A Brief History of Summer Reading

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

We rarely talk about spring books or winter reading. What is it about summer that inspired a whole genre of its own?

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/31/books/a-brief-history-of-summer-reading.html

Cults, College Dropouts and the Art of Control in Two New Story Collections

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Alix Ohlin’s “We Want What We Want” and Genevieve Plunkett’s “Prepare Her” explore desire and alienation.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/31/books/review/we-want-what-we-want-alex-ohlin-prepare-her-genevieve-plunkett.html

Roberto Calasso, Renaissance Man of Letters, Dies at 80

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

A Florentine by birth, he was a polymath as an author and publisher (Kafka, Verdic philosophy, Greek mythology) who found a wide international readership.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/books/roberto-calasso-dead.html

Echoes of a Fairy Tale in a Devastating Novel

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Omar El Akkad talks about “What Strange Paradise,” and Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang talk about Facebook and “An Ugly Truth.”

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/books/review/podcast-omar-el-akkad-what-strange-paradise-sheera-frenkel-cecilia-kang-ugly-truth-facebook.html

What to Do This Weekend

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Set your intention for August.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/at-home/newsletter.html

New in Paperback: ‘Antkind’ and ‘Looking for Miss America’

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Six new paperbacks to check out this week.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/books/review/new-paperbacks.html

Poetry and Politics, HIPAA and Other Letters to the Editor

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Readers respond to recent issues of the Sunday Book Review.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/books/review/poetry-and-politics-hipaa-and-other-letters-to-the-editor.html

Repression, Obsession, Murder

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Need a distraction? Three prickly, skin-crawling new thrillers will have you on the edge of your seat.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/books/new-thrillers.html

The Pleasure of Falling Asleep With a Book on Your Face

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Maybe you should just surrender to the sweet slumber.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/books/the-pleasure-of-falling-asleep-with-a-book-on-your-face.html

Legends Remade: New Science Fiction and Fantasy

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

“The World Gives Way,” “The Chosen and the Beautiful” and “Sword Stone Table” borrow from familiar stories but offer surprising readings.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/books/review/levien-vo-krishna-northington.html

Alexandra Kleeman Finds Reality All Too Surreal

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Her latest novel, “Something New Under the Sun,” imagines a highly imaginable California so ravaged by drought and wildfires that only the rich can afford to survive.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/books/alexandra-kleeman-something-new-under-the-sun.html

Eve L. Ewing Adds a Dash of Black Girl Magic to STEM-Based Learning

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In “Maya and the Robot,” a shy brainiac finds, fixes and brings to life an artificially intelligent robot named Ralph.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/books/review/eve-ewing-maya-and-the-robot.html

An Homage to Black Boyhood From the Creator of Tristan Strong

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Kwame Mbalia and 16 author friends, including Jason Reynolds, Varian Johnson, Tochi Onyebuchi, Dean Atta and Jerry Craft, make an anthology.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/books/review/kwame-mbalia-black-boy-joy-17-stories-celebrating-black-boyhood.html

Floyd Cooper, Illustrator of Black Life for Children, Dies at 65

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

He sought to revive and recount chapters of African American history that he felt weren’t taught enough in classrooms.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/books/floyd-cooper-dead.html

11 New Books We Recommend This Week

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/books/review/11-new-books-we-recommend-this-week.html

Erik Larson Has a Scary Story He’d Like You to Hear

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

After years writing nonfiction, he is now the author of a made-up tale about ghost-hunting that will only be sold as an audiobook.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/books/erik-larson-audiobook-no-one-goes-alone.html

Graphic Novelists Who Show Us What Loneliness Means

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In her latest Graphic Content column, Hillary Chute looks at new books from Kristen Radtke and Lizzy Stewart, as well as a first graphic novel from Anne Carson.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/books/review/kristen-radtke-seek-you-lizzy-stewart-its-not-what-you-thought-it-would-be-anne-carson-trojan-women.html

Everything Old Is New Again and Other Best-Selling Wisdom

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

A look at this week’s popular novels reminds us that good writing runs in families, wet T-shirts attract attention and you can’t hide from your past.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/books/review/the-paper-palace-miranda-cowley-heller.html

Poem: Letter to a Bridge Made of Rope

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In this poem, as in life, what is missed is not what matters most, but how we might be awed by what we notice.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/magazine/poem-letter-to-a-bridge-made-of-rope.html

Phillip Lopate Is No Fan of ‘The Catcher in the Rye’

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

“Holden Caulfield irritated me massively.”

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/books/review/phillip-lopate-by-the-book-interview.html

The Imaginary Summer

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Expectation vs. reality.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/at-home/the-imaginary-summer.html

This Novel Revisits a Power Broker Who Trod Lightly and Left a Big Footprint

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Andrew Haswell Green accomplished a lot in 19th-century New York, but he was an enigma even in his own time. In “The Great Mistake,” Jonathan Lee imagines his way into Green’s mind.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/books/review-great-mistake-jonathan-lee.html

Onstage, the Pen Is Usually Duller Than the Sword

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Plays about writers, including “Mr. Fullerton,” a new potboiler probing Edith Wharton’s love life, too often undermine the real brilliance of their subjects.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/theater/mr-fullerton-edith-wharton.html

Side by Side With Sondheim: Alan Cumming Reviews a New Book About ‘Sunday in the Park’

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In “Putting It Together,” James Lapine recounts how he and Stephen Sondheim created the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/books/review/putting-it-together-james-lapine.html

New & Noteworthy, From Horse Girls to an E.R. Doctor’s View of Covid

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

A selection of recent titles of note; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/books/review/new-this-week.html

11 New Books Coming in August

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Buzzy new novels from Alexandra Kleeman, Leila Slimani and Stephen King, Billie Jean King’s memoir and plenty more.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/books/new-august-books.html

Sunday in the Trenches With George

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

James Lapine’s book shows how he and Stephen Sondheim invested two years of work to burnish their musical from an avant-garde near-disaster to a mainstream classic.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/theater/james-lapine-stephen-sondheim-sunday-in-the-park.html

Book Review: ‘Afterparties,’ by Anthony Veasna So

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In “Afterparties,” Anthony Veasna So, who died at 28 last year, reimagines California’s Central Valley through the lives of its Cambodian immigrants.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/27/books/review-afterparties-anthony-veasna-so.html

Finding the ‘Believers’ Who Will Remake a Damaged Earth

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In a travelogue, Lisa Wells searches for communities and individuals committed to healing the damage of climate change.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/27/books/review/believers-lisa-wells.html

What We Learned From Mena Suvari’s Book on the ‘Dark Part’ of Her Life

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In her new memoir, the “American Beauty” and “American Pie” actor opens up about years of sexual abuse and drug addiction, as well as an “eerie” moment with Kevin Spacey.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/27/books/mena-suvari-book-great-peace.html

The Mystery of My Obsession With Agatha Christie

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

People were dying all around me. So why was I escaping into tales of murder?

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/27/magazine/agatha-christie-books-death.html

A New John Oliver Killens Novel Arrives, Three Decades After His Death

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Killens’s posthumously released novel, “The Minister Primarily,” is a searing and satirical look at race in America.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/27/books/review/the-minister-primarily-john-oliver-killens.html

Ha Jin Considers the Cost of Freedom in ‘A Song Everlasting’

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Jin’s new novel follows a Beijing opera singer who flees to the United States after he gets in trouble with the Chinese state.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/27/books/review/song-everlasting-ha-jin.html

Booker Prize Longlist Is Unveiled

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Rachel Cusk’s “Second Place,” Richard Powers’s “Bewilderment” and Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Klara and the Sun” are among the 13 novels nominated for one of the world’s most prestigious literary awards.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/26/books/booker-prize-longlist-ishiguro-cusk.html

Sally Miller Gearhart, Lesbian Writer and Activist, Dies at 90

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

She fought anti-gay policies alongside Harvey Milk, wrote influential books, including science fiction, and founded a women-only refuge in the woods.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/26/us/sally-miller-gearhart-dead.html

The Extraordinary History (and Likely Busy Future) of Quarantine

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

“Until Proven Safe,” by Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley, is about the lifesaving measure that has also been abused for political purposes over the centuries.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/26/books/review-until-proven-safe-quarantine-geoff-manaugh-nicola-twilley.html

The Enduring Whimsy and Wonderment of Eric Carle

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The beloved children’s author and illustrator died in May. But his irrepressible spirit lives on in his books.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/25/books/review/eric-carle-tiny-seeds-very-hungry-caterpillar.html

A Son of Gabriel García Márquez Tenderly Recalls His Parents

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In “A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes,” Rodrigo Garcia chronicles his parents’ final days, including his celebrated father’s struggle with dementia and his mother’s fierce independence to the end.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/24/books/review/a-farewell-to-gabo-and-mercedes-rodrigo-garcia.html

What to Do This Weekend.

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Tomatoes and tiny travel.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/23/at-home/newsletter.html

New in Paperback: ‘Transcendent Kingdom’ and ‘Agent Sonya’

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Six new paperbacks to check out this week.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/23/books/review/new-paperbacks.html

What Makes Elon Musk Different

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Two new books, Eric Berger’s “Liftoff” and Tim Higgins’s “Power Play,” explore Musk’s terrestrial and extraterrestrial pursuits — and what has made him so successful.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/23/books/review/eric-berger-liftoff-tim-higgins-power-play.html

A Heartbreaking Novel About Mothers, Daughters and Secrets

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Elisabeth Egan talks about Esther Freud’s “I Couldn’t Love You More,” and Philip D’Anieri discusses “The Appalachian Trail.”

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/23/books/review/podcast-elisabeth-egan-esther-freud-couldnt-love-you-more-philip-danieri-appalachian-trail.html

Make a Splash: 8 Summer Picture Books Take You to the Water

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Dip into these picture books about pools and beaches, swimming and sailing, calm waters and stormy seas.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/23/books/review/picture-books-summer-beach-pool-water-swim-sail-ocean-sea.html

Advertisements for the Otherworldy

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In the 1940s and 50s the Book Review’s pages were full of ads for books on the extraterrestrial and dystopian.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/23/books/advertisements-for-the-otherworldy.html

11 New Books We Recommend This Week

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/22/books/review/11-new-books-we-recommend-this-week.html

Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen's Podcast to Become a Book

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Crown is publishing “Renegades: Born in the USA,” a book adaptation of the podcast conversations.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/22/books/barack-obama-bruce-springsteen-renegades-spotify.html

‘A Storm Waiting to Happen’: A Colombian Writer Watches His Home From Afar

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Juan Gabriel Vásquez sees his new story collection, “Songs for the Flames,” as part of a thriving literary landscape in Colombia because, he said, “places in conflict produce fiction.”

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/22/books/juan-gabriel-vasquez-songs-for-the-flames-colombia.html

The Promise and Tragedy of a Utopian Community, as Seen by One of Its Own

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

“Better to Have Gone,” by Akash Kapur, recounts the haunting, heartbreaking history of Auroville, an intentional community in southern India where he and his wife were raised.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/22/books/review/better-to-have-gone-akash-kapur.html

Linda Dave Turned the Scorned Wife Into a ‘Hero’

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In her best-selling thriller, “The Last Thing He Told Me,” a Silicon Valley wife learns the truth about her missing husband.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/22/books/review/linda-dave-turned-the-scorned-wife-into-a-hero.html

Poem: The Woman You Love Cuts Apples for You

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Reading Rosal’s poem again made me pull out some tajin, and slice some apples, and remember how poems create a heart’s history and remind us of home.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/22/magazine/poem-the-woman-you-love-cuts-apples-for-you.html

Eddie Glaude Jr., an Expert on James Baldwin, Reveals His Favorite Baldwin Book

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Glaude, the author of “Begin Again,” says that “No Name in the Street” (1972) “tries to offer an account of what happened between Little Rock, Dr. King’s assassination and the emergence of Black Power. Trauma and wound saturate his sentences, and his memory fails him in places. It is a masterpiece at the level of form and substance.”

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/22/books/review/eddie-glaude-jr-by-the-book-interview.html

Readers Have Some Thoughts About Recent Reviews and Essays

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Here’s a peek into the Book Review’s mailbag.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/22/books/review/readers-have-some-thoughts-about-recent-reviews-and-essays.html

How to Follow the Olympics.

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Starting now.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/21/at-home/newsletter.html

Scents and Science Mingle in ‘The Joy of Sweat’

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In her illuminating new book, Sarah Everts offers a guide to the necessity and virtues of perspiration.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/21/books/review-joy-of-sweat-sarah-everts.html

Carol Easton, Biographer of Arts Figures, Dies at 87

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Curious about creativity, she chronicled the lives of Agnes de Mille, Jacqueline du Pré, Samuel Goldwyn and Stan Kenton.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/books/carol-easton-dead.html

Revisiting a Utopian City With Fondness and Fury

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In “Better to Have Gone,” Akash Kapur writes about Auroville, a community in India founded by a Frenchwoman, where Kapur grew up and met his future wife.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/books/review-better-to-have-gone-auroville-akash-kapur.html

To Battle Climate Change, Begin With Your Air-Conditioner

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In “After Cooling,” Eric Dean Wilson explores the ways that temperature-controlled environments contribute to the climate crisis.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/books/review/after-cooling-eric-dean-wilson.html

New & Noteworthy, From El Chapo to a Holocaust Survivor’s Art

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

A selection of recent titles of interest; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/books/review/new-this-week.html

‘Virtue,’ by Hermione Hoby: An Excerpt

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

An excerpt from “Virtue,” by Hermione Hoby

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/books/review/virtue-by-hermione-hoby-an-excerpt.html

‘What Strange Paradise,’ by Omar El Akkad: An Excerpt

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

An excerpt from “What Strange Paradise,” by Omar El Akkad

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/books/review/what-strange-paradise-by-omar-el-akkad-an-excerpt.html

In These Debut Novels, Young Women Feel Oppressed by Womanhood

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

A trapped mom turns into an angry dog by night, an atheist lesbian poses as a Catholic receptionist, a 20-year-old woman suffers through domestic abuse.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/books/review/nightbitch-rachel-yoder-nobody-somebody-anybody-kelly-mcclorey-magma-thora-hjorleifsdottir-everyone-in-this-room-will-someday-b.html

Hermione Hoby Takes on Virtue-Signaling

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In her new novel, “Virtue,” a white, liberal 20-something is torn between elitism and activism.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/books/review/virtue-hermione-hoby.html

Book Review: ‘What Strange Paradise,’ by Omar El Akkad

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Omar El Akkad’s new novel follows a young refugee who survives a shipwreck and the girl who comes to his aid.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/books/review/what-strange-paradise-omar-el-akkad.html

Katie Kitamura Translates the Untranslatable

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In “Intimacies,” a court interpreter at The Hague grapples with the ethics of the world around her.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/books/review/intimacies-katie-kitamura.html

A Writer’s Struggle, an Affair and a Pot of Cash Converge in a Novel

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In Pedro Mairal’s “The Woman From Uruguay,” a plan to smuggle some money into Argentina goes disastrously awry.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/books/review/woman-from-uruguay-pedro-mairal.html

A Fresh Look at the Family Who Led (and Lost) Britain’s War for America

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

“The Howe Dynasty,” by Julie Flavell, adds nuance and complexity to the story of a famous English military family by examining the extensive correspondence of one of its female members.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/books/review/the-howe-dynasty-julie-flavell.html

In ‘The Council of Animals,’ the Fate of Humanity Comes Down to a Vote

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In Nick McDonell’s new novel, humans are almost extinct. Now the animal kingdom must decide their fate.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/books/review/the-council-of-animals-nick-mcdonell.html

A Trek Across Florida, Braving Deadly Swamps and Bounty Hunters

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In John Brandon’s new novel, “Ivory Shoals,” a boy in post-Civil War Florida searches for the father he has never met.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/books/review/john-brandon-ivory-shoals.html

Prince Harry to Write a Memoir

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Penguin Random House said the book, tentatively coming in 2022, would be “an intimate and heartfelt memoir from one of the most fascinating and influential global figures of our time.”

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/19/books/prince-harry-memoir.html

A Rising Star’s Career Was Cut Short. His Impact Is Just Beginning.

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Anthony Veasna So died before the release of his first book, “Afterparties,” but his loved ones, mentors and newfound fans are making it a particularly significant debut.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/19/books/anthony-veasna-so-afterparties.html

How to Explain the Rise and Fall of WeWork?

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In “The Cult of We,” Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell examine how WeWork’s Adam Neumann built a billion-dollar company simply out of renting communal work space.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/18/books/review/the-cult-of-we-eliot-brown-maureen-farrell.html

The New Magazines and Journals Shaping Africa’s Literary Scene

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Lolwe, Doek and other digital publications are helping to amplify new voices from the continent.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/17/world/africa/lolwe-doek-africa-literary-magazines.html

From Lin-Manuel to Pollan to St. Aubyn: Audiobooks for Every Attention Span

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Fiction and nonfiction for the busiest, most distracted of listeners.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/17/books/review/audiobooks-in-the-heights-lin-manuel-miranda-edward-st-aubyn-double-blind-this-is-your-mind-on-plants-michael-pollan.html

What to Do This Weekend

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Movies, musicals and crispy tofu.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/16/at-home/newsletter.html

Killing Time

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

If your idea of a great summer read involves murder, bloodshed, revenge and trickery, you’re in luck.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/16/books/new-crime-mysteries.html

A Taxonomy of Nerds

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Making some order among the outcast, weird or just plain quirky.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/16/books/a-taxonomy-of-nerds.html

S.A. Cosby on ‘Razorblade Tears’

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Cosby discusses his new novel, and Dean Jobb talks about “The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream.”

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/16/books/review/podcast-razorblade-tears-s-a-cosby-murderous-dr-cream-dean-jobb.html

The Murders That Touched Off Ireland’s Bloody Campaign for Self-Rule

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

“The Irish Assassins,” by Julie Kavanagh, recounts the birth of a violent Irish nationalist movement through a fresh history of the famous Phoenix Park killings in 1882.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/16/books/review/the-irish-assassins-julie-kavanagh.html

$900 Out-of-Print Books, Moscow and Other Letters to the Editor

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Readers respond to recent issues of the Sunday Book Review.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/16/books/review/900-out-of-print-books-moscow-and-other-letters-to-the-editor.html

Megan Abbott’s Latest Crime Thriller Links Ballet and Sex

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

“The Turnout” explores the darker, erotic side of professional dance.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/16/books/review/the-turnout-megan-abbott.html

How Richard Nixon Changed America’s Place in the World

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Jeffrey E. Garten’s “Three Days at Camp David” returns readers to 1971 and Nixon’s momentous decision to take the United States off the gold standard.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/16/books/review/jeffrey-e-garten-three-days-at-camp-david.html

New in Paperback: ‘Burning Down the House’ and ‘Love After Love’

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Six new paperbacks to check out this week.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/16/books/review/new-paperbacks.html

Jamia Wilson’s Inclusive Guide Is ‘Not Your Mama’s Feminism’

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In “This Book Is Feminist,” for young readers, the former director of the Feminist Press sees a movement without borders — and talks about her hair.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/16/books/review/jamia-wilson-aurelia-durand-this-book-is-feminist.html

Thirteen Ways of Looking at Censorship

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In “You Can’t Say That,” Leonard S. Marcus interviews 13 authors whose books for kids have been banned or challenged.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/16/books/review/you-cant-say-that-censorship-freedom-of-expression-leonard-marcus.html

10 New Books We Recommend This Week

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/15/books/review/10-new-books-we-recommend-this-week.html

‘The Hidden Life of Trees’ Review: Magic Kingdom

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Jörg Adolph uses the sensorial capacities of cinema to thrillingly visualize a German forester’s contention that trees are social, sentient beings.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/15/movies/the-hidden-life-of-trees-review.html

Two Accounts of Donald Trump’s Final Year in Office, One More Vivid and Apt Than the Other

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

“I Alone Can Fix It,” by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, and “Landslide,” by Michael Wolff, take different approaches to recounting the events of 2020 and early 2021.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/15/books/review-landslide-donald-trump-michael-wolff-i-alone-can-fix-it-carol-leonnig-philip-rucker.html

When Utopia Met Dystopia, They Were There

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Akash Kapur’s new book, “Better to Have Gone,” takes a look at the unconventional community in India where he and his wife grew up.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/15/books/akash-kapur-better-to-have-gone-auroville.html

Song of the Subway: Walt Whitman on the Downtown Express

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

As New York returns, and the trains are running 24 hours a day again, let us pause to marvel at the convulsive wonder underneath our very feet.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/15/nyregion/walt-whitman-subway.html

The Sneaky Subversiveness of Laurie Colwin

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The beloved food and fiction writer, who died too young in 1992, wrote about happiness but with more irony and ambiguity than you might think. All 10 of Colwin’s books are being rereleased this year, which makes now the perfect time to revisit them.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/15/books/review/laurie-colwin-happy-all-the-time-home-cooking.html

Tess Gerritsen Still Prefers to Read Books the Old-Fashioned Way, on Paper

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

“I’m one of those terrible book owners who bends down the corners of pages to mark my place.”

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/15/books/review/tess-gerritsen-by-the-book-interview.html

On the Children’s Series Best-Seller List, the Name of the Game Is Fantasy

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Readers of all ages are looking for otherworldly escape — and lots of it.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/15/books/review/inside-the-list-series-best-sellers.html

Poem: Bullet (Lead + Alloy)

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Adrian Matejka does here what all good poets do, startles you with a reminder, even a simple one.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/15/magazine/poem-bullet-lead-alloy.html

Things You’ve Been Missing

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Collective effervescence, for one.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/at-home/newsletter.html

Bernette Ford, Who Made Children’s Books More Diverse, Dies at 70

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

As a publishing executive and as an author, she sought to make sure that all children saw themselves in what they read.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/obituaries/bernette-ford-dead.html

Knopf Names Jordan Pavlin Its Editor in Chief

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Ms. Pavlin, a longtime editor at the publishing house who has worked with Ayana Mathis, Tommy Orange and Yaa Gyasi, succeeds Sonny Mehta, who died in 2019.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/books/knopf-editor-in-chief-jordan-pavlin.html

Georgina Pazcoguin Gives a Candid Account of Ballet Culture in 'Swan Dive'

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Georgina Pazcoguin, a New York City Ballet soloist, has written a page-turner of a memoir.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/arts/dance/georgina-pazcoguin-swan-dive.html

‘Intimacies,’ a Coolly Written Novel About the Arts of Translation and Power

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In Katie Kitamura’s fourth novel, a woman adrift takes a job at an international criminal court.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/books/review-intimacies-katie-kitamura.html

Priscilla McMillan, Who Knew Both Kennedy and Oswald, Dies at 92

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

A Cold War scholar, she met Oswald four years before Kennedy’s assassination and later wrote “Marina and Lee,” a book about him and his Russian wife.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/books/priscilla-mcmillan-dead.html

‘Pessoa’ Is the Definitive and Sublime Life of a Genius and His Many Alternate Selves

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Richard Zenith’s biography of the Portuguese poet, critic, translator, mystic and giant of modernism is a perceptive reading of the eccentric man and his abundant work.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/books/review-pessoa-biography-richard-zenith.html

Book Review: ‘Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story,’ by Julie K. Brown

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In “Perversion of Justice,” Julie K. Brown expands on her explosive 2018 series for The Miami Herald on the notorious financier to explore how he was able to avoid criminal prosecution for sex crimes for so long.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/books/review/perversion-of-justice-julie-k-brown.html

A Black Writer Found Tolerance in France, and a Different Racism

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In William Gardner Smith’s 1963 novel “The Stone Face,” a journalist sees parallels between French bigotry toward Arabs and his treatment at home.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/books/review/william-gardner-smith-stone-face.html

‘I Couldn’t Love You More,’ by Esther Freud: An Excerpt

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

An excerpt from “I Couldn’t Love You More,” by Esther Freud

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/books/review/i-couldnt-love-you-more-by-esther-freud-an-excerpt.html

The Bombs May Have Stopped, but War’s Scars Still Run Deep

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Anuk Arudpragasam’s “A Passage North” traces a journey across a country reeling from a decades-long conflict.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/books/review/anuk-arudpragasam-passage-north.html

Solving the Mystery of Her Daughter’s Death, Parkinson’s Be Damned

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

“Elena Knows,” by the Argentine writer Claudia Piñeiro, follows a woman impaired by illness on a quest across Buenos Aires.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/books/review/claudia-pineiro-elena-knows.html

Tim Gunn’s Happy Place Is ‘Schitt’s Creek,’ Washed Down With Good Gin

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The ‘Making the Cut’ host discusses the marvels of Derek DelGaudio, how Nora Ephron didn’t disappoint and why he’s tempted to steal a Picasso.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/arts/television/tim-gunn-favorites.html

Are You My Mother? In This Novel, the Answer Is Complicated.

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

“I Couldn’t Love You More” introduces three generations of women grappling with secrets, shame and an inexorable bond.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/books/i-couldnt-love-you-more-esther-freud-group-text.html

A Novel Charts Earth’s Path From Lush Eden to Barren Hellscape

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Ecological disaster ties together the three strands of Matt Bell’s stark yet hopeful “Appleseed.”

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/books/review/appleseed-matt-bell.html

Looking for a Funny Novel Set in Washington, D.C.? Start here.

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In “Rachel to the Rescue,” Elinor Lipman ushers readers into the Beltway with her signature blend of wit and charm.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/books/review/elinor-lipman-rachel-to-the-rescue.html

New & Noteworthy, From Finding Joy to Offbeat Sports Stories

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

A selection of recent titles of interest; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/books/review/new-this-week.html

Fernando Pessoa: Office Worker, Occultist, Galaxy of Writers

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

A new biography by Richard Zenith offers a sharper picture of the Portuguese master, who contained multitudes.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/books/review/fernando-pessoa-biography-richard-zenith.html

Fiction Based on Real People and Places, for Better and for Worse

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

These novels have roots in the good, the bad and the ugly parts of history.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/books/review/cape-doctor-ej-levy-catherine-chidgey-remote-sympathy-jonathan-lee-great-mistake-jh-gelernter-hold-fast.html

Tracking ‘Strange Beasts of China’ With Booze, Smokes and Sleuthing

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Set in a fictional Chinese city, Yan Ge’s novel features a bestiary of mysterious creatures and a cryptozoologist narrator who is trying to study and classify them.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/books/review/strange-beasts-of-china-yan-ge.html

It’s All in the Family in These New Novels From Veteran Authors

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Joyce Maynard and Diane Johnson are both writing about women looking back on life. Luckily for their readers, the excitement continues.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/books/review/count-the-ways-joyce-maynard.html

