Joan Baum News Today

Joan Baum is a recovering academic from the City University of New York, who spent 25 years teaching literature and writing. She has a long career as a critic and reviewer, covering all areas of cultural history but particularly enjoys books at the nexus of the humanities and the sciences.With an eye on reviewing fiction and nonfiction that has regional resonance for Connecticut or Long Island, Joan considers the timeliness and significance of recently published work: what these books have to sa...

Everett

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.

Women and book clubs go together. In the U.S. close to 80% of all participants in book clubs are women.

Internationally bestselling author of the Jack Reacher thrillers, Lee Child calls The Bucharest Dossier “very impressive, and very recommended” and Joan Baum of NPR’s “Baum on Books” says “The Bucharest Dossier is suspenseful enough to make one forget the woes of the world for a while, and muse on the mythic draw of childhood innocence … Continue reading "Author Talk and Book Signing: William Maz “The Bucharest Dossier”"

By Alek Lewis The Suffolk County Historical Society and Southampton History Museum have suspended their executive directors and are pledging to increase the diversity of their leadership after apologizing to members of the Black community for featuri

By Alek Lewis The Suffolk County Historical Society and Southampton History Museum are suspending their executive directors and pledging to increase the diversity of their leadership after apologizing to members of the Black community for featuring K

WSHU’s Book Critic Joan Baum spoke with former Congressman Israel about his love of books and why reading books is vital.

Though Amagansett-based author Ellen Feldman’s compelling new novel The Living and the Lost is set in Berlin shortly after World War II, with flashbacks to

A new and expanded edition of a book first published 58 years ago about a man said to have been the world’s greatest conductor shows why the myth took hold and why it remains unchallenged. Arturo Toscanini was unique. A musician of genius, including a photographic memory, Toscanini could boast – but never did – of having a repertoire of 120 operas and 400 symphonic works he could conduct by heart. God help the musicians trying to follow him. But then again, Toscanini attracted the best of...