Top Book News provided by The New York Review of Books©

• East Side Story
  The Hungarian poet Géza Röhrig, the Shark Tank shark Kevin O’Leary, and Timothée Chalamet walk into a bar. The bar is the restaurant of the London Ritz, and it’s 1952. Gwyneth Paltrow is also there, at another table. O’Leary, playing the part of the ink tycoon Milton Rockwell in Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme, notices the […]
• A Medicine Ball in Your Stocking
  The final art newsletter of 2025 covers the art and illustrations in the Review’s Holiday Issue and has a more practical purpose than previous newsletters: I’ve been inundated with gift guides for things I can’t afford, so I’ve decided to make my own guide. Herewith, twelve tried-and-true gifts that I’ll be giving or have already […]
• ‘The Ancient and Long-Forgotten Language of Cinematography’
  Films are rarely made in response to film critics, so it is unlikely that Bi Gan’s wildly ambitious new film was inspired Susan Sontag’s 1996 essay “The Decay of Cinema.” In any case, Bi was six years old, living in Kaili, China, when Sontag declared in The New York Times that “cinema’s 100 years seem […]
• The Liberator
  One of the first things I thought of when I heard that Frank Gehry had died was a line from Orson Welles’s 1941 masterpiece, Citizen Kane. A reporter visits the title character’s former business manager, Mr. Bernstein, to interview him following the newspaper mogul’s death, and he comments that the old man had known Kane […]
• The Scramble for the Seafloor
  Since 1779 photosynthesis has been the standard-issue explanation for the continuation of life on earth: plants absorb sunlight, which fuels their metabolism, and create oxygen as waste. This is such basic, grade-school science that it normally wouldn’t bear mentioning, but in July 2024 a team led by Andrew Sweetman at the Scottish Association for Marine […]
• ‘Want in the Midst of Abundance’
  Most of us grumbled through the latest federal government shutdown, vexed by airport delays, minimally staffed national parks, and shuttered local offices. But the forty-three-day disruption in federal service hit hard for hundreds of thousands of furloughed federal employees going without pay and for the roughly 42 million Americans served by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance […]
• Investing in the Wrong Securities
  “The less coherent and self-confident ‘the West’ is, the more it needs an outside threat.”
• When the Spleen Ran Out
  I arrived in New York City from Madison, Wisconsin, on June 10, 1977, driving a U-Haul truck containing all my worldly possessions. My girlfriend, Gretchen, had preceded me by several months and rented a third-floor, $150-per-month apartment in a block of nine crumbling tenements on East 14th Street between Avenues B and C, right across […]
• A Total Breakdown of All the Easter Eggs
  In December 2019, three months before the pandemic, I was standing on a subway platform in Brooklyn when I recognized a prominent older film critic also waiting for the train. I had been reading his work for many years, so I decided I would introduce myself. It can be awkward or presumptuous to bother a […]
• ‘But Not Yet’
  “For those people who feel that they haven’t accomplished enough yet—which is to say, almost all of us!—Amy Clampitt’s life provides an allegory of persistence rewarded.”
• The Dude Ranch Above the Sea
  As a teenager, growing up in New Jersey during the 1960s, the pianist Donald Fagen routinely took a bus into Manhattan to hear his jazz heroes in the flesh. The ecstatic improvisational rough-and-tumble of Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, and Willie “The Lion” Smith stayed hardwired inside his brain, and soon Fagen landed at […]
• ‘Botany of Sorrow’
  The world, Georgi Gospodinov seems to say in his novel Death and the Gardener, will always remain split into two parts: before and after the catastrophe of losing a parent.
• Democracy Italian Style
  Alcide De Gasperi and the Christian Democrats constructed the foundations of postwar Italian politics, in which what looked like one-party rule was in fact a complex interaction between the left and the right.
• Why ‘The West’?
  The idea of the West survived a once-shared civilization as a code for its fractious heirs. A new book suggests its enduring constants have been a fear of Russia and of internal decay.
• The Anti-Trans Playbook
  The current crusade against trans people imperils not just their rights but the survival of the legal doctrine built to protect all women from discrimination.
• It Takes a Village
  The Trinidadian writer Harold Sonny Ladoo’s novel Yesterdays is relentlessly rude and crude, but also bold, experimental, truthfully ugly, and unforgettable.
• Madonna
  The baby has a stuffed rattle shaped like a fox.It curls around itself, closing its eyes,while his soft voicecomes from very far away.Outside the March rain freezes.It’s not patience you see on my facebut knowledge of a kind of timein which I myself do not exist.
• Madonna
