When Carribean Fragoza was a child, she ate dirt. "Like I ate dirt a lot," she said in a recent video interview. And her tías in Guadalajara, Mexico, really liked eating clay pots. They'd break off little pieces and hand them to her "like they were chocolate." During one of her first prenatal appointments decades later, the obstetrician, concerned about lead in her body, asked Fragoza if she ...

Richard Thompson’s combination of skills as a songwriter and guitarist is unmatched. The musician’s career — from his rise with British folk-rock inventors Fairport Convention to his 1970s partnership with his wife Linda Thompson to three decades as a solo artist — stretches over 50 years. But Thompson’s new memoir, which was written with Scott Timberg, zeroes in on only the first eight. It’s ...

"Who Is Maud Dixon?" by Alexandra Andrews; Little, Brown (336 pages, $28) ——— The title of this smart, slyly clever debut from journalist Alexandra Andrews says it all. Just who is this Maud Dixon whose first novel is the most talked about book in the history of publishing? Discussions about the book are rivaled by the secret identity of Maud. All that is known about the author is that Maud ...

"Infinite Country" by Patricia Engel; Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster (208 pages, $25) ——— "Infinite Country," the new novel by Patricia Engel, has an irresistible first line: “It was her idea to tie up the nun.” The girl who has the idea, 15-year-old Talia, is intent on escaping from a remote reform school in the mountains of Colombia. "Infinite Country" is all about making escapes from ...

At least two powerful figures will be voting Amanda Gorman for president as soon as the 23-year-old inauguration poet is eligible in 2036. In a new Vogue interview with writer Doreen St. Felix, Gorman elaborated on her plan to campaign for the highest office in the United States — and revealed that she has already secured unofficial but key endorsements from former Secretary of State (and ...

Ernest Hemingway's terse prose style might seem clichéd today, but his short, declarative sentences and beneath-the-surface meaning were groundbreaking in his time. Here are four novels and a short-story collection that are essential reading. 'The Sun Also Rises' (1926) His first novel is the love story of Jake Barnes, who suffered a tragic war wound, and the promiscuous Lady Brett Ashley, who ...

It was a moment of high drama in the brief life of the Affordable Care Act, the signal achievement of President Obama's two terms. Shortly after midnight on July 28, 2017, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) strode to the Senate floor and placed himself before the clerk's podium to cast his vote on a Republican measure to repeal the law. The GOP-controlled House already had voted its assent, and the ...

Many of us approach topics like race and racism with apprehension, discomfort and sometimes anger. For Ibram X. Kendi, founder and director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, researching, writing and talking about these difficult topics are all in a day's work. Author of bestsellers like "Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America," ...

Author Beverly Cleary, who died in March, introduced beloved characters to generations of school-age children. Here are eight of her essential books.