A vacation in a hell of a state
North Korea Journal by Michael Palin reviewed
Books
Monday
Wednesday
If only Georges Simenon had been a bit more like Maigret
The pipe-smoking detective’s creator was a sex addict who died rich and lonely in a vast Swiss château
Tuesday
A colonial adventure in Mohawk Valley
Into the wild: A Slightly Foxed books essay
Monday
Donald Trump and the art of the lawsuit
Plaintiff in Chief: a Portrait of Donald Trump in 3,500 Lawsuits by James D. Zirin reviewed
Wednesday
Rand Paul offers a thorough take down of today’s left
The Case Against Socialism by Rand Paul reviewed
Tuesday
The Nobel Committee honors an apologist for genocide
Peter Handke has compared Bosnian Serbs laying the siege on Sarajevo with Native Americans laying siege on a camp of white colonizers
Harold Bloom, the Falstaff of lit crit
Bloom was a working-class Jew from the Bronx who, like Saul Bellow, had autodidactified himself to the gills despite being in the university
Monday
Race to the finish
Self-Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race by Thomas Chatterton Williams reviewed
Monday
Blondie ambition
Face It by Debbie Harry reviewed
Wednesday
The passion of Bari Weiss
How to Fight Anti-Semitism by Bari Weiss reviewed
Monday
Novel advice for incoming STEM freshmen
Students interested in a career in investing and technology should read more fiction
Saturday
The Spectator USA guide to book curation
Gwyneth Paltrow has a book curator – now you can too!
Sunday
Demining at the foot of Mount Sinjar
Isis had been cleared from this area a month before I arrived, in November 2015. But the men were cautious
Monday
Kevin D. Williamson has a people problem
The Smallest Minority: Independent Thinking in the Age of Mob Politics by Kevin D. Williamson reviewed
Tuesday
When Tom met Groucho
‘He seemed more interested in discussing Animal Crackers and A Night at the Opera’
Thursday
The uneasy legacy of Christopher Hitchens
What will become of the Hitch?
Monday
An American in Darwin’s family
The prelude to Period Piece: A Slightly Foxed books essay
Sunday
A gas-lit world
Hazel Wood on the Darwin family and Gwen Raverat’s ‘Period Piece’: A Slightly Foxed books essay
Saturday
Nineteen Eighty-Four is not a guidebook for the present day
A powerful totalitarian state is no longer needed to coerce human beings
Sunday
Plato, Socrates and Glaucon’s Fate
A new interpretation of the old impulse to tyranny
