Megan McKinney’s Magnificent Medills and Amanda Smith’s Newspaper Titan chronicle the escapades of Joseph Medill and the power and zaniness of his prominent press family.
The Fall of the House of Medill
Remember This?
Before his death of natural causes in 2008, Henry Gustave Molaison had the world’s most famous brain. At 27, Molaison permanently lost the ability to form new memories, which led to him spending the rest of his life in “thirty-second loops of awareness.” In the LRB, Mike Jay reviews a new book on Molaison, Permanent Present Tense.
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Empathy for the Devil?
Ruth Franklin of TNR probes the weaknesses of American novels about terrorism.
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Taste Lessons for Adults
How do you eat your broccoli? British food historian Bee Wilson’s newest book, First Bite: How We Learn to Eat takes a hard look at how eating is a learned, cultural behavior–and how it’s never too late to change bad eating habits.
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The Soufflé Also Rises
Has a cookbook ever changed your life? Here is Christine Baumgarthuber for The New Inquiry on early cookbooks and the lifestyle revolution that they sparked. Further your culinary exploits with Stephanie Bernhard’s essay for The Millions on cooking with Ernest Hemingway.
Bookshelf of the Masses
From Jared Fanning, a charming graphic of the world’s 10 most read books.