The Information

From birth announcements carried by drum in 19th-century Africa to the invention of the idea of the "bit" by a Bell Labs researcher, James Gleick -- the author of cerebral yet addictive works such as Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman and Chaos: Making a New Science -- charts the ocean of data we are now struggling to navigate.

June 19: On this day in 1816, the Shelleys, Lord Byron, and entourage gathered at the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva to tell the ghost stories that would trigger Frankenstein. This most legendary of storm-tossed evenings inspired…

Very few debut novels exhibit the charm, assurance, emotional depth and bravura fabulation which the lucky reader will discover in Helene Wecker's

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