Exploring Books Through Articles, Reviews, Announcements, & Lists 2025-04 Oct-Dec
This is a continuation of the topic Exploring Books Through Articles, Reviews, Announcements, & Lists 2025-03 July-Sept.
This topic was continued by Exploring Books Through Articles, Reviews, Announcements, & Lists 2026-01 Jan-March.
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1featherbear
Note: updates to journals from most recent to least
Indexes
October 2025 >2 featherbear:
November 2025: >67 featherbear:
December 2025: >119 featherbear:
László Krasznahorkai wins Nobel Prize for literature >31 featherbear:
Joel Mokyr, economic historian & author shares Nobel Prize for economics >41 featherbear:
Deaths
Baek Se-Hee >49 featherbear:
David Bellows >104 featherbear:
H Rap Brown aka Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin aka Hubert Brown >113 featherbear:
Lou Cannon >157 featherbear:
John Carey >162 featherbear:
DéLana R.A. Dameron >147 featherbear:
Jilly Cooper >27 featherbear:
Kai Erikson >128 featherbear:
Frank Gehry >140 featherbear:
Jane Goodall >16 featherbear:
Tony Harrison >81 featherbear:
Terry (Martin) Hekker >107 featherbear:
Sophie Kinsella >145 featherbear:
Ivan Klima >25 featherbear:
Richard Lamparski >105 featherbear:
Jonathan Lear >32 featherbear:
Marina Lewycka >93 featherbear:
Fern Michaels >141 featherbear:
Thomas Perry >5 featherbear:
Norman Podhoretz >154 featherbear:
David Pryce-Jones >133 featherbear:
Alison C. Rose >51 featherbear:
Robert J. Samuelson >152 featherbear:
Tatiana Schlossberg >169 featherbear:
John Searle >37 featherbear:
Hal Sirowitz >98 featherbear:
Robert A.M. Stern >114 featherbear:
Tom Stoppard >117 featherbear:
John Russell Taylor >85 featherbear:
Gillian Tindall >87 featherbear:
Phyllis Trible >55 featherbear:
Joanna Trollope >149 featherbear:
Ellen Bryant Voigt >118 featherbear:
James D. Watson >86 featherbear:
Zoë Wicomb >73 featherbear:
John Noble Wilford >143 featherbear:
Daniel Woodrell >124 featherbear:
Indexes
October 2025 >2 featherbear:
November 2025: >67 featherbear:
December 2025: >119 featherbear:
László Krasznahorkai wins Nobel Prize for literature >31 featherbear:
Joel Mokyr, economic historian & author shares Nobel Prize for economics >41 featherbear:
Deaths
Baek Se-Hee >49 featherbear:
David Bellows >104 featherbear:
H Rap Brown aka Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin aka Hubert Brown >113 featherbear:
Lou Cannon >157 featherbear:
John Carey >162 featherbear:
DéLana R.A. Dameron >147 featherbear:
Jilly Cooper >27 featherbear:
Kai Erikson >128 featherbear:
Frank Gehry >140 featherbear:
Jane Goodall >16 featherbear:
Tony Harrison >81 featherbear:
Terry (Martin) Hekker >107 featherbear:
Sophie Kinsella >145 featherbear:
Ivan Klima >25 featherbear:
Richard Lamparski >105 featherbear:
Jonathan Lear >32 featherbear:
Marina Lewycka >93 featherbear:
Fern Michaels >141 featherbear:
Thomas Perry >5 featherbear:
Norman Podhoretz >154 featherbear:
David Pryce-Jones >133 featherbear:
Alison C. Rose >51 featherbear:
Robert J. Samuelson >152 featherbear:
Tatiana Schlossberg >169 featherbear:
John Searle >37 featherbear:
Hal Sirowitz >98 featherbear:
Robert A.M. Stern >114 featherbear:
Tom Stoppard >117 featherbear:
John Russell Taylor >85 featherbear:
Gillian Tindall >87 featherbear:
Phyllis Trible >55 featherbear:
Joanna Trollope >149 featherbear:
Ellen Bryant Voigt >118 featherbear:
James D. Watson >86 featherbear:
Zoë Wicomb >73 featherbear:
John Noble Wilford >143 featherbear:
Daniel Woodrell >124 featherbear:
2featherbear
October 2025 Index
Aeon >22 featherbear:
American Scholar >82 featherbear:
Asian Review of Books >34 featherbear:
Atlantic >21 featherbear:
bbc culture >39 featherbear:
Bookforum >14 featherbear:
Boston Review >20 featherbear:
Chicago Review of Books >29 featherbear:
Columbia Spectator >44 featherbear:
The Critic (UK) >10 featherbear:
fivebooks.com >23 featherbear:
Guardian >8 featherbear:
Hedgehog Review >17 featherbear:
History Today >43 featherbear:
Hudson Review >38 featherbear:
JStor Daily >66 featherbear:
LARB >18 featherbear:
Literary Review >30 featherbear:
LitHub >13 featherbear:
New York Intelligencer >52 featherbear:
New Yorker >9 featherbear:
NYRB Online Oct 09 >4 featherbear: -- Oct 23 >26 featherbear: -- Nov 6 (posted week of Oct 12-18) >48 featherbear:
NYT >6 featherbear:
Orion >28 featherbear:
Public Books >11 featherbear:
Public Domain Review >36 featherbear:
Publishers Weekly >54 featherbear:
Quillette >12 featherbear:
Slate >58 featherbear:
Smithsonian Magazine >3 featherbear:
TLS Oct 3 >15 featherbear: -- Oct 17 >42 featherbear:
UnHerd >59 featherbear:
Vogue >57 featherbear:
Vox >33 featherbear:
Yale Review >35 featherbear:
WaPo >7 featherbear:
Washington Monthly >40 featherbear:
Words Without Borders >53 featherbear:
Aeon >22 featherbear:
American Scholar >82 featherbear:
Asian Review of Books >34 featherbear:
Atlantic >21 featherbear:
bbc culture >39 featherbear:
Bookforum >14 featherbear:
Boston Review >20 featherbear:
Chicago Review of Books >29 featherbear:
Columbia Spectator >44 featherbear:
The Critic (UK) >10 featherbear:
fivebooks.com >23 featherbear:
Guardian >8 featherbear:
Hedgehog Review >17 featherbear:
History Today >43 featherbear:
Hudson Review >38 featherbear:
JStor Daily >66 featherbear:
LARB >18 featherbear:
Literary Review >30 featherbear:
LitHub >13 featherbear:
New York Intelligencer >52 featherbear:
New Yorker >9 featherbear:
NYRB Online Oct 09 >4 featherbear: -- Oct 23 >26 featherbear: -- Nov 6 (posted week of Oct 12-18) >48 featherbear:
NYT >6 featherbear:
Orion >28 featherbear:
Public Books >11 featherbear:
Public Domain Review >36 featherbear:
Publishers Weekly >54 featherbear:
Quillette >12 featherbear:
Slate >58 featherbear:
Smithsonian Magazine >3 featherbear:
TLS Oct 3 >15 featherbear: -- Oct 17 >42 featherbear:
UnHerd >59 featherbear:
Vogue >57 featherbear:
Vox >33 featherbear:
Yale Review >35 featherbear:
WaPo >7 featherbear:
Washington Monthly >40 featherbear:
Words Without Borders >53 featherbear:
3featherbear
Smithsonian Magazine October 2025
Michael Callahan. November 2025: How the Hardy Boys Book Series Cracked the Case of Getting Kids Hooked on Reading. "One author has been credited with creating the virtuous teenagers’ thrilling adventures for almost a century. But there’s a story behind that, too."
