Abby Sher collected thumbtacks and paper clips, traced the patterns on her wallpaper, and prayed fervidly to avert disaster. In another era she might have been just another pious eccentric; today she’s a recovering obsessive-compulsive who has renounced (most of) her faith.
Peter Rodger traveled through twenty-three countries in three years asking the same question to everyone he met, and filming, gorgeously, the results. Turns out the question—“What is God?”—reveals more than a person’s faith.
Chris Rock’s new documentary scrutinizes the politics and pathos of black hair care: from the beauty salon to the hair show, and from chemical relaxers to the Indian hair that fuels the hair weave industry.
An online novel about a flu pandemic blurs the boundaries between real “flu-blogging” and the dystopic world of its blogger protagonist. And it exposes the cultural anxiety, both religious and secular, that disease unleashes.