 | |
| Authors | Charles Krauthammer |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Crown Forum |
Publication date | October 22, 2013 [1] |
| ISBN | 978-0385349192 |
Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics is a nonfiction book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charles Krauthammer. It was at the top on The New York Times Non-Fiction Best Sellers List for four weeks, in January 2014.
The book is a collection of essays written by Krauthammer over 30 years [2] [3] and includes essays originally published in The Washington Post , Time Magazine , The New Republic , and The Weekly Standard . [4] It begins with a new introduction by the author. [5]
The collection of articles is divided into four parts: personal, political, historical, and global. [4] According to The National Review , it tackles "everything from embryo research to entitlement reform, from Halley’s Comet to border collies, from Christopher Columbus to Martin Luther King, from drone warfare to American decline." [5]
The book was on The New York Times Nonfiction Bestseller list for more than 38 weeks. [1] It was Number 1 on the list for four weeks in January 2014. It sold more than one million copies. [1]
In The American Spectator , Aaron Goldstein argued that the book "ought to matter" because "Krauthammer’s analysis of the issues that have mattered most over the past thirty years have more often been right than wrong." [6] He also highlighted Krauthammer's essay about the FDR Memorial, where Krauthammer argued against portraying FDR in a wheelchair, drawing a parallel with Krauthammer's silence about his own use of a wheelchair. [6]
In The Washington Times , Michael Taube praised the book, writing that the writing was 'fresh, intelligent, compelling and thought-provoking.' [4] Writing for Commentary , Peter Wehner called it "a marvelous, and at times quite moving, collection," adding that these articles Krauthammer's voice "matters so very much." [2] He concluded that the book was about 'the duties of citizenship in a free society.' [2]
Charles Krauthammer was an American political columnist. A moderate liberal who turned independent conservative as a political pundit, Krauthammer won the Pulitzer Prize for his columns in The Washington Post in 1987. His weekly column was syndicated to more than 400 publications worldwide. While in his first year studying medicine at Harvard Medical School, Krauthammer became permanently paralyzed from the waist down after a diving board accident that severed his spinal cord at cervical spinal nerve 5. After spending 14 months recovering in a hospital, he returned to medical school, graduating to become a psychiatrist involved in the creation of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders III in 1980. He joined the Carter administration in 1978 as a director of psychiatric research, eventually becoming the speechwriter to Vice President Walter Mondale in 1980.
Theodore Bruce Bawer is an American writer who has been a resident of Norway since 1999. He is a literary, film, and cultural critic and a novelist and poet, who has also written about gay rights, Christianity, and Islam.
Morris Berman is an American historian and social critic. He earned a BA in mathematics at Cornell University in 1966 and a PhD in the history of science at Johns Hopkins University in 1971. Berman is an academic humanist cultural critic who specializes in Western cultural and intellectual history.
Tom Bissell is an American journalist, critic, and fiction writer. In 2021, he co-developed the television series The Mosquito Coast based on the novel of the same name. He is also known for his work as a writer of video games, including The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Battlefield Hardline, and Gears 5. His writing has been adapted into films by James Franco, Julia Loktev, and Werner Herzog.
Race Matters is a social sciences book by Cornel West. The book was first published on April 1, 1993 by Beacon Press. The book analyzes moral authority and racial debates concerning skin color in the United States. The book questions matters of economics and politics, as well as ethical issues and spirituality, and also addresses the crisis in black American leadership.
Melissa Febos is an American writer and professor. She is the author of the critically-acclaimed memoir, Whip Smart (2010), and the essay collections, Abandon Me (2017) and Girlhood (2021).
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern is a 2011 book by Stephen Greenblatt and winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction and 2011 National Book Award for Nonfiction.
Joseph Bottum is an American author, best known for his writings about literature, American religion, and neoconservative politics. Noting references to his poems, short stories, scholarly work, literary criticism, and many other forms of public commentary, reviewer Mary Eberstadt wrote in National Review in 2014 that “his name would be mandatory on any objective short list of public intellectuals” in the United States. Coverage of his work includes profiles in The New York Times, South Dakota Magazine, and The Washington Times. Bottum and Dakota State University announced in May 2017, that he will be taking a position at the university in Madison, South Dakota.
The Way Forward: Renewing the America Idea is a 2014 political book written by Paul Ryan, an American Republican Congressman from Wisconsin and 2012 vice presidential nominee.
Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories is an anthology of children's stories written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss, published posthumously by Random House in 2014.
Hanif Abdurraqib is an American poet, essayist, and cultural critic. He is the author of 2016 poetry collection The Crown Ain't Worth Much, the 2017 essay collection They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, the 2019 non-fiction book, Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes on A Tribe Called Quest on the American hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest, the 2019 poetry collection A Fortune for Your Disaster, and the 2021 essay collection A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance which received the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence. Go Ahead in the Rain was on the long list for the 2019 National Book Award.
Tonya K. Bolden is an American writer best known for her works of children's literature, especially children's nonfiction.
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? is a 2011 memoir by writer and actress Mindy Kaling. The book was on the New York Times Bestsellers list for 5 weeks.
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure is a 2018 book by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. It is an expansion of a popular essay the two wrote for The Atlantic in 2015. Lukianoff and Haidt argue that overprotection is having a negative effect on university students and that the use of trigger warnings and safe spaces does more harm than good.
Marion Winik is a journalist and author, best known for her work on NPR's All Things Considered.
The Anthropocene Reviewed is the shared name for a podcast and 2021 nonfiction book by John Green. The podcast started in January 2018, with each episode featuring Green reviewing "different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale". The name comes from the Anthropocene, the proposed geological epoch that includes significant human impact on the environment. Episodes typically contain Green reviewing two topics, accompanied by stories on how they have affected his life. These topics included intangible concepts like humanity's capacity for wonder, artificial products like Diet Dr. Pepper, natural species that have had their fates altered by human influence like the Canada goose, and phenomena that primarily influence humanity such as Halley's Comet.
How to Be an Antiracist is a 2019 nonfiction book by American author and historian Ibram X. Kendi, which combines social commentary and memoir. It was published under Random House's One World imprint. The book discusses concepts of racism and Kendi's proposals for anti-racist individual actions and systemic changes.
Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion is a 2019 book by American author Jia Tolentino. The book contains nine essays. Topics addressed in the essays include internet culture, "scammer culture", and contemporary feminism.
Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could is a memoir written by Congressman Adam Schiff and published in 2021 by Random House. The book mainly recounts the effects of the Trump presidency. The book debuted at number one on The New York Times nonfiction best-seller list for the week ending October 16, 2021.
Kirstin Downey is an American journalist and author. She was a staff writer for The Washington Post from 1988 to 2008.