Richard Grant. Sept/Oct 2025: Two Years After Cormac McCarthy’s Death, Rare Access to His Personal Library Reveals the Man Behind the Myth. "The famously reclusive novelist amassed a collection of thousands of books ranging in topics from philosophical treatises to advanced mathematics to the naked mole-rat."
Michael Callahan. November 2025: How the Hardy Boys Book Series Cracked the Case of Getting Kids Hooked on Reading. "One author has been credited with creating the virtuous teenagers’ thrilling adventures for almost a century. But there’s a story behind that, too."
Richard Grant. Sept/Oct 2025: Two Years After Cormac McCarthy’s Death, Rare Access to His Personal Library Reveals the Man Behind the Myth. "The famously reclusive novelist amassed a collection of thousands of books ranging in topics from philosophical treatises to advanced mathematics to the naked mole-rat."
4featherbear
NYRB Online Oct 09 2025
Literature
Frances Wilson. Charlotte Under Pressure. Review of: The Invention of Charlotte Brontë: A New Life / Graham Watson.
David Schurmann Wallace. Road to Nowhere. Review of: Miss MacIntosh, My Darling / Marguerite Young, with an introduction by Meghan O’Gieblyn -- Marguerite Young: the Collected Poems / edited by Phil Bevis, Joshua Rothes, and Jacob Siefring (Sublunary).
Arts
Hari Kunzru. Surviving the Manosphere. Review of: Adolescence, a television series written by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham and directed by Philip Barantini.
Catherine Nicholson. The Cares of State. Review of: The Chinese Tragedy of King Lear / Nan Z. Da (Princeton University Press).
Adam Thirlwell. When and Where Is Home? Review of: Do Ho Suh: Walk the House , an exhibition at Tate Modern, London, May 1–October 26, 2025. Catalog of the exhibition edited by Nabila Abdel Nabi and Dina Akhmadeeva with Amie Corry.
Natural History
Verlyn Klinkenborg. ‘Such Flexible Intensity of Life.’ Review of: Living on Earth: Forests, Corals, Consciousness, and the Making of the World / Peter Godfrey-Smith -- Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind / Peter Godfrey-Smith -- Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness / Peter Godfrey-Smith -- Many Things Under a Rock: The Mysteries of Octopuses / David Scheel, with illustrations by Laurel “Yoyo” Scheel -- Amphibious Soul: Finding the Wild in a Tame World / Craig Foster.
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Gregory Hays. Profiles in Power. Review of: Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern / Mary Beard -- Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World / Mary Beard -- Palatine: An Alternative History of the Caesars / Peter Stothard.
Leslie T. Chang. At the Chinese Table. Review of: Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food / Fuchsia Dunlop -- Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China / Fuchsia Dunlop -- Tasting Paradise on Earth: Jiangnan Foodways / Jin Feng (University of Washington Press) -- China in Seven Banquets: A Flavourful History / Thomas David DuBois.
Neal Ascherson. A Daring Escape. Review of: No Road Leading Back: An Improbable Escape from the Nazis and the Tangled Way We Tell the Story of the Holocaust / Chris Heath.
Joshua Hammer. Slaughter for Hire. Review of: Death Is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare / John Lechner -- Putin’s Sledgehammer: The Wagner Group and Russia’s Collapse into Mercenary Chaos / Candace Rondeaux -- The Wagner Group: Inside Russia’s Mercenary Army / Jack Margolin.
Brenda Wineapple. A Helluva Town. Review of: Gotham at War: A History of New York City from 1933 to 1945 / Mike Wallace.
Scott W. Stern. Writing Their Prison’s History. Review of: Who Would Believe a Prisoner? Indiana Women’s Carceral Institutions, 1848–1920 / the Indiana Women’s Prison History Project, edited by Michelle Daniel Jones and Elizabeth Nelson, with a preface by Kelsey Kauffman.
Dorothy Sue Cobble. I Stand Here Ironing. Review of: Wages for Housework: The Feminist Fight Against Unpaid Labor / Emily Callaci.
Christopher D. Bellaigue. The Ayatollah’s Kingly Woe. (Article: "The Supreme Leader’s frail health and Israel’s recent attacks have left the Islamic Republic on the brink of paralysis.")
Other dates from the online edition:
Thea Riofrancos. 09/17/2025: What’s Underground. (Article: "Lithium, an essential ingredient in rechargeable batteries, epitomizes the contradictions of “green capitalism.”")
Doha Kahlout, translated by Katharine Halls. 09/26/2025: Sad Nights of the North. (Article on Gaza: "When we say “we’ve lost our city” we mean that a civilization has been destroyed.")
Ashley Dawson. 09/27/2025: The Costs of the Cloud. (Article: "How much power does AI consume?")
Rachel Cohen. 09/30/2025: Catching Us Looking. (Article: "Gustave Caillebotte subverts our expectations about lines of sight and lines of desire.")
Andrew Katzenstein. 10/23/2025: The Big Cheese. Review of: Shadow Ticket / Thomas Pynchon
Literature
Frances Wilson. Charlotte Under Pressure. Review of: The Invention of Charlotte Brontë: A New Life / Graham Watson.
David Schurmann Wallace. Road to Nowhere. Review of: Miss MacIntosh, My Darling / Marguerite Young, with an introduction by Meghan O’Gieblyn -- Marguerite Young: the Collected Poems / edited by Phil Bevis, Joshua Rothes, and Jacob Siefring (Sublunary).
Arts
Hari Kunzru. Surviving the Manosphere. Review of: Adolescence, a television series written by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham and directed by Philip Barantini.
Catherine Nicholson. The Cares of State. Review of: The Chinese Tragedy of King Lear / Nan Z. Da (Princeton University Press).
Adam Thirlwell. When and Where Is Home? Review of: Do Ho Suh: Walk the House , an exhibition at Tate Modern, London, May 1–October 26, 2025. Catalog of the exhibition edited by Nabila Abdel Nabi and Dina Akhmadeeva with Amie Corry.
Natural History
Verlyn Klinkenborg. ‘Such Flexible Intensity of Life.’ Review of: Living on Earth: Forests, Corals, Consciousness, and the Making of the World / Peter Godfrey-Smith -- Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind / Peter Godfrey-Smith -- Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness / Peter Godfrey-Smith -- Many Things Under a Rock: The Mysteries of Octopuses / David Scheel, with illustrations by Laurel “Yoyo” Scheel -- Amphibious Soul: Finding the Wild in a Tame World / Craig Foster.
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Gregory Hays. Profiles in Power. Review of: Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern / Mary Beard -- Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World / Mary Beard -- Palatine: An Alternative History of the Caesars / Peter Stothard.
Leslie T. Chang. At the Chinese Table. Review of: Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food / Fuchsia Dunlop -- Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China / Fuchsia Dunlop -- Tasting Paradise on Earth: Jiangnan Foodways / Jin Feng (University of Washington Press) -- China in Seven Banquets: A Flavourful History / Thomas David DuBois.
Neal Ascherson. A Daring Escape. Review of: No Road Leading Back: An Improbable Escape from the Nazis and the Tangled Way We Tell the Story of the Holocaust / Chris Heath.
