Mary Mable Rogers?… Even her name is unmemorable, more readily evoking a prim spinster than a nubile femme fatale. But at the turn of the century… Mary was the last woman to be hanged in the state of Vermont. And weirder still—she... Read More

If a foreword by former first lady Rosalynn Carter is not enough to make one take this handbook seriously, then the subject matter will. “Am I dead yet?” one seriously ill patient is quoted to have asked his nurse. When told no, he... Read More

A nation’s public monuments are at bottom permanent and revealing political propaganda-witness the Statue of Liberty or the St. Louis Arch. Michalski, an art historian at the University of Braunschweig, Germany, powerfully demonstrates... Read More

A book written seventy years ago has just been translated into English, giving wider audience to Argentinean author Roberto Arlt’s work. The Seven Madmen is set in Buenos Aires in the then-present-time of 1929 and opens with main... Read More

In a successful compilation, even a mini-biographical sketch can have the effect of eliciting energized interest in the subject with a wish to pursue reading. And Birnbaum delivers five such sketches in Modern Girls, Shining Stars, The... Read More

Beneath a veneer of too much blow-by-blow football and repetitive introspection lies a novel full of character and vitality, peopled by individuals all looking not to turn into—or be used by—anyone like the women who gave birth to... Read More

A Line of Cutting Women is a refreshing, rich, satisfying collection of 37 short stories published over the last two decades by CALYX: A Journal of Art and Literature by Women. It contains a great mix of voices including Jewish, Mormon,... Read More

At first, Adventure Guide to Northern California seems like just another travel guide in the median cost range of other travel guides to the same local areas of Northern California, with the same key points featured. But on second,... Read More