Jonah Raskin

Rebecca Solnit, the author of more than 20 books, might be called an eternal optimist, if not a Pollyanna. Apparently nothing has ever got her down, at least not for long.

“If there’s one book about music that deserves to be read cover to cover this year it’s Kelefa Sanneh’s Major Labels. It’s bound to be a contemporary classic.”

Michael Pollan has written about apples (Botany of Desire), corn (Omnivore’s Dilemma) and many other edibles (Food Rules).

“All Americans who care about the fate of Native Americans and about clean water, clean air, and a non-toxic earth will find Todrys' book inspiring.”                                        

“For those who want a close-up portrait of a complex society with a rich history and plenty of contradictions, My Old Home is an excellent place to begin.”

Rudyard Kipling—the Anglo Indian novelist, short story writer, and bard of the British Empire—must have known that it wasn't true when he wrote, "East is East, and West is West, and Never the twain

This is not the first biography of David Bowie.

According to Wikipedia, the Reverend Al Sharpton preached his first sermon at the age of four.

“In Adrift Maalouf looks back at the disastrous course that world history has taken over the past 75 or so years that has jolted humanity in all four corners of th

Start Oliver Stone’s extravagant autobiography by reading the “contents” that lists ten chapters, including “Downfall,” “Waiting for the Miracle,” “South of the Border” and “Top of the World.”

“Taylor’s memoir explores the friendship between two men who think of themselves as Jews, and who behave in ways that seem intrinsically Jewish and quintessentially New York, though one doe

Near the end of his intimate biography of Ravi Shankar, the author, Oliver Craske, describes his first meeting with the famed sitar player, global ambassador for Indian music and culture and for mo

How well does Paul Krassner’s brand of humor hold up? Is there still bite in his barbs, and do his words still generate laughter?

Detective fiction author Dorothy L.

“You come for the glamorous pictures and stay for the sizzling prose. Doonan writes like an angel with a sword: beautifully and provocatively.”

“In this densely packed memoir, it’s not really the destination that matters most, but rather the journey itself that goes over very rough territory and asks probing questions about race, e

The publication of this book coincides with an exhibit of the work of Lina Bo Bardi at the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona, Spain.

In the dazzling 1915 novella, The Metamorphosis, Kafka’s anti-hero Gregor Samsa wakes one morning and finds himself turned into an insect—as punishment for incest, some critics have sugges

“K. K. brings to readers in both the East and the West indelible images of Indian life, Indian places and Indian people that will not soon be forgotten.”

Bruce Springsteen fans are like no other fans in the annals of rock ’n’ roll, though it would not be easy to describe them. They come in many shapes and sizes, and belong to different generations.

“The Women’s Suffrage Movement is for men as much as it is women. It’s for everyone, no matter what their sex, gender, ethnicity, or the color of their skin.

“I Am offers American art lovers the opportunity to discover and to relish the innovative work of a painter who deconstructed the old and constructed her own brave

The Brits would call Bob Rosenthal an amanuensis.

Michelle Tea’s publisher, the Feminist Press, calls her a “queer countercultural icon.” She is that, indeed, and has been an icon in the queer world for decades.

Salvador Dali wasn’t the founder of Surrealism, the cultural movement that spread from Europe to the Americas in the 20thcentury. Andre Breton was the founding father.

Here’s a big book about a big subject by a big name writer.

The crescendo for Duncan Hannah’s Twentieth-Century Boy takes place in February 1976, more than 100 pages before the end, and four years before the legendary 1980 Times Square Show when hi

"a comprehensive biography befitting a giant of the literature of the United States.."

In the Beat Generation tribe, Robert Frank was the odd man out.

Two hundred years after her death on July 18, 1817, Jane Austen and her novels are now more beloved than ever before.

Ever since it was first published in England in 1847 and in the U.S. in 1848, Jane Eyre has been a literary phenomenon, widely read, profoundly influential, and lovingly imitated.

One can always trust the police to be dogged and to keep voluminous records, though they’re not always accurate.

In The Pen and the Brush, the versatile biographer Anka Muhlstein explores some of the complex and fascinating relationships that have existed between painters and novelists.

Teenagers who heard the Wilson brothers—better known as the Beach Boys—harmonize on their big hits, “Surfin’ Safari,” “I Get Around,” “California Girls,” and “Good Vibrations” in the early 1960s, p

The journalist, biographer, and Rolling Stone contributing editor Rob Sheffield calls David Bowie a lot of names: tramp, vagabond, and “the most alien of rock artists” to name a few.

In May 1944, at the age of 77, Laura Ingalls Wilder received a letter from a schoolteacher in Cleveland, Ohio.

“In its own inimitable way, West of Eden is as epic as John Steinbeck’s novel East of Eden.”