Maureen Corrigan

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "The Reader's Catalogue." It's a listing of 40,000 books--fiction and non-fiction--in more than 200 subjects, complete with recommended editions and an "800" number for ordering the books.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Poodle Springs," the novel Raymond Chandler was working on at the time of his death. The story finds Chandler's famous detective Philip Marlowe married and living in Poodle Springs. Writer Robert Parker has just finished the novel that Chandler started 30 years ago.

Maureen Corrigan reviews "Among Schoolchildren," Tracy Kidder's year-long look at an inner city elementary school. Kidder's previous books include "House," and "The Soul of a New Machine," about the creation of the personal computer.

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews First Light, a new novel by the British writer Peter Ackroyd.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews The Real Thing, by Miles Orvell. Corrigan says the book is one of those works that attempts to explain just about everything in terms of one theory. Orwell's theory is that American culture has been driven by the tension between imitation and the desire for authenticity.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan talks about the travails of moving. Maureen is a recent victim, having moved from Philadelphia to Washington.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan looks back at Ex-Wife a 1929 novel by Ursula Parrott that has recently been re-printed. Corrigan finds many of the issues of contemporary feminism wrapped up in this story of a flapper who tries an "open" marriage.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan explains why she hates summer festivals, be they music, ethnic, food, or whatever.

Maureen Corrigan reviews the new novel by feminist author Marge Piercy. The book focuses on a love triangle between a woman and a married couple, as well as the nature of art, and living in Cape Cod year round.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan is no fan of minimalist literature, which she derides for its familiar, navel-gazing themes. By contrast, she admires T. Coraghesson's expansive, political, and historical fiction. Unfortunately, his approach is better suited to the novel, rather than the short stories in his latest collection, If the River Was Whiskey.