Matthew Scully

If a Lion Could Talk: Animal Minds and the Evolution of Consciousness by Stephen Budiansky Free Press, 210 pages, $25 Stephen Budiansky’s If a Lion Could Talk is a skeptical look at animals and the claims made on their behalf by animal-welfare advocates. In his articles as a science writer for . . . . Continue Reading »

Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to Pornography By Roger Shattuck St. Martins, 369 pages, $26.95 As the title suggests, this book ventures into some fairly dangerous territory. Author Roger Shattuck has even posted “Warnings to the Reader,” once at the beginning and again when we come . . . . Continue Reading »

Did you ever hear from Otto?” I asked Viktor . . . . Continue Reading »

Saints & Sinners: Walter Railey, Jimmy Swaggart, Madalyn Murray O’Hair, Anton LeVay, Will Campbell, Matthew Fox by lawrence wright knopf, 266 pages, $24 Lawrence Wright’s memoir of a few years ago, In the New World: Growing Up With America, 1960–1984, was billed as “a biography of the Baby . . . . Continue Reading »