This week at CCLaP, I review Anything That Moves: Renegade Chefs, Fearless Eaters, and the Making of a New American Food Culture, by Dana Goodyear, that encompasses everything from anti-FDA crusaders to luxury chefs in Vegas to seekers of illegal whale meat. Continue reading CCLaP Fridays: Anything That Moves, by Dana Goodyear
At the New York Journal of Books I review The Confidence Trap: A History of Democracy in Crisis from World War I to the Present, by David Runciman, a challenging, confounding, but ultimately rewarding political analysis democracy’s ability to weather crises and occasionally get blindsided by the next crisis. Continue reading The Confidence Trap, by David Runciman @ NYJB
Over at the New York Journal of Books, I review Calder Walton’s fascinating Empire of Secrets: British Intelligence, the Cold War, and the Twilight of Empire, all about the UK’s precarious position and its nefarious intelligence practices during the Cold War. Continue reading Empire of Secrets: British Intelligence, the Cold War, and the Twilight of Empire, by Calder Walton @ NYJB
This week at the New York Journal of Books, I review Tales of Two Cities: Paris, London, and the Birth of the Modern City, by Jonathan Conlin, which is “. . . an entertaining account that strings together fascinating factoids into a tapestry of urban history and cultural anthropology.” Continue reading Tales of Two Cities: Paris, London, and the Birth of the Modern City, by Jonathan Conlin @ NYRB
This week at CCLaP Karl Wolff reviews “Pervert,” by Mr. If, a confrontational erotic memoir of sorts that hocks a gobbet of spit at everything proper and polite in the United Kingdom. Continue reading CCLaP Fridays: Pervert, by Mr. If
My Crazy Century, by Ivan Klima, is a memoir about the famous author’s Czech childhood and adulthood under Nazi and Communist occupations, shot through with wit and rage. Continue reading My Crazy Century: a memoir, by Ivan Klima @ NYJB
Over at the New York Journal of Books, I review Jonathan Franzen’s new translation of Karl Kraus essays called The Kraus Project. Continue reading The Kraus Project, by Jonathan Franzen @ NYRB
The Megapolitan Flâneur is a series of short travel essays. These essays will focus on my trip to Chicago – September 4 – 6, 2013 – and what I experienced. Neither chronology or inventory, the essays will be reflective, free associative, and impressionistic. Full Disclosure: I am a staff member and assistant editor for the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography (CCLaP). While I did wander and amble throughout Chicago, this was a “working vacation” for me. “A commodity appears at first sight an extremely obvious, trivial thing. But its analysis brings out that it is a very strange thing, … Continue reading The Megapolitan Flaneur: Part 3: Objects and Meaning
Stanley Weintraub’s brisk, short, and informative book covers FDR’s years as Undersecretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson, where FDR has to contend with the shadow of his wife’s uncle, former President Teddy Roosevelt. Continue reading Young Mr. Roosevelt, by Stanley Weintraub@NYJB
My new book, “On Being Human,” has been published (in both ebook and handmade hardcover versions) by the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography. You should go out and buy a copy right now! Continue reading CCLaP: “On Being Human,” by Karl Wolff, on sale now!
The Driftless Area Review 