When it first became popular, Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up was often associated with minimalism, as she instructed de-clutterers to keep only things that “spark joy.” At the same time, her guidance to thank objects for their service was a point of puzzlement: Do material goods and personal surroundings really matter? In Kondo’s […]
The late philosopher Roland Barthes had a fear of heights and a hatred of mountains. Had he been around to read McPherson’s book, he might have reconsidered: Seeing from up high can yield awe, and while “awe often carries an undercurrent of fear,” it can provoke some, if you will, elevated thoughts. It can also […]
Poliquin’s epic journey opens, naturally, with an orange. Fast facts and anecdotes follow; though presented seemingly randomly, they coalesce into a rich exploration of the color through the lenses of culture, history, and nature. The rooster from The Canterbury Tales, “dreaming of a fox whose ‘colour was betwixe yellow and reed,’” precedes a spread about […]
Ren is no longer a traveling troupe performer. After her Light powers were revealed and she defeated the general who killed her mother, she had to take her rightful place as the Princess of Sareniya and a celestial maiden. Before she can claim the throne, however, Ren needs to find Sunho, the boy she loves. […]
It’s June 2016. A group of friends gather in the courtyard of a New York City bar to discuss their days, their dates, their philosophies of art and life. In November there will be an election whose consequences can’t quite be imagined yet. The Brexit vote goes through in England. In Minnesota, Philando Castile is […]
Ralph Norton is the highly successful CFO at FASTRAK, America’s second-largest purveyor of Christian merchandise. Ralph is also the genius behind Word of God, an AI-based app that uses Scripture and religious doctrine to create a personalized spiritual experience in the form of counsel from “God” himself. The app has catapulted Houston-based FASTRAK into the […]
Told through the eyes of a sensitive child, Tower’s offbeat personal narrative immerses readers in the visceral confusion of a fractured family, rendered with vivid sensory details—the smell of apple juice and holding tight to a Winnie-the-Pooh stuffed animal. The child’s imagination serves as a coping mechanism, with recurring Star Wars and Hundred Acre Wood metaphors […]
“Thanksgiving is not just about gratitude,” the author writes in the book’s opening lines, continuing, “It’s about gravy, grudges, [and] group texts gone wrong.” With a chapter dedicated to each state (plus Washington, D.C.), Okine offers readers 51 short stories poking fun at America’s “most chaotic, carb-loaded, emotionally layered holiday.” None of the stories are […]
Glicksman, an American English professor and jewelry importer before his death in 2021, recaps three decades of periodic sojourns in the Middle and Far East starting in 1971. The author usually traveled on his own, in threadbare circumstances. His destinations included Turkey, where he encountered “hashish of a legendary quality” that made “the air…thick and […]
Glicksman, an American English professor and jewelry importer before his death in 2021, recaps three decades of periodic sojourns in the Middle and Far East starting in 1971. The author usually traveled on his own, in threadbare circumstances. His destinations included Turkey, where he encountered “hashish of a legendary quality” that made “the air…thick and […]