All Books
- Crafts and social movements went hand-in-hand in American history
Author Glenn Adamson points out that the artisan’s workshop has long served as a shared space where people gathered with a common goal.
- Q&A with with Hanif Abdurraqib, author of ‘A Little Devil in America’
Black Americans have shaped the pop culture landscape, which poet and critic Hanif Abdurraqib says can be traced back to Black innovation.
- Machines that learn: The origin story of artificial intelligence
AI may have had a slow start, but companies like Google and Facebook are pursuing it like a modern-day gold rush.
- ‘Fierce Poise’ illuminates the career of an overlooked abstract expressionist
Electrified by Jackson Pollock’s work, painter Helen Frankenthaler blazed her own path and went toe-to-toe with the male artists of the New York School.
- ‘Red Island House’ probes uncomfortable collisions of class, race
Colonialism fuels the conflict within a Black American woman, whose wealthy Italian husband sets up a resort on an impoverished African island.
- ‘In the Gospels, no one is essential but Jesus’: new translation adds fresh scholarship
Some of Sarah Ruden’s choices offer a refreshing break from the familiar versions of the past. Others don’t quite work.
- Cosmic grandeur pervades Alan Lightman’s ‘Probable Impossibilities’
Galactic wonder radiates through these essays by the renowned theoretical physicist, whose writing proves companionable and illuminating.
- A win for labor laid the groundwork for workers’ rights
A strike at General Motors, led by the rising UAW, brought concessions that improved the lives of workers across the United States.
- The road to reclaiming Jewish property rarely runs smoothly
Property records and personal history become entwined as a descendant of a Holocaust survivor searches Poland for clues about his grandfather’s life.
- An early Black mutual aid society surfaces in New Orleans
A set of ledgers, nearly thrown out, leads Fatima Shaik to discover a fellowship of free Black men that predates the Civil War in “Economy Hall.”
- Japan tsunami aftermath provides the setting for this quiet, wise novel
“The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World” deals with the aftermath of Japan’s devastating 2011 tsunami, and provides a message of hope and endurance.
- The winds of change blow through the 10 best books of March
The 10 best books of March resound with change, from challenging the legacy of colonialism to exploring the place of the human species in the world.
- Tom Stoppard’s friends have nothing but good things to say about him
With full access, Hermione Lee has written the most authorized of authorized biographies of the British-Czech playwright and member of the literati.
- Where American women’s ambitions took wing at midcentury
Pan Am, along with the Barbizon in New York City, offered women of the 1940s-1960s a rare place to follow their career aspirations.
- Tried and tested book recommendations from readers
Looking for excellent books to read this spring? Check out these proven favorites recommended by Monitor readers.
- First LookPublisher pulls six Dr. Seuss books over racist portrayals
Dr. Seuss Enterprise, which oversees the author and illustrator’s legacy, has announced that it would no longer be selling “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” and “If I Ran the Zoo” because of racist and insensitive imagery.
- ‘The Graduate’ director Mike Nichols felt he had something to prove
Mark Harris’ biography traces Mike Nichols’ work from comedy improv duo with Elaine May to Broadway plays and big Hollywood films – as well as flops.
- ‘Klara and the Sun’: Do androids dream of human emotions?
A likable android studies human behavior in Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Klara and the Sun,” which explores the effects of AI.
- The Enlightenment stressed not only reason, but also empathy
Some historians have emphasized the intellectual part of the Enlightenment, while downplaying the other attributes that made it such a fruitful era.
- MLK, Malcolm X, and James Baldwin were shaped by their mothers
“The Three Mothers” asserts the pivotal role these women played in the formation of their sons’ religious, political, and literary achievements.