Emphasizing personal style, Joan Barzilay Freund’s Defining Style is a freeing, inspiring and extremely innovative look at interior design.
Emphasizing personal style, Joan Barzilay Freund’s Defining Style is a freeing, inspiring and extremely innovative look at interior design.
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Arthur Koestler’s novel of ideas, Darkness at Noon, was originally published in England in 1940 to great acclaim. It has been called one of those books that has ceased to be a work of literature and has instead become a monument. In 1998, the editorial board of the Modern Library named it the eighth best novel of the century.

But Darkness at Noon was just one work among many others reportage, essays, autobiography, history of science and the paranormal, as well as other novels on a wide range of subjects by its author. Koestler (1905-1983) was one of the major intellectual voices on the Cold War and other issues in the English-speaking world of his time. A native of Hungary, he was a complex, controversial activist whose life and writings bore testimony to a relentless search for identity, meaning, and community.

Biographer David Cesarani painstakingly chronicles Koestler’s life, times, and writings in his Arthur Koestler: The Homeless Mind. He points out that Koestler was the classic homeless mind: the

Arthur Koestler's novel of ideas, Darkness at Noon, was originally published in England in 1940 to great acclaim. It has been called one of those books that has ceased to be a work of literature and has instead become a monument. In 1998, the editorial…

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I first came across Joe Eszterhas in the early 1970s when the Baltimore Sun asked me to review his debut book, Charlie Simpson’s Apocalypse. It was a spellbinding book and I gave it a terrific review. Shortly after that, Eszterhas dropped off the literary landscape (except for a book about the Kent State killings and a novel) and surfaced in Hollywood where he began a career as a screenwriter. In the nearly 30 years since, he has written 17 original screenplays (and doctored countless others), including the blockbuster psychological thriller Basic Instinct, which made actress Sharon Stone an overnight star.

Just when I had given up hope of ever seeing another book from Eszterhas (why should he spend his time on a 400-page book for dubious financial reward when he can easily collect a million dollars-plus for a 100-page movie script?), along comes a 415-page monster of a book titled American Rhapsody.

I won’t keep you in suspense: It is the best book I have read in 10 years, maybe even longer. Using the research skills he learned as a writer for Rolling Stone magazine, the ear for dialogue and dramatic structure he learned writing movie scripts, and the sense of right and wrong he developed during the head-busting 1960s, he has written an epic analysis of the past decade (the Bill Clinton years, for those of you who have been out of the universe) that is every bit as perverse as it is brilliant.

Writing in the tradition of Norman Mailer and Tom Wolfe, who sometimes blend fact with fiction and personal observation, Eszterhas has given us a look at the decade we thought we knew, but didn’t, if the truth be told. To his credit, he lets us know, by the use of bold typeface, whenever he delves into fiction and that is almost always to give voice to the “Twisted Little Man” who dwells deep inside his writer’s psyche.

Eszterhas’s irreverent take on the Clinton/ Monica scandal is shocking, mind-numbing and filled with explicit details that will make you squirm, as will his psychosexual explanation of Clinton’s behavior while in office. No one of importance from the past decade escapes scrutiny, and that includes James Carville, Hillary Clinton, Larry Flynt, and Sharon Stone, to name a few. Richard Nixon even makes a cameo appearance, along with his “Monica.” America has been lucky in that each decade has produced a writer who has been able to put his finger on the nation’s pulse. This time it is Joe Eszterhas.

James L. Dickerson is the author of numerous books, including Goin’ Back to Memphis and That’s Alright, Elvis, both recently re-issued in paperback.

I first came across Joe Eszterhas in the early 1970s when the Baltimore Sun asked me to review his debut book, Charlie Simpson's Apocalypse. It was a spellbinding book and I gave it a terrific review. Shortly after that, Eszterhas dropped off the literary landscape…

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A journalist’s edgy enthusiasms I tend to measure all literary journalists against Joseph Mitchell, who was a literary journalist before anyone and certainly any self-respecting journalist ever thought of putting the two words together. This is no more fair than measuring a novelist against Mark Twain or Henry James, I concede, but when you find your rock in the firmament you tend to cling to it.

