Newly Released Books
By SUSANNAH MEADOWS
Novels by Louise Dean, Hervé Le Tellier, David Levithan and Rana Dasgupta; a book of true New York love stories; and an anthology of writers’ reflections on Paris.
Book News and Reviews
Michael Lionstar
Karen Russell
In her first novel, set in a failing Florida alligator theme park, Karen Russell uses bizarre ingredients to absolutely irresistible effect.
Google Announces Payment System for Digital Content
By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER
The system, called Google One Pass, aims to be more publisher-friendly than a rival plan offered by Apple a day earlier.
Shy U.S. Intellectual Created Playbook Used in a Revolution
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
For decades, the writings of Gene Sharp have inspired dissidents around the world.
Books of The Times
‘Mad as Hell’
By DOMINIC SANDBROOK
Reviewed by DWIGHT GARNER
Dominic Sandbrook’s political history of 1970s conservative populism also delves into the period’s music, films, fads, cults, sitcoms, bumper stickers, best sellers and bad juju.
Margaret K. McElderry, Children’s Book Publisher, Dies at 98
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Ms. McElderry, the grande dame of children’s book publishing, recruited authors with a new sensibility, ventured into controversial subjects and led the way in publishing foreign works.
Taking Her Art Seriously, Not Herself
By BROOKS BARNES
Judi Dench has a new book, “And Furthermore,” that chronicles her 54-year career in theater and film production by production.
Books of The Times
‘Tough Without a Gun’
By STEFAN KANFER
Reviewed by MICHIKO KAKUTANI
The on-screen and off-screen personas of Humphrey Bogart are well chronicled, but no less seductive more than 50 years after his death.
Books on Science
Imagining a World of Total Connectedness, and Its Consequences
By KATHERINE BOUTON
In “World Wide Mind,” Michael Chorost borrows from his own experience with a cochlear implant.
Books of The Times
‘A Widow’s Story’
By JOYCE CAROL OATES
Reviewed by JANET MASLIN
In “A Widow’s Story” Joyce Carol Oates reflects on the pain of losing her husband after nearly 48 years of marriage.
Bookshelf
Of Love in the City, and Black History
By SAM ROBERTS
Ariel Sabar writes of serendipitous connections, a photographer captures the urban landscape, and a professor writes of the African-American elite.
WikiLeaks Angry About Ex-Staff Member’s Book
By RAVI SOMAIYA
A tell-all book to be released Friday is highly critical of Julian Assange, and says the Web site was disabled by a spate of defections last year.
Books of The Times
Poems of Pain, the Raw and the Remembered
By DANA JENNINGS
This pile of slim books is filled with poems bearing ideas large, small and distilled.
Sunday Book Review
‘J. D. Salinger: A Life’
By KENNETH SLAWENSKI
Reviewed by JAY McINERNEY
Illustration by Paul Sahre; photographs by Antony di Gesu/San Diego Historical Society — Hulton Archive Collection/Getty Images
The great achievement of Kenneth Slawenski’s reverent biography, coming just a year after Salinger’s death, is its evocation of the horror of his experiences in World War II.
‘Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother’
By AMY CHUA
Reviewed by SUSAN DOMINUS
Amy Chua preaches tough love and high expectations in a memoir about the lengths she went to in pushing her daughters to excel.
‘Osama bin Laden’
By MICHAEL SCHEUER
Reviewed by FOUAD AJAMI
An ex-C.I.A. bin Laden hunter worries about U.S. complacency.
‘The Gospel of Anarchy’
By JUSTIN TAYLOR
Reviewed by DAN KOIS
The rise and fall of an anarchist collective is the subject of Justin Taylor’s first novel.
‘Henry’s Demons’
By PATRICK COCKBURN and HENRY COCKBURN
Reviewed by DARIN STRAUSS
A father reports on, and a son describes, the experience of schizophrenia.
‘I Think I Love You’
By ALLISON PEARSON
Reviewed by ALEXANDRA JACOBS
In this novel, a teenager’s crush on David Cassidy helps shape the rest of her life.
‘The Second Son’
By JONATHAN RABB
Reviewed by TARA McKELVEY
A German detective searches for his son during the Spanish Civil War.
‘Wild Bill Donovan’
By DOUGLAS WALLER
Reviewed by JENNET CONANT
A biography of William J. Donovan, the head of the World War II intelligence service that preceded the C.I.A.
