I don’t want to read a book about people dying on the slopes of Mt. Everest. I don’t want to read about murderous Mormon polygamists. Unless, that is, it’s Jon Krakauer telling the story. In which case, I’m in. Read more.
Book Openers
As a little kid I always had my nose in a book. And now that I'm thoroughly grown up, I still do. Below you'll find author profiles (lots of memoirists) as well as mini – and not-so-mini – book reviews.
Book Openers: I Still Haven’t Figured Out How to Pray — But I’m in Good Company
“I am a failure at prayer,” author Barbara Brown Taylor confesses . . . Now there’s a woman after my own heart.
Book Openers: Gary Laderman — Holy Super Bowl, Holy Bambi, Holy Michael Jackson
Americans are practicing religion in sports stadiums, at Star Trek conventions, at Michael Jackson’s memorial, and on pornographic websites. Holy is all over the place in America, says author Gary Laderman, a professor of American Religious History and Cultures at Emory University and the author of a new book, “Sacred Matters.”
Book Openers: Barack Obama — How He Got So Smart
Barack Obama was a president who could think. His memoir, “Dreams from My Father,” explains how Obama got so smart. Read more.
What’s Rhetoric? Let My Two-Year-Old Enlighten You
My daughter Christina discovered the art of rhetoric when she was being weaned from baby bottle to plastic cup. She’d say, “I want milk and I don’t want it in a cup” — an elegant illocutionary statement that usually got her what she wanted, her bottle.
A Case of the Human Condition: Jane Johnston Schoolcraft and the Indian I Wanted to Be
Growing up in Michigan, I read “Hiawatha,” but I was never exposed to the poems and stories of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, a nineteenth-century Ojibway Indian from the Upper Peninsula. I was culturally deprived.
The Writing Room: Writing About Your Mother? — Words of Caution from Lori Gottlieb
Planning to write about your mother? You might reconsider after reading Lori Gottlieb’s essay in today’s New York Times. Or are you a mother writing about your kids . . .