Ron Rosenbaum, I’m happy to say while mixing my metaphors, is more than fit to touch the hem of Mitchell’s garment. Their writing differs, of course. Mitchell sinks more completely, almost with abandon, into his subjects, and Rosenbaum, though he doubtless would deny it, sometimes writes with a sense of knowingness edging into mockery that is foreign to The Master. But all in all, Rosenbaum’s collection, The Secret Parts of Fortune: Three Decades of Intense Investigations and Edgy Enthusiasms, is a worthy bookshelf companion to Mitchell’s McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon and Joe Gould’s Secret.

Rosenbaum prefers the term “narrative nonfiction” to literary journalism, which, as he correctly says, sounds too highfalutin. In a foreword, filmmaker Errol Morris himself something of a narrative nonfictionist nails Rosenbaum pretty squarely by describing his “grand scheme . . . to squash grand schemes, to defeat our natural tendency to retreat into easy answers and bogus explanations.” Morris refers to Rosenbaum’s metaphor of “the lost safe-deposit box” a device that Rosenbaum used in his Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil “a metaphor for truth that exists but may be beyond our grasp.” Well, truth, schmooth sometimes you just want to have fun. One of the book’s chief pleasures is learning about all sorts of quirky ideas and the oddball characters who believe in them.

There is, for instance, the Rev. Willard Fuller, a dental faith healer with the inspiring message, “The Lord’s out there fillin’ teeth!” Indeed he is, and the good news is that he doesn’t require an actual laying on of hands to fill cavities, straighten crooked teeth, or grow new ones. It seems the Lord also works through the U.

S. mail.

Then there’s Robin Leach of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, much more high-profile and prosperous than the Rev. Fuller but, in his own way, no less deranged. Asserting that he documents what he calls, without a scintilla of irony, the “passion for privacy” of the rich and famous, Leach grows indignant when Rosenbaum suggests that Lifestyles could be considered “porn for the wealth-obsessed.” Not deranged, but certainly monomaniacal, is Ralph Waldo Emerson III in his quest to unseat Charlie Douglass, the King of Canned Laughter, with “real” canned laughter. Trouble is, he’s too good. His canned laughter does sound more natural than Douglass’s, but the networks don’t like it because it’s too different from Douglass’s more artificial-sounding laughs, which audiences have grown used to.

And deranged on an empyrean scale are the scholars of the Dead Sea Scrolls, or at least many of them. In fact, there appears to have been some sort of Curse of the Scrolls that has driven a disproportionate number of scholars to drink, depression, or religious dementia. Those who weren’t crazy were consumed by ambition or a Fred C. Dobbs-like passion for secrecy. “The Riddle of the Scrolls” is one of the best pieces in the book. In it, Rosenbaum gives a brief rundown of the loony crusades to find the Ark of the Covenant and thereby forcibly bring on the Messiah, Judgment Day, or some other calamitous cosmic event satisfying to the souls of moonstruck religionists of various stripes. But in the course of his research, I wish he had learned that it is the Book of Revelation, not Revelations.

This is not just a litany of wackos, far from it. All sorts of people and topics are covered, from Mr. Whipple of “don’t squeeze the Charmin” fame to Yale’s Skull and Bones society. He gives a nice appreciation of Ben Hecht, one of the first Americans to raise his voice about the Holocaust when it was happening, and one of Murray Kempton, “our Gibbon.” “The Catcher in the Driveway” is another superior piece that stands out from an excellent bunch. It is about not just his attempt to find J.

D. Salinger’s home, and Salinger himself, if possible, but about explaining the meaning of Salinger’s isolation and silence and “the compelling seductiveness of the silence.” In the latter goal, at least, he succeeds.

Roger K. Miller is a freelance writer in Wisconsin.

A journalist's edgy enthusiasms I tend to measure all literary journalists against Joseph Mitchell, who was a literary journalist before anyone and certainly any self-respecting journalist ever thought of putting the two words together. This is no more fair than measuring a novelist against Mark…

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Scrapbooks are like little time capsules, lovingly pieced together over the years to keep the past alive or record those special moments. There was a time when scrapbooks were passed down to the next generation along with simple herbal remedies and yellowed recipe books filled with delicious family favorites. But scrapbooks aren’t just about pictures anymore; now they’re veritable works of art, colorfully created and designed to remain enjoyable for decades. Saving memories is back in vogue, and Time-Life has two excellent books on scrapbooking to get you started.

