Nonfiction: How the Dispute Over Runaway Slaves Helped Fuel the Civil War
“The War Before the War,” by the literary critic Andrew Delbanco, is a forceful and eloquent case for the role of fugitives in fomenting a national crisis.
The Shortlist: Hunger Games: Three Memoirs Where Food Takes Center Stage
In culinary essays, Dawn Drzal, Christine S. O’Brien and Ann Hood embark on personal journeys in which meals reveal much more than what’s on the menu.
New & Noteworthy
A selection of books published this week; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading.
Essay: How Hollywood Gets the Publishing Industry Wrong
Book publishing is big on TV and in the movies. The essayist Sloane Crosley, a former book publicist, fact-checks the shows.
Nonfiction: A Book That Will Make You Terrified of Your Own House
Rob Dunn’s “Never Home Alone” catalogs the world of microbial beings that share our living space and inhabit our showerheads and pillowcases.
Nonfiction: Superb Oddities: Robert Gottlieb Reviews a Biography of Edward Gorey
In “Born to Be Posthumous,” Mark Dery probes the “eccentric life” and “mysterious genius” of the illustrator whose books have proved fiendishly irresistible.
The Book Review Podcast: Tyranny in Rome and Fake Drugs in Fiction
Yascha Mounk discusses Edward J. Watts’s “Mortal Republic,” and Jonathan Lethem talks about the surge of fictional psychotropic drugs in novels.
Inside the List: What the Authors of Our 10 Best Books Read and Loved This Year
2018 was a good year for books. Some of the authors we admire weigh in on their favorite reads.
Notes from the Book Review Archive: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Thought Sherlock Holmes Was ‘a Lower Stratum of Literary Achievement’
In which we consult the Book Review’s past to shed light on the books of the present. This week: J. Donald Abrams on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
New in Paperback: ‘The Cooking Gene,’ ‘The Music Shop’
Six new paperbacks to check out this week.
Fiction: A Real-Life Murder, Committed in the Name of Islamic Extremism, Inspires a Debut Novel
Guy Gunaratne’s “In Our Mad and Furious City” interweaves five urban lives against a backdrop of racial and political violence.
The Literati: The Spiritual Life of Arthur Conan Doyle
The creator of Sherlock Holmes harbored a deep-seated belief in mysticism, telepathy, fairies and ghosts.
The Shortlist: Three French Novels You Should Read
New translations include a lush historical novel about Michelangelo, a hybrid memoir/novel from a Nobel Prize winner and a mother-daughter melodrama.
Nonfiction: A Close-Up Look at the British Men and Women Who Ruled India
David Gilmour’s “The British in India” examines the personal lives of the small number of individuals who controlled a vast territory.
Nonfiction: What Matters in Old Age: Rereading, Reconsidering and Reassessing
The literary critic Susan Gubar’s memoir, “Late-Life Love,” blends tales of her marriage with discussions of works whose meaning has changed for her over time.
New & Noteworthy
A selection of books published this week; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading.
Fiction: In a Brutal Chinese Satire, Villagers Surrender to Their Worst Impulses
Yan Lianke’s novel “The Day the Sun Died” takes place on a single night, when a plague of somnambulism unleashes a host of suppressed emotions.
Letters to the Editor
Readers respond to recent issues of the Sunday Book Review.
Self-Helped: The Art of Bullet Journaling and the Improved To-Do List
First, ask yourself: Does this thought actually belong here?
Graphic Content: When Comics Writers Defy Gender Norms
In her column, Hillary Chute reviews four new graphic novels that use the form to challenge societal expectations about sex.
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