Book Review: ‘The Last Politician,’ by Franklin Foer

https://ift.tt/R0iC2kW

In “The Last Politician,” Franklin Foer presents the first half of Biden’s presidency as a series of made-for-television moments meant to inspire doubters and assuage critics.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/31/books/review/the-last-politician-franklin-foer.html

4 Design Books Discuss the Marks and Scars of Difficult Work

https://ift.tt/bPiEVsL

The marks and scars of difficult work underpin four new design books.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/31/style/design-books.html

Are the Avengers America’s Most Toxic Work Force?

https://ift.tt/bPiEVsL

One thing that drew Leigh Bardugo to the Avengers as a girl was that their turnover rate meant they were always hiring.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/31/books/review/marvel-avengers.html

Book Review: ‘The Fraud,’ by Zadie Smith

https://ift.tt/WUsDmbq

Her new novel, “The Fraud,” is based on a celebrated 19th-century criminal trial, but it keeps one eye focused clearly on today’s political populism.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/28/books/review/zadie-smith-the-fraud.html

Queer History Was Made in ’90s Clubs. These Fliers Captured It.

https://ift.tt/WUsDmbq

“Getting In,” a new book from David Kennerley, collects the edgy advertisements for parties at clubs like the Palladium and records a culture forged from defiance.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/28/arts/music/queer-club-fliers-getting-in-book.html

Book Review: ‘The Maverick,’ by Thomas Harding

https://ift.tt/u1WJNcU

“The Maverick: George Weidenfeld and the Golden Age of Publishing” recalls a champion of ideas with a knack for networking and a taste for the high life.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/27/books/the-maverick-george-weidenfeld-thomas-harding.html

Isabel Crook, 107, Dies; Her Life in China Spanned a Century of Change

https://ift.tt/FcOj5Xi

A noted educator and anthropologist, she spent almost her entire life in China, where she was a committed friend of the Communist government.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/25/world/asia/isabel-crook-dead.html

9 New Books We Recommend This Week

https://ift.tt/lRFv3q1

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

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/24/books/review/new-books-recommendations.html

After 122 Years, a Lost Edith Wharton Play Gets Its Debut

https://ift.tt/7WAcdNQ

The Shaw Festival in Canada is staging the novelist’s 1901 script, discovered only a few years ago. But how to get its mix of satire and melodrama just right?

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/23/theater/edith-wharton-lost-play-debut.html

Book Review: ‘Happiness Falls,’ by Angie Kim

https://ift.tt/7WAcdNQ

In Angie Kim’s new novel, “Happiness Falls,” Adam Parson’s wife and children question everything they thought they knew about him.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/23/books/review/angie-kim-happiness-falls.html

Howard S. Becker, Who Looked at Society With a Fresh Eye, Dies at 95

https://ift.tt/9nlI1dO

A sociologist, he challenged conventional thinking on matters as diverse as deviance, art making and marijuana use. He found a particular following in France.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/21/books/howard-s-becker-dead.html

Book Review: ‘The Continental Affair,’ by Christine Mangan

https://ift.tt/Fd7wbH5

Christine Mangan’s “The Continental Affair,” a cat-and-mouse chase across 1960s Europe, evokes Gauloises, orange blossoms and corner cafes.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/20/books/review/christine-mangan-the-continental-affair.html

Book Review: ‘The Great White Bard: How to Love Shakespeare While Talking About Race,’ by Farah Karim-Cooper

https://ift.tt/Uxj5z1H

In “The Great White Bard,” Farah Karim-Cooper maintains that close attention to race, and racism, will only deepen engagement with the playwright’s canon.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/18/books/the-great-white-bard-shakespeare-farah-karim-cooper.html

Amor Towles Sees Dead People

https://ift.tt/Uxj5z1H

The novelist discusses his career and his recent essay about cadavers in crime fiction, and the actor Richard E. Grant talks about his memoir and his love of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/18/books/review/amor-towles-sees-dead-people.html

To Hear Michael Oher’s Side of ‘The Blind Side’ Story, Read His Memoirs

https://ift.tt/8kZ2sfF

The former N.F.L. player and inspiration for “The Blind Side” just launched a legal battle with the family he once considered his own. Two memoirs tell Oher’s side of the story.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/books/michael-oher-two-memoirs.html

Paul Brodeur, Reporter Who Exposed the Hazards of Asbestos, Dies at 92

https://ift.tt/8kZ2sfF

In his long career at The New Yorker, he specialized in writing about this and other threats to people’s health, including chlorofluorocarbons.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/business/media/paul-brodeur-dead.html

Poem: From ‘Letters to Walt Whitman’

https://ift.tt/O9eBf0D

Ronald Johnson’s work has long been a secret beauty, treasured by readers but difficult to find.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/magazine/poem-from-letters-to-walt-whitman.html

Children’s Picture Books About Seeing Our Reflections

https://ift.tt/O9eBf0D

Sometimes our reflections have nothing to do with us; sometimes they’re “the hide to our seek.”

