A Preposterous Man Of Mystery In 'Hotel Crystal'
Equal parts thriller, travelogue and literary puzzle, Hotel Crystal is The Bourne Identity by way of Borges.
Arts
Heirloom Tomato Farmer Finds Beauty In The Ugly
Tim Stark was a management consultant when he stumbled into heirloom tomato farming, as he describes in Heirloom: Notes from an Accidental Farmer. (Tip: The ugliest tend to be tastiest.) Now his tomatoes are served in the finest New York restaurants.
Heirloom Tomato Farmer Finds Beauty In The Ugly
Tim Stark was a management consultant when he stumbled into heirloom tomato farming, as he describes in Heirloom: Notes from an Accidental Farmer. (Tip: The ugliest tend to be tastiest.) Now his tomatoes are served in the finest New York restaurants.
Where Do Jokes Come From? Funny You Should Ask
Stop Me If You've Heard This Before, Jim Holt's funny, scholarly history of humor, ranges high and (very) low to answer the question, "What are you laughing at?"
Vignettes And Characters Shift In 'Chameleons'
In The Book of Chameleons, a gecko narrator weaves fragmentary tales of invented pasts into a story of charming airiness. The prize-winning Portuguese novel is set in post-civil war Angola.
Sex, Drugs And Sonnets: In 'Will,' All's Well
Even the bard wasn't as bawdy or silly as drug-addled scholar "Willie" Shakespeare Greenberg, the fumbling protagonist of Jess Winfield's lovingly naughty academic picaresque, My Name Is Will.
Excerpt: 'Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean'
Douglas Wolk takes graphic novels seriously and dissects today's comic-book landscape.
Excerpt: 'The Great Comic Book Heroes'
Jules Feiffer offers a critical history of comic books. He labels comics "junk" — only to vigorously defend our need for them.