Baum on Books

Puffed up and powerful personalities who create their own reality are not new. A biography published by Yale University Press, excavates the life of an Egyptian Pharaoh with a massive ego. Book critic Joan Baum has this review.

In the latest installment of his nail-biting spy series, Dr. William Maz takes readers to Bucharest during the 1990s when the oligarchs seized power over a vulnerable Romania. Book critic Joan Baum has this review.

In his latest work journalist and author, Andrew Nagorski investigates the intricate plan to get the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud out of Nazi-occupied Vienna and safely to London. Book critic Joan Baum has this review.

He’s famous for the lyrics he wrote for iconic Broadway plays. But what is known about the man himself? A new biography offers a modern perspective on the life of Oscar Hammerstein and his work. Book critic Joan Baum has this review.

Next Wednesday author Jennifer Egan will speak about her latest novel, "The Candy House" at the Greenwich Library in Connecticut. To whet your appetite, book critic Joan Baum has this review.

She was once described by a Boston reporter as a “millionaire Bohemianne” who “leads where no one dares to follow.” A new novel based on the life of Isabella Stewart Gardner explores how she became an iconic maverick in the world of art. Book critic Joan Baum has this review.

One hundred years ago this December, "The Waste Land" was first published. T.S. Eliot’s famous poem has been described as highly influential, irregular, and innovative. Its theme… the spiritual and cultural decay of…well just about everything.

So you think you know Cleopatra? A new biography of the ancient Egyptian leader challenges many of the myths that have defined her over the centuries. Book critic Joan Baum has this review.

Writer Howard Owen puts his years as a reporter and editor to good use in his next mystery novel, Dogtown. It won’t be available until the first week of December, but book critic Joan Baum got a peek at his latest work and has this review.

Mary Rodgers was a composer, an author, and the daughter of the celebrated Richard Rodgers. She passed away in 2014. But a new memoir reanimates her voice and offers a peek behind the Broadway curtain and its cast of famous characters.