Search results for

Why are humans attracted to art that combines sadness and beauty? A brain scientist says sadness has benefits like helping elicit empathy and purging negative emotion.

When a CEO blamed "distressed babies" for cuts to benefits last year, Deanna Fei discovered her infant was national news. She reflects on how she coped with a baby on life support — and in headlines.

Leigh Bardugo's latest invites comparison to Ocean's 11, one of the best heist stories ever told. Critic Jason Sheehan says the teenage crows seem too mature, but praises the immersive world-building.

Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera's new book of poems melds the political with the personal. Critic Craig Morgan Teicher says it makes for deep yet accessible reading.

Chuck Palahniuk aims for piquant social satire in his new novel, but reviewer (and longtime fan) Jason Sheehan finds his fandom severely dented by lazy characterizations and lack of actual satire.

In his new collection Etgar Keret recounts bittersweet and often humorous vignettes of life in the seven years between the birth of his son and the death of his father.

For decades, astronomers believed there was another planet in our solar system, tucked just out of sight. Then Albert Einstein figured out it wasn't there. Author Thomas Levenson explains.

Rick Moody's new novel takes the form of online travel reviews written by the lonely but oddly eloquent Reginald Morse. Critic Jason Sheehan says it's Moody at his most inventive, playful and biting.

The ice hockey legend marks the 99th anniversary of the NHL with his new book 99: Stories of the Game. Never mind the sport's tough guy reputation; "the game of hockey is an art," Gretzky says.

Language authority and Washington Post copy editor Bill Walsh died Wednesday after a long career making other people's writing better.