Reviews

Despite some faults, Straight Line Crazy does an excellent job of bringing to modern audiences the harsh reality of how governments, even in wealthy, developed countries, can ride roughshod over people’s rights, rich and poor alike.

By giving us doorways into a wider world of art and ideas—and doing so without the backing of any major publishing houses—Luc Travers and Sandra Shaw have not only done us all a great service but have testified to the enormous value of art in all our lives.

Despite occasional oversights, Kevin Birmingham's The Sinner and the Saint: Dostoevsky and the Gentleman Murderer Who Inspired a Masterpiece offers a dramatic and enlightening introduction to the complicated context in which one of literature’s greatest and most horrifying novels was created.

3 Idiots (2009), a Hindi-language coming-of-age film, follows the story of three engineering students at one of the top engineering universities in India. It focuses on the happiness a man can achieve when he lives for himself.

Star Wars is great for two principal reasons: A clear, moving story about good triumphing over evil; and likable, interesting characters. Unfortunately, The Book of Boba Fett falls short in both regards.

Louis H. Sullivan's buildings are the remaining monuments to a genius who gave voice, as no artist had ever done before, to the distinctive achievement of the modern age: the skyscraper. Hopefully, books such as this will help ensure that this master builder is never forgotten.

One reason critics often ignored Elmer Kelton was that his novels celebrate the virtues of integrity, honor, hard work, and bravery, with none of the nihilism or mournfulness that mark other Western authors. “Critics don’t read a Western unless the book is contemptuous of its subject matter,” Kelton once said.

If you like a romantic story with heartwarming friendships, thought-provoking questions, and a side of dark comedy, check out Lucifer. You might just become possessed by the devil himself.

Despite some of Hamilton’s surprising errors, such as his support for mercantilism, his programs prevented the new republic from floundering, as Dianne Durante has shown. Hamilton is worthy of our admiration, and so is Dr. Durante for having done such a fine job of bringing Hamilton and his policies to life.

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.