Academic and literary books, reviewed by experts
Read About: Authenticity BY SKYE C. CLEARY Authenticity has become a buzzword, especially in popular psychology and leadership realms. Usually authenticity is understood as ‘being yourself’. But what does it mean to ‘be yourself’? Brené Brown’s The Gifts of Imperfection
Read About: J.R.R. Tolkien DR ANDREW HIGGINS Who Was J.R.R. Tolkien? J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) is considered the father of modern fantasy literature. Tolkien spent a great part of his life constructing a vast fictional world in which he set his
Review of Rescuing Socrates by Roosevelt Montás FINNIAN MURPHY In his deeply personal and passionate book, Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed my Life and Why they Matter for a New Generation, Roosevelt Montás details his personal and professional
Academics in Fiction: Colonialism, Exoticism and Lovecraft’s Professors TIM MOORSOM Few horror writers have had such a profound effect on culture as H. P. Lovecraft. While Stephen King or George R. R. Martin are better known, Lovecraft’s fingerprints, or perhaps
Academic Book Reviews Deserve Some Respect VICTORIA ADDIS The academic book review has long had a status issue. With the advent in the U.K., of the Research Excellence Framework, a process of research assessment that has inevitably reshaped ideas of what
Review of Fungipedia: A Brief Compendium of Mushroom Lore by Lawrence Millman DAPHNE NG We often think of mushrooms as delectable treats sautéed in butter and garlic but did you know that they also play prominent roles in popular culture?
Academics in Fiction: Hedda Gabler VICTORIA ADDIS Henrick Ibsen’s 1890 play, Hedda Gabler (first performed in Munich in 1891), provides us with not one but with two academic characters: the new husband of the eponymous Hedda Gabler, George Tesman, and
Review of City Living: How Urban Dwellers and Urban Spaces Make One Another by Quill R Kukla JAG WILLIAMS In their book City Living, philosopher and geographer Quill Kukla brings together a robust interdisciplinary analysis and a deep appreciation of
Review of Shakespeare and the Folktale: An Anthology of Stories edited by Charlotte Artese BRITTANY ELDRIDGE Folktales have been seen as an inspiration for many modern-day authors and film makers, and the inspiration obtained from these tales can also be
Review of Anecdotes of the Enlightenment: Human Nature from Locke to Wordsworth ROSE HILTON In Anecdotes of Enlightenment, James Robert Wood positions the anecdote as central to Enlightenment explorations of human nature in the various forms and fields of philosophy,