Nonfiction

Annals of an Alternate World: On John McPhee’s “Tabula Rasa”
Noah Rawlings reviews John McPhee’s “Tabula Rasa.”...
Noah RawlingsSep 15
- Memoir
- Nonfiction
Calm Can Coexist with Fury: A Conversation with Naomi Klein
Editor-in-Chief Michelle Chihara speaks with author Naomi Klein about her new book,“Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World.”...
Michelle ChiharaSep 14
- Nonfiction
- Politics and Economics
Weaponized Plumbing: On Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman’s “Underground Empire”
Krzysztof Pelc mostly agrees with Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman’s “Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy” but quibbles that it’s hard to draw the line between the peculiarly 21st-century type of influence they describe—which flows from fiber-optic cables, data centers, and dollar clearinghouses—and more conventional types of power....
Krzysztof PelcSep 13
Let’s Be Neurotic Together: A Conversation with Cathy Park Hong
Editor-in-Chief Michelle Chihara speaks with author Cathy Park Hong....
Michelle ChiharaSep 12
- Nonfiction
- Poetry
The Country of the Apocalypse: On George Black’s “The Long Reckoning”
Elaine Elinson reviews George Black’s “The Long Reckoning: A Story of War, Peace, and Redemption in Vietnam.”...
Elaine ElinsonSep 9
- History
- Nonfiction
Cooperative Ideals at the Heart of Everything: On Bernard Harcourt’s “Cooperation”
Avram Alpert reviews Bernard Harcourt’s “Cooperation: A Political, Economic, and Social Theory.”...
Avram AlpertSep 7
- Nonfiction
- Philosophy
Thin Ice: On Uwe Wittstock’s “February 1933”
Historian Daniela Blei beautifully captures the essence of Uwe Wittstock’s newly translated “February 1933: The Winter of Literature.”...
Daniela BleiSep 6
Get Lost: On Daniel Asa Rose’s “Truth or Consequences”
Julie Morrison reviews Daniel Asa Rose’s “Truth or Consequences: Improbable Adventures, a Near-Death Experience, and Unexpected Redemption in the New Mexico Desert.”...
Julie MorrisonAug 23
- Memoir
- Nonfiction
Measured Longings and Layered Stories: On Jonathan Leal’s “Dreams in Double Time”
Sam V.H. Reese reviews Jonathan Leal’s “Dreams in Double-Time: On Race, Freedom, and Bebop."...
Sam V. H. ReeseAug 9
- Music
- Nonfiction
Great Memoirists Lie: On Caroline Calloway’s “Scammer”
Anna Dorn reviews Caroline Calloway’s “Scammer.”...
Anna DornJul 21
- Memoir
- Nonfiction
Justice in the Age of Abolition: On Joanna Schwartz’s “Shielded”
Hector Villagra reviews Joanna Schwartz’s “Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable.”...
Hector VillagraJul 14
How We Socialize Now: A Conversation with Sheila Liming
Jeffrey J. Williams interviews Sheila Liming, author of the recent “Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time.”...
Jeffrey J. WilliamsJun 23
- Memoir
- Nonfiction
A Single Dish a Thousand Times: On Rebecca May Johnson's “Small Fires”
Siobhan Phillips reviews Rebecca May Johnson’s “Small Fires: An Epic in the Kitchen.”...
Siobhan PhillipsJun 20
Performing the Patient: On Emily Wells’s “A Matter of Appearance”
Emma Cohen reviews Emily Wells’s memoir of chronic illness, “A Matter of Appearance.”...
Emma R. CohenJun 20
- Memoir
- Nonfiction
Romantic Myths of American Environmentalism: On Scott Chaskey’s “Soil and Spirit”
Jenny Liou reviews Scott Chaskey’s “Soil and Spirit: Cultivation and Kinship in the Web of Life.”...
Jenny LiouJun 18
- Nonfiction
- Science & Technology
Sleepwalking to Madness in Mid-Century America: On Audrey Clare Farley’s “Girls and Their Monsters”
Ellen Wayland-Smith is haunted by Audrey Clare Farley’s exposé, in “Girls and Their Monsters: The Genain Quadruplets and the Making of Madness in America,” of white American mid-century pathologies....
Ellen Wayland-SmithJun 13
When a White Man Writes a Good Book About Africa: On Tim Cocks’s “Lagos”
Kovie Biakolo contemplates Tim Cocks’s 2022 book “Lagos: Supernatural City.”...
Kovie BiakoloJun 12
- Nonfiction
A World That Was Not the World: A Conversation with Laird Hunt
Sean McCoy talks to Laird Hunt about “This Wide Terraqueous World: Essays in Fiction.”...
Sean McCoyJun 8
A Considerable Aura: On Adam Shatz’s “Writers and Missionaries”
Ann Manov reviews Adam Shatz’s “Writers and Missionaries: Essays on the Radical Imagination.”...
Ann ManovJun 6
- Nonfiction
Permission to Meander: A Conversation with Drew Millard
Paul Thompson speaks with Drew Millard about his new book, “How Golf Can Save Your Life.”...
Paul ThompsonJun 5
- Nonfiction
- Sports
Uncomfortable Somethings: On Isabel Zapata’s “In Vitro”
Claire Calderón reviews Isabel Zapata’s “In Vitro: On Longing and Transformation.”...
Claire CalderónJun 3
- Memoir
- Nonfiction
It’s Not What You Think: On Orit Halpern and Robert Mitchell’s “The Smartness Mandate”
Evan Selinger reviews Orit Halpern and Robert Mitchell’s “The Smartness Mandate” and finds it “vertigo-inducing.”...
Evan SelingerMay 30
- Nonfiction
- Science & Technology
Something Reconstructed: On Pirkko Saisio’s “The Red Book of Farewells”
Niina Pollari reviews Pirkko Saisio’s “The Red Book of Farewells.”...
Niina PollariMay 15
- Nonfiction
From Qing Imperial Collection to Chinese National Treasures: On Adam Brookes’s “Fragile Cargo”
Tobie Meyer-Fong reviews “Fragile Cargo: The World War II Race to Save the Treasures of China’s Forbidden City” by Adam Brookes....
Tobie Meyer-FongMay 15
- Nonfiction