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By David MobergRemembering Mazzocchi

A streetwise high school dropout, a fierce protagonist of workers against corporate power and a down-to-earth visionary, Tony Mazzocchi was the type of American labor leader who was all too rare over the last… more

By Achy ObejasPortrait of the Awkward Artist

If Pablo Helguera's The Boy Inside the Letter (Jorge Pinto Books, 2007) had adopted a subtitle, it would have to be "Longing: The Making of an Artist." As it stands, the title is enigmatic,… more

By Brent WhiteYouth Gone Wild

Jared Cohen's book Children of Jihad: A Young American's Travels among the Youth of the Middle East seeks to understand an area of the world where hatred for his country and religion run rampant

In the summer of 2006, only a few days before the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah rocked the Lebanese capital and killed 6,000 people, Jared Cohen, a young American Jew, dined at a… more

By Achy ObejasPrairie Style Romance

Though Nancy Horan takes great liberty in imagining intimate scenes between Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick Cheney--of which there is no evidence--Loving Frank ultimately rests on historical record

If Nancy Horan had presented the ending of her novel, Loving Frank (Ballantine), in a workshop, or if perhaps she'd stricken the historical names and pawned this as pure invention, it would have likely… more