The New York Review of Books  May 22, 2014

I just assume we have periodicals that contain pages and pages and pages, and…well you get the idea, of reviews. Period. WRONG! I realized how much more content is in The New York Review of Books than I ever imagined as you will see too.

It is nice as you open the page to see the contributors and bios of the right underneath the table of contents. Also, the blog for The New York Review of Books is listed and is here as well. The sidebar on this initial and many consequent pages are used just as I thought the whole periodical was devoted to reviews but this is shared with…

…a book titled, A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren. What I like is here, you are not just given a few short paragraphs on the book, but a comprehensive write up, over 4-5 pages, on the specific topics surround the book being suggested is written. Simply through this article I found out Elizabeth Warren’s stance on the economy as well as her position among many male leaders in the government under Obama’s administration. This was in-depth and well, once I started, VERY interesting!

I love, LOVE this next article focuses on a library world where digital journal prices are soaring and normal subscribers are eliminating their subscriptions, therefore putting a demand on more and more resource driving the cost down, or alternatives for making them free for the public. Several sources exist for individuals to find free online sources, one being the PubMed Central list of Medical Journals online. This menu gives you a directory of possibilities for research as well for various medically-PubMed articles.

Also, the FASTR act was a motion to allow more documents to be available to the public for free. One example is the Congress.gov site, if you scroll down to the bottom of the Congress site,  you see a link for House and Senate activity that is useful for research in those areas of the government.

One of the least known resources, I feel, is the Digital Public Library of America. You will see. Thousands of contributing libraries and books and periodicals, all available, a crazy crazy voluminated source (my new word). I love how this article made many beneficial links to information being more free and accessible than costly to the public.

The next article dealt with architecture, wow. I learned so much about architecture through the books being featured ON architecture, architects and women in architecture such as the below:

Linda Bo Bardi – San Paulo Museum of Art, The Glass House and the SESC Pompeii and I walked away NEVER realizing how much women architects can be overshadowed by male architects. Also, her ability to take structures that are to be torn down, and renovate them to be exciting centers of community – I LOVE. She was a genius I never even knew before this article.

Sergei Dovlatov – and although I never really studied Russian literature, I was pulled in by this focus on his writing release titled Pushkin Hills. You discover a history of Russian through the existence of Dovlatov, as well as the people he wrote, associated, and was influenced by. I was beginning to realize how little I know of other countries’ histories just from reading these articles found in The New York Review!

Which leads us to the many conflicts between Japan and China, with an extensive look at the leaders Xi Jinping, Chiang Kai-shek, Prince Konoe Fumimaro, Matsuoka Yosuke, Shinzo Abe, (don’t worry, if it seems overwhelming, Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy by Eri Hotta gets into this. I was just amazed at how much I did learn from the outset from the articles presented here by Hotta.

These articles that are reviews yes, are of specific texts, yes, but the information I was informed on in this next article,  and the extensive information you are given, lets you forget this periodical is just about books, and I delved into the information I did not know about, Memory, learning about Elizabeth Spencer and her newest book, discovering the latest controversies through books and  films on the occupation of Palestine and Israel, the Sahara terror due to border conflicts, what seems to be a phony standoff in the Ukraine and Russia and now escalating, and to be honest, I am not including all the other reviews and articles, (one of new historical fictions involving women protagonists and the other about French Society examination based compared to American contrasts,  crammed between the many many sidebars and inserts of new books that have come out, and this is in MAY!)

In the Classified section you find the random ads for hideaways to rent to write, as well as offers from publishing houses, and then the occasional classifieds for a call for papers, but nice that the classified section exists to grab an overview of what is available and opportunities available.

Literally, you would not need to pull up any newspaper to see what is happening in the world, AND you are getting reviews of books that coincide with the events through this periodical.  The New York Review of Books will reshape how you see reviews as well as how you see the world, not a bad thing to consider in one sit-down of one periodical.