In The Herbal Alchemist’s Handbook, an expert combines the twin arts of alchemy and herbalism to create mystical, magickal (her spelling) “philters, elixirs, oils, incense, and formulas for ritual use.” This straightforwardly... Read More

From 1652 to 1994, South Africa was ruled by a succession of white regimes notorious for exploiting the non-white population. Apartheid, imposed on the non-whites beginning in 1948, made life for blacks a living hell, and for Indians... Read More

“I will treat anyone anywhere any time, so long as they cannot pay.” For over four decades this mantra has driven Dr. Glenn Geelhoed to lead medical missions to treat patients and train medical personnel throughout the developing... Read More

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover I had not lived.” These famous words by... Read More

In 1940 the Soviet army executed 20,000 Polish army officers and civilians, a command issued from the highest authority, the eponymous Katyn Order of Jacobson’s second historical thriller. As the German army withdraws from Poland in... Read More

“Seventy-five years after its inception, Fallingwater affirms architecture’s prospect to engage the lyrical and visceral dimensions of human experience that arise from a direct engagement with nature.” So writes John M. Reynolds in... Read More

It’s amazing how a brutal sport can evoke such eloquent prose. Among the top-notch writers who have contributed novels and non-fiction assessments about the squared circle are A.J. Liebling, Joyce Carol Oates, and Norman Mailer. Add... Read More

“My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist.” Thus begins Tayari Jones’s latest novel, "Silver Sparrow", a story that blossoms and winds its way around this one, life-making fact. Set in 1980’s Atlanta, the book peels open... Read More