Every book and blog dedicated to the craft of writing repeats the same mantra: show, don’t tell. Sharon Wallace, author of "A House Full of Whispers", got the message. She impales the reader with descriptions of the abuse she and her... Read More

“History is the ship carrying living memories to the future.” —Stephen Spender The problem with the art of the memoir is perception. Readers must decide if they are being shown a true representation of the past or a facsimile... Read More

Afghan poet M. S. Adam-Zad’s "The Expression Garden" embraces a series of poetic clichés—rainbows, love poems, and flowers. Certainly, poets have made these topics new in any number of ways, but that is not the case in Adam-Zad’s... Read More

Nothing is as compelling as a book about dogs. The astounding success of John Grogan’s Marley & Me is proof that a good story about a family dog can attract a huge audience. There is another kind of dog story—one that tells of... Read More

Everyone at Truman knows the truth about what it’s like to be an eighth grader, but few are willing to shed light on the matter. That is, until Zebby and Amr decide that a Web site would provide the opportunity for Truman to spill its... Read More

The nearest moral substitute for righting a wrong is exposing it-blowing the whistle. Much of the exposed wrongdoing that makes the evening news nowadays is of a magnitude beyond the ability of most individuals to rectify, and... Read More

“The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River and such principal stream of it as… may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across the continent, for the purpose of commerce,” instructed President... Read More

“Everything vital in history reduces itself ultimately to ideas,” wrote seminal mid-century conservative thinker Robert Nisbet, the subject of this commendably concise and articulate intellectual biography. Nisbet, who died in 1996... Read More