Reviews
The Quiet Beatle
Michael Jimenez reviews Within You Without You: Listening to George Harrison by Seth Rogovoy (Oxford University Press, 2024)
Reasonable: you know it when you see it?
Elizabeth Stice reviews Being Reasonable: The Case for a Misunderstood Virtue by Krista Lawlor (Harvard University Press, 2026)
“Yet other wild silk worlds to conquer,” the powerful pull of silk
Saija Wilson reviews Silk: A World History by Aarathi Prasad (William Morrow, 2024)
Maintenance and the Making of Civilization
Elizabeth Stice reviews Maintenance: Of Everything, Part One by Stewart Brand (Stripe Press, 2025)
Thought: It Takes Two
Lydia Kuerth reviews Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life by Agnes Callard (W. W. Norton & Company, 2025)
Our next book club: “The Yearling”
Join us this summer as we read The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings!
Don’t get too loose with it
Elizabeth Stice reviews Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better by David Epstein (Riverhead Books, 2026)
You’re invited: “The Old Man and the Sea” Book Club
Our next book club, The Old Man and the Sea! Get the details here.
Apples, America, and Adulthood
Elizabeth Stice reviews American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed by Isaac Fitzgerald (Knopf, 2026)
To signal or not to signal? Putting up the anti-AI sign (or not)
The anti-AI sign: is it virtue signaling or something else? We look to Václav Havel for help.
Spring poems
We’re celebrating spring with some poetry! These poems were selected for the season by Lydia Kuerth.
With liberty and independence for all?
Elizabeth Stice reviews Liberty as Independence: The Making and Unmaking of a Political Ideal by Quentin Skinner (Cambridge University Press, 2025)
Beyond the Myth of Malala Yousafzai
Sarah Linville reviews Finding My Way by Malala Yousafzai (Atria Books, 2025)
A Window Onto Grief
Elizabeth Stice reviews Windower by Michael Loughran (Ohio State University Press, 2025)
An invitation: “The Old Man and the Sea” Book Club
Our next book club, The Old Man and the Sea! Get the details here.
Class Dismissed
Joel Harold Tannenbaum reviews Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers, and Gourmands Who Conquered New York by Dylan Gottlieb (Harvard University Press, 2026)
Saturday Shortstack
Turkmenistan, Where on Earth is That? by Tam Macklin (Rowanvale Books, 2025)
Is Your Work Worth It? How to Think About Meaningful Work by Christopher Wong Michaelson and Jennifer Totsi-Kharas (Hachette, 2024)
Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect by Will Guidara (Optimism Press, 2022)
As Entrancing as Snowy Egret Feathers
Elizabeth Stice reviews The Feather Wars: And the Great Crusade to Save America’s Birds by James H. McCommons (St. Martin’s Press, 2026)
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Letters to the Editor and book recommendations welcome