reviews

A Crash Course on the World's Biggest Library Author: James Conaway A bookworm since my earliest memory, I used to dream of being a librarian; the feel of working surrounded by so many books – that special library air potent with dreams and old pages – should be enough to satisfy even the most hardened of souls. When I moved to Washington, DC then, I finally had the chance to see the largest library in the world, an institution which by its very creation has defined the library system in America and set a precedence for learning and a respect [...]

It's a Hard Knock Life for Us Author: J.D. Vance In an America covered by increasing political dissonance and an “us vs them” cold war between the north and south, J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy is a light at the end of the tunnel and a heart-felt memoir that is part research and part reckoning. Growing up in a poor and dysfunctional southern family, Vance escaped his seemingly inevitable future of meth addiction, jail time, and broken relationships; an ex-Marine and Yale Law graduate, Vance uses Hillbilly Elegy to examine everything that could have gone wrong and reveals both compassion and [...]

The Secret Life of the Octopus Authors: Jennifer A. Mather, Roland C. Anderson, and James B. Wood Since my discovery of the Baltimore Aquarium and its gorgeous living displays, including everything from sharks to luminescent jellyfish to a giant purple octopus, I’ve forged an enduring fascination with the little known animals of the deep. Anyone who knows me is aware of my shark fetish from my overly shark-ized cubicle at work to the fact that my bachelorette party took place at, you guessed it, a special shark tour hosted by the Baltimore Aquarium. These fierce predators of the deep, however, aren’t [...]