In the News, May 2025
Posted 05.16.25: “Wainwright, like MacArthur, was a 19th-century soldier confronting the new warfare of the 20th century. But, as Jonathan Horn tells us in The Fate of the Generals: MacArthur, Wainwright, and the Epic Battle for the Philippines, that is where his similarities with MacArthur ended.... Recounting battle scenes with riveting prose, Mr. Horn minces no words in his descriptions of the horrors of Bataan.... What makes this study worthwhile is the author's juxtaposition of what we have long known about MacArthur with the lesser-known actions and agonies endured by Wainwright. The Fate of the Generals lifts Jonathan Wainwright out of the shadow of Douglas MacArthur and ‘back into the light.'”—Walter R. Borneman, The Wall Street Journal
Posted 04.30.25: Publishers Weekly on Carpet Diem: Tales from the World of Oriental Rugs by George Bradley: “Bradley unfurls a rich and surprisingly intimate account of his entry into the world of oriental rug-collecting. After his interest was sparked by a Persian throw rug inherited from his great-grandfather, what began as an ‘absorbing distraction from life's adamantine realities' morphed into a fixation that brought him around the world; into contact with unscrupulous salespeople, devoted artisans, and colorful fellow obsessives; and often into conversation with the past. What emerges most vividly are the detailed portraits of the relationships he forms and his genuine reverence for the meticulousness of the craft. Elevated by a poet's patient attention to detail, it's a captivating window into the culture and history of an artisanal craft. This will appeal to anyone who's fallen deeply for a new passion.”
Posted 04.01.25: “Crase constructs his biography from their field journals, letters, and a suitcase of Ripley's drawings left to him and his partner. Erudite and nimble, Crase presents us these two characters, or rather, allows them to present themselves as he saw them, an enduring love and lifetimes of experience.... It is a profound and loving tribute to curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge.”—James Whitmore on Both: A Portrait in Two Parts by Douglas Crase in The Library Is Open
Posted 02.06.25: “An enthralling and unsettling distillation of medicine's repeated adoption of bad science. Most of these failures are well known and well documented elsewhere, but Makary ties them together to great effect.... Makary wants to disrupt the way medicine is delivered by asking better research questions.... This is a passionate, well-argued and thought-provoking read, but what makes it essential is that Makary is not a dreamer on the sidelines, but Donald Trump's pick to be the next commissioner of the FDA, an agency he has previously criticised.”—Phil Hammond, The Times (UK) on Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health by Marty Makary
Posted 01.19.25: A Best Book of 2024! The Economist magazine chose Origin Story: The Trials of Charles Darwin by Howard Markel one of the "Best Books of 2024": "Books about Charles Darwin are at no risk of going extinct. Yet by making its centrepiece a consequential debate in 1860—in which evolution triumphed over creationism—this book offers something welcome and new."
Posted 12.13.24: "Begun in 1988 with a volume guest-edited by John Ashbery, The Best American Poetry (BAP) series has been running for a startling 36 years and counting.... The list of editors is a who's who of US poetry elites. And behind it all, the poet David Lehman, the series editor, has labored quietly and diligently ensuring its continuity and continued relevance.... The guiding hand of Lehman ensures a certain base-level of quality. Every year will have its new-discovered gems, its duds, its stars, and, often enough, its brief but vitriolic controversies played out across social media. You might think such a long-running series would have played out its initial energies, but I think I can say with some confidence that Mary Jo Salter's 2024 volume is the best volume in a decade, and arguably the best BAP volume ever produced.... Salter's volume fizzes with the potential of debut poets, the sprezzatura of journeyman accomplishment, and the depth of old masters."—A. E. Stallings on The Best American Poetry 2024.
Posted 12.12.24: "Every political appointee in the new administration across all agencies and departments and the 115,000 career employees who work for DOJ ought to read this stellar intellectual history of the Meese era at Justice. Certainly, every serious member of the Federalist Society will, and every member of every law school faculty ought to do so.... A wonderfully complete portrait of an indispensable public servant and aide to Reagan. Meese is the equal of anyone in any administration in modern times when it comes to character and modesty, generosity of spirit, and resolve to keep the Constitution at the center of our Republic's functioning. Do read it." — Hugh Hewitt, The Washington Free Beacon, on The Meese Revolution: The Making of a Constitutional Moment by Steven Gow Calabresi and Gary Lawson
Posted 11.24.24: Marty Makary, M.D., author of Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health, will be the newly appointed head of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). His most recent work was a New York Times Best Seller and an Amazon "Best Nonfiction Book of 2024." A starred Publishers Weekly review called Blind Spots, “Incisive and damning, this is a much-needed wake-up call.”
