Joan Baum
Book ReviewerJoan Baum is a recovering academic from the City University of New York, who spent 25 years teaching literature and writing. Joan has a long career as a critic and reviewer, writing for, among others, WNYC, Newsday, The Christian Science Monitor, MIT's Technology Review, Hadassah Magazine and writing on subjects in her dissertation field, the major English Romantic poets. She covers all areas of cultural history but particularly enjoys books at the nexus of the humanities and the sciences.
With an eye on reviewing fiction and nonfiction that has regional resonance for Connecticut or Long Island – books written by local authors or books set in the area – Joan considers the timeliness and significance of recently published work: what these books have to say to a broad group of readers today and how they say it in a distinctive or unique manner, taking into account style and structure as well as subject matter.
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What happens when you ban a book? WSHU’s book critic Joan Baum explores these questions with Patricia McCormick, author of SOLD, the most-banned book in the U.S. -
The young adult novel Sold features a first-person account of the sex trafficking world in Nepal. It’s also one of the most banned books in the United States. WSHU's Book Critic Joan Baum said it’s a poetically written story of love and endurance. -
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead is out with Cool Machine - the final novel in his Harlem Trilogy. Our book critic Joan Baum says it features some of the most impressive writing Whitehead has ever done. -
In author Amy Bloom's first murder mystery, Blunt Instrument, a former English professor turned PI must manage her emotional mess while tracking down a killer at an elite university in Connecticut. Check out Joan Baum's review right here. -
Regime Change, by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, is the result of 3 arduous years of meticulous investigation into the second Trump presidency. What they discover is an unmoored administration focused on retribution and profit. WSHU’s Book Critic Joan Baum says the book earned its top spot on the New York Times bestsellers list. -
A team of climbers journeys up Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, but they don’t all make it back down. The fallout from their expedition follows the team back home with dreadful consequences. Kimberly McCreight’s new novel, Someone Else’s Husband, takes readers on a wild, suspenseful trip to discover what happened on the mountain and who is responsible for the murder. Here's Joan Baum's review. -
What is happiness? Why do we need art? What is virtue? Aristotle had answers to these deep questions. Now a new book, Aristotle - The First Teacher by Philip Freeman, takes a closer look at the Greek philosopher and how his 2000-year old ideas still resonate today. WSHU’s Joan Baum has this review. -
A British teen falls to his death from an apartment in London. Was it an accident? Suicide? Murder? His grieving parents seek answers. WSHU's Book Critic Joan Baum read The New Yorker Staff Writer Patrick Radden Keefe's latest work, London Falling. Here's her review. -
It’s 1939, and Flushing, Queens, is buzzing with preparations for The World’s Fair. But the festive energy takes a grim turn when one of the mural artists is found dead. Police Officer Brian Fitzgerald is on the case. But who among the artists, politicians, and dignitaries could be a murderer? WSHU's Book Critic Joan Baum says author Helen Harrison's latest mystery novel A Fair Corpse immerses the reader in the rich art community of the late 1930's and in a world teetering on the brink of World War II. -
The diplomas have been dispersed. The caps have been tossed. The last semester has been paid for. College life is now over. But WSHU’s Joan Baum says now is when the education begins. Joan shares some reflections on taking responsibility for your own erudition.
