Lynn Ellen Patyk considers charismatic and bureaucratic authority, and explains why she puts her hope in Robert Mueller.

Austin Adams reviews Ben Marcus's "Notes from the Fog."

Thomas Patier writes on feeling in Abdellah Taïa’s “An Arab Melancholia.”

Colin Marshall on the distinctive dialect of Korea's second-largest city, Busan.

George Estreich reads the anonymous NY Times op-ed "for what it is: an attempt to make a future excuse for the conduct of the entire Republican Party."

Tom Gallagher reviews Robert Kuttner's "Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism?"

Andy Fitch interviews Governor John Hickenlooper, author of "The Opposite of Woe: My Life in Beer and Politics," who considers governors, far more than Congress, crucial for revitalizing American political culture.

Heather Abel, author of "The Optimistic Decade," and Sarah Ivens, author of "Forest Therapy," discuss nostalgia, time, and the healing power of nature.

Joshua Wheeler and Carrie Fountain, Southern New Mexico natives and authors, discuss their home region and the books it inspired.

LARB members get a discount at OOF Books in Los Angeles.