Joshua Hammer. Slaughter for Hire. Review of: Death Is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare / John Lechner -- Putin’s Sledgehammer: The Wagner Group and Russia’s Collapse into Mercenary Chaos / Candace Rondeaux -- The Wagner Group: Inside Russia’s Mercenary Army / Jack Margolin.
Brenda Wineapple. A Helluva Town. Review of: Gotham at War: A History of New York City from 1933 to 1945 / Mike Wallace.
Scott W. Stern. Writing Their Prison’s History. Review of: Who Would Believe a Prisoner? Indiana Women’s Carceral Institutions, 1848–1920 / the Indiana Women’s Prison History Project, edited by Michelle Daniel Jones and Elizabeth Nelson, with a preface by Kelsey Kauffman.
Dorothy Sue Cobble. I Stand Here Ironing. Review of: Wages for Housework: The Feminist Fight Against Unpaid Labor / Emily Callaci.
Christopher D. Bellaigue. The Ayatollah’s Kingly Woe. (Article: "The Supreme Leader’s frail health and Israel’s recent attacks have left the Islamic Republic on the brink of paralysis.")
Other dates from the online edition:
Thea Riofrancos. 09/17/2025: What’s Underground. (Article: "Lithium, an essential ingredient in rechargeable batteries, epitomizes the contradictions of “green capitalism.”")
Doha Kahlout, translated by Katharine Halls. 09/26/2025: Sad Nights of the North. (Article on Gaza: "When we say “we’ve lost our city” we mean that a civilization has been destroyed.")
Ashley Dawson. 09/27/2025: The Costs of the Cloud. (Article: "How much power does AI consume?")
Rachel Cohen. 09/30/2025: Catching Us Looking. (Article: "Gustave Caillebotte subverts our expectations about lines of sight and lines of desire.")
Andrew Katzenstein. 10/23/2025: The Big Cheese. Review of: Shadow Ticket / Thomas Pynchon
5featherbear
Thomas Perry, 1947-2025
Sam Roberts. NYT, 09/30/2025: Thomas Perry Dies at 78; Writer of Popular, Unconventional Thrillers.
"Thomas Perry, a best-selling, critically acclaimed novelist whose 32 inventive thrillers were known for their intricate plots, unexpectedly sympathetic villains and intriguing heroes, among them a Native American woman who helps people take on new identities, died on Sept. 15 in Los Angeles. He was 78.
"Mr. Perry produced gripping stories populated by a singular cast of characters, including a ruthless professional hit man in his prizewinning 1982 debut, “The Butcher’s Boy,” and Jane Whitefield, a member of the Seneca Nation who guides vulnerable individuals to safe havens. (She is scheduled to reappear early next year in the finale to a 10-book series.)
"Mr. Perry’s “The Butcher's Boy” won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America.
"His writing was laconic and evocative. In “The Old Man,” a 2017 novel about a retired intelligence agent that was adapted into a TV series starring Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow, one character vividly defines the protagonist’s age: He is old “in the way a seven-foot rattlesnake was old.”
"Mr. Perry received a bachelor’s degree in English from Cornell University in 1969 and a doctorate in English literature from the University of Rochester in 1974, writing his dissertation on William Faulkner.
"He worked as a laborer, fisherman, teacher and university administrator, and as a weapons mechanic in the Air National Guard, before beginning his literary career. But that career wasn’t unexpected."
Thomas Perry's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/perrythomas-1
Sam Roberts. NYT, 09/30/2025: Thomas Perry Dies at 78; Writer of Popular, Unconventional Thrillers.
"Thomas Perry, a best-selling, critically acclaimed novelist whose 32 inventive thrillers were known for their intricate plots, unexpectedly sympathetic villains and intriguing heroes, among them a Native American woman who helps people take on new identities, died on Sept. 15 in Los Angeles. He was 78.
"Mr. Perry produced gripping stories populated by a singular cast of characters, including a ruthless professional hit man in his prizewinning 1982 debut, “The Butcher’s Boy,” and Jane Whitefield, a member of the Seneca Nation who guides vulnerable individuals to safe havens. (She is scheduled to reappear early next year in the finale to a 10-book series.)
"Mr. Perry’s “The Butcher's Boy” won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America.
"His writing was laconic and evocative. In “The Old Man,” a 2017 novel about a retired intelligence agent that was adapted into a TV series starring Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow, one character vividly defines the protagonist’s age: He is old “in the way a seven-foot rattlesnake was old.”
"Mr. Perry received a bachelor’s degree in English from Cornell University in 1969 and a doctorate in English literature from the University of Rochester in 1974, writing his dissertation on William Faulkner.
"He worked as a laborer, fisherman, teacher and university administrator, and as a weapons mechanic in the Air National Guard, before beginning his literary career. But that career wasn’t unexpected."
Thomas Perry's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/perrythomas-1
6featherbear
NYT Oct 2025
Elizabeth Graver. 10/31/2025: A Quest to Find the Truth Behind Her Grandmother’s Smile. Review of: INDIGNITY: A Life Reimagined / Lea Ypi.
Emily C. Hughes. 10/30/2025: Gothic Fiction: A Starter Pack.
Calum Marsh. 10/30/2025: He Wrote ‘House of Leaves,’ the Ultimate Cult Novel. He Hopes It Wasn’t His Peak. Profile of Mark Danielewski regarding House of Leaves & Tom's Crossing.
Jennifer Szalai. 10/29/2025: How Big Tech’s Unchecked Power Could Swallow Us All. Review of: THE AGE OF EXTRACTION: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity / Tim Wu.
Alexandra Alter. 10/29/2025: A Work of Genius or a Complete Mess? Even Its Author Can’t Decide. "Helen DeWitt’s bewildering co-written novel, “Your Name Here,” took almost 20 years to publish, a process that nearly drove her to despair." Anchor link: Your Name Here / Helen DeWitt & Ilya Gridneff.
Darrell Hartman. 10/28/2025: Is This Bandit’s Legend an Old West Tall Tale? Review of: BRING ME THE HEAD OF JOAQUIN MURRIETA: The Bandit Chief Who Terrorized California and Launched the Legend of Zorro / John Boessenecker.
Hamilton Cain. 10/28/2025: Can the Western Be Reinvented Again? Here’s a 1,200-Page Yes. Review of: TOM’S CROSSING / Mark Z. Danielewski.
Richard Kreitner. 10/28/2025: Joseph J. Ellis Doesn’t Think You Would Have Abolished Slavery, Either. Review of: THE GREAT CONTRADICTION: The Tragic Side of the American Founding / Joseph J. Ellis.
Megan O'Grady. 10/28/2025: Zadie Smith Considers Art in the Age of Relentless Progress. Review of: DEAD AND ALIVE: Essays / Zadie Smith.
Hari Kunzru. 10/28/2025: First They Got Into Berkeley. Then They Took On the Raj. Review of: LET MY COUNTRY AWAKE: Indian Revolutionaries in America and the Fight to Overthrow the British Raj / Scott Miller.
Dana Goldstein. 10/27/2025: How Politics Is Changing the Way History Is Taught. Temporarily unlocked. "History lessons are being wiped from the internet, and California is retreating from ethnic studies, as education swings away from curriculums that are seen as too progressive."
Dwight Garner. 10/27/2025: Who Is Cameron Crowe Kidding With the Title of His Memoir? Review of: THE UNCOOL: A Memoir / Cameron Crowe.
Elisabeth Egan. 10/27/2025: Jack Carr Knows His Way Around a Battlefield, and a Military Thriller. Profile, featuring his latest: Cry Havoc.
