I love history that digs into something that was absolutely massive during its day and now is essentially unknown and forgotten. It always makes me wonder what the same things will be from our era. Sarah Horowitz's The Red Widow: The Scandal that Shook Paris and the Woman Behind it All (September 6, Sourcebooks) does... Continue Reading →
The Second Half of Robert Crawford’s Definitive T.S. Eliot Biography
The long-awaited conclusion of biographer Robert Crawford's biography of T.S. Eliot, Eliot After "The Waste Land", is finally here. Crawford waited until the letters between Eliot (referred to as Tom throughout) and his longtime muse and one-that-got-away, Emily Hale, were unsealed in 2020. Hale donated the correspondence to the Princeton University Library, against Eliot's wishes... Continue Reading →
Sinclair McKay’s Biography of Berlin
Berlin: Life and Death in the City at the Center of the World, by Sinclair McKayUsed or new @SecondSale.com Throughout the twentieth century, Berlin stood at the centre of a convulsing world. It alternately seduced and haunted the international imagination. The essence of the city seemed to be its sharp duality: the radiant boulevards, the... Continue Reading →
Recent Foodie Reads: Food as Philosophy, Healing Technique, and Revolution
Great British Bake Off contestant and Guardian columnist Ruby Tandoh's book melding food, memoir, and life philosophy, Eat Up: Food, Appetite and Eating What You Want, has been a UK bestseller since its 2018 release, and apparently is getting a US release next month, although the Queens Public Library already had it. I read it... Continue Reading →
Artsy Group Biographies: Lives of the Surrealists and Muse
I've been in the mood for these lately! It started with a visit last fall to the Sammlung Scharf Gerstenberg, a collection of surrealist art close to our Berlin apartment. In the bookshop there I found Desmond Morris's The Lives of the Surrealists. Morris, a painter (and zoologist!) himself, is one of the last surviving... Continue Reading →
A Long Overdue Comprehensive Biography of Sylvia Plath
Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath (Used or new @ SecondSale.com), by Heather Clark Now she is flyingMore terrible than she ever was, redScar in the sky, red cometOver the engine that killed her—The mausoleum, the wax house The book I most surprised myself by reading last year was Red... Continue Reading →
21 New Release Favorites of 2021
Eking in at the veeeery last minute, I've compiled my new release favorites of 2021. Let's dive in! Unsurprisingly, nothing surpassed Elissa Washuta's White Magic for me. This memoir-in-essays is like nothing I've ever read before, although I've come across a lot of memoirs that attempt similar things less successfully. This uses a blend of... Continue Reading →
17 Favorites from the Backlist
It's the most wonderful time of the year: Christmas stresses are over and it's time for year-end favorites lists! I love dividing up my year's favorite books by new releases and backlist selections because it means I can include more books. Also, since my blogging has deteriorated into a truly awful state, I realized that... Continue Reading →
Two New Food Histories: The Secret History of Food and Taste Makers
Much as I love food writing, I've still not been reading as much of it recently. I did get to two good food histories recently out though. The Secret History of Food: Strange but True Stories About the Origins of Everything We Eat, by Matt Siegel (August 31, Ecco) Buy it used or new at... Continue Reading →
Two Histories From Imperial Austria
Since I've been having a bit of a stress-induced reading slump these last months, I'm trying to motivate by picking up books that I've really wanted to read but never seem to get around to. Which brought me to a favorite topic: Empress Elisabeth. I've mentioned before that if you don't know Sisi already and... Continue Reading →
Nonfiction Centered in Germany: Tunneling the Wall, Reading Stasi Files, and the Enigmatic Chancellor
In preparation for (a little Vorfreude - something like the joy in anticipating something) and during my time in Germany this summer, I was reading more German nonfiction than usual, two of which are new/upcoming releases and absolutely stellar. Los geht's! Tunnel 29: The True Story of an Extraordinary Escape Beneath the Berlin Wall, by... Continue Reading →
New Science: Cancer Research in Nazi Germany and the Oceanic Abyss
Isn't science grand? Let's look at some very different recent releases in pop science. Ravenous: Otto Warburg, the Nazis, and the Search for the Cancer-Diet Connection, by Sam Apple Did you know that Hitler was obsessed with both sugar and cancer? He was! He was also consuming the former in the worst possible proportions if... Continue Reading →