The narrative focuses on the “brilliant, eccentric, unsettlingly precise” Gödel, a figure whom the author, in an introduction, compares to Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin and describes as not only a mathematician, but also a “philosopher of mystery” who found new puzzles in settled certainties. “In any system that’s powerful enough to talk about arithmetic,” […]
For generations, members of Lili’s family have been delegated as the Town Council’s hunters, tasked with killing the monster that slowly eats away at the adults in the community. Lili’s own father is “riddled with holes, / can no longer walk”—and she’s desperate to save him. Thanks to rumors about her family, particularly her deceased […]
Most Americans have heard of Frank Lloyd Wright, a name once synonymous with American architecture. Wright’s buildings, including the Guggenheim Museum in New York City and Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, are rightfully considered masterpieces. But few these days know that he had been an irresistible magnet for the tabloids of his day, making him one of […]
For all the ways that writers have anatomized the 1964 Beatles film A Hard Day’s Night, no one has approached it like Ahmed. An English broadcaster and the daughter of South Asian immigrants, she fell for the Beatles in 1979 at age 11 while watching videos of the band’s films. She views A Hard Day’s […]
Political science professor Williams (City of Ambition: FDR, LaGuardia, and the Making of Modern New York, 2013) focuses this new exploration of New York City’s modern development on three key areas that “embody the tensions…at the heart of political life in a democratic capitalist city”: housing, schools, and policing. Williams’ analysis of these issues inarguably […]
Ashlyn Banner would prefer to be left alone, but newcomer Aiden Clark pesters her relentlessly. They’re stuck doing a semesterlong project together, and Aiden also pressures Ashlyn to join an optional field trip to Savannah, Georgia, where they, along with a few classmates, tour a house that’s rumored to be haunted. Ashlyn at first tells […]
Democrats, urges political journalist and podcaster Cohen, need to stop playing nice, which has been what allowed autocracy and plutocracy to rule the land. Instead, he writes, Democrats “need to understand [that] the old norms aren’t coming back”: Congress now functions like a parliamentary system, where “there is no notion of bipartisanship, no value placed […]
In this work, the author follows up The Canvas (2023) with the third installment in the Big Picture trilogy. Protagonist Emma Kelly is an art recovery agent. Her current mission is to locate 70 works that were originally bequeathed to the Vatican but have since been stolen. To complicate matters, it’s unclear how many of […]
“’Twas the night before shinny and all through the woods, / not a maple leaf fluttered, so all was still good.” While several pale-skinned human youngsters are “nestled and snug in their beds,” the animal hockey players gather on the ice, readying themselves for a game of shinny. A blue jay serves as referee, while […]
Ever since Roxana’s mum died in a car accident four years ago, her father hasn’t been the same. When he accepts a job in America, it seems to offer a second chance at happiness. Roxana’s older sister, Azar, stays in England, while she and her younger brother, Ehsan, travel with Dad—although in just six weeks, […]