Sarah Lyall. 10/26/2025: Philip Pullman Brings Lyra’s Story to a Close. Review of: The Rose Field / Philip Pullman.
Joumana Khatib. 10/24/2025: She’s Still Writing About Herself. Plus Meth, Murder and Minnesota. Profile of Chris Kraus ( Where I learned she was once married to Sylvère Lotringer), with ref to her new The Four Spent the Day Together.
Sarah Lyall. 10/23/2025: How Writing Helped Susan Orlean Find a ‘Bigger Place in the World.’ Regarding: Joyride: A Memoir / Susan Orlean.
Dan Kois. 10/23/2025: How Philip Pullman’s Heroine Changed Her Life — and Mine. "I named my daughter after Lyra, his intrepid protagonist. Now, in the final installment of the blockbuster fantasy saga, we get to see how she turned out."
Dan Piepenbring. 10/22/2025: Wut? It’s in the Dictionary. A New Book Explains How. Review of: UNABRIDGED: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary / Stefan Fatsis.
Jennifer Szalai. 10/22/2025: The World’s Greatest Feminist Experiment Was Not Where You’d Think. Review of: MOTHERLAND: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, From Revolution to Autocracy / Julia Ioffe.
Jennifer Wright. 10/22/2025: Before ‘Hamilton,’ the Schuyler Sisters Were Already Stars. Review of: PRIDE AND PLEASURE: The Schuyler Sisters in the Age of Revolution / Amanda Vaill.
Laura Thompson. 10/21/2025: A Surfing Safari Detours Into Eugenics. Review of: CAPTURING KAHANAMOKU: How a Surfing Legend and a Scientific Obsession Redefined Race and Culture / Michael Rossi.
Laura Miller. 10/21/2025: Harper Lee’s Conflicted Loves Emerge in a New Collection. Review of: THE LAND OF SWEET FOREVER: Stories and Essays / Harper Lee; edited by Casey Cep.
Marie Kondo, interviewer Tariro Mzezewa. 10/21/2025: How Does Marie Kondo Pack? To ‘Spark Joy,’ of Course. Regarding: Letter from Japan / Marie Kondo with Marie Iida.
Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff. 10/21/2025: This Novel Is a Cry for the Missing Black Women Across America. Review of: Boom Town / Nic Stone.
Kiersten White. 10/21/2025: They Thought It Would Be Fun to Summon a Dragon. They Were Very Wrong. Review of: King Sorrow: a novel / Joe Hill.
Catherine Chidgey. 10/21/2025: How to Eat Friends and Influence People. Review of: Girl Dinner: A Novel / Olivia Blake.
Gerald Howard. 10/20/2025: The Dogged, Irrational Persistence of Literary Fiction.
Dwight Garner. 10/20/2025: John Updike Called His Letters Dull. They’re Anything But. Review of: SELECTED LETTERS OF JOHN UPDIKE / edited by James Schiff.
Eva Wolchover. 10/20/2025: Churchill Plus the Windsors? Andrew Morton Spills Rewarmed Tea. Review of: WINSTON AND THE WINDSORS: How Churchill Shaped a Royal Dynasty / Andrew Morton.
Everdeen Mason. 10/20/2025: The Heroine of ‘His Dark Materials’ Is Back. Here’s What You Need to Know: The beloved British fantasy writer Philip Pullman concludes his Book of Dust trilogy with Lyra Belacqua’s final adventure. Regarding Pullman's Book of Dust & His Dark Materials Trilogy.
Matthew F. Delmont. 10/19/2025: The Civil Rights Movement Changed America. We Glorify It at Our Peril. Review of: SHATTERED DREAMS, INFINITE HOPE: A Tragic Vision of the Civil Rights Movement / Brandon M. Terry.
Emmeline Clein. 10/19/2025: Marriage Was a Drag, So She Found New Lives in Her Dreams. Review of: The Third Love / Hiromi Kawakami.
David Oshinsky. 10/19/2025: Who Calls the Shots in the N.F.L.? Three Guys Who Don’t Always Get Along.. Review of: EVERY DAY IS SUNDAY: How Jerry Jones, Robert Kraft, and Roger Goodell Turned the NFL Into a Cultural and Economic Juggernaut / Ken Belson.
Tim Teeman. 10/18/2025: William Gibson, Lisa Simpson and More on Their Favorite Pinch of Pynchon. "With the famously private novelist enjoying a (private) moment in the sun, we reached out to die-hard fans who’ve tuned in to the zaniness all along."
Mark O'Connell. 10/18/2025: In This Beguiling Novel, a ‘Big Kiss’ From a Modern Master. Review of: BIG KISS, BYE-BYE / Claire-Louise Bennett.
Nikhil Krishnan. 10/18/2025: Wittgenstein’s Philosophy Is Daunting. This Biography Makes Him Human. Review of: LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN: Philosophy in the Age of Airplanes / Anthony Gottlieb.
Adelle Waldman. 10/18/2025: An Affair to Remember — Except It Never Actually Happened. Review of: The Ten Year Affair: A Novel / Erin Somers. ("two parallel realities, one of which imagines a young mother’s infidelity.")
Walker Mimms. 10/17/2025: In These Harlem Death Portraits, a Glimpse of the Living. Review of: The Harlem Book of the Dead / James Van Der Zee, ed Owen Dodson & Camille Billops Van Der Zee.
Elizabeth Egan. 10/17/2025: She Worked at Vogue, but She Didn’t Write Another ‘Devil Wears Prada.’ Profile of Caroline Palmer regarding her Workhorse: A Novel.
Marcus Rediker. 10/16/2025: A Horrific Tale of the Slave Trade, Destined to Become a Classic. Review of: THE ZORG: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery / Siddharth Kara.
Alexandra Jacobs. 10/16/2025: From Epstein’s Chief Accuser, a Memoir Both Sad and Devastating. Review of: NOBODY’S GIRL: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice / Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
David Orr. 10/16/2025: A Poet Who Aims to Be Kind, but Not at the Cost of the Truth. Review of: STARTLEMENT: New and Selected Poems / Ada Limón.
Emily C. Hughes. 10/16/2025: Why Do We Love Spooky Season? It’s in Our Genes! Review of: MORBIDLY CURIOUS: A Scientist Explains Why We Can’t Look Away / Coltan Scrivner.
Rebecca Makkai. 10/15/2025: A Novel Intertwines the Many Dramas of Life in an Autocracy. Review of: EYE OF THE MONKEY / Krisztina Toth; translated by Ottilie Mulzet.
Michael P. Jeffries. 10/15/2025: Dispatches From the Front Lines of American Bigotry. Review of: THREE OR MORE IS A RIOT: Notes on How We Got Here: 2012-2025 / Jelani Cobb.
David Greenberg. 10/14/2025: Is American Foreign Policy Really for Sale? Review of: DEVILS’ ADVOCATES: The Hidden Story of Rudy Giuliani, Hunter Biden, and the Washington Insiders on the Payrolls of Corrupt Foreign Interests / Kenneth P. Voge (William Morrow).
Ian McGuire. 10/14/2025: An Epic Quest in the South Pacific, Drawn From History and Myth. Review of: The Wayfinder: A Novel / Adam Johnson.
Lily Meyer. 10/14/2025: The Tale of a Guardian, a Thief and the Fine Line Between. Review of: A Guardian and a Thief: A Novel / Megha Majumdar.
