Essays

In the second and final installment of a recent extended back-and-forth (shouldn't it be "forth and back"?) between President Obama and Marilynne Robinson in The New York Review of Books,

Common wisdom has it, I think, that, word for word, quip by quip, writer/producer/actress Tina Fey is our leading candidate for modern-age version of Dorothy Parker.

“A rewarding collection whether read straight through or sampling here and there.”

Libraries, books, writing, and writers as subjects are fascinating, even collectively.

If you are an appreciative reader of Adam Kirschs’ articles and reviews in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, and elsewhere you

One test of the uniform quality of the work in Best Essays collections like this one is whether or not a writer who almost made the cut, listed in the back as “Notable,” would be likely to read wha

“His book confronts the complacencies of observance . . . Mr. Rodwan champions choice.”

“. . . a deserving read . . .”

“Mr. Klosterman is as much a showman as anything else—and he never pretends otherwise.”

“Women Warriors, like the sisters in arms featured in these stories, delivers mightily.”

“Ms. Thompson focuses her keen eye, sharp pen, and exasperated sense of humor on the familiar, everyday madness of raising teenagers. . . . Ms.

“The Ecstasy of Influence is a book worth reading—it redraws the map of popular culture and, in so doing, pushes us beyond the confines of our comfortable minds, out into the larger world