Teacher and Author
In These Truths, Jill Lepore asks her reader to consider a central question as she makes her way through her 800-page survey of American history. It is a question first posed by Alexander Hamilton in 1787 in what became known … Continued
Twilight of the Gods is a thrilling conclusion to Ian Toll’s thirteen-years-in-the-making “Pacific War Trilogy.” The longest and, Toll admits, hardest of the three to write, the final volume is nevertheless a taut narrative of the war’s complex final year. … Continued
To Rescue the Republic: Ulysses S. Grant, the Fragile Union, and the Crisis of 1876 is Bret Baier’s fourth biographical book. Even so, I couldn’t escape the feeling that he is playing at being a historian (especially since I can … Continued
Jonathan Franzen’s Crossroads was a gift. Listening to it in my car during the Holiday season was like an audio advent calendar. Each new commute-long section brought surprises, like daily presents wrapped up just for me. As it happened, I … Continued
I finished Ron Chernow’s definitive biography of Alexander Hamilton this month. It is easy to see how Lin-Manuel Miranda was inspired to write a musical about this overlooked “founding father without a father.” His life is truly operatic. I could … Continued
Long Way Down, by Jason Reynolds, is a highly original novel in verse. It is clever, artful, provocative, and desperately important. Original: The story takes place in a single elevator trip from the eighth floor to the lobby of Will’s … Continued
Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies are not starving someplace, they are starving Somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils. Elizabeth Abbott’s “bittersweet” history of sugar is heavy on bitter, light on sweet. Slavery and exploitation dominate her compelling 400-page … Continued
Susan Cheever’s Drinking in America is a strange book. It is interesting, entertaining, and informative, but it is also a bit odd. Deciding between it and Lender and Martin’s 1987 book of the same title, I opted with Cheever’s for … Continued
Uprooted by Albert Marrin breaks many of the “rules” that I have, correctly or not, picked up from other nonfiction writers–or perhaps mostly from my critique group. I have been discouraged from shifting out of the historical narrative to refer … Continued
I read John Rocco’s How We Got to the Moon this summer, 10-12 pages a day until I had read all 250. David McCauley calls it “Nothing short of stunning!” on the cover. He’s right. The book has a lot … Continued