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Book Review

Highlights

  1. 15 New Books Coming in August

    New novels by Elif Shafak and Casey McQuiston, a biography of a gay cultural icon, a dystopian tale of A.I. gone awry — and more.

     

    CreditThe New York Times
  1. Remembering the Firebrand Irish Novelist Edna O’Brien

    Her fiction delivered searing, candid portraits of Irish society through the prism of female friendship.

     By

    CreditJack Robinson/Hulton Archive, via Getty Images
    An Appraisal
  2. More States Are Passing Book Banning Rules. Here’s What They Say.

    Discussion about what books children should access has diminished on the national stage. But most rules pertaining to schools and libraries are made at the state and local level.

     By

    Protesters in Boise, Idaho show their opposition to a new law that limits access to books in the state. Restrictive laws have also gone into effect in Utah and South Carolina.
    CreditJames Dawson
  3. Jill Schary Robinson, Who Wrote of Her Hollywood Upbringing, Dies at 88

    A screenwriter’s daughter, she grew up in the glittering world of privilege and its contradictions, which became rich material for her memoirs and novels.

     By

    Jill Schary Robinson in 1979. She was, a friend said, “raised in the combination of privilege and neglect that was Hollywood,” and “that was Jill’s subject, always, the hilarity of the privilege and the punishment of the neglect.”
    CreditBernard Gotfryd, via Library of Congress
  4. This Novel’s Reliably Unreliable Narrator Is Here, There and Everywhere

    Dinaw Mengestu’s new novel follows a journalist with an elusive history and a persistent wanderlust.

     By

    CreditJuan Bernabeu
    Fiction
  5. James C. Scott, Iconoclastic Social Scientist, Dies at 87

    In influential books, he questioned top-down government programs and extolled the power of the powerless, embracing a form of anarchism.

     By

    The social scientist James C. Scott in an undated photo. A fellow professor called him “one of the great intellectuals of our time.”
    CreditMichael Marsland, via Yale University

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Books of The Times

More in Books of The Times ›
  1. A Memoir That Delivers on Its Promise of ‘Sex, Drugs, and Opera’

    In “Seeing Through,” the prolific composer Ricky Ian Gordon shares the heroes, monsters, obsessions and fetishes that drive his art and fuel a dizzying life.

     By

    “If I had my way, the whole world would look like a carnival,” Ricky Ian Gordon writes in his new memoir.
    CreditVictor Llorente for The New York Times
  2. Don’t Worry, Be Happy? ‘Feh’ on That.

    Misery makes for good company in Shalom Auslander’s second memoir, which finds him self-deprecating, drug-dabbling, envious and, oy, middle-aged.

     By

    CreditLeon Edler
  3. She Found Bounties in Small Towns, Local Talk and Everyday Life

    The simple pleasures keep coming in this keenly observed collection by the Argentinian writer Hebe Uhart.

     By

    Hebe Uhart (1936-2018).
    CreditNora Lezano
  4. The Misfit Wisdom of Harry, Barry and Larry

    Harry Crews, Barry Hannah and Larry Brown were part of a Southern writers’ movement that centered dissidents and outsiders. They’re still worth reading.

     By

    From left: Harry Crews, Larry Brown and Barry Hannah.
    CreditFrom left: The Florida Times-Union-USA Today Network; Nancy R. Schiff/Getty Images; Rollin Riggs
  5. The Art Critic Who Changed Many Tastes, Including His Own

    Peter Schjeldahl’s final book collects the essays and reviews he wrote in the years after a cancer diagnosis.

     By

    Peter Schjeldahl (1942-2022).
    CreditAda Calhoun
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  19. Paperback Row

    6 Paperbacks to Read This Week

    Recommended reading from the Book Review, including titles by Safiya Sinclair, Michael Cunningham, Tasha Sylva and more.

    By Shreya Chattopadhyay

     
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  29. The Collapse of Romance Writers of America

    The group worked for decades to build the profile of the genre and its writers. Now romance fiction is booming — but the R.W.A. has filed for bankruptcy. What happened?

    By Robert Ito

     
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  40. Nonfiction

    How QAnon Rips Families Apart

    In “The Quiet Damage,” Jesselyn Cook traces the effects of the conspiracy theory on the spouses, children and siblings of believers.

    By Roxanna Asgarian

     
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  61. Keanu Reeves Wrote a Book. A Really Weird One.

    What if the star of “The Matrix” worked with a sci-fi novelist to tell the story of an 80,000-year-old warrior who can rip people’s arms off but struggles with loneliness?

    By Alexandra Alter

     
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    The Lost Art of Mummy Smuggling

    In “Women in the Valley of the Kings,” Kathleen Sheppard introduces us to a group of 19th-century archaeologists who changed the field forever.

    By W. M. Akers

     
  64. The Doctor Is Out: What Do I Read Now?

    These stories of relationship dramas and evolving partnerships will fill the “Couples Therapy”-sized hole in your life with wisdom, schadenfreude and humor — and sometimes all of the above.

    By Sadie Stein

     
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  67. The Global Profile

    The Poet Who Commands a Rebel Army

    “Revolution is the job of poets and artists,” says Ko Maung Saungkha, leader of a rebel militia fighting the Myanmar dictatorship. He is not the only poet commander in a country with a strong tradition of political verse.

    By Hannah Beech and Daniel Berehulak

     
  68. Fiction

    King Arthur Is Dead. Long Live King Arthur!

    In Lev Grossman’s new book, “The Bright Sword,” an eager adventurer stumbles into a Camelot that has fallen into hopelessness and disarray after the death of the king.

    By Kiersten White

     
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  72. Nonfiction

    When Gangland Was Jewish

    Two exuberant new books chronicle the heyday of New York City’s criminal underworld on the Lower East Side.

    By Debby Applegate

     
  73. Fiction

    And Now, the Millennial Midlife-Crisis Novel

    In Halle Butler’s new book, “Banal Nightmare,” a 30-something woman returns to her hometown to get out of a rut and reassess her life after a bad breakup.

    By Amil Niazi

     
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  78. 3 Critics + 100 Books = Something to Argue About

    The good news: Our “Best Books of the 21st Century” list showed surprising affection for works in translation. But where are Sally Rooney, Ayad Akhtar and others “explaining how we live now”?

     
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