Beginners to scrapbooking will like Scrapbooking Made Easy! Using samples and photos taken from her own life, the author gives basic, helpful information about protecting photos and then moves on to supplies, design, cropping, choosing color schemes, layout and balance, collages, lettering, and embellishments. She includes a frequently asked questions section and tips for creating special projects. A handy resources section for each chapter is located in the back of the book, as well as a listing of companies that sell scrapbooking supplies. As the author writes, Scrapbooks are no longer just about pictures pasted onto paper. They are about recording those moments that have been meaningful to you and your family. The intermediate or advanced scrapbooker will find A Year of Scrapbooking filled with monthly challenges and a wide range of projects that can be customized to family lives and interests. The book is organized by the 12 calendar months and covers album ideas, design concepts, new techniques, journaling, new project ideas, and photo tips. The last chapter even shows how scrapbooking techniques can be passed along to children in the form of bookmarks, activity books, greeting cards, memory boxes, bulletin boards, and posters. There is also a handy glossary and resources list for each month’s project.

Both books include numerous how-to photos that take you step-by-step in creating a family treasure that will be enjoyed for generations. The eve of this new millennium offers a unique time to begin creating a scrapbook for future generations. Perhaps the scrapbook you begin this New Year’s Day will find its way into the hands of your first-born child 20 years from now.

Pat Regel writes from Mt. Juliet, Tennessee.

Scrapbooks are like little time capsules, lovingly pieced together over the years to keep the past alive or record those special moments. There was a time when scrapbooks were passed down to the next generation along with simple herbal remedies and yellowed recipe books filled…

Meet the fiction writer who unexpectedly became a private investigator and helped crack a landmark sexual assault case.
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Scrapbooks are like little time capsules, lovingly pieced together over the years to keep the past alive or record those special moments. There was a time when scrapbooks were passed down to the next generation along with simple herbal remedies and yellowed recipe books filled with delicious family favorites. But scrapbooks aren’t just about pictures anymore; now they’re veritable works of art, colorfully created and designed to remain enjoyable for decades. Saving memories is back in vogue, and Time-Life has two excellent books on scrapbooking to get you started.

Beginners to scrapbooking will like Scrapbooking Made Easy! Using samples and photos taken from her own life, the author gives basic, helpful information about protecting photos and then moves on to supplies, design, cropping, choosing color schemes, layout and balance, collages, lettering, and embellishments. She includes a frequently asked questions section and tips for creating special projects. A handy resources section for each chapter is located in the back of the book, as well as a listing of companies that sell scrapbooking supplies. As the author writes, Scrapbooks are no longer just about pictures pasted onto paper. They are about recording those moments that have been meaningful to you and your family. The intermediate or advanced scrapbooker will find A Year of Scrapbooking filled with monthly challenges and a wide range of projects that can be customized to family lives and interests. The book is organized by the 12 calendar months and covers album ideas, design concepts, new techniques, journaling, new project ideas, and photo tips. The last chapter even shows how scrapbooking techniques can be passed along to children in the form of bookmarks, activity books, greeting cards, memory boxes, bulletin boards, and posters. There is also a handy glossary and resources list for each month’s project.

Both books include numerous how-to photos that take you step-by-step in creating a family treasure that will be enjoyed for generations. The eve of this new millennium offers a unique time to begin creating a scrapbook for future generations. Perhaps the scrapbook you begin this New Year’s Day will find its way into the hands of your first-born child 20 years from now.

Pat Regel writes from Mt. Juliet, Tennessee.

Scrapbooks are like little time capsules, lovingly pieced together over the years to keep the past alive or record those special moments. There was a time when scrapbooks were passed down to the next generation along with simple herbal remedies and yellowed recipe books filled…

Rereading our favorite books is such a comforting practice, but this month, we’re celebrating the special occasion when you get to reconsider a book that you merely appreciated in the first go-around. With some time and a new perspective, a second reading can lead to love.