  Today in a beam of sunthe baby’s eyelashes had gold in themand closed down on his cheek.Then clouds then sleet:April is fickle and all the worldis blowing, full of change.The baby holds my breast in his hand.The baby holds a goldfinch in his hand.The baby holds a piece of cloth against my cheekas if I […]
• ‘A Cartoon Revival’
  The illustrated poems, satirical ads, and talking shoes that filled the pages of C Comics.
• Madonna
  The tiny baby flails at my chest.The tiny nails, they tearme up, they shred me to pieces.Nothing will ever be the same.In the cold March windare pink blossoms suspended,yellow blossoms white blossomsand snow all hung, suspended, the March windripping—and nothing comes back together.I am not what you think I am.
• Hearing Your Ears Pop
  In Patricia Lockwood’s latest novel, catching Covid intensifies her relationship to language.
• Jefferson Divided
  Though his writings grappled with the contradiction between bondage and liberty, Thomas Jefferson’s life was indebted to those he enslaved.
• That Sinking Feeling
  Memoirs of survival at sea plunge the reader deep into the heart of human nature.
• It’s a Racket!
  Cryptocurrency has largely managed to remain free of government regulation, and as a result has often become a vehicle for fraud and criminality.
• Henry James’s ‘Dear Native Land’
  The writer’s 1904 tour of America left him little less than horrified at what he encountered there.
• The Calders of Philadelphia
  At Calder Gardens, art, architecture, and horticulture achieve a well-nigh perfect equilibrium.
• The Plunderers’ Dilemma
  Museums have been apologizing for the overlap of their ethnology collections with the subjects of colonial occupation, yet many still struggle to articulate a clear mission.
• An Outsider from the Beginning
  Sifting the contradictions of the Bible can bring Jesus and Mary into sharper focus and illuminate their surprisingly human features.
• Inter Alia, North Carolina Trees
  Willow oaks melting into sidewalks,propagating grass with daylong jokes,or, listen, the American holly alivewith robins flitting quicksilver throughperpetual shadow as gray foxes set offthe rainstick music of pine needles,repeating Civil War betrayals on the wind,all that undying Gothic covering fieldsof potatoes and strawberries, the antiseptictruth burns like an oil refinery in Sanford,there redbuds burst into […]
• Magic from Elsewhere
  The best of British postwar cinema portrays a country in the aftermath of catastrophe and uncertain about its future.
• The Plague That Won’t Die
  As my recent diagnosis shows, tuberculosis is not a relic of medical history. It remains the leading infectious cause of death worldwide—and America is hardly immune.
• How Strict?
  To the Editors: David Cole’s generally excellent article “Umpires No More” [NYR, August 21] is flawed only in its treatment of Mahmoud v. Taylor (2025), which held that schools in Maryland’s Montgomery County must, in Cole’s words, “provide notice to parents whenever their lessons might include any material that any religious adherent might find offensive […]
• The Soundtrack of a Generation
  The Oasis reunion tour was a series of football stadium nostalgia-fests, with the fans the unmistakable stars of the show.
• Gaza: The Threat of Partition
  On Monday the United Nations Security Council endorsed President Donald Trump’s twenty-point peace plan for Gaza, which creates a “Board of Peace,” chaired by Trump and with the participation of foreign leaders including former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, to oversee governance of the Strip. Trump hailed the approval as “a moment of true Historic […]
• The Road to Miaoxi
  During the Cold War, educated people in free societies were so familiar with figures on the other side of the Iron Curtain that they were referred to just by their last names: Solzhenitsyn, Kundera, Havel, Forman. They knew the name, too, of the Soviet system’s most notorious instrument of control, the Gulag network of forced […]
• ‘Adventures in Sensations’
  On December 18, 1974, Peter Hujar ate breakfast, met with an editor from Elle magazine, talked to Susan Sontag on the phone, spent the afternoon photographing a recalcitrant Allen Ginsberg, got Chinese takeout with the critic Vince Aletti, worked in the darkroom, practiced harpsichord, and fell asleep listening to the conversations of sex workers on […]
• Runaway Short-Termism
  Since retaking the presidency in January, Donald Trump has initiated a blitz of chaotic, damaging economic policies. For months, as Nic Johnson wrote in the NYR Online this past April, he has been waging an unprecedented trade war against much of the world, “imposing punitive tariffs and threatening to retract America’s security umbrella” in the […]
• Non Nom
  A dispatch from the Art Editor
• Shithole Cinema
  In Radu Jude’s Romania, people don’t have a good word to say about the country or its citizens; on the contrary, they curse the place with a vehemence as funny as it is obscene. Making crude jokes about “Romanianness” passes for the country’s national pastime and even, in the form of Jude’s cinema, its chief cultural […]

