-
Blink is journalist Gladwell’s second book, published in 2005, the runaway bestselling follow-up to his equally successful debut, The Tipping Point. In addition to his books, Gladwell has a popular podcast, “Revisionist History” that points out where “common knowledge” about past events turns out to be wildly incorrect. In Blink, Gladwell introduces his thin-slicing concept:…
-
Set in 1950s America, this true tale of a (possibly) dying woman taking a cross-country journey on horseback in the dawning age of interstate highways has inspiring moments. The most uplifting aspect is the kindness that strangers bestow on Annie Wilkins as she leaves behind a poverty-stricken life in rural Maine to seek the sunny…
-
This is a story about a family. Rosie is an emergency room doctor who supports her (unpublished) novelist husband, Penn, and a family of four boys. They decide to try for a girl, so Rosie turns the bed, places a talisman under it, and adopts the proper coital position. The result is Claude, a precocious…
-
This classic work first appeared in 1826 and in the 20th century was rendered in film nearly a dozen times. This is the second of five books in Cooper’s Leather Stocking series (leather stockings being boots), featuring the frontiersman known as Hawkeye. (The character once refers to himself as “Nathaniel,” but nowhere in the book…
-
In California’s Heartland, a New Resistance Movement is Taking Root By Mark Arax I confess I haven’t managed to finish reading any books lately, but have several I will finish soon. In the meantime, I’d like to recommend this article about Fresno, California, by Mark Arax. (The link will get you past the paywall.) Arax…
-
After the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo at the close of the Mexican War, the U.S. acquired much of the present southwestern states. But aside from Hispanic presence in New Mexico, the interior west still belonged largely to the indigenous people who had occupied it for centuries. The California and Colorado gold rushes…
-
With Judith Schiess Avila Around 2017, I was working on field surveys for a water pipeline to serve the Navajo Nation, running from the La Plata River to Window Rock, Arizona, via Shiprock and Gallup, New Mexico. While we were crossing one property, the owner, a Navajo, came to talk with us. He told us…
-
Hold out your hands and let me lay upon them a sheaf of freshly picked sweetgrass … Hold the bundle up to your nose. Find the fragrance of honeyed vanilla over the scent of river water and black earth and you understand its scientific name: Hierochloe odorata, meaning the fragrant, holy grass.” With this opening…
-
Wingate has conjured a moving tale from the horrific headlines of yesteryear. Set during the Great Depression, it pits the rich and powerful against the poor and powerless, aided by a truly malignant force by the name of Georgia Tann. Tann was, unfortunately, a real person, and the true extent of her cruel crimes will…
Eilene Lyon 