A memoir in reading, this book reflects anew on how reading can become a transformative path to self-discovery. Jane Tompkins treats in particular works by Paul Theroux and V. S. Naipaul but also touches on the works of writers such as Henning Mankell, Ann Patchett, Alain de Botton, Elena Ferrante, and Anthony Trollope. --

In the mid-nineteenth century, women scholars launched the formal study of American Indian history. This historiographic study asks how and why their work began, examining nine influential women whose publications shaped the field. From Helen Hunt Jackson to Angie Debo, their scholarship marks a distinct trajectory in the writing of American Indian history-- One hundred and forty years before Gerda Lerner established women's history as a specialized...