Want to know when The Age of Enlightenment ended and what is responsible? Francis Wheen thinks he has it pinpointed in How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World. According to Wheen, 1979 “marks the moment when the world was jolted by a violent reaction to the complacency of the existing order.” This …

It’s almost impossible to walk into a bookstore or look at a bestseller list these days without seeing some new “miracle cure” health book. Conquering Diabetes by Dr. Ann Peters isn’t in that category. Rather than promise miracle solutions, it offers a practical, patient-oriented approach toward dealing with diabetes. There’s …

It seems the catalogue of books about the Beatles is limitless. Written as an “insider” view, Magical Mystery Tours is a gossipy and intimate entry in that catalogue. Tony Bramwell grew up with Paul McCartney, George Harrison and John Lennon in Liverpool. Bramwell was around as the three began playing …

“Politics don’t belong in sports” is an oft-heard mantra. The fact is, the two are such a large part of American society they cannot help but be intertwined. Look at the focus on Pat Tillman when he left the NFL to join the Army and when he was killed in …

Hype. The modern American way of getting attention. It seems to have worked for John Twelve Hawks, the pseudonymous author.

So, NHL players and owners appear to have a new collective bargaining agreement that will end the lock out that cost them last season. YAWN. Instead of worrying about a league few really seemed to miss as it committed hari-kari, maybe it’s worth taking a look at people who aren’t …

It takes a bit to get used to James Frey’s memoirs, both typographically and stylistically. None of the paragraphs are indented. Quotation marks are not used to delineate speech or conversation. Stylistically, Frey would probably flunk most basic composition classes. Many of his sentences are basically run-on streams of consciousness. …

True “dog people” are considered such because they think so highly of the canine. Not only do they consider their dog almost as much a part of the family as the children, they tend to respect a dog’s patience, tolerance and unqualified devotion. I know because I’m one of them. …

Some journalism doesn’t fit the inherent constraints of newspapers or magazines. Often, that is because the subject is too massive and requires longer periods of investigation than what these formats tend to demand in immediacy. Terry McDermott’s exploration of the 9/11 terrorists, Perfect Soldiers, is an example of this. McDermott, …

Collisions between government and religion were partly responsible for the founding of this country. Some 200 years later, those collisions continue. A legal framework for dealing with constitutional issues raised by some of those collisions is the focus of Marci Hamilton’s book, God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule …