Book Review: ‘La Tercera,’ by Gina Apostol

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Gina Apostol’s new novel, “La Tercera,” is about a writer and her ancestry, but its most profound preoccupation is language.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/30/books/review/gina-apostol-la-tercera.html

Critic’s Notebook: Rediscovering Ursula Parrott and ‘Ex-Wife’

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A reissue of Ursula Parrott’s racy novel “Ex-Wife,” and a new biography of its author, remind us of the brazenly talented women sidelined by convention.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/30/books/she-wrote-frankly-about-divorce-and-suffered-the-consequences.html

Book Review: ‘The Half Moon,’ by Mary Beth Keane

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On its surface, Mary Beth Keane’s new novel is about a faltering marriage. But it’s also about small moments that matter.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/books/review/the-half-moon-mary-beth-keane.html

What I’m Reading: Wives and Muses Edition

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A look at women who inspired great art and literature and what might have been.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/28/world/europe/what-im-reading-wives-and-muses-edition.html

Fresh Spring Romance Novels

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Historicals, contemporaries, fantasies — there’s something for everyone here.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/28/books/review/new-romance-novels.html

New Military History Books

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Three new books about the history of warfare have much to tell us.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/books/review/new-military-history-books.html

The Woman Shaping a Generation of Black Thought

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Christina Sharpe is expanding the vocabulary of life in slavery’s long shadow — peeling back the meaning of familiar words and resurrecting neglected history.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/26/magazine/christina-sharpe-black-literature.html

Newly Published, From Rural Childhood to Anti-Ableist Parenting

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A selection of recently published books.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/26/books/review/new-this-week.html

Book Review: ‘Ascension,’ by Nicholas Binge

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In Nicholas Binge’s novel “Ascension,” an expedition on a mystifying rock only turns up more enigmas.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/books/review/nicholas-binge-ascension.html

Review: ‘Small Mercies,’ by Dennis Lehane

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His novel “Small Mercies” takes place in the tumultuous months after a 1974 order to integrate the city’s schools through busing.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/24/books/review/dennis-lehane-small-mercies.html

Roller Skates, White Claws and a Broken Wrist

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A fall at a roller rink means a novelist has to write in longhand.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/23/style/roller-skates-white-claws-and-a-broken-wrist.html

Book Review: ‘Salvage This World,’ by Michael Farris Smith

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A religious con woman, old grudges and nonstop hurricanes threaten the characters in Michael Farris Smith’s novel “Salvage This World.”

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/23/books/review/michael-farris-smith-salvage-this-world.html

Books That Will Make You Cry on a Plane

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An editor recommends old and new books.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/22/books/books-that-make-you-cry-airplane-hypoxia.html

Airplane Reading, Portuguese Décor and the Young Ashbery

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An editor recommends old and new books.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/22/books/read-like-the-wind-recommended-books.html

Book Review: ‘In the Orchard,’ by Eliza Minot

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Unfolding over the course of a single October day, “In the Orchard” zooms in on beautiful and worrisome minutiae.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/22/books/review/in-the-orchard-eliza-minot.html

Book Review: ‘The Eden Test,’ by Adam Sternbergh

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In “The Eden Test,” Adam Sternbergh folds a study of marital psychology into a mystery plot.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/21/books/review/adam-sternbergh-eden-test.html

Brave Dames and Melancholy Detectives

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New crime novels from Susan Isaacs, Peter Robinson and Arnaldur Indridason all feature indelible characters.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/21/books/review/new-crime-fiction.html

Book Review: ‘Internet_Art,’ by Omar Kholeif; ‘The Story of NFTs,’ by Amy Whitaker and Nora Burnett Abrams

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Two new visual books, “Internet_Art” and “The Story of NFTs,” explore the history and future of creative consumption online.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/21/books/will-the-internet-democratize-art-or-destroy-it.html

Book Review: “The Eyes & the Impossible,” written by Dave Eggers and illustrated by Shawn Harris, and “Big Tree,” by Brian Selznick

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In “The Eyes & the Impossible,” an exuberant dog runs free. In “Big Tree,” two sycamore seeds embark on an epic journey.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/21/books/review/dave-eggers-the-eyes-and-the-impossible-brian-selznick-big-tree.html

Book Bans Rising Rapidly in the U.S., Free Speech Groups Find

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A new report from PEN America, the free speech organization, details a new rise of censorship efforts across the United States.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/20/books/book-bans-united-states-free-speech.html

Peering Into the Future of Novels, With the Help of AI

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Who wrote it, the novelist or the technology? How about both? Stephen Marche experiments with teaching artificial intelligence to write with him, not for him.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/20/books/ai-novels-stephen-marche.html

‘Judy Blume Forever’ Review: The Y.A. Author Who Went There First

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The documentary, streaming on Amazon Prime Video, features Blume narrating the milestones of her life and career, along with interviews of her famous fans.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/20/movies/judy-blume-forever-review.html

Rita Dove and the Younger Poet Who ‘Electrified’ Her

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Rita Dove taught Safiya Sinclair that “it’s OK to say a thing plainly.”

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/20/t-magazine/rita-dove-safiya-sinclair.html

Margaret Atwood and Mona Awad on Writing Outside the Lines

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The authors met in person for the first time during their shoot for T’s Culture issue. “The photographer had to tell us to stop talking.”

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/20/t-magazine/margaret-atwood-mona-awad.html

Blair Tindall, Whose Music Memoir Scandalized, Dies at 63

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Her 2005 book, “Mozart in the Jungle,” lived up to its subtitle, “Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music,” and was later made into an Amazon TV series.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/19/arts/television/blair-tindall-dead.html

The Best Book Judy Blume Ever Got as a Gift? ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover.’

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The author of “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” received the D.H. Lawrence novel after her wedding in 1959: “The marriage didn’t last but the honeymoon was memorable.”

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/19/books/review/judy-blume-by-the-book-interview.html

Newly Published, From Graphic Novels to Brazilian Amulets

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A selection of recently published books.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/19/books/review/new-this-week.html

Book Review: ‘Gravity and Center,’ by Henri Cole

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Henri Cole’s sonnets, gathered in “Gravity and Center,” reject most of the form’s constraints but embrace its ability to show how thought works.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/18/books/review/gravity-and-center-sonnets-henri-cole.html

Subversive Novels Dominate Shortlist for International Booker Prize

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Books by Maryse Condé and Eva Baltasar are among six nominees for the prestigious award for fiction translated into English.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/18/books/international-booker-prize-shortlist.html

Book Review: ‘The One,’ by Julia Argy

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Julia Argy’s debut novel, “The One,” goes behind the cameras at a reality TV show. Is the protagonist there for the right reasons?

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/18/books/review/julia-argy-the-one.html

Review: ‘Biography of a Phantom,’ by Robert ‘Mack’ McCormick

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Mack McCormick’s long-awaited book about the musician Robert Johnson has arrived, in modest and expurgated form.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/17/books/mack-mccormick-robert-johnson-biography.html

Book Review: ‘The Forgotten Girls,’ by Monica Potts

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For her first book, “The Forgotten Girls,” Monica Potts returned to her hometown in Arkansas to figure out why so many of her peers were struggling.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/17/books/review/the-forgotten-girls-monica-potts.html

Book Review: ‘Invisibility,’ by Gregory J. Gbur

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In “Invisibility,” the professor of physics and optical science Gregory J. Gbur examines the past and future of everyone’s favorite plot device.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/16/books/review/invisibility-gregory-gbur.html

Book Review: ‘My Cousin Maria Schneider,’ by Vanessa Schneider

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In a troubling new memoir, Vanessa Schneider contends that the sexually explicit 1972 film exploited, and irrevocably hurt, her cousin.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/16/books/my-cousin-maria-schneider-vanessa-schneider.html

