One of the most distinct psychological traits possessed by humans, author Rye notes in the book’s introduction, is object permanence. This ability to know that something exists even when out of view is connected, per Rye’s analysis, to humanity’s adherence to intangible belief systems. In other words, “All our political, economic, and religious institutions are […]
New Yorker staff writer and journalism professor Lemann, author of a previous title on the SAT (The Big Test), contributes to Princeton’s “Our Compelling Interests” series by addressing the problem of access to higher education. With some selective colleges and universities reinstating the standardized SAT as an admissions criterion (after dropping the requirement during the […]
This fourth installment of the author’s Ghosted series introduces Anna Benoit, who works as a housekeeper for Max Barone, the owner of a wildly successful jewelry empire in Geneva, Switzerland. For Anna, meeting Max was love at first sight, despite the fact that Max barely seems to register her existence: “Looking at him was like […]
After Count Lucian Cross is driven from his castle by vampire hunters, Vrykolakas, the god of vampires, turns him back into a human as part of a revenge plot. In his mortal form, Lucian, who’s cued white, can compete in the “marriage games” and court the future duke, all the while secretly sussing out which […]
Rebecca Lee Crumpler was born in 1831 to free parents in Delaware. Little is known about her childhood except that, early on, she went to live with an aunt in Philadelphia who raised her. When Rebecca was 17, she enrolled in the West Newton English and Classical School in Massachusetts. In Boston, she worked as […]
Of 150,000 Jews among 31 million Americans in 1860, between 20,000 and 25,000 lived in the South—about 0.2% of the population. Like those in the North, they considered themselves ordinary citizens, if suffering some traditional antisemitism. Scholars have barely explored the avalanche of 19th-century diaries resting in archives and state historical societies. One of them […]
Displaying sharp insight into how both pets and middle schoolers see the world, the author spins interwoven storylines around regular visitors to a Brooklyn dog run. In this safe social space, friendship crises, beloved companions lost and found, tempests emotional and digestive, and new family arrangements play out in benign ways over the course of […]
Thirty-six hours after the event, workers pull from the rubble 42-year-old Anthony Carter, an unemployed biracial schoolteacher and recovering coke addict. In the days—and daze—that follows, he doesn’t find religion as much as it finds him in the form of a female prophet. Targeting him with her “raging aviary of disembodied howls and shouts,” she […]
Sadyk is born in the mountains of Azerbaijan, and on the very day he begins his tumultuous life, he loses his mother. He’s raised by his father, Nadzhaf, who sells muskmelons grown on the village’s collective farm, and his Aunt Medina. One day, with little ceremony, Nadzhaf announces that he’s sold the family’s cow and […]
Nora Frost and her mum are “fine.” Mum’s PTSD from her work as a paramedic means sometimes she has bad days where she stays in bed. Nora has distanced herself from her friends rather than have to explain and face their pity—she doesn’t need any help. At least, that’s what she keeps telling herself and […]