Friday's Notes

Aram Bakshian, Jr.,"Cherry Tree? Let's Negotiate," WSJ, 20 August, reviews John Ferling's The Ascent of George Washington: The Hidden Political Genius of an American Icon.

David Grylls,"John Sutherland and 900 novelists," TLS, 19 August, reviews Sutherland's The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction, 2nd edition.

Dwight Garner,"Delighted by the Joy of Bad Things," NYT, 20 August, reviews Rebecca Solnit's The Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster.

Karan Thapar,"Nehru, Jinnah responsible for Partition: Jaswant," IBN Politics.com, 17 August, interviews Jaswant Singh, the author of a new biography of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of modern Pakistan. Hat tip.

Tim Rutten reviews Christopher Caldwell's Reflections on the Revolution in Europe for the LA Times, 19 August. Hat tip.