Several years ago, the Globe moved their book reviews into a new section they call Ideas, which starts with articles on non-news topics. Examples from this week are articles on ‘The Hypomanic American’, in which a psychologist argues that America is rich because some Americans are nuts. Many of the articles seem to emulate the style of the Boston Review. The best part is the small section on the bottom of the page 2 and 3 called ‘The Examined Life’ by Joshua Glenn. It usually contains 3 small pieces and often includes interviews with authors. Now, I am not going to review the Ideas part of the section, mainly because I have no expertise when it comes to most of the subjects. Plus the newspaper seems to keep them separate anyway. Even online, the Ideas and the Reviews sections have their own pages (don’t get me started on the Globe’s online web pages).

Regardless, I am here to look at the small review section. The reviews only get 4 pages total. That seems too small right off the bat. But let’s look further. A quick glance shows 6 full reviews, 2 columns covering several books, a ‘Short Takes’ section, A small ‘New & Recommended’ section at the top of page 2, and the weekly ‘Reading Life’ column. That’s it. They include a local bestsellers category next to a small Bookings listing. But you can get more complete coverage of readings from the Boston Phoenix. Frankly, I find the Globe’s review section a bit pathetic. I imagine in its heyday, it might have had better coverage. Alas, we are left with this. Let’s see what books they choose to cover.
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