1916 series: What the Great War meant for Africa
For Africa the First World War “was both the culmination of European imperialism and the beginning of its decline."
Brian Bethune
Brian Bethune writes about ideas, books and the book trade, and religion, but what really interests him is why people believe what they believe.
The Maclean’s Bestsellers list: week of Aug. 23
Surprise surprise: Harry Potter takes the fiction crown again, while a new Amy Schumer book soars to the top of the non-fiction list
In News from the Red Desert, chaos rules
The real news from Kevin Patterson’s desert: it hardly matters who is right
Author Mike Barnes steps out from the darkness
Righteous anger—and mental illness—are at the heart of a masterful new noir crime novel
The Maclean’s Bestsellers list: week of Aug. 16
The newest Potter tops fiction (again), and a new title dethrones Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air on the non-fiction list
Are we wearing out obscenities?
Profanity sinks deep emotional roots in our brains. When words develop duelling meanings, the bad stuff almost always wins out.
The Maclean’s Bestsellers list: week of Aug. 9
What cracked the top of our fiction list? As if you can’t guess. Meanwhile, Paul Kalanithi still rules the non-fiction world.
A look at Western notions of the perfect body
This Mortal Coil takes a provocative look at the problem with medical reductionism
The Maclean’s Bestsellers list: week of Aug. 2
Paul Kalanithi tops the non-fiction list (again), and the latest Harry Potter crushes the competition on the fiction list
The extraordinary meta-fiction of Indra Das
The Devourers is a book of compellingly written stories within stories