From Leisure & Arts

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  The Midas Touch

  
  

  The man who launched stars from Janis Joplin to Bruce Springsteen to Alicia Keys looks back at his career in the record business. David Kirby reviews Clive Davis's "The Soundtrack of My Life."

  
  


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  What's Lurking in Your Pantry

  
  

  These days even the simplest sandwich can contain any number of mysterious food additives. Michael Shermer reviews Michael Moss's "Salt Sugar Fat" and Melanie Warner's "Pandora's Lunchbox."

  
  


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  They Turned the Lights On

  
  

  Westinghouse and Edison democratized light, bringing safe, reliable illumination into streets and homes. David A. Price reviews Ernest Freeberg's "The Age of Edison."

  
  


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  The Sermon of the High Plains

  
  

  A ghostly, open-ended novel of hard life in a small Colorado town. Sam Sacks reviews Kent Haruf's "Benediction" and Gerbrand Bakker's "Ten White Geese."

  
  


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  When the South Was Flat

  
  

  The brutal "slave-ocracy" along the Mississippi was far more integrated with the global economy than is often suggested. Mark M. Smith reviews Walter Johnson's "River of Dark Dreams."

  
  


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  Photo-Op: High-Rise Planet

  
  

  Images documenting the rise—quite literally—of global cities. A photographic review of Martin Stavars's "Megalopolis."

  
  


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  Down and (Nearly) Out
  In Appalachia

  
  

  A collection of backwoods crime stories that range in time from the Civil War to the present day. Tom Nolan reviews Ron Rash's "Nothing Gold Can Stay" and Alan Bradley's "Speaking From Among the Bones."

  
  


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  A Man Who Shaped Our World

  
  

  Euclid's geometrical treatise "The Elements" has been a touchstone for more than 2,000 years. Laura J. Snyder reviews David Berlinski's "The King of Infinite Space."

  
  


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  The Cruelty of Youth

  
  

  Bullying may not be more prevalent today, but the Internet means it doesn't stop at the end of the school day. Meghan Cox Gurdon reviews Emily Bazelon's "Sticks and Stones."

  
  


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  The Unlovable Founder of Dogpatch

  
  

  Al Capp's "Li'l Abner" comic strip gave the world dopey Abner and voluptuous Daisy Mae, as well as expressions like "going bananas" and the "double-whammy." Edward Kosner reviews Michael Schumacher and Denis Kitchen's "Al Capp."

  
  


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  The Watch Men

  
  

  In the early 20th century, two tycoons competed to own the world's most extravagantly constructed watch. John Steele Gordon reviews Stacey Perman's "A Grand Complication."

  
  


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  Five Best: Pico Iyer

  
  

  The author of, most recently, "The Man Within My Head" recommends books on crossing cultures.

  
  


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  Before the Two Cultures Split

  
  

  The dazzling polymaths of the 19th century didn't observe the modern divide between science and the humanities. Mike Jay reviews Roseanne Montillo's "The Lady and Her Monsters."

  
  


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  Seeing Through the School Daze

  
  
  

  Michelle Rhee fired 241 teachers, 36 principals and 22 assistant principals after taking over the district's schools. Naomi Schaefer Riley reviews "Radical."

  
  


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  Fierce Controversies

  
  

  A memoir by the controversial anthropologist who argues that violence provides an evolutionary advantage. Charles C. Mann reviews Napoleon Chagnon's "Noble Savages."

  
  


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  The Children of Men

  
  

  For decades we've been warned about the dangers of overpopulation. The real threat to our future, argues Jonathan V. Last, is that we are not having enough babies. William McGurn reviews "What to Expect When No One's Expecting."