‘How to Handle a Crowd’ Goes to the Moderators
Anika Gupta's How to Handle a Crowd casts a long-overdue spotlight on the work that goes into making online communities enjoyable and rewarding.
simon & schuster
Unorthodox Storytelling
Deborah Feldman's memoir, Unorthodox, is more than a depiction, or even indictment, of the Satmar. It's an indictment of any patriarchal social system that shrinks young women's dreams to the size of a kitchen, and then blames them for it.
Where’s the Strong Woman in Netflix’s Adaptation of ‘Good Hunting’?
Contrary to the intention of Ken Liu's short story, "Good Hunting", Netflix presents a superficial arc of female empowerment, then allows animation and the role of male characters to undercut that message.
Graphic Novel ‘Big Black’ Is a Stunning Depiction of the Attica Prison Uprising
Fifty years ago Attica prisoners rose up for justice -- and were slaughtered. Graphic novel Big Black: Stand at Attica is a powerful story from a survivor's point of view.
‘Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom’ Is as Monumental as the Man It Chronicles
Noted historian David W. Blight offers readers the fullest portrait of Frederick Douglass yet in this "biography of a voice".
‘Ancestral Night’ Is a Sweeping Space Saga for Intelligent Readers
Mystery and discovery in Hugo Award-winning novelist Elizabeth Bear's latest work, Ancestral Night, initially hooks but it's the speculative and complex world she constructs that's most rewarding.
What Commands Your Behaviors? On ‘Rule Makers, Rule Breakers’
In Rule Makes, Rule Breakers, Michele Gelfand gives many examples — both historical and contemporary — to prove how the customs that have shaped worldviews, behaviors, identities, and personal lives in any particular culture have originated from underlying perceptions of threat.
‘The Storm’ Brings Heart, Urgency, and Ambition
Spanning 60-some years, Arif Anwar's debut novel explores aspects of Bangladesh's history and how matters of race, religion, and nationality have shaped personal lives.
‘Space Opera’: A Galactic-scale Eurovision-style Life or Death Singing Contest
In Catherynne M. Valente's Space Opera, the Meaning of Life has a beat and, depending on your alien physiology, you might be able to dance to it.
Christopher Hitchens’ Posthumous Anthology, ‘And Yet…’, and Yet There Is More
Why reprint what's already available, as done here, if a bounty of miscellanea is still uncollected?
Don’t Sign the Lease Just Yet
The journey in Housebreaking is gripping even though the payoff is light.