Nonfiction Reviews Archive

This Explains Everything: Deep, Beautiful, and Elegant Theories of How the World Works John Brockman (Editor) Harper Perennial, 2013 432 pages (Kindle edition) Available Amazon

What We Know About Climate Change, 2nd Edition by Kerry Emanuel The MIT Press, 2012. 93 pages (Kindle) Available Amazon In this second edition of What We Know About Climate Change, Kerry Emanuel, Professor of Atmospheric Science in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science at MIT, brings the climate controversy down to earth. Emanuel

The Notorious Elizabeth Tuttle: Marriage, Murder, and Madness in the Family of Jonathan Edwards by Ava Chamberlain New York University Press, 2012 258 pages (hardcover) Available Amazon Powells Those who recognize the name Elizabeth Tuttle know her only as the paternal grandmother of colonial theologian Jonathan Edwards, a woman her grandson was raised to

Brain Power: From Neurons to Networks by Tiffany Shlain TED Conferences, 2012 51 pages (Kindle) Available Amazon Comparing technology to the brain is not a new thing. Telephone wiring, electrical wiring, a computer, or a network of computers have all joined the many metaphors for the brain over the years (see my review of

Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious by Chris Stedman Beacon Press, 2012 208 pages (Kindle) Available Amazon Powell “I had never heard the word ‘faitheist’ before,” says Chris Stedman, “but I was pretty sure it wasn’t a compliment.” So begins Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious,

College: What it Was, Is, and Should Be by Andrew Delbanco Princeton University Press, 2012 240 pages (Kindle) Available Amazon Powells Andrew Delbanco’s College: What it Was, Is, and Should Be nearly wore out the highlight feature of my Kindle. Delbanco, Director of American Studies at Columbia University, writes with a rare and welcomed literary

Mortality by Christopher Hitchens Twelve, 2012 128 Pages (Kindle) Available Amazon Powell’s Many people I know consume deathbed conversion narratives like they’re crack, but Mortality—the posthumous collection of essays by Christopher Hitchens written during his fight with cancer—is proof that there are atheists in foxholes.

Written on the Sky: Poems from the Japanese Translated by Kenneth Rexroth New Directions, 2009 90 pages (paperback) Available Amazon Powell’s What art form distills images more succinctly and sweeps them away more devastatingly than poetry? Japanese poetry, especially the haiku form, is especially renowned for capturing the essence of a moment in just