‘The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady’
By ELIZABETH STUCKEY-FRENCH
Reviewed by JINCY WILLETT
This novel’s heroine, 77, was poisoned in a cold war medical experiment.
Books About Nelson Mandela
Reviewed by J. M. LEDGARD
New books tell of Mandela’s birth to a royal court, his struggle to adapt to racist South Africa, and the peace he maintained in prison.
‘Virtually You’ and ‘Reality Is Broken’
By ELIAS ABOUJAOUDE and JANE McGONIGAL
Reviewed by WILLIAM SALETAN
Two views: the Internet is leading us to temptation, or perhaps teaching us how to be good.
‘Triumph of the City’
By EDWARD GLAESER
Reviewed by DIANA SILVER
A Harvard economist acclaims the environmental virtues of cities.
‘In the Valley of the Shadow’
By JAMES L. KUGEL
Reviewed by JUDITH SHULEVITZ
A biblical scholar uses his encounter with death to investigate the state of mind in which one intuits something on the order of God.
‘13, Rue Thérèse’
By ELENA MAULI SHAPIRO
Reviewed by MAX BYRD
A novel reimagines a real Frenchwoman’s lusty life from her unclaimed belongings.
‘Endgame’
By FRANK BRADY
Reviewed by DYLAN LOEB McCLAIN
A biography of the admired chess master and reviled eccentric Bobby Fischer.
‘House of Prayer No. 2’
By MARK RICHARD
Reviewed by SARAH SHUN-LIEN BYNUM
A memoir of growing up disabled in the South, becoming a writer and embracing faith.
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PRINT & E-BOOKS
- Fiction
- Nonfiction
HARDCOVER
- Trade Fiction
- Mass-Market Fiction
- Nonfiction
PAPERBACK
Introducing E-Book Best Sellers
By THE EDITORS
This week's Book Review introduces revamped best-seller lists, the result of many months of planning, research and design.
Book Review Preview
Egypt: The Cultural Revolution
By ROBYN CRESWELL
The poems and songs of Tahrir Square directly challenge the official worldview propagated by the Mubarak regime.
Essay
Daniel Bell, Master Builder
By SAM TANENHAUS
With the death last month of Daniel Bell, we lost a prescient big thinker on many subjects, including ideology and American politics.
Crime
Twisted Trails
By MARILYN STASIO
Mystery novels by Urban Waite, Jed Rubenfeld, Alan Bradley and Martha Grimes.
Children’s Books
‘The Boy in the Garden’
By ALLEN SAY
Reviewed by ROGER SUTTON
A young Japanese boy mistakes the real and imaginary in this picture book from Allen Say.
‘Forge’
By LAURIE HALSE ANDERSON
Reviewed by JERRY GRISWOLD
Laurie Halse Anderson’s new novel about the American Revolution and colonial-era slavery is a sequel to her prize-winning “Chains.”
‘The Steps Across the Water’
By ADAM GOPNIK
Reviewed by DAVID BARRINGER
Adam Gopnik’s children’s fantasy is a multilayered tribute to both the real and the mythic New York.
Book Review Podcast
Featuring Susan Dominus on Amy Chua’s “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”; and Alexandra Jacobs on Allison Pearson’s new novel, “I Think I Love You.”
Obituaries
Joanne Siegel, the Model for Lois Lane, Dies at 93
By BRUCE WEBER
During the Depression Ms. Siegel hired herself out as a model to an aspiring comic book artist, Joe Shuster, and thus became the first physical incarnation of Superman’s love interest.
Sunday Magazine
The Medium
Table Disservice
By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN
You’re welcome to linger in a cafe, as long as your reading material isn’t battery-powered.
Style
The First Lady’s Look, in a Book
By IRINA ALEKSANDER
A party for Kate Betts’s “Everyday Icon: Michelle Obama and the Power of Style,” part coffee-table book and part historical essay.
Book Review Features
TBR
Inside the List
By JENNIFER SCHUESSLER
Four years ago, Ree Drummond was just another sometime city girl turned Oklahoma ranch wife with a flock of home-schooled children and a blog. Now, she’s a full-fledged media star.
A Word From Stieg Larsson's Partner, and Would-Be Collaborator
February 17, 2011
Maid Sues Author of ‘The Help’
February 17, 2011
In Memoriam: Margaret K. McElderry
February 16, 2011
Browsing Books
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