Interior Chinatown

Experimental or unusual literary structures can be pretty polarizing; either you’re up for a novel told in Slack messages (Several People Are Typing) or as an interview transcript (Daisy Jones & The Six and The Final Revival of Opal & Nev), or you’re just not. But here’s a well-known secret: Sometimes, the great equalizer is audiobooks. Charles Yu’s satirical masterpiece Interior Chinatown is structured partially like a TV script, which is intriguing in print but, perhaps unsurprisingly, makes for the best audiobook I’ve ever listened to. Narrator Joel de la Fuente balances caustic humor with the painful reality of Hollywood racism as he gives voice to Willis Wu, a Taiwanese American actor who dreams of ascending beyond the role of “Generic Asian Man” and achieving the much-coveted role of “Kung Fu Guy.” Willis’ internal monologue alternates with scenes from the crime show “Black and White,” about a white detective and her Black partner, culminating in a brilliant indictment of pop culture stereotypes. Genuinely satisfying satire is rare, but when it’s good, it’s really, really good.

—Cat, Deputy Editor


Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Rereading a book can lead to a discovery of something new about that book. Other times, to revisit something you read in another part of your life is like stepping into your own past and witnessing all the ways you’ve changed. When I first read Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe in 2012, I was in my mid-20s and finishing my library science degree. I hadn’t really been in love yet. I was still, in many ways, not yet grown. Late last year, as I once again picked up this award-winning YA novel, I was struck by how removed I felt from Ari’s earnest adolescent musings. The paradox of children’s and YA literature is that it’s created by and introduced to young readers by adults. Somehow, it seems I’ve become one of those adults, but the simple, stunning beauty of Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s prose still makes this raw, heartfelt story of teen boyhood transcend the boundaries of age or time.

—Stephanie, Associate Editor


Northanger Abbey

Northanger Abbey can seem like the silly kid sister of Jane Austen’s other novels. As a teenager, when I first read the story of gothic novel-obsessed Catherine Morland, I thought it was frivolous fluff and nothing more. It wasn’t until I reread the novel in college, armed with a much richer understanding of the gothic and what a pop culture juggernaut the genre was during the Regency, that I was able to understand how funny it was; imagine someone approaching their life as if it were a twisty thriller a la Gone Girl. But beyond its success as a culturally specific rom-com, Northanger Abbey should be mentioned in the same breath as early meta narratives like Don Quixote. Austen tracks Catherine’s growing maturity with enormous fondness: Her leaps of logic may be outrageous, but her warped impressions of the people around her are often shockingly astute. It’s a hilarious coming-of-age story that’s also a meditation on how fiction can both blind and guide us. (Also, kind but sassy Henry Tilney is one of Austen’s best heroes, full stop.)

—Savanna, Associate Editor


Hiroshima

I first read Hiroshima in my high school history class. Personally, as an 18-year-old student at an Alabama public school, I still had a ways to go in the appreciation of great books—even one so groundbreaking as John Hersey’s 1946 account of six individuals who survived the atomic bomb that America dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Luckily, I got the chance to revisit it in my master’s program, when I was better equipped to savor Hersey’s precise reporting and vivid, compassionate writing. (One description of a man who jumped into a river after the bomb exploded still haunts me.) Originally published in The New Yorker, this slim book packs a narrative and historical punch. Chapters alternate among the six subjects’ experiences, beginning with the morning of the bomb and continuing through the following year. (An additional chapter was added later, revisiting the six survivors after 40 years.) What emerges is a breathtakingly intimate portrait of atomic warfare’s inhumanity, especially the way it fuses suffering to survival.

—Christy, Associate Editor


Normal People

As a college freshman in March 2020, I found myself back at home after only one day on campus following spring break, and I turned to audiobooks to occupy myself. As I listened to Sally Rooney’s second novel, narrated by Aoife McMahon, I enjoyed hearing the characters’ Irish accents and piecing together their lives between time jumps. Still, the characters’ actions didn’t make sense to me at many critical points, and finishing the book left me with a funny feeling. I didn’t dislike it, but I felt like I was missing an essential component of what made it special, even after a conversation with the friend who’d originally recommended it. My recent second listen revealed how naive my initial evaluation was. The subsequent years of my college experience haven’t been like Marianne’s and Connell’s, but I now viscerally relate to their feelings of being lost in emerging adulthood. After updating my Goodreads rating to five stars, I called that same friend with my new revelations.

—Jessie, Editorial Intern

A great second date can really turn things around.

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