Book Review: ‘Stalking Shakespeare: A Memoir of Madness, Murder, and My Search for the Poet Beneath the Paint,’ by Lee Durkee

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In “Stalking Shakespeare,” Lee Durkee describes his quest to find a true, authentic image of the famous playwright, a search that becomes a tragicomic tale in its own right.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/15/books/review/stalking-shakespeare-lee-durkee.html

How I Chose Among the Translations of ‘The Tale of Genji’

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There have been several major English translations of Murasaki Shikibu’s 11th-century classic. Motoko Rich, The Times’s Tokyo bureau chief, discusses how she approached them.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/15/books/the-tale-of-genji-translations.html

New Science-Fiction and Fantasy Books With Fairies, the Multiverse and More

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New science-fiction and fantasy novels from Heather Fawcett, Moses Ose Utomi and M.R. Carey.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/14/books/review/science-fiction-fantasy-books-fawcett-utomi-carey.html

Your Guides to the World of Fairies and to the Multiverse

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New science-fiction and fantasy novels from Heather Fawcett, Moses Ose Utomi and M.R. Carey.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/14/books/review/fawcett-utomi-carey.html

Book Review: ‘The Wager,’ by David Grann

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The author’s latest book, “The Wager,” investigates the mysteries surrounding an 18th-century maritime disaster off Cape Horn.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/14/books/review/the-wager-david-grann.html

Book Review: “Come See the Fair,” by Gavriel Savit

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In Gavriel Savit’s new fantasy, set at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, an orphan girl who performs sham séances finds she may have true powers after all.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/14/books/review/gavriel-savit-come-see-the-fair.html

‘Harry Potter’ to Become a TV Series

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The author J.K. Rowling is expected to executive produce the show, which will appear on Max, the streaming service from Warner Bros. Discovery.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/13/business/media/harry-potter-tv-show-max.html

Poem: On Jasmine

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This poem operates by a kind of fairy logic: mesmerizing, oneiric, enchanted, with language that surprises and clauses that seem to magnetically adhere.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/13/magazine/poem-on-jasmine.html

David Grann Talks About ‘The Wager,’ a Tale of Shipwreck and Mutiny

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“The Wager,” David Grann’s new book, is as much a rousing adventure as an exploration of the power of narratives to shape our perception of reality.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/12/books/david-grann-the-wager.html

Read Your Way Through Kerala

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A strip of lush land at the tip of India where spices grow wild, Kerala has long drawn the gaze of outsiders. Here’s Abraham Verghese’s guide to its literature, which nods at these influences but is very much its own.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/12/books/books-india-kerala.html

Newly Published, From an Ottoman Bride to Love in Bangalore

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A selection of recently published books.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/12/books/review/new-this-week.html

Book Review: ‘The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho,’ by Paterson Joseph

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Born into slavery, Charles Ignatius Sancho became a writer, composer, merchant and voter. In a winning first novel, Paterson Joseph conjures his voice and his world.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/11/books/review/the-secret-diaries-of-charles-ignatius-sancho.html

Stephen Hough Revisits His Youth, in Playful Fragments

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In his new memoir, “Enough: Scenes From Childhood,” Stephen Hough recalls his artistic and sexual coming-of-age with a light touch.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/10/arts/music/stephen-hough-enough.html

Book Review: ‘The Weight,’ by Jeff Boyd

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Jeff Boyd’s searching debut novel portrays a Black musician alienated from his city, his faith and his past.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/10/books/review/the-weight-jeff-boyd.html

Review: ‘Minor Notes, Volume 1,’ edited by Joshua Bennett and Jesse McCarthy

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“Minor Notes, Volume 1” is the first book in a series meant to recover writers from deep pockets of American history.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/10/books/review/minor-notes-bennett-mccarthy.html

María Kodama, Keeper of the Borges Legacy, Dies at 86

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She was a writer and translator but was best known as the widow of Jorge Luis Borges, one of Latin America’s great writers.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/09/books/maria-kodama-keeper-of-the-borges-legacy-dies-at-86.html