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/16/books/review/children-picture-books-reflections.html

Newly Published, from Young Adult Novels to The Allman Brothers Band

https://ift.tt/ExFvmVh

A selection of recently published books.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/16/books/review/new-this-week.html

Werner Herzog Is the Voice of A.I. Poetry

https://ift.tt/QecYdJy

When asked to narrate an audiobook of machine-generated verse, Mr. Herzog readily agreed. “I wasn’t the best choice,” he said. “I was the only choice.”

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/14/style/werner-herzog-ai-poetry.html

Nechama Tec, Polish Holocaust Survivor and Scholar, Dies at 92

https://ift.tt/GkSeYzm

She wrote about heroic Jewish resisters in her book “Defiance,” which was later made into a film starring Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/13/world/europe/nechama-tec-dead.html

Keith Waldrop, Professor and Award-Winning Poet, Dies at 90

https://ift.tt/GkSeYzm

He won the National Book Award for poetry in 2009, having first been nominated 40 years earlier. He taught at Brown University for four decades.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/12/books/keith-waldrop-dead.html

Richard J. Whalen, Biographer of Joseph P. Kennedy, Dies at 87

https://ift.tt/I7zohYt

His book about the patriarch of the Kennedy political dynasty was a best seller. He later worked, briefly and not happily, for Richard M. Nixon.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/11/books/richard-j-whalen-dead.html

Swallowed by a Whale, and Other August Books

https://ift.tt/I7zohYt

Sarah Lyall discusses the thriller “Whalefall,” by Daniel Kraus, and Joumana Khatib rounds up the month’s other big books.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/11/books/review/swallowed-by-a-whale-and-other-august-books.html

9 New Books We Recommend This Week

https://ift.tt/dSmh1JC

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

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/10/books/review/new-books-recommendations.html

Martin Walser, 92, Dies; Among the Last Postwar German Literary Titans

https://ift.tt/LxNlm6o

He won critical and commercial acclaim, but drew censure for comments on the Holocaust and antisemitic tropes in one of his novels.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/08/books/martin-walser-dead.html

Paramount Agrees to Sell Simon & Schuster to KKR, a Private Equity Firm

https://ift.tt/ymEq7wG

The deal, for $1.62 billion, will put control of a cultural touchstone in the hands of a financial buyer.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/07/books/booksupdate/paramount-simon-and-schuster-kkr-sale.html

Book Review: ‘Bridge,’ by Lauren Beukes

https://ift.tt/ymEq7wG

In Lauren Beukes’s surreal new book, “Bridge,” a young woman embarks on a metaphysical quest to find her family before a fearsome hunter does.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/07/books/review/bridge-lauren-beukes.html

Paramount Nears Announcement for Simon & Schuster Deal

https://ift.tt/tdLwyhx

The deal with KKR, a private equity firm, is said to be valued at roughly $1.62 billion, and could be announced as soon as Monday.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/06/books/simon-schuster-kkr-sale.html

Book Review: ‘The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store,’ by James McBride

https://ift.tt/tdLwyhx

“The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store” opens with the discovery of a skeleton in a well, and then flashes back to explore its connection to a town’s Black, Jewish and immigrant history.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/06/books/review/the-heaven-and-earth-grocery-store-james-mcbride.html

Book Review: ‘Pet,’ by Catherine Chidgey

https://ift.tt/tdLwyhx

In Catherine Chidgey’s seventh novel, “Pet,” a motherless 12-year-old girl falls under the intoxicating spell of a mysterious teacher at her Catholic school in New Zealand.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/06/books/review/catherine-chidgey-pet.html

A New Frontier for Travel Scammers: A.I.-Generated Guidebooks

https://ift.tt/FC7symT

Shoddy guidebooks are flooding Amazon. Their authors claim to be renowned travel writers, but are they A.I. inventions? And how big is the problem?

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/05/travel/amazon-guidebooks-artificial-intelligence.html

Julia Scully, Influential Photography Editor and Memoirist, Dies at 94

https://ift.tt/FC7symT

She oversaw Modern Photography for 20 years and wrote an acclaimed book about her rough-and-tumble childhood, some of it spent in an orphanage and in remote Alaska.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/04/books/julia-scully-dead.html

Seiichi Morimura, 90, Who Exposed Japanese Wartime Atrocities, Dies

https://ift.tt/e2hmarW

In a widely read book, he detailed gruesome biological experiments on people at a secret Imperial Army site in occupied China before and during World War II.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/03/world/asia/seiichi-morimura-dead.html

9 New Books We Recommend This Week

https://ift.tt/e2hmarW

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

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/03/books/review/new-books-recommendations.html

Lois Libien, Who Found a Readership With Household Tips, Dies at 87

https://ift.tt/CxhQOqm

As a journalist she covered issues affecting women, then turned to writing about housekeeping in handbooks and a syndicated newspaper column.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/02/books/lois-libien-dead.html

Alan Roland, 93, Psychoanalyst Who Cautioned Against Western Bias, Dies

https://ift.tt/CxhQOqm

In “In Search of Self” and other books, he emphasized the role of cultural influences in a patient’s life.

via NYT > Books https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/02/science/alan-roland-psychoanalyst-dead.html