Religion
Counsel at Crossroads: Job and Arjuna
December 14, 2025The Book of Job and a central section of the Indian epic Mahabharata present interesting perspectives...
Science
Goethe and Tagore – Unexpected Interests
December 14, 2025Goethe and Tagore, separated by time and contexts, but joined in their great felicity over the...
Music
The Funk Brothers
December 14, 2025A few hundred fortunate Californians were sharing a moment of transcendence with the Funk Brothers, the...
Non-Fiction Reviews
Frau Braun and The Tiger of Auschwitz
December 14, 2025The principal accused was an Auschwitz commandant, one Wilhelm Boger, whose sobriquet was “The Tiger of...
Biography
A Toast to Tristan Egolf
December 14, 2025He would furiously lead anti-war marches weekly on our courthouse steps. He improvised chants and picket...
Non-Fiction Reviews
Horace Greeley: Champion of American Freedom byRobert C. Williams
December 14, 2025Horace Greeley is a familiar name, but how much do today’s Americans know about him? Most...
Fiction Reviews
Fahrenheit 451: Avatar of the New Man
December 13, 2025Francois Truffaut’s Fahrenheit 451 begins with a striking narration of the film’s credits. The premise is...
Anthropology
Light of the Moon by Luane Rice
December 13, 2025Femi-lit doesn’t make as many headlines as its younger sister, but it shares certain familial traits....
Anthropology
Violence, the Media, and Trying to Process The Dark Knight Rises Shootings
December 13, 2025How do you process a tragedy like the one that unfolded last night in Aurora, Colorado?...
Anthropology
Follow the California Literary Review on Twitter
December 13, 2025Readers can now receive our latest postings through our new Twitter account, calitreview.
Non-Fiction Reviews
The Great Risk Shift – by Jacob S. Hacker
December 13, 2025After winning reelection in 2004, President George W. Bush made restructuring Social Security his top domestic...
Anthropology
Book Review: Myths from Mesopotamia by Stephanie Dalley
December 12, 2025I asked them why they, unannounced, wished to meet with the director and they told me...
Psychology
Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness
December 12, 2025Jaynes, a psychologist who taught at Princeton up until his death in 1997, showed how ancient...
Fiction Reviews
Destination: Morgue! L.A. Tales – by by James Ellroy
December 12, 2025Anyone who reads “Balls to the Wall” will gain a true, bloody taste for a slice...
History
Dissonance: The Turbulent Days Between Fort Sumter and Bull Run: by David Detzer
December 12, 2025David Detzer’s new book "Dissonance" completes his trilogy about those fateful weeks and months of 1861,...
Non-Fiction Reviews
Eagle Dreams – Searching for Legends in Wild Mongolia – by Steve Bodio
December 12, 2025The image of a fierce Mongol horseman riding the harsh plains of his native land with...
Fiction Reviews
Down Here – by Andrew Vachss
December 11, 2025The popularity of this self-absorbed, naïve dreck should astound me. It doesn’t considering the current woeful...
Fiction Reviews
Dancing With Einstein by Kate Wenner
December 11, 2025Combining fact with fiction, Kate Wenner’s “Dancing with Einstein” is a carefully crafted novel that manages...
Non-Fiction Reviews
Democracy and Populism : Fear and Hatred by John Lukacs
December 10, 2025You may not like what he says, you may not agree with his conclusions, but his...
Non-Fiction Reviews
Devil In The Details – by Jennifer Traig
December 10, 2025All parents of adolescents despair of them, particularly those with teenage daughters. Endless hours on the...
Fiction Reviews
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
June 11, 2026This book isn’t a book, it’s a jazz piece, a series of improvisations on Díaz’s country,...
History
Erotic Art of Ancient Pompeii
June 20, 2026A favourite theme which recurred again and again in wall paintings was the satyr creeping up...
Art
Photo Essay: North Korean Propaganda Posters
July 3, 2026Posters are visual illustrations of the slogans that surround the people of North Korea constantly. North...
Non-Fiction Reviews
George & Jacintha: On the Limits of Literary Biography
June 23, 2026The claim that George Orwell once tried to rape someone received scant attention in the United...
Non-Fiction Reviews
Jennifer Sey on the Harsh World of Elite Gymnastics
June 27, 2026From what I witnessed, and certainly in my experience, many of the high level coaches in...
Non-Fiction Reviews
Battle for Falluja: Photos from Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
June 19, 2026The captured fighter claimed to be a student who had gotten stuck in Falluja. A Marine...
Non-Fiction Reviews
Susskind Quashes Hawking in Quarrel Over Quantum Quandary
June 30, 2026"The next generation of physicists and cosmologists will have the fun and excitement of discovering the...
Non-Fiction Reviews
Murdered by Mumia: A Conversation With Maureen Faulkner
June 16, 2026"The man lifted his arm and fired a single shot in Danny’s back. Danny was able...
Art
The Drawings of Alfred Kubin
July 8, 2026Kubin had something quite different in mind: with his hallucinatory incantations he was seeking to disturb...
Non-Fiction Reviews
Einstein in Japan
June 30, 2026The cult of Einstein reached the point where university officials in Fukuoka preserved the blackboard on...
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