A Novel of City Walks Pays Tribute to Flâneurs of the Past

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

“To Walk Alone in the Crowd,” by Antonio Muñoz Molina, follows an unnamed narrator across Madrid, Paris and New York.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/books/review/antonio-munoz-molina-walk-alone-crowd.html

An Acerbic Millennial Sex Comedy That Grows Fangs

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In Beth Morgan’s shape-shifting debut, “A Touch of Jen,” a young Brooklyn couple grow increasingly obsessed with their Instagram crush.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/books/review/a-touch-of-jen-beth-morgan.html

Animal Electrocutions, Lobotomies and Other Tales of Wicked Science

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In his new book, “The Icepick Surgeon,” Sam Kean details evil misdeeds conducted in the name of scientific inquiry.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/books/review/icepick-surgeon-sam-kean.html

Getting Away With Murder, Literally

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In his true-crime history, “The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream,” Dean Jobb explains how a Victorian-era serial killer escaped arrest for so long.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/books/review/the-case-of-the-murderous-dr-cream-dean-jobb.html

Uprooted for Their Husbands’ Jobs, and Eager to Shine on Their Own

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In her new novel, “Embassy Wife,” Katie Crouch takes readers on a tour of expat life in Namibia.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/books/review/embassy-wife-katie-crouch.html

Book Review: ‘Landslide,’ by Michael Wolff

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

“Landslide” tells the dramatic and unprecedented story of the weeks after the 2020 presidential election from inside the White House.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/12/books/review/michael-wolff-landslide-trump.html

Debut Novels by Pik-Shuen Fung, Rahul Raina and Alex McElroy

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

New fiction ranges from a Chinese family divided across continents to the founding of a cult for rehabilitating toxic masculinity.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/12/books/review/ghost-forest-pik-shuen-fung-how-to-kidnap-the-rich-rahul-raina-the-atmospherians-alex-mcelroy.html

Savala Nolan Takes a Hard Look at the White Gaze and Its Blind Spots

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The essays in “Don’t Let It Get You Down” explore the in-betweenness of race, class and the size of a woman’s body.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/12/books/review/savala-nolan-dont-let-it-get-you-down.html

‘The Man Who Hated Women’ Is Mostly About the Women He Hated

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Amy Sohn’s new book is about a 19th-century moral crusader and the women whose work he targeted, including the suffragist Victoria C. Woodhull, the anarchist Emma Goldman and the birth control activist Margaret Sanger.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/12/books/review-man-who-hated-women-amy-sohn.html

Katie Kitamura and the Cognitive Dissonance of Being Alive Right Now

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Her new novel, “Intimacies,” introduces readers to the perceptive, digressive mind of an interpreter at The Hague who is dealing with loss, an uncertain relationship and an insecure world.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/11/books/katie-kitamura-intimacies.html

The Alternating Identities of Shirley Jackson

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

A new collection of letters reveals a self divided between author and woman.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/11/books/review/laurence-jackson-hyman-the-letters-of-shirley-jackson.html

Athan Theoharis, Chronicler of F.B.I. Abuses, Dies at 84

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

He found his way through the formerly unobtainable files of J. Edgar Hoover, whom he called “an insubordinate bureaucrat in charge of a lawless organization.”

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/10/us/politics/athan-theoharis-dead.html

Thomas Cleary, Prolific Translator of Eastern Texts, Dies at 72

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

His renderings of classic works of Buddhism, Taoism and more brought them to a general Western readership.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/10/books/thomas-cleary-dead.html

What to Do This Weekend

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Don’t overdo your re-entry.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/09/at-home/newsletter.html

Nana Nkweti’s Tales of Cameroonians at Home and in America

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The stories in “Walking on Cowrie Shells” span genres, generations and geography.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/09/books/review/walking-on-cowrie-shells-nana-nkweti.html

The Lives of Flies

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Jonathan Balcombe talks about “Super Fly,” and Marjorie Ingall discusses Holocaust literature for children.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/09/books/review/podcast-super-fly-jonathan-balcombe-marjorie-ingall-holocaust-literature-for-children.html

Turning to Ovid in a Moment of Transition

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

A photographer found comfort during the pandemic in the “Metamorphoses,” the classic work on nature and change.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/09/books/turning-to-ovid-in-a-moment-of-transition.html

Murder in a French Mountain Village

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Our crime columnist raves about Samira Sedira’s “People Like Them,” as well as Willa C. Richards’s debut, “The Comfort of Monsters.”

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/09/books/new-mystery-novels.html

Book Review: ‘An Ugly Truth,’ by Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

A new, deeply reported book by the Times reporters Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang recounts the full story of the social media company’s foibles.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/09/books/review/the-ugly-truth-sheera-frenkel-and-cecilia-kang.html

New in Paperback: ‘Love and Theft’ and ‘The Sirens of Mars’

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Six new paperbacks to check out this week.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/09/books/review/new-paperbacks.html

Typing Classes, the Aubrey-Maturin Series and Other Letters to the Editor

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Readers respond to recent issues of the Sunday Book Review.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/09/books/review/typing-classes-the-aubrey-maturin-series-and-other-letters-to-the-editor.html

A New Novel Gives Wings — and a Megaphone — to an Inspiring Woman

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In “Island Queen,” Vanessa Riley introduces readers to Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, a Caribbean entrepreneur who secured the freedom of enslaved people.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/books/review/island-queen-vanessa-riley.html

10 New Books We Recommend This Week

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/books/review/10-new-books-we-recommend-this-week.html

Michael Pollan Explores the Mind-Altering Plants in His Garden

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In his newest book, “This Is Your Mind on Plants,” Pollan looks at opium, caffeine and mescaline and the role they have played in human society.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/books/review/this-is-your-mind-on-plants-michael-pollan.html

Why Are There So Many Holocaust Books for Kids?

