Things Noted Here and There

Darrin M. McMahon,"Ah, the Good Life," Washington Post, 29 April, reviews Jennifer Michael Hecht's The Happiness Myth: Why What We Think is Right is Wrong, A History of What Makes Us Really Happy.

Gregg Easterbrook,"Possibly Maybe," NY Times, 22 April, is a masterful takedown of Nassim Nicholas Taleb's The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. See also: Taleb's reply to Easterbrook.

Michael Dirda,"No Poet is an Island: A New Life of John Donne," Washington Post, 29 April, reviews John Stubbs, John Donne: The Reformed Soul.

Claire Messud,"Portrait of a Lady," NY Times, 29 April, and Diane Johnson,"An American Original," Washington Post, 29 April, review Hermione Lee's Edith Wharton.

Mark Kurlansky,"70 Years of ‘Shock and Awe'," LA Times, 26 April, recalls the bombing of Guernica seven decades ago.