Planet Zoo
More than a generation of Americans have been urged to save the Earth. A survey of the current climate and every H.G. Wells-inspired geoengineering project shows it’s time to pray for Homo sapiens.
Anthony Doerr
Steve Almond
Steve Almond is the author of the sentence, “I was a twelve-year-old whose hobbies were shoplifting and pyromania.” He writes beautiful fiction, and if you don’t know it you might dig it. Last month he published a nonfiction book about music, though he freely admits to thinking glissando is
Remembering Pop
We should all hope to age gracefully—and go skydiving at 94, and jetboating at 95. Our man in Boise pays tribute to one who raged at the light.
Garbage Night
Every night, another bag goes in the garbage, more waste goes in the landfill. A startling look at America’s capacity for garbage-making.
Night Noise
The West Nile virus attacked Boise this summer, and now planes spray the city with a supposedly harmless pesticide. But when facts are muddy and even the anchormen don't know what's safe, is it wise to let your sons play outside?
The Elements of Style
"A writer is a gunner, sometimes waiting in the blind for something to come in, sometimes roaming the countryside hoping to scare something up." Strunk and White's Elements of Style is back, now published for the first time with artistic style as well, featuring dozens of
We Are Mapmakers
Going home for the holidays inspires remembering, but bringing your own children home adds a twist--will their recollections be anything like yours?
Melville House's Novella Collection
Traveling soon? Melville House Press has released a bunch of classic novellas--everything from Kipling to Edith Wharton to Tolstoy's The Devil (sexy and tormented), to Stevenson's The Beach at Falsea (worth reading just for the narrator's idioms). The novella remains an art form not
Insects Will Not Take Over The World (They Already Own It)
As winter approaches, the insects go underground. What we will miss? Moths that can smell sex a mile away. Butterflies with tongues on their feet. Centipedes able to kill birds. Our man in Idaho reports from the pastoral.
Hunger
The siege of Leningrad lasted 900 days and hardly any food went in or out. In two months alone, January and February 1942, over 200,000 people died. Elise Blackwell's slender, lovely novelette Hunger conveys the experiences of botanists refusing to consume their rare collection of seeds as
Shadows Everywhere
We interrupt our weekly Non-Expert column to bring you this dispatch, beginning a new series of letters: Our author in Rome returns home, from Italy to Idaho, finding chaos everywhere he looks.
Biodegradable Tableware
Aunt Trudy's potato salad lasts about nine seconds in your mouth, but the fork you used to put it there will still be in a landfill after all your kids are dead. Ditch the plastic and try using biodegradable tableware made from corn and potato resins. After lunch,
Ciao, Grazie
Just when you feel like you've arrived, you're called away. Our correspondent tallies up his stay and says goodbye to the light, the heat, and the several thousand Pampers left behind.
Roman Palimpsest
Italy is a giant archaeological dig, endlessly plundered, built upon, defiled and revered. It's also covered with graffiti, with lots of misspellings.
Sardegna
The first month of living abroad in one of the world's great historical cities is full of sights and wonders. The eighth month is full of grocery shopping and car alarms.
Mourning
Cardinals are currently gathering in Rome to elect a new pope. We look back at the weekend that John Paul II died in 2005, when prayers gathered and flew toward the Vatican, and everything was filmed, and everyone was filming.
Fighting Smog
These are tough days for Rome, with many worried for the Pope's health. Feeling equally worried for his own and his family's, a newcomer reports on days of tiny miracles, crossbow makers, and a lack of Ziploc bags.