My antipathy to all forms of conditioning (excepting a moderate amount of the physical) means I am a, uh, proponent of fans as cooling devices. One of my recent discoveries is the Holmes Blizzard Oscillating Grill Power Fan, which has—get this—a remote control, a timer, and various speed
The humanities are ruined, and the universities full of crooks. Art in America is neglected, coddled, and buried under chatter. The right looks down on artists; the left looks down on everyone. Our man in Boston has an electrifying conversation with Camille Paglia.
An Alessi teapot designed by Michael Graves sits atop my stove as a grave marker to my past affluence—Graves claims that he began to design for Target because he couldn’t afford his own products. But I doubt $20 can buy you a better package of form and function
It can take six weeks to write six minutes of fiction, and that's not so bad. A conversation with the author of Saturday about taking the time to do your thing, the changing face of literary culture, and how everybody really can write a novel.
While I don’t think I’ll ever succumb to listening to books instead of reading them, I am regularly inclined to revisit something I have read by having a go at the audio version. I was amused and fascinated by Bob Dylan’s memoir Chronicles but thought it suffered
Queens may sport the most languages spoken in New York City, but Brooklyn certainly has the most writers. Our man in Boston talks with Brooklynite Elizabeth Gaffney about her new book, set in 19th-century New York, and her 16 years editing the Paris Review with George Plimpton.
Do genre writers have more fun than plain old novelists? Is it possible to embed philosophical thought in a thriller? For an all-around TMN smorgasbord, our brain in Boston chats with Contributing Writer Kevin Guilfoile about his new novel.
Prejudice cannot be defeated entirely, but it can be fought with courage and stamina, and with really good lawyers. Our bookish reporter in Boston has a fascinating conversation with scholar Deborah Lipstadt about her six-year battle with Holocaust denier David Irving.
Are we comforted by the official account of Sept. 11--the victims, the heroes, the assigned roles of good and evil--or do the generalizations shortchange our experiences? A conversation with novelist Jonathan Safran Foer about his new book, the writing life, and what it's like to be reviewed by Updi
Writers often imagine editors as dolts with hearts of coal and brains of corn; writers, frequently, are self-absorbed paranoid ignorant dilletantes. A conversation about how the publishing system really works and the life of a Celtics fan who only loves Bird.