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Children’s literature about Jewish experience is obsessively focused on the Holocaust, Marjorie Ingall argues. As a result, kids learn that the worst thing that ever happened to Jews is the cornerstone of Jewish identity.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/books/review/-childrens-books-holocaust-jewish-experience.html

After a Hard Day’s Writing, Michael Pollan Likes to Unwind With a Novel

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

“Getting to read fiction purely for pleasure is the carrot I hold out for myself as a reward for the work of reporting and writing.”

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/books/review/michael-pollan-by-the-book-interview.html

Does a Writer Ever Get Cozy on the Best-Seller List? Bessel van der Kolk Says No.

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The author of “The Body Keeps Score” awaits news of his standing each week — and pays close attention to what his readers have to say.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/books/review/the-body-keeps-score-bessel-van-der-kolk.html

Always Leave Them Smiling: The Art of Al Hirschfeld

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In a new biography, Ellen Stern brings the great Broadway caricaturist to life.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/books/review/hirschfeld-the-biography-ellen-stern.html

New Novels Follow Refugees on Difficult Journeys

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In “The Mediterranean Wall,” “Disquiet” and “Bolla,” characters escape one challenge only to meet many others.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/books/review/dalembert-livaneli-statovci.html

Body Language in Middle Grade Lit

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Two novels and a graphic memoir tackle weighty issues, with grace and good humor.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/books/review/starfish-lisa-fipps.html

The Return of Communal Emotion

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

At the movies.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/07/at-home/newsletter.html

5 Y.A. Graphic Novels to Dive Into This Summer

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

A high school romance, a flashback to the ’90s and other Y.A. graphic novels to read this season.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/07/books/summer-ya-graphic-novel.html

Finding Love Behind Bars Might Look Different Than You Think

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Elizabeth Greenwood talks about what she discovered while writing “Love Lockdown,” about romantic relationships and America’s prison system.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/07/books/love-lockdown-dating-sex-marriage-prison-elizabeth-greenwood-interview.html

A Young Naturalist Inspires With Joy, Not Doom

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

At 17, Dara McAnulty is becoming one of Britain’s most acclaimed nature writers, with work that touches on his autism as much as the world around his home.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/07/books/dara-mcanulty-diary-of-a-young-naturalist.html

Please Remain Seated Until You Finish These Thrillers

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

“Falling,” “Seat 7A” and “Hostage” have one thing in common: altitude. Buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/07/books/review/falling-tj-newman.html

What Can Surfing Tell Us About Addiction?

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In “The Drop,” Thad Ziolkowski explores the ways that surfing both acts as a “parable” for addiction and might provide a cure for it.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/07/books/review/the-drop-thad-ziolkowski.html

If You Lived Here, You’d Be in Hell by Now

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Carolyn Ferrell’s beautifully hair-raising debut novel takes readers into a house of horrors where some survivors have a better chance than others.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/07/books/review/dear-miss-metropolitan-carolyn-ferrell.html

A Wife and Mother Finds a New House and Decides to Move in Alone

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Dana Spiotta’s new novel explores a middle-aged fantasy of solitude to great effect.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/06/books/review/wayward-dana-spiotts.html

A Novel Follows Intersecting Lives on London’s Margins

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Keith Ridgway’s “A Shock” initially looks like a collection of loosely linked stories, but reveals itself to be an expertly built house of mirrors.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/06/books/review/keith-ridgway-shock.html

Constructing the Perfect Villain: The Bad Contractor.

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In her latest crime novel, Megan Abbott takes on the contractor-client relationship. In her Queens apartment, she’s avoided renovation altogether.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/06/realestate/megan-abbott-the-turnout-queens-apartment.html

An Office Novel That Dares to Think Outside the Cubicle

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In “The Very Nice Box,” set at an Ikea-like furniture company, Laura Blackett and Eve Gleichman deliver workplace drama with a twist.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/06/books/review/the-very-nice-box-laura-blackett-eve-gleichman.html

New & Noteworthy, From Quentin Tarantino to Comic Essays of Female Friendship

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

A selection of books published this week; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/06/books/review/new-this-week.html

A New Novel Reinvents E.M. Forster’s Classic Gay Love Story ‘Maurice’

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Forster’s novel featured a rare happy ending for gay characters. William di Canzio’s new book, “Alec,” picks up and continues their story.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/06/books/review/alec-william-di-canzio.html

Book Review: ‘Couple Found Slain,’ by Mikita Brottman

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

“Couple Found Slain,” by Mikita Brottman, offers an accounting of the criminal mental health system.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/06/books/review/mikita-brottman-couple-found-slain.html

Debut Novels by Jesse McCarthy, Gabriel Krauze and Mohamed Mbougar Sarr

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

New fiction spans gang violence in London, a fundamentalist regime in North Africa, Brooklyn gentrification and the Black diaspora in Brazil.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/06/books/review/jesse-mccarthy-fugitivities-gabriel-krauze-who-they-was-mohamed-mbougar-sarr-brotherhood.html

