Panic! The Story of Modern Financial Insanity

By Rob Horning

In a sense, panic is an imprecise word to describe the emotion of financial crashes; paranoia better suits. [27 March 2009]

(more Marginal Utility)

Blind Man with a Pistol: Ishmael Reed’s Misguided Pow-Wow

By Rodger Jacobs

Anyone who has witnessed affirmative action policies in play can tell you that bad apples are chosen to fulfill a quota, not unlike a cop who harasses every citizen who bears a vague resemblance to a wanted suspect. [26 February 2009]

(more Deconstruction Zone)

Last Lion by Peter S. Canellos

By Tim O'Brien

If you want a peek inside America's royal family, this is a must-read, with details that only Boston Globe reporters could know. [24 March 2009]

Best Food Writing 2008, ed. Holly Hughes

By Carolyn W. Fanelli

Molecular gastronomy? Check. Locavores? Check. Post-Katrina restaurant recovery? Cloned meat? Paeans to the wonders of pig? Check, check, check. [18 December 2008]

The Best of Sexology, ed. Craig Yoe

By Carmelo Militano

In1933 Gernsback published a pseudo-intellectual, pseudo-scientific magazine devoted to sex and all its mysteries, vagaries, varieties -- not to mention all its anxieties. [16 December 2008]

New Stories from the South 2008: The Year’s Best

By Justin Dimos

Flannery O'Conner's hauntingly gothic South meets the modern American search for meaning in yet another superb edition of this series. [23 September 2008]

Truth or Dare: A Book of Secrets Shared by Justine Picardie

By Nikki Tranter

This is less about confession, and more about who these writers are and how they got that way. [11 January 2005]

Advertising Annual 2002 and New Talent Design Annual 2002 by B. Martin Pedersen, Editor

By Aaron Beebe

From an intellectual property standpoint, creativity is seen more and more as a force of constant innovation. [15 January 2003]

The Uncanny: Experiments in Cyborg Culture by Bruce Grenville, Editor

By John Biggs

It's a lucid look at the fears that plague academics everywhere...Will I lose tenure to an intelligent toaster oven?" [30 October 2002]

Conversations with Richard Ford by Huey Guagliardo, Editor

By Mark Dionne

Ford just may be the least catty writer in history. 'Other people's successes do not diminish you, your failures don't help others.'" [29 May 2002]

Fault Lines: Stories of Divorce by Caitlin Shetterly, editor

By Andy Fogle

The Iwo Jima Memorial or the Wall at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial hasn't ended human conflict. But we do need those memorials, and we need these stories, if only to look at the names that hover in the shimmering black surface. [1 January 1995]

Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias by Peter Ludlow

By Patrick Schabe

Essentially, Ludlow is pointing out that an entirely radical social perspective on governance and freedom rests behind the more mundane facts of the Internet explosion.