Book Reviews
Nonfiction: A Blundering Churchill, a Farsighted Roosevelt
Nigel Hamilton’s “War and Peace,” the third volume of his Roosevelt trilogy, takes a revisionist look at the two wartime partners.
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Nonfiction: Inside the Elite World of National Spelling Bee Competitors
Shalini Shankar’s “Beeline” explores the stakes of these intense, “brain-sport” championships on Generation Z.
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Fiction: In a Faux-Victorian Fantasy World, Bookbinders Capture Souls
The craftsmen in Bridget Collins’s novel “The Binding” are able to remove a person’s memories and create books full of captured experiences.
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Nonfiction: ‘The Cat in the Hat’ and the Man Who Made That
“Becoming Dr. Seuss,” a new biography of Theodor Geisel by Brian Jay Jones, chronicles the famous children’s book author’s influential career, zany imagination and original rhyme schemes.
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Nonfiction: What, Exactly, Do We Mean by ‘Democracy’ Anyway?
In “Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone,” Astra Taylor examines the ways, both good and bad, the concept has been defended, defined and put into practice.
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Fiction: A Novel About Surrogacy, Set at a ‘Farm’ Where the Crop Is Human Babies
In Joanne Ramos’s “The Farm,” the bodies of the less privileged “host” the unborn babies of the ultrarich.
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Fiction: ‘Boy Swallows Universe’ Follows a Gritty Coming-of-Age in 1980s Australia
Trent Dalton used his own biography as inspiration for his debut novel.
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Nonfiction: The True-Crime Story That Harper Lee Tried and Failed to Write
In “Furious Hours,” Casey Cep investigates the Alabama murder case that was to have been the focus of Lee’s second book — as well as the famously reclusive writer herself, plumbing the mystery of her 50-year silence.
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Fiction: Spring Cleaning, Ali Smith Style
The third novel in her seasonal quartet — consumed with Brexit, refugee detention, social media — suggests we’re hurtling toward the horrific.
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Fiction: Relive the ’60s Counterculture in ‘Revolutionaries’
Joshua Furst’s second novel tells the story of a radical from the perspective of his son.
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The Week in Books
New titles to watch for in May, a Canadian bookstore chain heads to the U.S. and more.
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Fiction: A Sudanese Slave Starts a New Life in an Italian Convent
Véronique Olmi’s novel “Bakhita” reimagines the real-life story of St. Josephine Bakhita, captured as a child in Darfur and liberated in Venice.
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Nonfiction: Europe’s Glorious Years of Peace and Prosperity
Ian Kershaw’s “The Global Age” looks back on the extraordinary achievements of the recent past.
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Nonfiction: The Many Tragedies of 9/11
Mitchell Zuckoff’s “Fall and Rise” is a moment-to-moment re-creation of the events of 9/11, with a focus on the people most closely affected.
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By the Book: By the Book: Ruth Reichl
The food writer and author, most recently, of the memoir “Save Me the Plums” was 10 when she read Henry Miller. “If it’s over her head, she simply won’t understand it,” her mother said.
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The Book Review Podcast: Laila Lalami on ‘The Other Americans’
Lalami discusses her new novel, and Jenny Odell talks about “How to Do Nothing.”
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Children’s Books: Short Books for Kids That Make a Big Impact
In refreshingly brief new novels, kids solve family mysteries, save younger siblings and help a grandparent break out of a hospital.
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Inside the List: ‘Call Me a Science Fiction Writer. I’ll Come to Your House and Nail Your Pet’s Head to a Coffee Table.’
That quote from Harlan Ellison illustrates — quite colorfully — the long-smoldering genre snobbery debate that Ian McEwan recently entered.
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The Shortlist: The Future of A.I., According to Three New Books
“The Creativity Code,” “Deep Medicine” and “Talk to Me” together reveal the wide range of influence technology does, should and will have on the human condition.
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Sketchbook | Graphic Review: A Graphic Reimagining of ‘Robinson Crusoe’
The illustrator Sergio García Sánchez takes on Daniel Defoe’s classic, capturing the narrative’s range in a single image.
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