Books & Ideas

Authors and Panels That Inform and Provoke Define Book Festival

Alex Elvin

Author Ta-Nehisi Coates headlines a sold-out public discussion Friday that explores the idea of a post-racial America. The discussion kicks off the...

6:17 pm, July 30, 2015
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Making Fast Dinners Without a Fuss; It's the Holy Grail for Every Family

Remy Tumin

What’s for dinner? That’s the question the four Pollan family women kept finding themselves asking one another. The Pollan Family Table, written by...

6:07 pm, July 30, 2015
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By Digging Up the Whole Story, Writer Honors the Death of His Roommate

Alex Elvin

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, released last year to wide acclaim, is Mr. Hobbs’s memorial to his Yale roommate Robert Peace's life,...

5:55 pm, July 30, 2015
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To Make History a Page Turner, Stay Curious

Louisa McCullough

Erik Larson’s advice to those who want to write? “Work as a cop on the side,” he told the Gazette in a recent interview. “Immersing yourself in life...

5:49 pm, July 30, 2015
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A Mystery Wrapped in an Enigma With No Conclusion; Art Heist Still Mystifies

Alex Floyd

Stephen Kurkjian’s new book has the characters, intrigue and pace of a mystery novel. All it lacks is the culprit. That’s because his subject matter...

5:47 pm, July 30, 2015
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All Hail the Mast Brothers, Sweet Siblings of Chocolate

Remy Tumin

When Rick Mast decided to start a chocolate company with his brother Michael, the two set a date to show up at work two months later, promptly at 8 a...

5:11 pm, July 30, 2015
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Animals as Social Beings Is Not Such a Wild Idea

Heather Hamacek

With a PhD in ecology and a jaunty writing style, Carl Safina isn’t so much a science writer as he is a writer who is a scientist.

5:09 pm, July 30, 2015
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Let Us Now Praise the Humble Apostrophe

Remy Tumin

Mary Norris is concerned about the future of the apostrophe. “The apostrophe is most vulnerable to the march of progress,” said Ms. Norris, a query...

4:15 pm, July 30, 2015
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On the Sidelines But Always Competing, Sports Writing Is Full Contact Career

Mike Kotsopoulos

Bob Ryan calls it how he sees it. Hold the sugar. Give an audience the truth and nothing but the truth, plain and simple. At the end of the day, the...

3:57 pm, July 30, 2015
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Setting the Course for Women in Sports and Always Looking for a Challenge

Megan Cerullo

Ginny Gilder is a self-described challenge seeker. As a young woman, she set her sights on a goal that most told her was impossible — to become an...

3:56 pm, July 30, 2015
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Looking Back to Go Forward Is Not a Straight Line; Bravery Takes Hard Turns

Elizabeth Bennett

New York Times Op-Ed columnist Charles Blow was a 20-year-old college student when he had an epiphany that freed him to let go of his past and fully...