Reviews of the Month: April 2026

Spotlighting four book reviews for their relevance or pure reading pleasure

Posted on April 16, 2026 in Reviews of the Month

We kick off this month’s series of reviews with Michigan State’s Indigenous Poetics, edited by Inés Hernández-Ávila and Molly McGlennen, to mark National Poetry Month. This “remarkably fertile collection” considers the existence of an Indigenous poetics and its defining topics, characteristics, and writers. Second, we commemorate the start of baseball season with Nebraska’s Baseball in the Roaring Twenties by Thomas Wolf. The text zeroes in on the 1926 Major League Baseball season, recounting the drama, major stars, and grand finale—the World Series.

What else happens in April? Tax Day! Pennsylvania’s Cracked Foundations: Debt and Inequality in Suburban America investigates postwar suburbanization. Researched and written by Michael Glass, the book uses Nassau County, NY as a case study to examine how unequal tax distribution leads to inequities in suburban housing and education. Last, we wrap up with another book for National Poetry Month, SUNY Press’s Religion of Love by Cyrus Zargar. Exploring the life, work, and impact of medieval Persian Sufi poet Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār, the text highlights ʻAṭṭār’s contributions to Persian literature and Islamic thought.

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Indigenous Poetics

ed. by Inés Hernández-Ávila and Molly McGlennen Michigan State, 2025
237p bibl index, 9781611865264 $79.95, 9781611865271 $39.95, 9781628955422 $39.95

This remarkably fertile collection brings together senior scholars, like the editors, and a variety of other established and emerging writers to consider the nature of Indigenous poetics by asking, “Is there such a thing as an Indigenous poetics, and if so, what does it take into consideration?” The answers are expressed in various ways: interviews, personal essays, and scholarly analysis. The answers explore topics like decolonialism, awareness of place and ancestors, language performance, and the poetics of erasure. One especially important essay, by Natahnee Winder and Tanaya Winder, looks at poetry created by writers who were in residential schools. A poet from the Chamoru people of Guam, Craig Santos Perez, adds a valuable Pacific perspective, and the Hawaiian poet ku’uoloha ho’omanawanui brings a whole culture and its poetry into view. Many of the articles have informative notes and/or bibliographies, which will assist readers who pursue the subject. The relatively long biographical notes on the contributors are particularly valuable, as personal stories and tribal connections will help readers with context. Some of the contributors wish mostly to express their culture, while others are more interested in self-expression. Both approaches are fruitful.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduates through faculty.
Reviewer: B. Almon, emeritus, University of Alberta
Interdisciplinary Subjects: Native American Studies
Subject: Humanities – Language & Literature – English & American
Choice Issue: Jan 2026

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Baseball in the Roaring Twenties: The Yankees, the Cardinals, and the Captivating 1926 Season

Wolf, Thomas. Nebraska, 2025
230p bibl index, 9781496235787 $36.95, 9781496244581 $36.95

The 1926 Major League Baseball season was entrancing, featuring a World Series clash between the Cardinals and Yankees. It went seven games and ended with Babe Ruth thrown out trying to steal second while baseball legend Grover Cleveland Alexander was on the mound. Rogers Hornsby of the Cardinals said of Ruth, it was “the only mistake I ever heard of him making in about twenty-five years of baseball,” and, when he turned and saw what happened, Alexander said, “there was one of the grandest sights of my life” (p. 159). In the midst of the roaring twenties, the whole season was full of twists and turns and colorful personalities, all intriguingly chronicled here by Wolf, author of The Called Shot (2020), who also includes 21 vintage photographs. This period was marked by exuberant excesses and clashing social change, often called “the Golden Age of Sports.” Baseball fans will love this book. It looks at baseball greats (including Kenesaw Mountain Landis), Black baseball, and even includes a surprising quote from First Lady Grace Coolidge to friends: “You may not give a hoot for baseball, but to me, it is my life” (p. 183).

Summing Up: Recommended. General readers.
Reviewer: D. K. McKim, formerly, Memphis Theological Seminary
Subject: Science & Technology – Sports & Recreation
Choice Issue: May 2026

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Cracked Foundations: Debt and Inequality in Suburban America

Glass, Michael R. Pennsylvania, 2025
326p index, 9781512828221 $34.95, 9781512828238 $34.95

This is a well-written, carefully researched history of housing inequality in Nassau County, NY (just east of New York City), with important lessons for today. Levittown and similar communities of single-family homes arose from farmland after WW II due to strong demand for housing from young families. The established and affluent Nassau County suburbs needed a few additional schools as their population grew. Property taxes could maintain existing schools, and these districts could borrow at low interest rates to fund new construction. Their property taxes were relatively low compared to home values. In contrast, new communities had to hire teachers and construct schools quickly, and New York state would not equalize tax burdens across school districts. Consequently, the new communities had to borrow enormous sums of money at high rates. This led to a revolt against property tax hikes, long-term financial problems, and poor-quality schools. An essential resource for numerous disciplines, including economics, education, history, political science, sociology, and urban studies, and for understanding contemporary problems such as unaffordable housing, unequal education, and how politics and public education funding contribute to these problems. This excellent book belongs in every college library.

Summing Up: Essential. All readership levels.
Reviewer: S. Pressman, New School for Social Research
Interdisciplinary Subjects: Urban Studies
Subject: Social & Behavioral Sciences – Economics
Choice Issue: May 2026

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Religion of Love: Sufism and Self-Transformation in the Poetic Imagination of ʻAṭṭār

Zargar, Cyrus Ali. SUNY Press, 2024
234p bibl index, 9781438498676 $99.00, 9781438498683

The volume introduces ʻAṭṭār, a medieval Persian Sufi poet, as “a contributor to Islamic thought, one whose viewpoint, questions, and formulae for a reflective and pious life still have something to offer the contemporary reader” (p. 2). An extensive introduction provides biographical background for ʻAṭṭār. ʻAṭṭār lived in Nishapur in eastern Iran, the largest Persianate city and a medieval center of Sunni learning. The first part explores ʻAṭṭār’s concept of din (religion). Din can take the believer beyond reason to know the Real through humility. The second part explores ʻAṭṭār’s conception of love. Human love for God participates in God’s own love for the universe and, finally, God’s love for God’s own Life. The third part speaks of the soul’s journey to union with God as the ascent of love. One may ultimately transcend the self to find the oneness of all things in God. ʻAṭṭār’s masterpiece, The Book of Affliction, provides the textual basis for this culminating part. The book provides extensive translations of ʻAṭṭār’s works. The book is a helpful addition to any collection on Islam or central Asian studies.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through graduate students.
Reviewer: J. W. Wright, independent scholar
Interdisciplinary Subjects: Islamic Studies, Middle Eastern Studies
Subject: Humanities – Religion
Choice Issue: Jan 2025

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