

All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid

By MATT BAI

How the 1987 scandal of would-be presidential candidate Gary Hart gave us the political news cycle of today.

Posted by × October 21, 2014 ×

REVIEWS & ESSAYS

The Meaning of Human Existence

The Meaning of Human Existence

By EDWARD O. WILSON

Mankind – origins, our unique place in the universe, and what the future of the species holds – in about two hundred pages.

Posted by × October 20, 2014 ×