New York Times Books©

• Martin Amis: An Appreciation
  Our critic assesses the achievement of Martin Amis, Britain’s most famous literary son.
• Book Review: ‘NB by J.C.,’ by James Campbell
  “NB by J.C.” collects the variegated musings of James Campbell in the Times Literary Supplement.
• In ‘Fires in the Dark,’ Kay Redfield Jamison Turns to Healers
  In “Fires in the Dark,” Jamison, known for her expertise on manic depression, delves into the quest to heal. Her new book, she says, is a “love song to psychotherapy.”
• The Detective Novel ‘Whose Body?,’ by Dorothy L. Sayers, Turns 100
  Dorothy L. Sayers dealt with emotional and financial instability by writing “Whose Body?,” the first of many to star the detective Lord Peter Wimsey.
• Book Review: ‘Dom Casmurro,’ by Machado de Assis
  “Dom Casmurro,” by Machado de Assis, teaches us to read — and reread — with precise detail and masterly obfuscation.
• Book Review: ‘The Late Americans,’ by Brandon Taylor
  Brandon Taylor’s novel circulates among Iowa City residents, some privileged, some not, but all aware that their possibilities are contracting.
• Martin Amis’s Best Books: A Guide
  The acclaimed British novelist was also an essayist, memoirist and critic of the first rank.
• The Best Romance Novels of 2024 (So Far)
  Looking for an escapist love story? Here are 2024’s sexiest, swooniest reads.
• What Book Should You Read Next?
  Finding a book you’ll love can be daunting. Let us help.
• The Best Middle Grade Mysteries for Kids
  The author of the City Spies series chooses 7 crime novels that invite young readers to discover the culprit before the characters do.
• Sue Bender, Who Wrote About Living With the Amish, Dies at 91
  “Plain and Simple,” her best-selling 1989 book, was a go-to text of the anti-materialist movement known as voluntary simplicity.
• 250 Years of Jane Austen, in Objects
  To capture Jane Austen’s brief life and enormous impact, editors at The New York Times Book Review assembled a sampling of the wealth, wonder and weirdness she has brought to our lives.
• The Books Times Readers Were Most Excited About This Year
  Thrillers, literary fiction, history, memoirs and more: Here are the most popular books you saved to your reading lists.
• A Prestigious French Prize Is Reserved for Books About Animals
  It’s the day the “Animal Goncourt” is awarded. “Who better,” a judge says, “to talk about the fabulous relationship between animals and men than writers and philosophers?”
• John Darnielle on His Favorite Books and Annotated Lyrics
  The novelist and musician is a voracious reader of books in translation. In “This Year,” he annotates the literary lyrics to 365 of his own songs.
• Book Review: ‘Fear Less,’ by Tracy K. Smith
  Tracy K. Smith, a former U.S. poet laureate, makes the case in a new book of criticism.
• Book Review: ‘Furious Minds,’ by Laura K. Field
  “Furious Minds,” by Laura K. Field, traces the ascendancy of hard-right thinkers whose contempt for liberal democracy is shaping American politics.
• “Common Sense,” by Thomas Paine, Turns 250
  Thomas Paine published “Common Sense” in 1776 as an argument for independence. Americans across the political spectrum have been citing it ever since.
• Watching ‘Liberation’ With a Women’s Movement Pioneer, My Mom
  In researching her new Broadway play, Bess Wohl interviewed my mother. After a performance, we all discussed the play and its themes.
• Who Is the Ultimate Onscreen Mr. Darcy From ‘Pride and Prejudice’?
  Welcome to our Regency Thunderdome, where we will endeavor to answer this question once and for all.
• What’s the Deal With the U.S. Economy?
  As costs are rising and wallets are hurting, these books explore the promises and pitfalls of the U.S. economy.
• Jeanette Winter, Who Told Children About Artists’ Lives, Dies at 86
  Her picture books found models of perseverance and imagination in figures like Emily Dickinson, Georgia O’Keeffe and Benny Goodman.
• They Read Hundreds of Books a Year. How Do They Pick the Top 10?
  Crafting The New York Times Book Review’s annual list involves arguments, politicking and, every once in a while, a rare consensus.
• The Best Book Covers of 2025
  A Book Review art director selects the book jackets that surprised him, delighted him and stayed with him this year.
• The Best Children’s Books of 2025
  Here are the year’s most notable picture and middle grade books, selected by our children’s books editor.
• Our Critics Look Back on Their Year in Reading
  It’s been a good one. Dwight Garner, Alexandra Jacobs and Jennifer Szalai discuss the books that have stayed with them.
• Joanna Trollope, Popular British Author, Dies at 82
  Her books, many of which were best sellers, often described empty marriages, love affairs (with tasteful sex) and heroic clergymen.
• How Matt Dinniman’s ‘Dungeon Crawler Carl’ Became a Blockbuster
  Matt Dinniman introduced his series about an alien reality TV show free on the web. But readers ate up the goofy humor, now to the tune of 6 million books sold.

The Chronicle of Higher Education©

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