Review: ‘Calling Ukraine,’ by Johannes Lichtman

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“Calling Ukraine,” a novel by Johannes Lichtman, combines an expatriate story and an office satire.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/09/books/review/johannes-lichtman-calling-ukraine.html

The A.I. Concierge, Fictional Fiction, Real Vodka

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A critic recommends old and new books.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/08/books/read-like-wind-book-recommendations.html

Review: ‘The Only Daughter,’ by A.B. Yehoshua

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In his novel “The Only Daughter,” the late Israeli writer urges a return to the moral values learned in youth.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/08/books/review/ab-yehoshua-only-daughter.html

Book Review: ‘Courting India’ by Nandini Das

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England’s first foray into India, as Nandini Das details in “Courting India,” was far from successful.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/books/review/courting-india-nandini-das.html

New Translations Explore Brazil’s ‘Endless and Unfinished’ Character

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Two translations bring canonical works by Mário de Andrade into English, allowing a glimpse into the author’s “problematic sense of belonging.”

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/books/macunaima-apprentice-tourist-mario-de-andrade.html

Review: In ‘The Wife of Willesden,’ a Literary Marriage Falters

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Zadie Smith brings her first play, an adaptation of Chaucer’s the Wife of Bath tale, to the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/06/theater/the-wife-of-willesden-review-zadie-smith.html

Jane LaTour, Fighter for Women in Labor Unions, Dies at 76

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No stranger to blue-collar work herself, she pushed for equality in male-dominated unions and as a writer chronicled the struggles of “sisters in the brotherhoods.”

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/06/nyregion/jane-latour-dead.html

‘How to Blow Up a Pipeline’ Review: A Different Kind of Oil Boom

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A book that proposed violent action in response to the climate crisis becomes a propulsive heist thriller.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/06/movies/how-to-blow-up-a-pipeline-review.html

Poem: The Privilege of Thinking

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Illumination is no one-way street.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/06/magazine/poem-the-privilege-of-thinking.html

My Mother: The Reader I’ve Always Wanted but May Never Have

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How a language barrier can both limit and liberate.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/05/books/review/sulaiman-addonia-mother.html

How a Tiny Literary Magazine Became a Springboard for Great Irish Writing

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The Stinging Fly has helped launch several of Ireland’s most promising writers. How has a publication with 1,000 subscribers carved a niche in the Irish canon?

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/05/books/stinging-fly-irish-literature.html

It’s Their Content, You’re Just Licensing it

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Recent automatic updates to e-book editions of works by Roald Dahl, R.L. Stine and Agatha Christie are a reminder of who really owns your digital media.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/04/arts/dahl-christie-stine-kindle-edited.html

Book Review: ‘Natural Beauty,’ by Ling Ling Huang

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In Ling Ling Huang’s debut, “Natural Beauty,” a woman discovers that there are horrors lurking beneath the surface of a glamorous company.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/04/books/review/natural-beauty-ling-ling-huang.html

Revising Classic Novels Spurs Debate About Where to Draw the Line

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Agatha Christie. Roald Dahl. Ian Fleming. Classics are being reworked to remove offensive language. But some readers wonder, when does posthumous editing go too far?

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/03/books/classic-novels-revisions-agatha-christie-roald-dahl.html

For Sarah Bakewell, Nothing Human is Alien

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In “Humanly Possible,” Bakewell brings her signature blend of wit and philosophical sophistication to the complex, sometimes contentious 700-year history of humanist thought.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/02/books/sarah-bakewell-humanly-possible.html

Book Review: ‘This Is Not Miami,’ by Fernanda Melchor

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In a new collection, Fernanda Melchor considers not just violence but how people cope in a troubled region.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/02/books/review/fernanda-melchor-this-is-not-miami.html

Book Review: ‘The Long Reckoning,’ by George Black

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George Black’s new book, “The Long Reckoning,” describes the environmental devastation of the Vietnam War.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/01/books/review/the-long-reckoning-george-black.html