MJ AndersenDec 19, 20203 minFour Takes: On artists and art, New biographies take us behind the pictures, The Boston Sunday GlobeDecember 20, 2020 Books about artists place their authors, at best, in a draw with their subjects. After all, the art is what drives our ...
MJ AndersenNov 15, 20203 minFour Takes: The art of the short story, The Boston Sunday GlobeNovember 15, 2020 On the train that is literature, the short story is often relegated to second-class, while the novel travels in luxury....
MJ AndersenOct 25, 20203 minFour Takes: If few of us know about China, it is not for lack of books, The Boston Sunday GlobeOctober 25, 2020 A few months into his presidency, Donald Trump wooed Chinese president Xi Jinping with cake. “We had the most beautiful ...
MJ AndersenSep 20, 20203 minFour Takes: On the rights of women 25 years after the Beijing Declaration on WomenSeptember 20, 2020 Earlier this month, the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration on Women passed with little notice. Produced by th...
MJ AndersenAug 30, 20203 minFOUR TAKES: An imperfect union Readings on racial justice and injusticesAugust 30, 2020 For months following the May 25 killing of George Floyd, Americans have turned out in the streets, breathing new life int...
MJ AndersenAug 9, 20204 minToo good to be true? In 'Veritas,' veteran journalist Ariel Sabar examines a sweet religious historical find that turned sour August 9, 2020 See if this rings...
MJ AndersenJul 25, 20203 minFour Takes: Music and composers, The Boston Sunday GlobeJuly 26, 2020 The suspension of live performances at Tanglewood added another dreary loss to this pandemic summer. In the green lap of th...
MJ AndersenJun 28, 20203 minFour Takes: The mysteries of fatherhood June 28, 2020 If this year’s graduates have been under-celebrated, June’s other traditional honorees — fathers — have carried on much as ...
MJ AndersenJun 1, 20203 minFour Takes; Authors fascinated with other authors, The Boston Sunday GlobeMay 31, 2020 Readers, we are stuck at home. If, like me, you detest reading electronically, and have qualms about getting books delivered...
MJ AndersenApr 26, 20203 minFour Takes:Earth Day, 50 years of celebrating the planet, The Boston Sunday GlobeApril 25, 2020 The author’s longstanding fascination with 18th-century explorer James Cook draws these disparate locations together. For ...
MJ AndersenFeb 16, 20203 minIn four tantalizing titles, food for thought - The Boston GlobeFebruary 16, 2020 A former New York Times restaurant critic, Reichl remains among the most appealing food writers in the business. She fe...
MJ AndersenJan 26, 20203 minFour Takes: Mount Olympus revisited in four contemporary titles, The Boston Globe January 26, 2020 In classical mythology, the gods cannot get enough of defying higher-ups. The latest to cross this tripwire are Harry an...
MJ AndersenJan 23, 202015 minLeaving the PaperPolitics/ Letters This essay was cited among “Notable Essays and Literary Nonfiction of 2018” in “The Best American Essays,” published by...
MJ AndersenDec 28, 20193 minFour Takes: A boom, a backlash, and a reckoning with Big Tech -The Boston GlobeDecember 28, 2019 Sing, O Muse, of geeks in garages. Then tell of Big Technology’s fall. Somewhere an epic tale is taking shape, and it g...
MJ AndersenDec 28, 20193 minFour Takes: Native narratives of reclaimed identity and recovered sovereignty -The Boston GlobeNovember 21, 2019 On Dec. 29, 1890, US soldiers massacred more than 150 Lakota people at Wounded Knee, in South Dakota. In a view that ha...
MJ AndersenNov 3, 20193 minFour Takes: Digging in to the looming challenge of sustainable food, The Boston Sunday GlobeNovember 3, 2019 Mark Bittman may have done the most in recent years to focus Americans’ attention on ethical dining. A decade ago, in “F...
MJ AndersenSep 27, 20193 min‘The Lager Queen of Minnesota,ʼ and three more tales of brothers and sisters, The Boston GlobeSeptember 26, 2019 Stradal first set out his beguiling literary wares in “Kitchens of the Great Midwest,” using eight interconnected narr...
MJ AndersenAug 27, 20193 minFour Takes: Looking back on Woodstock, The Boston Sunday GlobeAugust 22, 2019 The old joke goes that if you remember Woodstock, you were not there. I was not there, in the sense usually meant. Most l...
MJ AndersenJul 21, 20193 minFour Takes: Location, location, location, The Boston Sunday GlobeJuly 21, 2019 The 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building still unfortunately dominates most peopleʼs conception of Oklahom...
MJ AndersenJun 23, 20193 minFour Takes: Out of the closet, into the fray: Stonewall revisited, The Boston Sunday GlobeEarlier this month, Boston’s 49th Pride Parade drew tens of thousands to the city, and went off happily hitchless. As for several years ...