A Spy Thriller That Mixes Fact and Fiction to Harrowing Effect

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Featuring a C.I.A. agent with secrets in her past, potentially violent religious extremists and a risky op in Hamburg, “The Cover Wife,” by Dan Fesperman, gives imaginative twists to events plucked from our near past.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/06/books/review/the-cover-wife-dan-fesperman.html

Democracy Is for Losers (and Why That’s a Good Thing)

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In “Democracy Rules,” Jan-Werner Müller emphasizes uncertainty as an essential part of democracy, alongside the more familiar principles of liberty and equality.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/06/books/review-democracy-rules-jan-werner-muller.html

Book Review: ‘Fox & I,’ by Catherine Raven

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

“Fox & I” is Catherine Raven’s memoir of her relationship with a bushy-tailed creature — no, not a dog.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/06/books/review/fox-and-i-catherine-raven.html

A Gifted Writer Returns With a Supremely Harrowing Novel

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In Carolyn Ferrell’s “Dear Miss Metropolitan,” three young girls are kidnapped and kept in a decaying house in Queens for a decade.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/05/books/review-dear-miss-metropolitan-carolyn-ferrell.html

In Violet Kupersmith’s Novel, a Young Woman Disappears in Saigon

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The heroine of “Build Your House Around My Body,” a half-Vietnamese American in her 20s, languishes abroad.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/05/books/review/violet-kupersmith-build-your-house-around-my-body.html

A Glowing Shrine to the Printed Word

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

A mighty wall of books impresses in the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, a transformed branch that bursts with new services and technology.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/04/arts/design/Stavros-Niarchos-Foundation-Library-review.html

Summer After Summer, a Clan Returns to Cape Cod

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In her debut novel, “The Paper Palace,” Miranda Cowley Heller follows an upper-crust family through decades at their bohemian backwoods compound.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/04/books/review/the-paper-palace-miranda-cowley-heller.html

Lauren Berlant, Critic of the American Dream, Is Dead at 63

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Professor Berlant’s book “Cruel Optimism” provided a popular term to describe false hopes in an increasingly unequal nation.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/03/books/lauren-berlant-dead.html

A Brawling, Go-for-Baroque Pulpfest

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In S.A. Cosby’s new novel, “Razorblade Tears,” two fathers avenge their sons’ murders in great gothic geysers of blood.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/03/books/review/razorblade-tears-s-a-cosby.html

What to Do this Weekend

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

‘Summer of Soul,’ butter mochi and dark rosés.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/02/at-home/newsletter.html

Overlooked No More: Eve Adams, Writer Who Gave Lesbians a Voice

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Her 1925 book, “Lesbian Love,” is one of the earliest examples of American lesbian literature. She also ran Eve’s Hangout, a literary haunt in Manhattan.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/02/obituaries/eve-adams-overlooked.html

Our Best Sellers, Ourselves

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

What can the most popular books throughout American history reveal about the national character?

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/02/books/most-popular-books.html

An Outsider Finds Suspense in Hollywood

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Catherine Steadman talks about her new novel, “The Disappearing Act,” and Michael Dobbs discusses “King Richard,” his new book about Watergate.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/02/books/review/podcast-disappearing-act-catherine-steadman-king-richard-nixon-watergate-michael-dobbs.html

Her Book Described Bringing Bill Cosby to Justice. Then He Was Freed.

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Months before Andrea Constand’s memoir about the Cosby case and its aftermath was set to be published, a Pennsylvania Court overturned his conviction for assaulting her and released him.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/02/arts/television/andrea-constand-bill-cosby.html

New in Paperback: ‘The Pull of the Stars’ and ‘Memorial Drive’

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Six new paperbacks to check out this week.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/01/books/review/new-paperbacks.html

Patricia Reilly Giff, ‘Polk Street’ Children’s Book Writer, Dies at 86

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Ms. Giff wrote more than 100 books, ranging from an exploration of the Irish potato famine to a humorous series about the antics of second-graders.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/01/books/patricia-reilly-giff-dead.html

10 New Books We Recommend This Week

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/01/books/review/10-new-books-we-recommend-this-week.html

Cicadas, Average Human Lifespan and Other Letters to the Editor

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Readers respond to recent issues of the Sunday Book Review.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/01/books/review/cicadas-average-human-lifespan-and-other-letters-to-the-editor.html

Lincoln Center Names Mahogany L. Browne Its First Poet in Residence

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Mahogany Browne, the author of “Black Girl Magic” and “Chlorine Sky,” will develop in-person and virtual programming from July to August at the performing-arts center.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/01/books/lincoln-center-poet-mahogany-browne.html

The Maps Our Brains Create

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In “Brainscapes,” Rebecca Schwarzlose lays out the ways our brains let us take in information through a process of intricate “mapping.”

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/01/books/review/brainscapes-rebecca-schwartzlose.html

Poem: Tonight

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The ghazal is an M.C.’s form: repeating words, a rhyme scheme and self-referential. The good ones become like a prayer.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/01/magazine/poem-tonight.html

Dana Spiotta Loves Coming Across Jokes in Really Old Books

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

“I feel such connection to the human who made it, which delights and moves me. If you can write a joke that is still funny in 100 years, you are great.”

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/01/books/review/dana-spiotta-by-the-book-interview.html

Books Are Forever. Best Sellers Are Fleeting.

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Here’s a look at novels selling like gangbusters in the second week of July, all the way back to 1971.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/01/books/review/cane-river-lalita-tademy.html