Reviews

By explaining how one can create good art via hard work and rational processes, “Art & Fear” dispels myths of inborn talent and mystical inspiration, and it encourages artists to cultivate skills, just as in any other profession.

Written in the final days of his life, as Herschensohn learned of the arrests of brave friends, A Profile of Hong Kong was left unfinished, and it ends on a tragic note, with a run-on sentence that reads like a wail of grief.

In an easy-to-read, seventy-four-page volume, Travers relays his approach to art appreciation: You don’t connect with an artwork by learning which period it’s from or who painted it. Rather, you connect with an artwork by immersing yourself in it and finding personal connections with its characters and themes.

The bulk of Free Guy is propelled by a compelling, original story (a rare thing in today’s movie landscape) with well-written, well-acted characters and a powerful theme, as well as a delightful dose of humor.

Anyone interested in philosophy, politics, or economics will benefit from reading Where Have All the Capitalists Gone? It is an important and accessible explanation of capitalism, which clearly shows why it is the only social system for a free and prosperous future.

Throughout State of Fear, Michael Crichton artfully incorporates real-life academic sources, graphs, and other research, slowly piecing together his own thoughts about global warming and comparing these with commonly held beliefs.

The special glow of O. Henry's prose and the magic of his plots show us the world as it should be—and almost bring it within reach.

The characters in Loki who take a stand against the villainous Time Variance Authority are always clear that they are fighting for free will and defending people’s rights to make their own decisions.

Texas novelist Elmer Kelton’s West is a vivid, authentic world—one in which farmers struggle to keep their land, ranchers work backbreaking hours to support their families, cowboys explore the depths of the wilderness, and people make difficult but admirable choices in the face of adversity.

Hundreds of airmen and sailors—mostly young, many only teenagers, many of them civilians—under terrifying circumstances, “redeemed from the brink of disaster one of the most hazardous naval operations of the Second World War.” In expertly recounting their courage and the horrors they faced, Max Hastings has helped ensure the well-deserved immortality of this band of heroes.