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Short Takes

‘Cool, calm & contentious,’ ‘Opium Nation,’ ‘Hedy’s Folly’

Capsule reviews of comic essays, a look at Afghanistan, and new biography of Hedy Lamarr and a patent that was ahead of its time

By Kate Tuttle

 |   

  November 27, 2011

In this week’s Short Takes Kate Tuttle offers capsule reviews of comedy writer Merrill Markoe’s essays “Cool, Calm & Contentious’’; Fariba Nawa’s “Opium Nation: Child Brides, Drug Lords, and One Woman’s Journey Through Afghanistan’’; and Richard Rhodes’s biography of actress Hedy Lamarr who held the patent for an idea that would help make possible wireless communication and GPS devices, “Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Invention of Hedy Lamarr.’’

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