Zachary D. Carter. 10/14/2025: The Great Crash Retold as Thrilling True Crime — and as a Warning. Review of: 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History — and How It Shattered a Nation / Andrew Ross Sorkin.
Matt Stevens. 10/14/2025: In a New Memoir, Kevin Federline Says He’s Worried About Britney Spears. Regarding the forthcoming You Thought You Knew / Kevin Federline with Alex Holstein (Listenin).
Elizabeth D. Samet. 10/13/2025: How World War II Transformed America and the Globe, for Better and Worse. Review of: 1942: When World War II Engulfed the Globe / Peter Fritzsche -- THE WOUNDED GENERATION: Coming Home After World War II / David Nasaw.
Dwight Garner. 10/13/2025: A Novelist, Naturalist (and C.I.A. Agent) Always on the Move. Review of: TRUE NATURE: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen / Lance Richardson (Pantheon).
Lauren Collins-Hughes. 10/13/2025: Tim Curry Isn’t Done Yet. Regarding Vagabond: A Memoir / Tim Curry.
Randy Boyagoda. 10/12/2025: A Novel That’s Equal Parts ‘White Lotus’ and ‘Get Out.’ Review of: The Unveiling: A Novel / Quan Barry.
Neil MacFarquhar and Milana Mazaeva. 10/11/2025: Understanding Post-Soviet Tyranny, in Order to Fight It. "After winning the Nobel Prize for her searing portraits of the Soviet world unraveling, Svetlana Alexievich worries about the revival of its violent, anti-democratic ways."
Clay Risen. 10/11/2025: When America First Swung Its Big Stick. Review of: SPLENDID LIBERATORS: Heroism, Betrayal, Resistance, and the Birth of American Empire / Joe Jackson.
Alex Beggs. 10/11/2025: The Last Gasp of Magazine Glamour, as Seen From the Bottom Rung. Review of: Workhorse: A Novel / Caroline Palmer.
Garth Risk Hallberg. 10/10/2025: The Pleasures of Reading Laszlo Krasznahorkai, Master of Doom. "He won the Nobel Prize in Literature for books often called bleak and challenging. But they’re also comical and deeply human."
Andrés Reséndez. 10/10/2025: Was Columbus a Monster, a Saint or Just a Guy? A Biographer Digs In. Review of: THE NINE LIVES OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS / Matthew Restall.
David Canfield. 10/10/2025: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Cynic. Review of: MINOR BLACK FIGURES: a novel / Brandon Taylor.
Adeel Hasan. 10/09/2025: Librarian Fired in Books Dispute to Receive $700,000 Settlement. "County officials in Wyoming fired Terri Lesley, a library director, after she refused to purge children and young adult books that contained sexual content and L.G.B.T.Q. themes."
Alex Marshall. 10/09/2025: Nobel Prize in Literature Is Awarded to Laszlo Krasznahorkai. Temporarily unlocked.
Jennifer Szalai. 10/09/2025: Revisiting Her Hometown, a Journalist Finds Anger, Addiction and Despair. Review of: PAPER GIRL: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America / Beth Macy.
MJ Franklin. 10/09/2025: The ’90s Gender Swap Novel You Need to Read Now. Review of: ORLANDA / Jacqueline Harpman; translated by Ros Schwartz.
Parul Sehgal. 10/09/2025: Thomas Pynchon Saw Where America Was Headed. What Does He See Now?
Elizabeth A. Harris. 10/07/2025: Here Are the Finalists for the 2025 National Book Awards. Note: see WaPo >7 featherbear: for shared list
Alexandra Kleeman. 10/07/2025: Katherine Dunn’s Stories, Newly Unearthed, Float and Sting. Review of: NEAR FLESH: Stories / Katherine Dunn.
Sarah Lyall. 10/07/2025: The ‘Thursday Murder Club’ Detectives Are ‘Not Sweet Old People.’ Regarding Richard Osman's series & the latest, The Impossible Fortune.
Sam Thielman. 10/07/2025: In This Graphic History, an Unflinching Look at Black Activism. Review of: BLACK ARMS TO HOLD YOU UP: A History of Black Resistance / Ben Passmore.
Paul Begala. 10/07/2025: First They Drove Out the Comanches. Then They Changed the Country. Review of: THE CONSERVATIVE FRONTIER: Texas and the Origins of the New Right / Jeff Roche (University of Texas Press).
Azadeh Moaveni. 10/07/2025: Jake Tapper Has a Second Book This Year. It’s About Terrorism. Review of: RACE AGAINST TERROR: Chasing an Al Qaeda Killer at the Dawn of the Forever War / Jake Tapper.
Christopher Benfy. 10/06/2025: Was Gertrude Stein a Genius? A New Biography Makes the Case. Review of: GERTRUDE STEIN: An Afterlife / Francesca Wade.
Katie Yee. 10/06/2025: ‘What a Time to Be Alive’? In Fact It Is, Two New Novels Say. Review of: WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE / Jade Chang -- WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE / Jenny Mustard (which has totally frustrated the LT algorithm!).
Bruna Datas Lobato. 10/06/2025: A Propulsive Tale of Two Mothers Entangled in a Kidnapping. Review of: MOTHERS: a novel / Brenda Lozano; translated by Heather Cleary (Catapult).
Eli Sharabi, interviewer Ruth Margalit. 10/06/2025: ‘I Am Lucky’: In a New Memoir, a Former Israeli Captive Looks Ahead. Regarding: Hostage / Eli Sharabi (Harper Influence).
Alexandra Jacobs. 10/05/2025: Grieving a Father Who Found Dignity in the Dirt. Review of: DEATH AND THE GARDENER / Georgi Gospodinov; translated by Angela Rodel.
Joseph Bernstein. 10/05/2025: A Powerhouse Writer Found One Word to Change the Debate About Tech. Profile of Cory Doctorow & his works, including his latest: Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It.
Ryan Ruby. 10/05/2025: For This Writer, the Personal and Political Are Inseparable. Review of: THINGS THAT DISAPPEAR / Jenny Erpenbeck; translated by Kurt Beals.
Leo Robson. 10/04/2025: Jonathan Lethem’s Mastery of the Sort-of-Science-Fiction Story. Review of: A DIFFERENT KIND OF TENSION: New and Selected Stories / Jonathan Lethem.
Mary Marge Locker. 10/04/2025: A Lost World War I Classic Returns, as Relevant as Ever. Review of: GINSTER / Siegfried Kracauer; translated by Carl Skoggard.
Elissa Gabbert. 10/03/2025: What Was Best About the ‘Best American Poetry’?"After four decades, the annual book series is drawing to a close. Our columnist looks at what it all meant."
Jennifer Szalai. 10/03/2025: How to Get Away With Crimes Against Humanity. Review of: 38 LONDRES STREET: On Impunity, Pinochet in England, and a Nazi in Patagonia / Philippe Sands.
Joumanna Khatib. 10/03/2025: Beyond Handbags and French Bad Boys: Reconsidering Jane Birkin. Review: IT GIRL: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin / Marisa Meltzer.
Dwight Garner. 10/02/2025: Thomas Pynchon’s New Novel Isn’t His Best. It’s Still Good Fun. Review of: Shadow Ticket / Thomas Pynchon.
Ed Simon. 10/02/2025: Are We Headed for Apocalypse? This Book Says It’s a 1-in-3 Chance. Review of: GOLIATH’S CURSE: The History and Future of Societal Collapse / Luke Kemp.
