A benign quirk of humanity is that we are delighted by things designed to look like other things. A bed shaped like a swan. A sauna shaped like a garlic bulb. A toilet brush shaped like a cherry. The designer Elsa Schiaparelli made fashion history with her acts of surreal mimicry, creating buttons in the … Read more
Three book events at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta were abruptly canceled late this week, raising questions about whether leadership changes at the National Archives and Records Administration were affecting programming at the 13 presidential libraries it oversees. The events, which featured authors of books on climate change, homelessness and the … Read more
Dear readers, If the retail price of a book were pegged to the number of high-quality ideas it contained, the two books below would sell for downright goofy sums. And by the same logic, a book that contained zero ideas or — worse — lazy or unsupported ones would owe the reader money for squandered … Read more
I think every crime and mystery writer has four types of novels they will inevitably write in their career: a murder mystery, a heist novel, a novel of revenge — and a serial killer novel. Serial killers are our modern-day boogeymen (and women). They have replaced the vampire, the werewolf and even the ghost as … Read more
THE PROSECUTOR: One Man’s Battle to Bring Nazis to Justice, by Jack Fairweather On a gray wintry day in December 1970, Willy Brandt, the first postwar Social Democratic chancellor of West Germany, fell to his knees at a Warsaw monument to the Jews who had fought there against the Nazis. His gesture has come to … Read more
ALL OR NOTHING: How Trump Recaptured America, by Michael Wolff In early 2021, after losing the presidency to Joe Biden, an embittered Donald Trump returned to brood at his Florida golf club. Mobs of his supporters had tried to overturn the election on Jan. 6, and many of his closest allies had deserted him, including … Read more
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | How to Listen You’re familiar with Edward Gorey, whether you know it or not. The prolific author and illustrator, who was born 100 years ago this week, was ubiquitous for a time in the 1970s and 1980s, and his elaborate black-and-white line drawings — often depicting delightfully grim neo-Victorian … Read more
In an email interview, the historian and biographer shared why it was “time to look closer to home,” and praised the “most honest presidential memoir” yet. SCOTT HELLER What books are on your night stand? David Greenberg, “John Lewis: A Life”; Joshua Green, “The Rebels: Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the Struggle for … Read more
This weekend (Feb. 22 to be exact) marks the centenary of the birth of Edward Gorey, an artist whose work has wielded a ridiculous amount of power over my own art, and even my worldview: Why else would a seventh grader throw around words like “epiplectic” and be unduly concerned about accidentally drinking lye? My … Read more
