From Maine to Alaska, narrow gauge is all the rage, including one of the most historic, Pennsylvania’s East Broad Top. Read more
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Year: 2022
Where the Sagebrush Grows
Most of Nevada’s land — almost 86 percent — is uninhabited by people, covered in sagebrush, and managed by the federal government. That leaves plenty of room for the imagination. Green corporations envision wind farms. Red politicians see a dumping grounds for the nation’s nuclear waste. Even for those who have driven one of those two-lane highways stretching across high desert, it is still easy to assume that there is nothing, and no one, out there. John M. Glionna sets out to prove the opposite in Outback Nevada: Real Stories from the Silver State… Read more
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New Video Game is Based on Poems of Emily Dickinson
Ever wanted to play a computer game based on the poems of Emily Dickinson? Well, now you can, with the release of EmilyBlaster, a 1980s-style game in which players must shoot words out of the sky to correctly recreate Dickinson’s verse. EmilyBlaster is a real-life version of the fictional game that a character makes in Gabrielle Zevin’s novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, out next month. Read more
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The Historian George Chauncey Wins the Kluge Humanities Prize
Chauncey, a professor of American history at Columbia, becomes the first scholar in L.G.B.T.Q. studies to receive the $500,000 award. Read more
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An Introduction to Stanislaw Lem, the Great Polish Sci-Fi Writer, by Jonathan Lethem
Who was Stanislaw Lem? The Polish science fiction writer, novelist, essayist, and polymath may best be known for his 1961 novel Solaris (adapted for the screen by Andrei Tarkosvky in 1972 and again by Steven Soderbergh in 2014). Lem’s science fiction appealed broadly outside of SF fandom, attracting the likes of John Updike, who called his stories “marvelous” and Lem a poet of “scientific terminology” for readers “whose hearts beat faster when the Scientific American arrives each month.” Updike’s characterization is but one version of Lem. There are several more, writes Jonathan Lethem in an essay for the London Review of Books, penned for Lem’s 100th anniversary – at least five different Lems with five different literary personalities. Read more
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The Best Travel Books of All Time, According to Authors
There are an astounding number of travel books out there. How to choose the best of the best? You can start by asking the experts. Read more
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Bitch by Lucy Cooke: A Joyous Debunking of Gender Stereotypes in Nature
From lemurs to spiders, this gleeful exploration of female sexuality in the animal world overturns a host of outdated assumptions. Read more
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Danica Novgorodoff wins Kate Greenaway medal for graphic novel Long Way Down
Danica Novgorodoff’s “innovative” graphic novel adaptation of Jason Reynolds’ novel Long Way Down has won the Yoto Kate Greenaway medal, making it the first graphic novel to win the illustration prize since Raymond Briggs’ Father Christmas in 1973. Meanwhile, Katya Balen has won the Yoto Carnegie medal, which celebrates outstanding achievement in children’s writing. The “expertly written” October, October was inspired by Balen’s father-in-law, who lives off-grid. Read more
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Inside the Colorful, Campy, Unapologetically Horny World of Erotic Cookbooks
While it’s easy to dismiss them as gag gifts, there’s way more to erotic cookbooks than double entendres and naughty illustrations. Read more
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Ruth Ozeki’s ‘complete joy’ of a novel wins Women’s prize for fiction
The novelist, film-maker and Zen Buddhist priest takes the £30,000 award for a book that “stood out for its sparkling writing, warmth, intelligence, humour and poignancy”, according to the chair of judges, Mary Ann Sieghart. Read more
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