May 27, 2009

Laelaps Reviews Donald Prothero's Greenhouse of the Dinosaurs

Brian Switek author of the always-excellent blog Laelaps recently posted a review of Donald Prothero’s forthcoming Greenhouse of the Dinosaurs: Evolution, Extinction, and the Future of Our Planet. In the review, Switek highlights Prothero’s emphasis on the importance of understanding...

May 26, 2009

Pyongbang!: Washington's Korea Conundrum" — Victor Cha on North Korea

Though written after North Korea’s failed missile launch earlier this Spring, Victor Cha’s article on the Foreign Affairs Web site speaks to this weekend’s events. Victor Cha, co-author of Nuclear North Korea: A Debate on Engagement Strategies , argues, “So...

May 26, 2009

A Book in 48 Hours? Ted Striphas on "Book: The Sequel"

On his blog, The Late Age of Print, Ted Striphas, author of The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control, considers Book: The Sequel, an experiment to take place during this year’s Book Expo America in...

May 26, 2009

Authors of Between Ocean and City answer questions about Rockaway, Part II

Last week we mentioned that Lawrence and Carol P. Kaplan, authors of Between Ocean and City: The Transformation of Rockaway, New York were taking from readers of the New York Times City Room blog about the history of the once...

May 22, 2009

“Professor, the Red Brigades have telephoned. They say they want to kill you.”

In his recently published, Not Being God: A Collaborative Autobiography, Gianni Vattimo provides a series of vignettes looking back at his life as a philosopher, social activist, politician, and gay rights advocate. Needless to say, one of the more dramatic...

May 22, 2009

Interview with Michael Sledge, author of Soldier Dead

In honor of Memorial Day, we are re-posting our interview with Michael Sledge. This weekend we celebrate Memorial Day, the annual holiday to remember United States soldiers who have died in combat. In his book, Soldier Dead: How We Recover,...

May 22, 2009

Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews on Philosophy and Animal Life

In a recent review for the online journal Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, Gerald Bruns considers how two recent philosophy books explore novelist J. M. Coetzee’s philosophical views on animals. One of the books discussed by Bruns is Philosophy and Animal...

May 21, 2009

Antislavery Efforts Must Focus on Demand — A Post from Siddharth Kara

Siddharth Kara, author of Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery, continues his posts for Take Part with a new essay, “Antislavery Efforts Must Focus on Demand.” In the essay, Kara applies a business and economic analysis to understand...

May 21, 2009

Book Publishing's Reality TV — Ted Striphas, from The Late Age of Print

“Think about it this way: sites like Scribd are the reality TV of book publishing.”—Ted Striphas, “Book Publishing’s Reality TV” As has been widely reported and discussed new technologies are changing the face of of publishing— a fact that both...

May 20, 2009

Interview and Author Event with Stephen Phillips, Author of Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth

15.8 million people in America now practice yoga according to a recent survey done by Yoga Journal. Most of us are familiar with the mats, the apparel, and basic asanas (such as Downward Facing Dog or the Corpse Pose) but...

May 20, 2009

Patrick Manning on the Future of Black Identity

In the epilogue to The African Diaspora: A History Through Culture, Patrick Manning draws on the history described in his book to explore some key issues, past, present, and future, relating to slavery, racism, reparations, and the advancement of the...

May 19, 2009

Two little words: A post from Ted Striphas, author of The Late Age of Print

In a chapter from The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism, Ted Striphas considers the powerful impact that Oprah Winfrey’s book club has had not only in shaping what readers’ choices but also their relationship to books...