Mark Yarm. 10/02/2025: Evan Dando Is Back From the Brink. On the occasion of the publication of: Rumors of My Demise: A Memoir / Evan Dando.
Elizabeth A. Harris. 10/01/2025: Florida Court Rejects Free Speech Argument in Book Removal Case. "The lawsuit was an effort to keep ‘And Tango Makes Three,’ about two male penguins raising a chick, in a county’s school libraries."
Elizabeth A. Harris. 10/01/2025: ‘Rampant’ Book Bans Are Being Taken for Granted, Free Speech Group Warns. "A new report from PEN America tracks restrictions on school books across 45 states."
A.O. Scott. 10/01/2025: The Essential Thomas Pynchon.
Jennifer Szalai. 10/01/2025: Bruce Lee Died Young, but He Changed the Look of Movies Forever. Review of: WATER MIRROR ECHO: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America / Jeff Chang.
Elizabeth Graver. 10/31/2025: A Quest to Find the Truth Behind Her Grandmother’s Smile. Review of: INDIGNITY: A Life Reimagined / Lea Ypi.
Emily C. Hughes. 10/30/2025: Gothic Fiction: A Starter Pack.
Calum Marsh. 10/30/2025: He Wrote ‘House of Leaves,’ the Ultimate Cult Novel. He Hopes It Wasn’t His Peak. Profile of Mark Danielewski regarding House of Leaves & Tom's Crossing.
Jennifer Szalai. 10/29/2025: How Big Tech’s Unchecked Power Could Swallow Us All. Review of: THE AGE OF EXTRACTION: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity / Tim Wu.
Alexandra Alter. 10/29/2025: A Work of Genius or a Complete Mess? Even Its Author Can’t Decide. "Helen DeWitt’s bewildering co-written novel, “Your Name Here,” took almost 20 years to publish, a process that nearly drove her to despair." Anchor link: Your Name Here / Helen DeWitt & Ilya Gridneff.
Darrell Hartman. 10/28/2025: Is This Bandit’s Legend an Old West Tall Tale? Review of: BRING ME THE HEAD OF JOAQUIN MURRIETA: The Bandit Chief Who Terrorized California and Launched the Legend of Zorro / John Boessenecker.
Hamilton Cain. 10/28/2025: Can the Western Be Reinvented Again? Here’s a 1,200-Page Yes. Review of: TOM’S CROSSING / Mark Z. Danielewski.
Richard Kreitner. 10/28/2025: Joseph J. Ellis Doesn’t Think You Would Have Abolished Slavery, Either. Review of: THE GREAT CONTRADICTION: The Tragic Side of the American Founding / Joseph J. Ellis.
Megan O'Grady. 10/28/2025: Zadie Smith Considers Art in the Age of Relentless Progress. Review of: DEAD AND ALIVE: Essays / Zadie Smith.
Hari Kunzru. 10/28/2025: First They Got Into Berkeley. Then They Took On the Raj. Review of: LET MY COUNTRY AWAKE: Indian Revolutionaries in America and the Fight to Overthrow the British Raj / Scott Miller.
Dana Goldstein. 10/27/2025: How Politics Is Changing the Way History Is Taught. Temporarily unlocked. "History lessons are being wiped from the internet, and California is retreating from ethnic studies, as education swings away from curriculums that are seen as too progressive."
Dwight Garner. 10/27/2025: Who Is Cameron Crowe Kidding With the Title of His Memoir? Review of: THE UNCOOL: A Memoir / Cameron Crowe.
Elisabeth Egan. 10/27/2025: Jack Carr Knows His Way Around a Battlefield, and a Military Thriller. Profile, featuring his latest: Cry Havoc.
Sarah Lyall. 10/26/2025: Philip Pullman Brings Lyra’s Story to a Close. Review of: The Rose Field / Philip Pullman.
Joumana Khatib. 10/24/2025: She’s Still Writing About Herself. Plus Meth, Murder and Minnesota. Profile of Chris Kraus ( Where I learned she was once married to Sylvère Lotringer), with ref to her new The Four Spent the Day Together.
Sarah Lyall. 10/23/2025: How Writing Helped Susan Orlean Find a ‘Bigger Place in the World.’ Regarding: Joyride: A Memoir / Susan Orlean.
Dan Kois. 10/23/2025: How Philip Pullman’s Heroine Changed Her Life — and Mine. "I named my daughter after Lyra, his intrepid protagonist. Now, in the final installment of the blockbuster fantasy saga, we get to see how she turned out."
Dan Piepenbring. 10/22/2025: Wut? It’s in the Dictionary. A New Book Explains How. Review of: UNABRIDGED: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary / Stefan Fatsis.
Jennifer Szalai. 10/22/2025: The World’s Greatest Feminist Experiment Was Not Where You’d Think. Review of: MOTHERLAND: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, From Revolution to Autocracy / Julia Ioffe.
Jennifer Wright. 10/22/2025: Before ‘Hamilton,’ the Schuyler Sisters Were Already Stars. Review of: PRIDE AND PLEASURE: The Schuyler Sisters in the Age of Revolution / Amanda Vaill.
Laura Thompson. 10/21/2025: A Surfing Safari Detours Into Eugenics. Review of: CAPTURING KAHANAMOKU: How a Surfing Legend and a Scientific Obsession Redefined Race and Culture / Michael Rossi.
Laura Miller. 10/21/2025: Harper Lee’s Conflicted Loves Emerge in a New Collection. Review of: THE LAND OF SWEET FOREVER: Stories and Essays / Harper Lee; edited by Casey Cep.
Marie Kondo, interviewer Tariro Mzezewa. 10/21/2025: How Does Marie Kondo Pack? To ‘Spark Joy,’ of Course. Regarding: Letter from Japan / Marie Kondo with Marie Iida.
Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff. 10/21/2025: This Novel Is a Cry for the Missing Black Women Across America. Review of: Boom Town / Nic Stone.
Kiersten White. 10/21/2025: They Thought It Would Be Fun to Summon a Dragon. They Were Very Wrong. Review of: King Sorrow: a novel / Joe Hill.
Catherine Chidgey. 10/21/2025: How to Eat Friends and Influence People. Review of: Girl Dinner: A Novel / Olivia Blake.
Gerald Howard. 10/20/2025: The Dogged, Irrational Persistence of Literary Fiction.
Dwight Garner. 10/20/2025: John Updike Called His Letters Dull. They’re Anything But. Review of: SELECTED LETTERS OF JOHN UPDIKE / edited by James Schiff.
Eva Wolchover. 10/20/2025: Churchill Plus the Windsors? Andrew Morton Spills Rewarmed Tea. Review of: WINSTON AND THE WINDSORS: How Churchill Shaped a Royal Dynasty / Andrew Morton.
Everdeen Mason. 10/20/2025: The Heroine of ‘His Dark Materials’ Is Back. Here’s What You Need to Know: The beloved British fantasy writer Philip Pullman concludes his Book of Dust trilogy with Lyra Belacqua’s final adventure. Regarding Pullman's Book of Dust & His Dark Materials Trilogy.
Matthew F. Delmont. 10/19/2025: The Civil Rights Movement Changed America. We Glorify It at Our Peril. Review of: SHATTERED DREAMS, INFINITE HOPE: A Tragic Vision of the Civil Rights Movement / Brandon M. Terry.
Emmeline Clein. 10/19/2025: Marriage Was a Drag, So She Found New Lives in Her Dreams. Review of: The Third Love / Hiromi Kawakami.
