Books Archive

The Winter of Our Disconnect: How Three Totally Wired Teenagers (and a Mother Who Slept with Her iPhone) Pulled the Plug on Their Technology and Lived to Tell The Tale - Guest Butler Elizabeth Benedict is the author of five novels and editor of the anthology, Mentors, Muses & Monsters: 30 Writers on the People Who Changed Their Lives. She is

The Woman in Cabin 10 - GUEST BUTLER NORA LEVINE owns the literary mystery/thriller corner of this site. That’s my good fortune — I can’t read everything — and yours too. Nora introduced us — well,

The Woman Who Beat The Klan - You may not have seen this news: Recently President Biden signed a proclamation establishing the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument in Mississippi and Illinois to “advance civil rights

The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote - GUEST BUTLER JILL SWITZER last reviewed a biography of Sandra Day O’Connor/. She has been a member of the State Bar of California for 40 years and now is a

The Wonder Spot - The first 45 pages of "The Wonder Spot" are pretty much a stone bore. Twelve year-old Sophie Applebaum goes to a Bat Mitzvah in Chappaqua. She has a hard time in

The World in Vogue: People, Parties, Places - Even the greatest hostess, it is said, is forgotten when the last of her guests dies. That’s as it should be. What’s more ephemeral than a dinner party? What fades faster

The World of Downton Abbey - Americans loved the first season of “Downton Abbey” so much you would have thought it was on HBO. Seriously. The four episodes of Season 1 drew, on average, 4.9 million viewers; PBS

The World of Madeleine Castaing - What a beautiful book. No. That’s too little praise. What a work of art. What an inspiration. Look at the American decorating books of the last few decades, and what you

The Year of Living Biblically - His family was Jewish --- “in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant.” That meant a Star of David on top of the Christmas tree.

The Zen of Seeing -

The Zuni Cafe Cookbook: A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco’s Beloved Restaurant - Mental Clarity: How crazy is this? So many of you bought Mental Clarity from Amazon that now they’re out of stock and don’t know when they’ll have more. If

Theatre Review: “I Can Get It for You Wholesale” - Movie week? I interrupt it for a good reason: I saw a play last night that impressed me more than X, an award-winner we left at intermission, and Y, which

Them: A Memoir of Parents - Once upon a time, Alexander Liberman was my role model. He was a tall Russian thoroughbred who wore tan linen suits in summer and grey flannel suits in

Then Again - Close your eyes and picture Diane Keaton. I bet you see her as she was in “Annie Hall.” Man’s clothes. Floppy hat. “La-de-da.” Please return to reality. “Annie Hall” was 1977 --- 34

There There - Butler reviewed this book in September, 2019. Six months later, Tommy Orange won the 2019 PEN/Hemingway Award for the most distinguished first book of fiction. The judges called "There

These Days Are Ours - Michelle Haimoff died on June 24, 2019, of liver cancer, in Los Angeles. She was 40. She left behind her husband and two sons. And this book, which I loved.

These Things Ain’t Gonna Smoke Themselves: A Love/Hate/Love/Hate /Love Letter to a Very Bad Habit - They're out there. Literally. The smokers, that is. In cold and wet and hot and horrible, you see them, huddled under canopies. Are they yearning to be free?

They Made America From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovation - I'm very much interested in the story of the greatest economic growth of any nation in the history of the world. That story --- the 200-year tale of practical