Consider the fateful paradoxes of exile that haunted this poet’s fragile yet tenacious lifework. Born Paul Antschel in 1920 to a prosperous Jewish family in Bukovina (grimly ceded to Romania in 1940), he adopted the name Celan after... Read More

For those who recall the paranoia, the unyielding sense of foreboding, and the daily threat of nuclear annihilation that defined life during Cold War, there was no greater fictional antidote than Ian Fleming’s James Bond. While the... Read More

The title of Malika Mokeddem’s memoir may puzzle those familiar with the author. Written by one “whose only religion is the right to equality, to freedom, to love, to sexual choice”—a stance which vehemently de-fends... Read More

Profiles of eighty top snow-skiing destinations is the thrust behind Ski Atlas of the World: The Complete Reference to the Best Resorts (Abbeville Press 978-0-7892-0986-3) a beautifully photographed coffee table-worthy project certain to... Read More

There are certainly reasons to approach this book cautiously. Despite producer Irving Thalberg’s celebrated influence on American film, the trite phrase “Hollywood Dreams” gives one pause. In fact, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to... Read More

“Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous,” Thomas Jefferson said. It is this vigor, virtue, pride, and diligence that Paul Mobley sets out to... Read More

“The history of tango is as elusive as the history of the Argentine people,” the author writes. In spite of this, Baim presents an engaging portrait of the dance and music that are synonymous with the culture of Argentina. The author... Read More

When Christopher Columbus landed on Hispaniola he assumed he was in India and called the chain of roughly 7000 islands reefs and cays the West Indies. He was mistaken. Columbus also found the natives of Hispaniola in possession of gold... Read More