To pigeonhole this book as a “baseball memoir” is equivalent to calling Izaak Walton’s The Complete Angler a tract on fishing. Both books far exceed the subject matter indicated by their titles, though clearly the national... Read More

It is 1973: “The Partridge Family”rules the hearts of prepubescent girls on television, and music is played on vinyl records. Danny Burke, a loner in his 5th grade class at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, longs to be accepted by the... Read More

William III’s 1690 Act “for encouraging the distilling of brandy and spirits” was designed to boost the grain market and benefit farmers. Unfortunately, it led to a half-century of excessive gin consumption. Samuel Johnson noted... Read More

Sitting in the audience listening to the performers limbering up before a concert can cause a listener great excitement and anticipation. Especially when the performers are a snowflake, a box, some raindrops, and a kitten. The author (a... Read More

Children should never go off with a stranger in the middle of the night, unless, of course, the stranger is a large, pleasant gorilla that has just appeared at the foot of the bed. Hannah’s father, who is too busy to pay much attention... Read More

Over a long, illustrious career the author has practiced and nearly perfected what might be called a Texas plain style. Without fuss or pyrotechnics, his poems draw readers into a life both unexceptional and extraordinary, made so by the... Read More

This unusual cookbook offers more than two hundred appealing “soft food” recipes with ingredients that are finely chopped, softened, or soaked. The recipes are sensibly organized by category: drinks and soups to desserts. The high... Read More

“She is no copyist of another’s skill: she has now a name for herself—she is one of our national glories—our Sedgwick.” So claimed Mrs. E. C. Embury in The Ladies Companion of 1835. During a career that spanned five decades of... Read More