Books Archive |
Rumi - The greatest Muslim poet was born in what is now Afghanistan, back when Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists lived peacefully together. His funeral lasted 40 days, and he was mourned by Christians,
Running Out of Water: The Looming Crisis and Solutions to Conserve Our Most Precious Resource - A few years ago, when we were deep in the fiction of “choosing a school” for the child, the director of admissions of the city’s most respected girls’ school asked
Rupert Everett: Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins - According to their blurbs, show-biz memoirs are all wise, witty and candid --- and you don’t discover they’re none of those things until you’re ten pages in. But “Red Carpets
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: The Last Interview, and Other Conversations - Her father came to America from Russia when he was 13. He went to night school to learn English. He never had any formal education except Hebrew school in any
Ruth Draper - At the start of her career, Ruth Draper asked Henry James, a family friend, for advice about her future, whether she ought to pursue a career as a conventional actress
Ruth Reichl: Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir - Food matters. As M.F.K. Fisher said, “There is a communion of more than our bodies when we share food.” Gourmet Magazine mattered. For decades, it was a stuffy collection of recipes
Sacred Landscapes: The Threshold Between Worlds - The books you’d take to a desert island? The Bible, of course. [Fun fact: Each year, the Bible is the best-selling book in America, with 25 million copies sold.] Shakespeare. [Because you
Sacrifice Zones: The Front Lines of Toxic Exposure in the United States - Koch Industries is one of the ten most egregious air polluters in the United States. He and his family are also major donors to right-wing Republicans --- including groups
Sally Rooney: Is she really all that and a bag of chips? - “Normal People,” from Sally Rooney’s novel, was the BBC’s most streamed series of 2020, with 63 million views. Last week a friend recommended the 12-episode series on Hulu. A few days
Saltwater Buddha: A Surfer’s Quest to Find Zen on the Sea - We’re fond of surfing in this establishment. My stepson is sufficiently hard-core to surf off Long Island in January; he’s the one who told me about characters like Miki Dora
Samantha Power: A Problem from Hell - She's now the President's choice as Ambassador to the United Nations, but in June of 1989. Samantha Power, just finished with her freshman year at Yale, was working
Santiago Calatrava: Complete Works - Four years after 9/11, no one could decide on the buildings that would replace the World Trade Center or the memorial that will be erected to honor the
Sarabeth’s Bakery: From My Hands to Yours - I have never understood brunch, largely because my interest in sleeping late on Sunday, slowly making my way through the New York Times and then heading out, fashionably unshaven, for
Sarah Ban Breathnach: Moving On - 'Simple Abundance' --- who doesn't remember this book? Is there a woman who watches Oprah who doesn't have a copy? It's like a demarcation line. Once upon a time, there
Sarah Ban Breathnach: Simple Abundance: 365 Days to a Balanced and Joyful Life - I met Sarah Ban Breathnach when she had just sold the zillionth copy of “Simple Abundance.” We became instant friends. In two decades, much has changed in our lives, and
Savages - "A scene must start because the hero has a problem, and it must culminate with the hero finding him or herself either thwarted or educated that another way exists." That is
Saving Ben: A Father’s Story of Autism - At 5, Ben was still wearing diapers and masturbating like mad. At 21, he functions. Oh, yeah, he got saved. This was not a scenario anyone would have predicted when Ben
Schlepping Through the Alps: My Search for Austria’s Jewish Past with Its Last Wandering Shepherd - Schlepping Through the Alps: My Search for Austria's Jewish Past with Its Last
Scott Turow: Innocent - It’s not exactly like asking where you were when you heard JFK was shot, but for many of us, the publication of Presumed Innocent in 1987 was An Event. A bookseller
Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamy - I can be so slow. For quite a while now, when I've found myself in the car on Saturday afternoon. I listen to alt rock on WFUV until the sports
