Search results for

Athanasius Kircher, a 17th-century Jesuit priest, was a renaissance man in name and deed. He strove to learn about almost everything. Unfortunately, many of his inventions and theories were pure nonsense. John Glassie writes about Kircher in his new book, A Man of Misconceptions.

"Ours is not a bloodline, but a text line," say father-daughter author team Amos Oz and Fania Oz-Salzberger. Their new book, Jews And Words, explores the significance of text in the Jewish tradition. "For thousands of years, we Jews had nothing but books," Oz says. "They became part of the family life."

Novelist Richard Russo's new memoir, Elsewhere, is the uncompromisingly tragic — yet beautifully told — story of his relationship with his mentally ill mother. Reviewer Michael Schaub calls it "one of the most honest, moving American memoirs in years."

Talking about Jews in sports touches a "very central place in the Jewish psyche," says Franklin Foer. He and co-editor Marc Tracy have compiled an "unorthodox hall of fame" celebrating Jewish contributions to American athletics.

Author Sebastian Faulks says all of the characters in his new novel, A Possible Life, "struggle with the idea of selfhood, and who they are and identity." The novel weaves together five separate stories, jumping centuries and locations, and Faulks compares them to movements in a symphony.

British author Ian McEwan is known for multilayered tales with surprise endings, and his latest novel doesn't disappoint. The story of a Cold War intelligence agent who falls for the target of her investigation is sprinkled with hints of subversive intents, making it a clever bonbon of a book.

Author David Rain is an opera fan, and after watching Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly, was left with one question: Whatever happened to the son in the story? His new book, The Heat of the Sun, aims to provide an answer.

In the 1960s, Lynn Povich was part of a revolution at Newsweek that changed women's roles in news organizations. Her new book, The Good Girls Revolt, describes how she recruited women in bathrooms to sue management. She tells NPR that even today, "vigilance is necessary."

William McCleery wrote his first draft of Wolf Story during bedtimes and afternoon outings with his 5-year-old son. In 1947, it became a hit children's book, but it's been out of print for more than 20 years.

Actor Stephen Tobolowsky's new book is made up of essays, anecdotes, stories and insights shuffled in and out of order, like cards in a deck. Everything in the book is true, Tobolowsky says: "True trumps clever any day of the week."