Non Fiction Archive

Imperfect Harmony: Finding Happiness Singing with Others - Thich Nhat Hanh gave a lecture in Boston, but he wanted to do more, so his staff arranged a free “Sit in Peace” event in Copley Square, a few hundred

Invictus: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation - If you read nothing else this month, please get your hands on "Playing the Enemy" and read the section --- near the end --- about the morning of the World

Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History - Do you think today's storms are the most deadly? Read on... Isaac Cline was more than a meteorologist. He was also a doctor. A fastidious dresser, a model citizen, a

Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy - Put yourself in her place. Your husband was murdered --- in public, sitting right next to you --- just four months ago. You want to go off in a corner

James Salter: “Don’t Save Anything: Uncollected Essays, Articles, and Profiles” - I’ve written more about James Salter than any other writer. My summing up: James Salter (1925-2015) The cult classic: A Sport and a Pastime The acknowledged masterpiece: Light Years The best

Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle - What’s the attraction? It’s not just the people, it’s the house. Because it’s filmed at Highclere Castle, arguably Britain’s most famous stately home, “Downton Abbey’ is real-estate porn at a

Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed - Two French policemen, acting on the orders of their Nazi masters, came to the little village of Le Chambon on a February evening in 1943. Their purpose: arrest

Letters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience - Shaun Usher was a copywriter in a London ad agency. A very bored copywriter. And not finding inspiration for a stationery client. He went to the library and started reading

Levels of the Game - Arthur Ashe died, at 49, in 1993, of pneumonia related to AIDS, contracted from a blood transfusion during heart surgery. In his hometown, there are many statues of Confederate generals

Life’s Little Annoyances: True Tales of People Who Just Can’t Take It Anymore -     Life's Little

Little Caesars: How Wall Street & Big Business Conspired to Overthrow Franklin D. Roosevelt and Install a Fascist Dictator — and the Patriot Who Stopped Them - Rachel Maddow has a new book, Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism, and a podcast that dissects historical efforts to bring Fascism to America. Along the way, she synopsizes the

Margaret Renkl: Life is hard. The world is beautiful. And most people are good. - Our 21-year-old daughter doesn’t read the news, but she knows who the good people are and what the bad people want to do to the good people, and she’s seen

Medal of Honor - War changed half a century ago, when armed conflict stopped being about nations and started being about “liberation.” And at that point, the targets of violence changed ---

Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming - If the Pope needed a prom date, Naomi Oreskes would be his first call. He's clear about climate change; it's real, we cause most of it, and we need to

Michael Powell: Inside a Battle Over Race, Class and Power at Smith College - You take your career in your hands if you dare to write about campus issues. Facts are elusive; people bring their own. And although their "facts" are often what you

Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali - I love the music of Mali. Love how the songs are about community --- farming and water and schools. And a passionate, exciting CD called Divas

Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War - Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, died on June 16, 2023 at 92.  The publisher called it a Young Adult book. It’s better than that: a National Book Award

Murphy’s Laws of Songwriting - When I was preparing to write the introduction to the 25th anniversary edition of Paul Simon’s Graceland, I listened to it dozens of times. Most of those listening sessions were

My Bad -       My Bad Paul Slansky and Arleen Sorkin People make mistakes. When they realize

Nemesis: The True Story of Aristotle Onassis, Jackie O, and the Love Triangle That Brought Down the Kennedys - Do you like conspiracies that involve the Kennedys? In The Tears of Autumn --- a novel by Charles McCarry, who was a deep-cover operative for the CIA for a decade ---