By the Book: Ian Buruma: By the Book
Ian Buruma, whose new book is the memoir “A Tokyo Romance,” prefers villains to heroes: “It is hard to write about a good person without making him or her look like a bore.”
2 Decades In The Making, 'Green Sun' Is Worth The Wait
Kent Anderson's new novel is a sequel to 1997's Night Dogs, and it picks up with antihero Hanson, once an English teacher, now working as a police officer in Oakland — bad attitude entirely intact.
(Image credit: Eslah Attar/NPR)
Books of The Times: Steven Pinker Wants You to Know Humanity Is Doing Fine. Just Don’t Ask About Individual Humans.
In “Enlightenment Now,” the psychologist continues his argument that conditions are improving for the species as a whole.
Nonfiction: In His New Collection, ‘The Rub of Time,’ Martin Amis Takes On Everyone From Travolta to Trump
“But the deep subject of this book, what holds its disparate bits together, is not celebrity. It’s professionalism,” A.O. Scott writes.
Essay: When Writing a Book Leaves a (Literal) Mark on Its Author
Jane Kamensky published a biography of John Singleton Copley. Then she got a tattoo of his art.
Medicine Can Soothe a Troubled Mind, but Not Without Costs
In “Blue Dreams,” the psychologist Lauren Slater explores the intersection of personality and chemistry by way of her own history with antidepressants.
More Than Just Nostalgia, 'Time Pieces' Is A Multilayered Memoir Of Dublin
Irish writer John Banville's new book is a shimmering, frequently elusive book about a city, but also an inquiry into memory, shifting attention, and above all time as it passes and becomes the past.
(Image credit: Eslah Attar/NPR)
Nonfiction: Bringing Down a Media Empire
In “Conspiracy,” Ryan Holiday describes the blockbuster case that killed Gawker.
Nonfiction: A Different Perspective on the Border
In his memoir, “The Line Becomes a River,” Francisco Cantú argues that understanding immigration required him to be a Border Patrol agent.
Fiction: A Debut Novel Upends the Myth of Apollo and Daphne
“Daphne,” by Will Boast, poses the universal human question of whether it is better to feel pain or to feel nothing at all.
New & Noteworthy
A selection of books published this week; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading.
Match Book: Dear Match Book: Seeking Literary Page-Turners
Novels with complex themes and elevated writing styles that are still accessible to even novice readers.
'Eat The Apple' Is A Brilliant And Barbed Memoir Of The Iraq War
In his experimental new memoir, Matt Young conveys the chaos of his three deployments in Iraq. Critic Maureen Corrigan calls Young "a frank, funny and mercilessly self-lacerating narrator."
(Image credit: Tara Monterosso/Bloomsbury)
How Life as a Foreigner Helped Shape a Man of Letters
In “A Tokyo Romance,” the historian and editor Ian Buruma recalls a vivid and influential Japanese sojourn in his early 20s.
Fiction: In This Debut Novel, a College Student Hears Voices
Akwaeke Emezi’s “Freshwater” is a poetic and disturbing exploration of dissociative identity disorder, of the voices “roaring inside the marble room” of a young woman’s mind.
Footsteps: In Search of Virginia Woolf’s Lost Eden in Cornwall
The vast coastal county of Cornwall, England, had a profound effect on the future writing of the impressionable young girl who would become a literary star.
Nonfiction: Claiming the Title of United States Marine
In his brutally honest memoir, “Eat the Apple,” Matt Young grapples with his experiences in the corps.
Nonfiction: Chris Hughes Made Millions at Facebook. Now He Has a Plan to End Poverty.
In “Fair Shot,” the entrepreneur considers the role luck played in his career, and how to make life more just for everyone.
Drawing Black History: 4 Children’s Book Illustrators Show Us How
We talked to the creators of four children’s books that depict forgotten figures from black history or find new meaning in familiar ones.
Curl Up With 'The Tuscan Child,' A Truly Cozy Mystery
This tale of an RAF pilot, the Italian woman who rescues him after a crash, and 30 years later, his daughter, is so skillful and comforting that you may not even notice the fact that there's a war on.
(Image credit: Eslah Attar/NPR)
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