September 15, 2008

David Foster Wallace

The sudden and very sad news of David Foster Wallace’s death is a tragic loss for admirers of his writing and for those who care about literature. His piece “Host” was included in The Best American Magazine Writing 2006. The...

September 12, 2008

The Valve on Trilling, Part II

We began the week with Trilling and we’ll end the week with Trilling. More specifically, The Valve held its second round of responses to Lionel Trilling’s novel, The Journey Abandoned. This segment includes a response from the book’s editor Geraldine...

September 11, 2008

"Dangerous Islands": Alexis Dudden on JapanFocus

“Although not immediately foreseeable, the results of [the Bush administration’s] move hold the potential to make the Falklands War look like child’s play.”—Alexis Dudden, JapanFocus As has been reported in the New York Times and elsewhere, the question of sovereignty...

September 11, 2008

Final Days: Save on titles in Environmental Studies and the Social Sciences

There are a few days left to save on dozens of titles in Environmental Studies and the Social Sciences. Save on recent titles and classics from our backlist. Sale ends September 15.

September 10, 2008

"Debunking an Autism Theory" / Online Reviews of "Autism's False Prophets"

“Sadly, even after all this, many parents still blame the vaccine. The big losers in this debate are the children who are not being vaccinated because of parental fears and are at risk of contracting serious—sometimes fatal—diseases.”—from the New York...

September 9, 2008

Banned! The UAE Bans Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success

In what might be a first for us, one of the books we publish has been banned for sale in the United Arab Emirates. Late last week the Times Higher Education Supplement ran an article about the banning of Christopher...

September 9, 2008

Molecular Gastronomy Hits the Bestseller list

Bookcourt, one of Brooklyn’s finest bookstores, lists the recently published paperback edition of Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor by Herve This on their bestseller list (nonfiction paperback). For more This, there is also Kitchen Mysteries: Revealing the Science...

September 8, 2008

The Valve on Lionel Trilling's "The Journey Abandoned"

A book event for Lionel Trilling’s novel, The Journey Abandoned began last week over The Valve: A Literary Organ (scroll down a bit to read the posts). The discussion includes a variety of responses from literary critics and scholars such...

September 5, 2008

Interview with Gary Cross, Author of "Men to Boys"

The following is an interview with Gary Cross, author of the just-published Men to Boys: The Making of Modern Immaturity: Question: Why did you write a book about men becoming “boys” at this time? Gary Cross: I am an historian...

September 4, 2008

Interview with Houston Baker on Open Salon

“[I]n the present economy black intellectuals are invited to the grand salon and are asked to sit down at the table, and discuss the next issue of neoconservative declaration of bad black behavior. It’s kind of astonishing from a perspective...

September 3, 2008

Paul Offit on Science Friday

Dr. Paul Offit recently appeared on Science Friday to discuss the recent outbreak of measles, the continuing controversy regarding vaccination and its possible link to childhood autism, and his new book Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the...

September 2, 2008

Greatest Games Ever or Potemkin Village?: A Post by Victor Cha

The following post is by Victor Cha, the D. S. Song-Korea Foundation Chair in Asian Studies and associate professor of government in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and author of the forthcoming Beyond the...