Book Reviews | Atlantic County Library System

'Rest And Relaxation' Is As Sharp As Its Heroine Is Bleary

NPR Book Reviews - Tue, 07/10/2018 - 7:00am

Ottessa Moshfegh's bizarrely fascinating new novel follows a young woman in Manhattan who decides to sleep her life away with a combination of pills, waking occasionally for bad bodega coffee.

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Nonfiction: The Making of a Moral Hero: ‘The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela’

NY Times Book Reviews - Tue, 07/10/2018 - 5:00am

A new book assembles 255 letters, both heartbreaking and inspiring, by the former South African president and civil rights activist, who spent more than 27 years in jail.

Fiction: A Novel That Reads Like Martin Amis on Mescaline

NY Times Book Reviews - Tue, 07/10/2018 - 5:00am

A psychopathic but oddly charming coke dealer shoots and blusters his way through “The Price You Pay,” Aidan Truhen’s brilliant, blood-soaked thriller.

New & Noteworthy

NY Times Book Reviews - Tue, 07/10/2018 - 5:00am

A selection of books published this week; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading.

Fiction: An Instagram-Obsessed Anthropologist Riffs on the Meaning of ‘Maleness’

NY Times Book Reviews - Mon, 07/09/2018 - 5:00pm

In Lynne Tillman’s novel “Men and Apparitions,” Zeke Stark explores how the feminist movement has affected men.

The Shortlist: Three Books Consider What Happens When the Robots Take Over

NY Times Book Reviews - Mon, 07/09/2018 - 3:00pm

How far along is artificial intelligence and what will it do to human society? Three books ponder this question, and wonder if we and the robots can work together.

Nonfiction: In the Middle Class, and Barely Getting By

NY Times Book Reviews - Mon, 07/09/2018 - 5:00am

Alissa Quart’s “Squeezed” examines the problem of families at the upper edge of the middle class, struggling to survive financially in America.

Nonfiction: What if the Government Gave Everyone a Paycheck?

NY Times Book Reviews - Mon, 07/09/2018 - 5:00am

The former labor secretary Robert B. Reich reviews two new books arguing for a universal basic income: “Give People Money,” by Annie Lowrey, and “The War on Normal People,” by Andrew Yang.

For July, 3 Romantic Reads That Prove Summer Is For Lovers

NPR Book Reviews - Sun, 07/08/2018 - 10:00am

Whether you like high-powered lawyers, ambitious politicians or petticoat-wearing paleontologists, July brings a bumper crop of romance novels, for all your happy-ever-after needs.

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Young Adult Summer Books

NPR Book Reviews - Sun, 07/08/2018 - 8:43am

Too hot to go outside? Weekend Edition has some suggestions for what to read while curled up under your ceiling fan this summer.

Book News: Yet Another Book Takes on Impeachment: This Time, the Case Against

NY Times Book Reviews - Sun, 07/08/2018 - 5:00am

Alan Dershowitz‘s latest book, “The Case Against Impeaching Trump,” was written with a sense of urgency. It took two months.

Books News: The Changing Face of Romance Novels

NY Times Book Reviews - Sat, 07/07/2018 - 5:00am

Some publishers are starting to acquire books written by black, Asian and other minority writers that feature more character diversity, but barriers remain.

Nonfiction: Where Did the Radical Right Come From?

NY Times Book Reviews - Fri, 07/06/2018 - 4:08pm

Kathleen Belew’s “Bring the War Home” traces the beginnings of the white power movement to the Vietnam War.

The Book Review Podcast: An Inside View of Putin

NY Times Book Reviews - Fri, 07/06/2018 - 3:40pm

Michael McFaul discusses “From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia,” and Ottessa Moshfegh talks about her new novel, “My Year of Rest and Relaxation.”

Tom Wolfe’s Lesser Known Career as a Cartoonist

NY Times Book Reviews - Fri, 07/06/2018 - 5:00am

Taking the absurdist themes and trends of his 1970s milieu as his material, the late New Journalist left behind visual reminders of his endless capacity for satire.

Help Desk: Adversity Needn’t Thwart or Define You. Here’s How to Cope.

NY Times Book Reviews - Fri, 07/06/2018 - 5:00am

Elizabeth Smart’s “Where There’s Hope” offers advice on moving past trauma. Books by a psychologist, a pediatrician and a mother add more perspective.