David Oshinsky. 10/19/2025: Who Calls the Shots in the N.F.L.? Three Guys Who Don’t Always Get Along.. Review of: EVERY DAY IS SUNDAY: How Jerry Jones, Robert Kraft, and Roger Goodell Turned the NFL Into a Cultural and Economic Juggernaut / Ken Belson.
Tim Teeman. 10/18/2025: William Gibson, Lisa Simpson and More on Their Favorite Pinch of Pynchon. "With the famously private novelist enjoying a (private) moment in the sun, we reached out to die-hard fans who’ve tuned in to the zaniness all along."
Mark O'Connell. 10/18/2025: In This Beguiling Novel, a ‘Big Kiss’ From a Modern Master. Review of: BIG KISS, BYE-BYE / Claire-Louise Bennett.
Nikhil Krishnan. 10/18/2025: Wittgenstein’s Philosophy Is Daunting. This Biography Makes Him Human. Review of: LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN: Philosophy in the Age of Airplanes / Anthony Gottlieb.
Adelle Waldman. 10/18/2025: An Affair to Remember — Except It Never Actually Happened. Review of: The Ten Year Affair: A Novel / Erin Somers. ("two parallel realities, one of which imagines a young mother’s infidelity.")
Walker Mimms. 10/17/2025: In These Harlem Death Portraits, a Glimpse of the Living. Review of: The Harlem Book of the Dead / James Van Der Zee, ed Owen Dodson & Camille Billops Van Der Zee.
Elizabeth Egan. 10/17/2025: She Worked at Vogue, but She Didn’t Write Another ‘Devil Wears Prada.’ Profile of Caroline Palmer regarding her Workhorse: A Novel.
Marcus Rediker. 10/16/2025: A Horrific Tale of the Slave Trade, Destined to Become a Classic. Review of: THE ZORG: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery / Siddharth Kara.
Alexandra Jacobs. 10/16/2025: From Epstein’s Chief Accuser, a Memoir Both Sad and Devastating. Review of: NOBODY’S GIRL: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice / Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
David Orr. 10/16/2025: A Poet Who Aims to Be Kind, but Not at the Cost of the Truth. Review of: STARTLEMENT: New and Selected Poems / Ada Limón.
Emily C. Hughes. 10/16/2025: Why Do We Love Spooky Season? It’s in Our Genes! Review of: MORBIDLY CURIOUS: A Scientist Explains Why We Can’t Look Away / Coltan Scrivner.
Rebecca Makkai. 10/15/2025: A Novel Intertwines the Many Dramas of Life in an Autocracy. Review of: EYE OF THE MONKEY / Krisztina Toth; translated by Ottilie Mulzet.
Michael P. Jeffries. 10/15/2025: Dispatches From the Front Lines of American Bigotry. Review of: THREE OR MORE IS A RIOT: Notes on How We Got Here: 2012-2025 / Jelani Cobb.
David Greenberg. 10/14/2025: Is American Foreign Policy Really for Sale? Review of: DEVILS’ ADVOCATES: The Hidden Story of Rudy Giuliani, Hunter Biden, and the Washington Insiders on the Payrolls of Corrupt Foreign Interests / Kenneth P. Voge (William Morrow).
Ian McGuire. 10/14/2025: An Epic Quest in the South Pacific, Drawn From History and Myth. Review of: The Wayfinder: A Novel / Adam Johnson.
Lily Meyer. 10/14/2025: The Tale of a Guardian, a Thief and the Fine Line Between. Review of: A Guardian and a Thief: A Novel / Megha Majumdar.
Zachary D. Carter. 10/14/2025: The Great Crash Retold as Thrilling True Crime — and as a Warning. Review of: 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History — and How It Shattered a Nation / Andrew Ross Sorkin.
Matt Stevens. 10/14/2025: In a New Memoir, Kevin Federline Says He’s Worried About Britney Spears. Regarding the forthcoming You Thought You Knew / Kevin Federline with Alex Holstein (Listenin).
Elizabeth D. Samet. 10/13/2025: How World War II Transformed America and the Globe, for Better and Worse. Review of: 1942: When World War II Engulfed the Globe / Peter Fritzsche -- THE WOUNDED GENERATION: Coming Home After World War II / David Nasaw.
Dwight Garner. 10/13/2025: A Novelist, Naturalist (and C.I.A. Agent) Always on the Move. Review of: TRUE NATURE: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen / Lance Richardson (Pantheon).
Lauren Collins-Hughes. 10/13/2025: Tim Curry Isn’t Done Yet. Regarding Vagabond: A Memoir / Tim Curry.
Randy Boyagoda. 10/12/2025: A Novel That’s Equal Parts ‘White Lotus’ and ‘Get Out.’ Review of: The Unveiling: A Novel / Quan Barry.
Neil MacFarquhar and Milana Mazaeva. 10/11/2025: Understanding Post-Soviet Tyranny, in Order to Fight It. "After winning the Nobel Prize for her searing portraits of the Soviet world unraveling, Svetlana Alexievich worries about the revival of its violent, anti-democratic ways."
Clay Risen. 10/11/2025: When America First Swung Its Big Stick. Review of: SPLENDID LIBERATORS: Heroism, Betrayal, Resistance, and the Birth of American Empire / Joe Jackson.
Alex Beggs. 10/11/2025: The Last Gasp of Magazine Glamour, as Seen From the Bottom Rung. Review of: Workhorse: A Novel / Caroline Palmer.
Garth Risk Hallberg. 10/10/2025: The Pleasures of Reading Laszlo Krasznahorkai, Master of Doom. "He won the Nobel Prize in Literature for books often called bleak and challenging. But they’re also comical and deeply human."
Andrés Reséndez. 10/10/2025: Was Columbus a Monster, a Saint or Just a Guy? A Biographer Digs In. Review of: THE NINE LIVES OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS / Matthew Restall.
David Canfield. 10/10/2025: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Cynic. Review of: MINOR BLACK FIGURES: a novel / Brandon Taylor.
Adeel Hasan. 10/09/2025: Librarian Fired in Books Dispute to Receive $700,000 Settlement. "County officials in Wyoming fired Terri Lesley, a library director, after she refused to purge children and young adult books that contained sexual content and L.G.B.T.Q. themes."
Alex Marshall. 10/09/2025: Nobel Prize in Literature Is Awarded to Laszlo Krasznahorkai. Temporarily unlocked.
Jennifer Szalai. 10/09/2025: Revisiting Her Hometown, a Journalist Finds Anger, Addiction and Despair. Review of: PAPER GIRL: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America / Beth Macy.
MJ Franklin. 10/09/2025: The ’90s Gender Swap Novel You Need to Read Now. Review of: ORLANDA / Jacqueline Harpman; translated by Ros Schwartz.
Parul Sehgal. 10/09/2025: Thomas Pynchon Saw Where America Was Headed. What Does He See Now?
Elizabeth A. Harris. 10/07/2025: Here Are the Finalists for the 2025 National Book Awards. Note: see WaPo >7 featherbear: for shared list
Alexandra Kleeman. 10/07/2025: Katherine Dunn’s Stories, Newly Unearthed, Float and Sting. Review of: NEAR FLESH: Stories / Katherine Dunn.
Sarah Lyall. 10/07/2025: The ‘Thursday Murder Club’ Detectives Are ‘Not Sweet Old People.’ Regarding Richard Osman's series & the latest, The Impossible Fortune.
