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Book Review

Highlights

  1. Crime & Mystery Novels

    4 Great Fictional Detectives

    The books in this month’s column have something in common: unforgettable main characters.

     By

    CreditPablo Amargo
  1. A Spin Doctor to the Rich and Corrupt Spills His Secrets

    In “All the Worst Humans,” Phil Elwood recounts a career spent engineering headlines for some of the world’s villains.

     By

    Mutassim el-Qaddafi, a son of the Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi, in 2009. As a high-end public relations executive, Phil Elwood was paid to spend three days “babysitting” Qaddafi at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas.
    CreditJuan Barreto/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
    Nonfiction
  2. The Angel of Death Has Some Reservations About His Job

    Joy Williams distills much learning — from philosophy, religion and history — into 99 stories about the guy who takes your soul.

     By

    Joy Williams, blasphemer.
    CreditJay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times, via Contour RA
    Fiction
  3. How Much Do You Know About the American Revolution?

    This short quiz tests your knowledge of certain Revolutionary War events and books about the era.

     By

    CreditBen Hickey
  4. Shay Youngblood, Influential Author and Playwright, Dies at 64

    She wrote memorably about her upbringing by a circle of maternal elders and the life lessons they imparted, and of her yearning for the mother she lost.

     By

    Shay Youngblood in 2021. Her first book, “The Big Mama Stories” (1989), was adapted into her first play, “Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery,” and she won a Pushcart Prize for fiction for “Born With Religion,” one of the short stories in that book.
    CreditCarolyn Miller
  5. At This Summer Camp, Ticks and Archery Aren’t the Biggest Dangers

    In Liz Moore’s new novel, “The God of the Woods,” a pair of missing siblings spark a reckoning on the banks of an Adirondack lake.

     By

    CreditAntoine Cossé
    Fiction

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Books of The Times

More in Books of The Times ›
  1. Jailhouse Correspondence Gives Bernie Madoff the ‘Final Word’

    The journalist Richard Behar communicated extensively with the disgraced financier. His rigorous if irreverent book acknowledges his subject’s humanity.

     By

    A 1999 portrait of Bernie Madoff on his Manhattan trading floor. He was jailed in 2009 and died in 2021.
    CreditRuby Washington/The New York Times
  2. Who Was Harriet Tubman? A Historian Sifts the Clues.

    A brisk new biography by the National Book Award-winning historian Tiya Miles aims to restore the iconic freedom fighter to human scale.

     By

    Harriet Tubman, circa 1885. Pop-cultural attention to Tubman’s extraordinary life has been double-edged, commemorating her accomplishments while also making it harder to discern who she actually was.
    CreditNational Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
  3. Have You Heard the One About the School for Stand-Up Comedy?

    In “The Material,” Camille Bordas imagines the anxious hotbed where the perils of being a college student and the perils of being funny meet.

     By

    CreditPavel Popov
  4. Anthony Fauci, a Hero to Some and a Villain to Others, Keeps His Cool

    In a frank but measured memoir, “On Call,” the physician looks back at a career bookended by two public health crises: AIDS and Covid-19.

     By

    CreditChip Somodevilla/Getty Images
  5. Millions of Americans Watched ‘The Apprentice.’ Now We Are Living It.

    As a new book by Ramin Setoodeh shows, Donald Trump brought the vulgar theatrics he honed on TV to his life in politics.

     By

    Donald Trump in Universal City, Calif., during a promotional tour for “The Apprentice” in 2004.
    CreditAmanda Edwards/Getty Images
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  3. A Guide to Ismail Kadare’s Books

    Kadare received the inaugural International Booker Prize in 2005. In his books, the prolific Albanian author offered a window into the psychology of oppression. Here’s where to start.

    By Amelia Nierenberg

     
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  8. 5 favorite places

    John Waters’s Baltimore

    The writer and director, famous for making theatergoers squirm in their seats, says he feels most at home wherever the outsiders gather in his native city.

    By Megan McCrea

     
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  14. Paperback Row

    6 Paperbacks to Read This Week

    Selected paperbacks from the Book Review, including titles by Darrin Bell, Maggie Smith, David Friend and more.

    By Shreya Chattopadhyay

     
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  22. 30 L.G.B.T.Q. Artists Look Back on the Pleasures and Pain of Being 30

    For Pride Month, we asked people ranging in age from 34 to 93 to share an indelible memory. Together, they offer a personal history of queer life as we know it today.

    By Nicole Acheampong, Max Berlinger, Jason Chen, Kate Guadagnino, Colleen Hamilton, Mark Harris, Juan A. Ramírez, Coco Romack, Michael Snyder and John Wogan

     
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  49. Paperback Row

    6 Paperbacks to Read This Week

    This week's selection includes titles by Gabrielle Zevin, Peace Adzo Medie, Patrick Mackie and more.

    By Shreya Chattopadhyay

     
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  63. Fiction

    Writers, the Wretched of the Earth

    In Munir Hachemi’s novel “Living Things,” four young men seek adventure for “literary capital” and find exploitation.

    By Rob Doyle

     
  64. Q. and A.

    Bob Eckstein Has the Perfect Museum for You

    Is the Mob Museum on your list? The writer and illustrator sees his new guide to North America’s museums as a way to help families plan their summer vacations.

    By Amy Virshup

     
  65. Nonfiction

    What Can’t You Say These Days?

    In “The Indispensable Right,” Jonathan Turley argues that the First Amendment has been deeply compromised from the start.

    By Jeff Shesol

     
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  67. fiction

    A Hot, Fraught Cape Cod Family Drama

    In her new novel, “Sandwich,” Catherine Newman explores the aches and joys of midlife via one family’s summer week at the beach.

    By Cathi Hanauer

     
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  85. 33 Novels Coming This Summer

    Watch for new books by J. Courtney Sullivan, Kevin Barry and Casey McQuiston; re-immerse yourself in beloved worlds conjured by Walter Mosley, Elin Hilderbrand and Rebecca Roanhorse.

    By Kate Dwyer

     
  86. 19 Nonfiction Books to Read This Summer

    Memoirs from Anthony Fauci and Anna Marie Tendler, a reappraisal of Harriet Tubman, a history of reality TV from Emily Nussbaum — and plenty more.

    By Wilson Wong

     
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