Portside

A surprising aspect of Julia Child, as discussed in a new volume about her conversatons with journalists, is her passionate political engagement.

True believers like Ailes or for that matter Steve Bannon or Tucker Carlson may be cynical and fundamentally financially motivated yet they are a foundational part of an emerging right wing international.

“Someone with wings,” writes the critic Elizabeth Willis, “may be angelic, but the figure also embodies the predatory power of a country—the one we live in…”

They may not all be beach reading, but this clutch of books will keep any reader busy--working or not--in the doleful last days of summer.

Novelist and writer Toni Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford, February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Here is the speech she gave on that occasion.

“The Nightingale,” from Jennifer Kent, looks at the effects of sexual assault in 1820s Tasmania. Critics say it is too graphic; defenders say it reflects historical truths.

What makes the difference in the end isn’t the skill (or ineptitude) of the negotiator, but the workers’ solidarity and fortitude on the picket line.

Tennessee poet Ben Weakly sings of a soldier’s valor as sacrifice for the living.

Two differently themed books complement each other; one on the rise of white power at home and the other on anti-communist adventures abroad show the domestic scourge nurtured by foreign experiences even as the global Right employed its services.

Here is a book, says reviewer Nava, that makes "a significant contribution to queer history and to understanding the forces that shape contemporary queer identity."