Book Review: And So It Goes, Kurt Vonnegut: A Life
For those of us who love Kurt Vonnegut’s books, and the humanist persona that surrounds many of them, Charles Shields new biography "Kurt Vonnegut: A Life" is a bit of a jolt. The man Shields... Read More
The Leftovers
The Rapture is not dead. Despite the biblical admonition found in Matthew 24:36 (NIV) that, “about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the... Read More
Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others
The late Richard Rorty, a distinguished humanist philosopher, opened his 1993 Amnesty International lecture with a shocking account of sexual sadism perpetrated against Bosnian Muslims by Serbs during the ethnic war that was still raging... Read More
Among the Truthers: A Journey Through America’s Growing Conspiracist Underground
“America,” Jonathan Kay writes in Among the Truthers, “has always been a land of cranks.” And his investigation of contemporary paranoid conspiracy theories and their precursors, and the people who cherish them, tends to prove... Read More
Book Review: The End of Country
As rumor has it, Seamus McGraw’s rough draft of The End of Country ignited a bidding war among New York’s leading publishing houses. It doesn’t take more than the first few pages and an... Read More
Sex, Mom & God How the Bible’s Strange Take on Sex Led to Crazy Politics—and How I Learned to Love Women (and Jesus) Anyway
Frank Schaeffer is an apostate, and apostates can be a lot of fun. Individuals who are raised in a restrictive religious environment and later decide to reject it usually have interesting tales to tell. Schaeffer... Read More
Book Review: A Visit from the Goon Squad
In April, author Jennifer Egan was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for her latest work, A Visit from the Goon Squad. A heartbreaking and illuminating reflection on the passage of time, the Goon Squad... Read More