The Book is a new online venture founded by Leon Wieseltier, the longtime editor of the literary section of the New Republic. The New Republic has always been the top place for book reviews in my opinion—less ideologically predictable than the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books, less eccentric than TLS, and (vastly) more sophisticated than the Times Book Review. I hope The Book carries on this tradition. Here is its agenda, written by Isaac Chotiner, its executive editor. I have a review in the first “issue” (?—what is the correct word here?)—on a political scientist’s defense of Justice Kennedy.
SuperSkeptic says:
Wow, you don’t let the guy make any apologies for Kennedy, huh?
January 11, 2010, 11:28 amtroll_dc2 says:
So is Kennedy is the worst justice ever?
January 11, 2010, 12:32 pmNunzio says:
The review of Philip Roth’s latest novel is spot on.
January 11, 2010, 12:38 pmDavid McCourt says:
Best place for book reviews: Literary Review, the British monthly run for many years by the late Auberon Waugh. The most catholic collection of books and reviewers.
January 11, 2010, 1:04 pmWidmerpool says:
I subscribe to TLS and saying that something is “less eccentric” is not praise for a book reader. TLS is much, much better than The New Republic precisely because it is much more eccentric and reviews books that otherwise would not be noticed (although, perhaps, such books would be reviewed as well in the Literary Review–I’ll need to check that one out). Also, the back-page “n.b.” column offers the wittiest insight on the world of books.
January 11, 2010, 2:41 pmBZ says:
An interesting review, but raises a question, especially in the latter half: I see one of Kennedy’s defining principles as, at least in his eyes, “protecting the rule of law.” Indeed, at one speech in San Francisco a while back, he almost broke down in discussing the rule of law under attack in the world and its potential resurgence in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union.
Is that a contrast to your description of his “aggressive posture toward statutes” or do you reject the premise? (I haven’t read the book, but I read your last two paragraphs as including your view, not Colucci’s.)
January 11, 2010, 5:15 pmtroll_dc2 says:
I find The Economist’s book section good enough that I have been buying books regularly after reading its reviews, and I have yet to be disappointed.
January 11, 2010, 5:31 pmThe Volokh Conspiracy » Blog Archive » The Book: An Online Review … - World Breaking News says:
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January 26, 2010, 1:11 am