1. Stephen Case’s review of The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius by Patchen Barss (Basic Books). “For five years, Patchen Barss, a veteran Canadian science writer, spoke to Penrose ‘almost every week,’ read beaucoup personal documents, and interviewed dozens of the man’s close acquaintances. The result is the lovely, sensitive, informative, and absorbing The Impossible Man, a new biography that ably recounts Penrose’s life and work.”


2. “Legends of the Fall (and Winter)” by Dorothy Reno. “And therein lies the humorous thrust of the novel: Laxness celebrates and mocks his culture for prising notions of freedom and independence from the abstract realm of political rhetoric and swilling them with the morning coffee. Bjartur is the tragicomic everyman who considers society ‘the ruination of the individual,’ and the story turns on his taking ever-more-extreme measures to achieve self-sufficiency. It’s not just that Bjartur wants to make his own money; he refuses gifts, spits on tradition, and keeps his family as miserable as possible, lest they acquire luxurious habits (such as adequate nutrition, warmth, and love). Let us not, above all, be tempted to be happy.”


3. “We’re Now Accepting BIPOC Scholarship Applications.” “The third-annual BIPOC Scholarship to attend the Washington Writers Conference, the DC area’s premier publishing-focused writing event, will be awarded to five writers from BIPOC communities! Applicants must be 18 years or older and be able to attend the conference in person on May 2-3, 2025, in Rockville, MD. Recipients will have access to all activities, including panels, lunch, the keynote address, and agent-pitch sessions.”


4. Gretchen Lida’s review of Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures by Katherine Rundell (Doubleday). “The author, the youngest female fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, also leaves aside any overly heavy scholarship (in case this review’s opening paragraph left you worried the book would be too erudite for us plebians). Rundell mostly writes YA novels, but the nonfiction Vanishing Treasures is a joy for grownups. From essays on the sea horse to the giraffe, each brief entry balances poetry, science, and history to create something both beautiful to read and necessary for this pivotal ecological moment.”


5. “The Indie-Publishing Addict” by Caroline Bock. “Andrew Gifford, one of the pillars of the independent-publishing community, is ‘addicted’ to the publishing business. He’s based here in the DC area, even though the name of his company is Santa Fe Writers Project (SFWP), and he believes in books even if ‘the reality is that I’m running a literary press in a barely literate country.’”

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