Letters to the Editor
Readers respond to recent issues of the Sunday Book Review.
From Our Archives: Notes From the Book Review Archives
In which we consult the Book Review’s past to shed light on the books of the present. This week: commemorating Anne Sexton.
By the Book: Ben Sasse: By the Book
The junior senator from Nebraska and author, most recently, of “Them” says he and his wife would like their children to love books: “We want them to be addicted to reading.”
Fiction: Her Mother Disappeared 16 Years Ago. In This Novel, the Hunt Continues.
Daisy Johnson’s debut novel, “Everything Under,” a finalist for the Man Booker Prize, riffs on timeless myths to document a daughter’s desperate search.
Nonfiction: Two New Books Confront Nietzsche and His Ideas
Sue Prideaux’s “I Am Dynamite!” and John Kaag’s “Hiking With Nietzsche” offer modern interpretations of a highly controversial thinker.
Nonfiction: A Foreign Policy Realist Challenges America’s Zeal for Intervention
Stephen M. Walt’s “The Hell of Good Intentions” takes a critical look at how Washington has handled international affairs over the last several years.
Nonfiction: The Disaster That Was the Vietnam War
Max Hastings’s “Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975” condemns all sides for corruption, cynicism and outright cruelty.
New & Noteworthy
A selection of books published this week; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading.
Fiction: The Life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Imagined Through His Collisions With Others
Louisa Hall’s novel “Trinity” tells the story of the father of the atomic bomb by way of the people who were around him and reacted to him.
Nonfiction: John Adams on Debussy, the First Modernist
In “Debussy: A Painter in Sound,” the Stravinsky biographer Stephen Walsh focuses on the music.
Nonfiction: Robert Schumann: A Hopeless, Brilliant Romantic
The pianist Jeremy Denk reviews the biography “Schumann: The Faces and the Masks,” by Judith Chernaik.
Nonfiction: A Brilliant Frédéric Chopin
“Fryderyk Chopin,” a magisterial new biography by Alan Walker, offers fresh insight into the legendary pianist and composer, whose reputation thrived after a life cut short by illness.
Q. & A.: Tell Us 5 Things About Your Book: A Journalist Recalls the Terror (and Boredom) of Being Held Hostage
In “The Desert and the Sea,” Michael Scott Moore recounts his ordeal being held captive by Somali pirates for more than two years.
Like a Boss: Megan Abbott’s Work Diary: ‘My Psychiatrist Notes How Tired I Look, Which Is Great’
The author of nine acclaimed novels, including “Give Me Your Hand” and “Dare Me,” is adapting four (four!) of them for TV.
Visuals: A ‘Lyricist of the Metal Nib’: Nicholson Baker considers the intricate art of Saul Steinberg
In this excerpt from the introduction to a new edition of Saul Steinberg’s 1960 book, “The Labyrinth,” the novelist celebrates the artist as a “twirler of nonverbal non sequiturs.”
Children’s Books: Beyond Battles, Boogers and Pranks
Now that my son can read, I want him to seek out books about more than just winning things and getting easy laughs. Why does that seem hard?
The Shortlist: What Is America’s Role in the World? Three Authors Offer Very Different Views
In new books, Jeffrey Sachs looks beyond exceptionalism, Michael Beckley describes unrivaled power and Robert Kagan favors pragmatic leadership.
Nonfiction: Two Spies, Two Opposing Sides, One Fast Friendship
In “Best of Enemies,” Gus Russo and Eric Dezenhall tell the story of Jack Platt and Gennady Vasilenko, covert agents who played by their own rules.
The Book Review Podcast: The Past, Present and Future of Jews in America
Gal Beckerman discusses several new books that touch on American Jewish identity, and Kiese Laymon talks about his new memoir, “Heavy.”
Fiction: A Dystopian America Where a Woman Who Can Read and Write Wields Special Power
Alyson Hagy’s new novel, “Scribe,” draws on Appalachian folk tales to fashion a mythic vision of a war-torn country that doubles as an allegory about storytelling.
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