Posted 11.24.24: Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Dirda on The Best American Poetry 2024, Guest Editor, Mary Jo Salter: "Do not overlook the introductory essay by Salter...or the piece by the series' general editor, David Lehman, which concludes with wise advice to poets just starting out."—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Book World
Posted 11.24.24: "When patients turn to professional societies like the AMA or the American College of Physicians or the American Association of Pediatrics for vital health information, one might expect that the information is based on publications in prestigious medical journals of carefully designed and meticulously interpreted studies. Dr. Marty Makary, in his book Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health, shows how wrong these assumptions can be.... Makary proves his case against groupthink in medicine.... Readers will find this book interesting if they have not had much of a background in biomedical science. It is clear, concise, and well-documented. They may ask a few more questions at their yearly checkup, and that is a good thing." — Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, Washington Free Beacon
Posted 11.13.24: An Amazon "Best Nonfiction Book of 2024"!: Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health by Marty Makary, M.D.
Posted 10.30.24: Yale University Sterling Professor Akhil Reed Amar has been awarded one of ten Barry Prizes from the American Academy of Sciences and Letters in recognition of “intellectual excellence and courage.” The award was conferred in a ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 23. The Barry Prize for Distinguished Intellectual Achievement honors “those whose work has made outstanding contributions to humanity's understanding and cultivation of the good, the true, and the beautiful,” according to the Academy. The citation for Amar praised his contributions and influence across the academy, the legal profession, government, and popular discourse.
Posted 10.23.24: A New York Times Best Seller! Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health by Marty Makary, M.D. now five weeks on the New York Times list. As Publishers Weekly wrote, “Incisive and damning, this is a much-needed wake-up call.”
Posted 07.12.24: A starred Publishers Weekly review of Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health by Marty Makary, M.D.: “The medical establishment suffers from a reluctance to re-examine its own beliefs in light of new evidence, according to this impassioned cri de coeur.... The sensational case studies demonstrate the depths of doctors' intransigence, and Makary's clinical experience offers penetrating insights into the psychological mechanisms at play. Incisive and damning, this is a much-needed wake-up call.” And from Kirkus Reviews: “An eye-opening look at how the American medical industry's rigidity has stunted its reliability.”
Posted 07.11.24: Origin Story: The Trials of Charles Darwin by Howard Markel is a New York Times “Editors' Choice”: “Markel, a medical historian, delivers a fresh take on a seminal event in the history of science—the publication of On the Origin of Species—along with lively portraits of the allies and adversaries who debated Darwin's scandalous theory, and, not least, of the naturalist himself, plagued by debilitating illness and, hot on his heels, an equally brilliant competitor.”
Posted 07.04.24: “Independence Day is a good day to consider how our independence was won. If you're looking for a fresh read on that, I've just finished reading Alan Pell Crawford's new book, This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America's Revolutionary War in the South.... Crawford provides a vivid, page-turning account of those events, rich in memorable characters and dramatic scenes.... Crawford, the author of books such as the aging-Jefferson study Twilight at Monticello, aims to revive the story of the war in the South. As he notes in his introduction, the Civil War and the role of slavery in the South had a good deal to do with why commemoration of these battles and campaigns did not keep pace with those in the North.... We witness the breathtaking bravery and endurance of hardship that characterized amateur soldiers and self-taught officers surviving bayonet charges, forced marches in the snow and blazing heat, wounds dressed without modern medicine, and all manner of untreatable diseases.”—Dan McLaughlin, National Review
Posted 06.28.24: “Mr. Crawford's account is incisively and carefully written, splendidly paced, and supported by a mine of primary and secondary sources. This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America's Revolutionary War in the South by Alan Pell Crawford is military history in an older tradition, in which the outcomes of great conflicts depend on the foresight, character and courage of individual men. Yet Mr. Crawford, a journalist and historian based in Richmond, Va., doesn't ignore the role of slavery in the ferocity of southern resistance.... Rivetingly related.”—Barton Swaim, The Wall Street Journal
Posted 06.20.24: A New York Times Best Seller! The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation by Victor Davis Hanson, now many weeks on the list. A "profound book.”—Robert D.Kaplan, The Wall Street Journal “Informative and lively.... Strong on history.”—Richard Overy, The Times Literary Supplement (London)
Posted 06.16.24: “In Origin Story: The Trials of Charles Darwin, Howard Markel, a medical historian (he favors a diagnosis of lactose intolerance as Darwin's primary ailment), details how the scientist came to write his magnum opus, as well as the many trying days he endured on its behalf.... He does capture the pathos and passion of the debate.”—Sam Kean, The New York Times Book Review
Posted 06.03.24: "Howard Markel, a medical doctor and masterful science chronicler, turns his attention to the time just before Darwin published his world-changing 'Origin of Species'—and just after, when critics blamed its author for unseating God. Wildly entertaining and thoughtful, too."—Kate Tuttle, The Boston Globe, on Origin Story: The Trials of Charles Darwin