05.31.2012 Community By the Book: When we must go down to the sea Probably, everybody needs to run away to sea at least once. In the first chapter of Herman Melville’s ‘Moby Dick,’ our narrator, Ishmael, explains it as “a way I...
04.21.2012 Community By the Book: Novel ways to enjoy communal books April may well be the cruelest month: Fighting season begins again as the mountain passes thaw in Afghanistan, tornadoes rampage throughout the Midwest, taxes must be paid and we...
03.23.2012 Community By the Book: Keeping up as the book world changes Birds do it every year, this spring migrating thing, with its accompanying twittering racket. Public librarians do it once every two years at the Public Library Association conference, this...
02.18.2012 Community Book Column: A novel way of thinking about time What if books, or novels anyway, are like wristwatches? They tell time. There are Rolexes and Piagets out there among the novels, finely crafted, beautifully designed, precious works of...
01.21.2012 Community By the Book: In 2012, broaden your reading horizons January is the month for resolutions, for fresh starts, for trying to get things right. Mostly we focus on our bodies, trying to lose weight, get fitter, stronger and...
12.25.2011 Community By the Book: Book buying isn’t taking a holiday I don’t know why people always say “I hate to say I told you so” when it’s perfectly clear that “I told you so” are some of the sweetest...
11.19.2011 Community By the Book: Writers don’t just write; they also talk One of the best things about going to the New York Library Association conference in Saratoga Springs a few weeks ago was the chance to listen to the writers...
11.04.2011 News By the Book: What’s occupying writers nowadays There is a wonderful new website called OccupyWriters.com that has an ever-lengthening alphabetical list of writers who are in support of Occupy Wall Street and a few meditations on...
10.06.2011 News By the Book: We may be living in the most peaceful time in the existence of our species. If numbers and statistics could be made to sing alleluias, then perhaps we could hear the good news trilling out of two new books by distinguished academics, Joshua S....
08.26.2011 News By the Book: Larsson’s take on Strauss-Kahn case? Men. Women. Power. Money. Sex. Truth. These are the final winding down days of the case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the alleged rape of an African hotel maid, and...
