Books & Literary Life

Literary criticism, author interviews, and book culture from within and beyond Harvard.

Tara Menon’s Debut Novel Combines Friendship, Grief, and Climate Disaster

The popular Harvard English professor published Under Water this spring.

by Andrés Muedano

Off the Shelf

Recent books with Harvard connections

Chapter & Verse

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

A Death in the Harvard Family: John Updike ’54, Litt.D. ’92

Noted author John Updike ’54, Litt.D. ’92, died of lung cancer on January 27 at the age of 76.

Up in the Air

Aerial photographer Alex MacLean documents the effects of the American lifestyle on the American landscape.

by Paul Gleason

Before the Cocktail Napkin

In this excerpt from her new book, Michelangelo, Drawing, and the Invention of Architecture, Cammy Brothers discusses how the artist demonstrated the possibility for architecture to be a vehicle for the imagination equal to painting or sculpture.

Off the Shelf

An editorial sampling of recent books with Harvard connections

"Working Sisters"

Pan Tianshu reviews Leslie Chang's new book Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China

by Pan Tianshu

Chapter & Verse

A correspondence corner for not-so-famous lost words

Storytelling Scholar

Marie Rutkoski blends sixteenth-century history with fantasy in The Cabinet of Wonders, a new novel for young adults.

by Brittney Moraski

Day-After Thoughts: "Words Have Made a Comeback"

Reflections from Humanities Center scholar-in-residence Kiku Adatto on the roles of images and rhetoric in the 2008 campaign and its media coverage