James Seay’s essay collection reflects on mortality, literature, and the natural world
…In the opening essays, the author reflects on his own loss and grief. For example, “Down among the Bones, the Darks, the Sparrows” finds Seay at his son’s grave, observing…
Michael Sims remembers the bookstore where he found the world
…Pantry. I would relock the door, bring in the newspapers to stack them beside the cash register, cut the plastic twine on the top bale. Now and then an early…
A lyrical, atmospheric new picture book celebrates author and environmentalist Wilma Dykeman
…theme that defines the person I’m writing about. Oftentimes finding the right theme is the hardest part of the process. Since Wilma’s most famous book is The French Broad, I…
Frye Gaillard delivers a sprawling, panoramic history of the 1960s
…when some of them were murdered. Chapter 16: The book reflects a great admiration for the activists of the civil-rights movement. How did they shape the trajectory of the 1960s?…
Rebecca Makkai’s I Have Some Questions for You alternates between the #MeToo present and a 1990s mystery
…mind the unanswered questions about the night’s events or the possibility of other suspects — the media ran with the story, one that, with the help of unscrupulous prosecutors, ended…
Hampton Sides examines the final voyage of one of the great explorers
…one of the premier historians of our day, a man whose bestsellers range from polar exploration (In the Kingdom of Ice) to the Korean War (On Desperate Ground) and the…
