Leon Wieseltier on how The New York Times Magazine is giving up on substance. Malcolm Gladwell has dissected many inspirational underdog victories, but his own triumph over the opposite sex could well be the most inspirational of all. From TNR, Martha Nussbaum reviews A Vindication of Love: Reclaiming Romance for the Twenty-First Century by Cristina Nehring (and a response). Herbert Gintis reviews Going to Extremes: How Like Minds Unite and Divide by Cass Sunstein. From Counterpunch, an article on Samantha Power and the weaponization of human rights. An Inconvenient Husband: Manhattan dad Colin Beavan asks his family to forgo toilet paper, electricity, and other necessities to live the greenest life possible. Meet the gimmick books: Memoirs structured around a stunt are thriving, but will their novelty eventually wear out? An excerpt from The Guinea Pig Diaries by A.J. Jacobs. The hipster thief: An interview with Tao Lin, author of Shoplifting from American Apparel. The 75 best people in the world: There are many more do-gooders, but these particular men and women make us happy. Ron Rosenbaum on how we use and abuse the word genius. Mortal Grace: Jim Carroll and Paul Ricoeur looked death in the face and wrote about it — Scott McLemee reads the fragments. A review of Tracy Kidder's Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Memory and Forgiveness (and more and more and more and more and more and more).
