Milk: A Local and Global History

Think about it:  is there anything stranger than the fact that humans drink the milk of other mammals? This is the kind of question Deborah Valenze's wide-ranging and comprehensive history of the dairy industry evokes. Regarding our consumption of milk as a cultural artifact rather than any evolved biological necessity, Valenze brings to the table a detailed account of milk's conquests as rich and tasty as a chocolate shake.

May 21: The musical smash hit Gypsy opened on Broadway on this day in 1959. The bestseller upon which the show is based, Gypsy Rose Lee's memoir Gypsy, told her life as a rags-to-naked success story, and added to…

Ethan Rutherford and Matt Burgess (Dogfight: A Love Story) on the writing of Rutherford's surreal and fiercely funny story collection The Peripatetic Coffin

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