Reviewed by Erica Wetter Clover Adams: A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life By Natalie Dykstra (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) You’ve probably never heard of Clover Adams, but as English Professor Natalie Dykstra illuminates in this detailed biography of the 19th-century Washington socialite, she rubbed elbows with many of the nation’s elite. “A perfect Voltaire in petticoats,” friend Henry James commented. “Certainly not ... Read More

  Reviewed by Melynda Fuller Barnheart: The Incurable Longing for a Farm of One’s Own By Jenna Woginrich (Storey) At some point, every city-dweller utters the words, “I wish I could just move to the country and start a farm.” In her new memoir, writer Jenna Woginrich lays out that idyllic landscape found so often in the deep sighs of those who feel trapped by urban life. After a short stint as a homesteader in Idaho, ... Read More

  Reviewed by Maria Elena Buszek Madonna & Me: Women Writers on the Queen of Pop Edited by Laura Barcella (Soft Skull)   If the way the Interwebz blew up the minute she hit the stage at the 2012 Super Bowl is any indication, Madonna has not lost her ability to provoke and fascinate—even as she approaches the end of her third decade as a pop icon. This fact is on abundant display in the new anthology Madonna and Me, edited by ... Read More

Paula Scher, one of the key players and leading ladies of graphic design (she is the first and currently the only female partner at design firm Pentagram), likes to paint really big and really intricate maps. The sizes of the maps alone are impressive (some are as tall as 12 feet) but it's the obsessiveness over the details that's really stunning. Scher's maps are made up entirely of words and packed with an insane amount of ... Read More

One of the ways my mom lets me know she loves me is by making soup and canning it so I can preserve it until that fateful day when a cold hits me and all I want is a bowl of mom’s magical brew. When I don’t know what to give someone for the holidays, I rely on my homemade orange marmalade presented in cute jars—it’s a gift everyone appreciates since it’s such a sweet labor of love. And when I get carried away ... Read More