The New York Times reviews biographies of Isaac Babel, Franz Kafka, Katherine Anne Porter, Frank Norris, and William Wordsworth. See also: its Reading List of the last five years of reviews of literary biographies in the NYT. Thanks to Nathanael Robinson at Rhine River for the tip.

Judith Maas,"Tracing Socialism's Role Among Jewish Immigrants," Boston Globe, 29 December, reviews Tony Michaels, A Fire in Their Hearts: Yiddish Socialists in New York, the latest entry in the much-contested debate over the origins of American socialism.

Margaret Soltan offers her wry commentary on"Those Weird College Ads" Slate, 30 December. Soltan points out the rich irony in Slate's giving the Ayn Rand Self-Actualization Award to the University of Southern Mississippi.