The Essential Tanith Lee
The eclectic, prolific author wrote more than 90 novels — primarily fantasy and science fiction, but also horror, erotica, mysteries and historical fiction. If you’ve never read her work, here’s where to start.
Molly Young on Space and Music
A Booker-winning novel; a rocking essay collection.
Book Review: ‘The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto,’ by Benjamin Wallace
In “The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto,” Benjamin Wallace is hot on the trail of the person — or people — behind a financial revolution.
Anarchists Helped Build Up Free Speech. Donald Trump Is Tearing It Down.
As two recent books show, free speech protections were forged a century ago by people who fought for the rights of activists.
Book Review: ‘The Snares,’ by Rav Grewal-Kök
“The Snares,” by Rav Grewal-Kök, examines the perils and moral quandaries of clandestine service.
Terrifying New Horror Novels
Our columnist reviews this month’s releases.
Book Club: Let’s Talk About Han Kang’s ‘We Do Not Part’
This Korean novel by the 2024 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature turns a pet-sitting mission into a haunting reflection on grief and memory.
Book Review: ‘Stuff,’ by Kim Hastreiter
A new book collects the Paper Magazine co-founder Kim Hastreiter’s most treasured belongings, and friends.
Best Historical Fantasy Books
The author of “The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi” recommends fantastical tales grounded in real history.
The Best New Historical Fiction
Our critic on the month’s best releases.
The Japanese Origins of the American Picture Book
Missing for decades from the Anglophile version of its origin story was another great visual narrative tradition, of the East.
Review: ‘Picture of Dorian Gray,’ Starring Sarah Snook and 3 Million Pixels
The “Succession” actress plays all 26 roles in this Oscar Wilde classic reimagined as a video spectacle. If only there were less screen time and more IRL contact.
8 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
Lincoln vs. Davis : The War of the Presidents
UnCovered Review by Frank Tomasello, ACLS Mays Landing Branch
It is indeed ironic that it took a British born and educated biographer to produce one of the most insightful books I have read concerning the beginning of the U.S. Civil War in the more than two decades I have been studying this war; LINCOLN VS. DAVIS by Nigel Hamilton. Most are familiar with the way the war was waged in the first year and a half, but few that I have seen delve into the “whys.” More specifically, how was the underdog Confederacy able to achieve so many victories against a better equipped and better financed Union army which fielded armies two to three times the size of those of the Confederacy? Author Hamilton went digging for the answer, which he found in the letters and diaries of various contemporaries, including Lincoln’s own cabinet members.
The situation that Lincoln faced upon assuming the Presidency was dire and perhaps the most challenging any U.S. President has ever faced. As becomes clear in this book, Lincoln was simply not up to the task. Worse yet, Lincoln knew he was in over his head (at least at the beginning of the war) and that affected his handling of it. He had virtually no military experience and scant political experience and attempted to govern by consensus. Unfortunately, those from whom he sought consensus had conflicting interests of their own.
In this dual biography, the same treatment is given the governance of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy. In some ways, Davis was the polar opposite of Lincoln. Davis was a born soldier. He had been a hero in the Mexican War of the 1840s, and parlayed that into seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate and to the position of Secretary of War in the administration of President Franklin Pierce. Unfortunately, Davis was more the soldier and less the politician.
Neither President was truly up to the task that faced them in the early years of the Civil War and relied upon their generals (McClellan for Lincoln and Lee for Davis). Further complicating matters was the pressure brought to bear by “Fire-eater” extremist pro-slavery advocates and “Radical” abolitionists. These interests were balanced against the desire of both sides to win the allegiance of the “border states” (non-aligned slave-holding states).
Sadly, all of these factors led to a protracted bloody struggle for the soul of our nation. This book brings into sharp focus the early missteps that made that so. I highly recommend this book to anyone already interested in this period of U.S. history.
The Truth About F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Drunken Brawl in Rome
Biographers took an account of a scuffle in “Tender Is the Night” as a record of a real-life event. But uncovered documents suggest Fitzgerald may have behaved worse than he wrote.
Interview: Maggie Smith on ‘Dear Writer’ and Her Reading Life
“I’ve had to set that limiting belief aside,” she says, “in order to write other kinds of books without feeling like an interloper.” Her new guidebook is called “Dear Writer.”
New Romance Books
Our critic on the month’s best new releases.
L.J. Smith, Author of ‘Vampire Diaries’ Book Series, Dies at 66
She wrote seven books in a series that went on to be a hit TV show. After she was replaced by ghostwriters, she reclaimed her characters online in fan fiction.
Dennis McDougal, True-Crime Author and Muckraker of the Movie Industry, Dies at 77
The author of more than a dozen books and an award-winning documentary, he died in a car crash in Southern California.
In ‘Streetcar,’ Patsy Ferran Gives Blanche a Nervy New Read
The London-based actress has been heralded as one of the most talented of her generation. Still, she worried audiences would balk at her “very unconventional Blanche.”
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