April 4, 2011

Sera Young — Craving Earth

Recently Sera Young’s Craving Earth: Understanding Pica–the Urge to Eat Clay, Starch, Ice, and Chalk, has received attention from a variety of sources. The Week summarized some of the key elements of pica described in Young’s book, including the desire...

March 31, 2011

Wang Anyi Named a Man Booker Finalist

Yesterday, Wang Anyi, author of The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai, was named a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize. From the Man Booker website: Wang Anyi is among the most widely read and anthologized authors...

March 31, 2011

Money never sleeps… — A Post by Grzegorz Kolodko

The following is a guest post by Grzegorz W. Kolodko, author of Truth, Errors, and Lies: Politics and Economics in a Volatile World. He blogs at www.volatileworld.net You can also read a recent interview with Kolodko in the Warsaw Business...

March 30, 2011

Carolyn Williams on Gilbert & Sullivan

The following is an interview with Carolyn Williams, author of Gilbert and Sullivan: Gender, Genre, Parody. You can also listen to an interview with Williams on WHYY Radio. Question: What’s new in your book about Gilbert and Sullivan? Carolyn Williams:...

March 29, 2011

Donald Keene on Books to Help You Understand Japan

Donald Keene, most recently the author of So Lovely a Country Will Never Perish: Wartime Diaries of Japanese Writers, was recently on NPR’s Talk of the Nation to discuss Japanese books that reveals insights into the nation’s people and character....

March 29, 2011

New Book Tuesday: The Quest for the Cure

The The following books are now available: The Quest for the Cure: The Science and Stories Behind the Next Generation of Medicines Brent Stockwell Classical Indian Philosophy: A Reader Deepak Sarma Reds at the Blackboard: Communism, Civil Rights, and the...

March 29, 2011

Indie: An American Culture — Michael Z. Newman

On his blog Zigzigger, Michael Newman author of Indie: An American Film Culture , offers a “behind the scenes” look at the book. In the post Newman explains how parenting helped with his productivity, the genesis behind the title and...

March 28, 2011

Interview with Sheldon Krimsky and Tania Simoncelli, coauthors of Genetic Justice

The following is an interview with Sheldon Krimsky and Tania Simoncelli, coauthors of Genetic Justice: DNA Data Banks, Criminal Investigations, and Civil Liberties: Question: How are people’s privacy rights being compromised by expanding DNA databases for innocent arrestees? Sheldon Krimsky:...

March 25, 2011

Cornel West on Prophetic Religion and the Future of Capitalist Civilization

“Now, with the age of Obama, the question becomes: Can prophetic religion, in all of its various forms, mobilize people, generate levels of righteous indignation against injustice—not raw rage at persons, not ad hominem attacks—can we put pressure on President...

March 24, 2011

Columbia University Press Joins the JSTOR Book Initiative

We are very excited to have joined the Books at JSTOR initiative which will help to make university press books more accessible online. Here is the press release describing Books at JSTOR and the involvement of other university presses: Books...

March 23, 2011

Judith Butler: Is Judaism Zionism?

March 23, 2011

Richard Kahlenberg on Education Reform

“How did the budget crisis — brought on by a recession caused by Wall Street — end up in the laps of America’s schoolteachers? How did teachers, most of whom work very hard every day to educate schoolchildren, become the...