Sam Thielman. 10/07/2025: In This Graphic History, an Unflinching Look at Black Activism. Review of: BLACK ARMS TO HOLD YOU UP: A History of Black Resistance / Ben Passmore.
Paul Begala. 10/07/2025: First They Drove Out the Comanches. Then They Changed the Country. Review of: THE CONSERVATIVE FRONTIER: Texas and the Origins of the New Right / Jeff Roche (University of Texas Press).
Azadeh Moaveni. 10/07/2025: Jake Tapper Has a Second Book This Year. It’s About Terrorism. Review of: RACE AGAINST TERROR: Chasing an Al Qaeda Killer at the Dawn of the Forever War / Jake Tapper.
Christopher Benfy. 10/06/2025: Was Gertrude Stein a Genius? A New Biography Makes the Case. Review of: GERTRUDE STEIN: An Afterlife / Francesca Wade.
Katie Yee. 10/06/2025: ‘What a Time to Be Alive’? In Fact It Is, Two New Novels Say. Review of: WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE / Jade Chang -- WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE / Jenny Mustard (which has totally frustrated the LT algorithm!).
Bruna Datas Lobato. 10/06/2025: A Propulsive Tale of Two Mothers Entangled in a Kidnapping. Review of: MOTHERS: a novel / Brenda Lozano; translated by Heather Cleary (Catapult).
Eli Sharabi, interviewer Ruth Margalit. 10/06/2025: ‘I Am Lucky’: In a New Memoir, a Former Israeli Captive Looks Ahead. Regarding: Hostage / Eli Sharabi (Harper Influence).
Alexandra Jacobs. 10/05/2025: Grieving a Father Who Found Dignity in the Dirt. Review of: DEATH AND THE GARDENER / Georgi Gospodinov; translated by Angela Rodel.
Joseph Bernstein. 10/05/2025: A Powerhouse Writer Found One Word to Change the Debate About Tech. Profile of Cory Doctorow & his works, including his latest: Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It.
Ryan Ruby. 10/05/2025: For This Writer, the Personal and Political Are Inseparable. Review of: THINGS THAT DISAPPEAR / Jenny Erpenbeck; translated by Kurt Beals.
Leo Robson. 10/04/2025: Jonathan Lethem’s Mastery of the Sort-of-Science-Fiction Story. Review of: A DIFFERENT KIND OF TENSION: New and Selected Stories / Jonathan Lethem.
Mary Marge Locker. 10/04/2025: A Lost World War I Classic Returns, as Relevant as Ever. Review of: GINSTER / Siegfried Kracauer; translated by Carl Skoggard.
Elissa Gabbert. 10/03/2025: What Was Best About the ‘Best American Poetry’?"After four decades, the annual book series is drawing to a close. Our columnist looks at what it all meant."
Jennifer Szalai. 10/03/2025: How to Get Away With Crimes Against Humanity. Review of: 38 LONDRES STREET: On Impunity, Pinochet in England, and a Nazi in Patagonia / Philippe Sands.
Joumanna Khatib. 10/03/2025: Beyond Handbags and French Bad Boys: Reconsidering Jane Birkin. Review: IT GIRL: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin / Marisa Meltzer.
Dwight Garner. 10/02/2025: Thomas Pynchon’s New Novel Isn’t His Best. It’s Still Good Fun. Review of: Shadow Ticket / Thomas Pynchon.
Ed Simon. 10/02/2025: Are We Headed for Apocalypse? This Book Says It’s a 1-in-3 Chance. Review of: GOLIATH’S CURSE: The History and Future of Societal Collapse / Luke Kemp.
Mark Yarm. 10/02/2025: Evan Dando Is Back From the Brink. On the occasion of the publication of: Rumors of My Demise: A Memoir / Evan Dando.
Elizabeth A. Harris. 10/01/2025: Florida Court Rejects Free Speech Argument in Book Removal Case. "The lawsuit was an effort to keep ‘And Tango Makes Three,’ about two male penguins raising a chick, in a county’s school libraries."
Elizabeth A. Harris. 10/01/2025: ‘Rampant’ Book Bans Are Being Taken for Granted, Free Speech Group Warns. "A new report from PEN America tracks restrictions on school books across 45 states."
A.O. Scott. 10/01/2025: The Essential Thomas Pynchon.
Jennifer Szalai. 10/01/2025: Bruce Lee Died Young, but He Changed the Look of Movies Forever. Review of: WATER MIRROR ECHO: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America / Jeff Chang.
7featherbear
WaPo Oct 2025
Michael Dirda. 10/31/2025: Philip Pullman’s imaginary world has become more like our real one. Review of: The Rose Field: The Book of Dust, Volume 3 / Philip Pullman with reference to his earlier works.
Michael O'Sullivan. 10/30/2025: Anthony Hopkins’s memoir is a page-turner. Review of: We Did OK, Kid / Anthony Hopkins.
Ron Charles. 10/29/2025: ‘Queen Esther’ isn’t a ‘Cider House Rules’ sequel, but it’s something. Review of: Queen Esther: A Novel / John Irving.
Jacob Brogan. 10/29/2025: The author of ‘House of Leaves’ returns with a thrilling masterpiece. Review of: Tom’s Crossing / Mark Z. Danielewski.
Daniel Fryer. 10/28/2025: How Jesse Jackson set the stage for today’s political landscape. Review of: A Dream Deferred: Jesse Jackson and the Fight for Black Political Power / Abby Phillip.
Clifford Krauss. 10/28/2025: A new critique of 80 years of American policy in the Middle East. Review of: Kicking the Hornet’s Nest: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East from Truman to Trump / Daniel E. Zoughbie.
Karin Tanabe. 10/26/2025: ‘Sandwich’ was a huge hit. ‘Wreck’ is almost as delightful. Review of: Wreck: a novel / Catherine Newman.
Caleb Gayle. 10/25/2025: An argument for how to tell the story of the civil rights era. Review of: Shattered Dreams, Infinite Hope: A Tragic Vision of the Civil Rights Movement / Brandon M. Terry.
Jacob Brogan. 10/24/2025: How a WWII veteran became one of England’s most prolific ghost hunters. Review of: Chasing the Dark: A 140-Year Investigation of Paranormal Activity / Ben Machell.
Sophia Nguyen. 10/23/2025: ‘I’m alive, but battered’: Philip Pullman’s new novel was a struggle. "After 30 years and two trilogies, Pullman reflects on the world of His Dark Materials."
Hamilton Cain. 10/23/2025: Gish Jen’s ‘Bad Bad Girl’ recasts a fraught relationship. Review of: Bad Bad Girl / Gish Jen.
Rhian Sasseen. 10/23/2025: How do you tell the story of a dying parent? Review of: Death and the Gardener / Georgi Gospodinov, translated from Bulgarian by Angela Rodel.
Becca Rothfeld. 10/22/2025: In her new book, Biden’s former press secretary lets Democrats have it. Review of: Independent
A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines / Karine Jean-Pierre.
Ron Charles. 10/21/2025: National Book Award finalist ‘A Guardian and a Thief’ will make you sweat. Review of: A Guardian and a Thief / Megha Majumdar.
Jacob Brogan. 10/19/2025: This forgotten Australian novel deserves to be discovered and shared. Review of: The Island / Antigone Kefala.
Karen MacPherson. 10/19/2025: 5 new mystery novels to curl up with this fall. Recommending: The Librarians / Sherry Thomas -- The Dentist / Tim Sullivan -- The Impossible Fortune / Richard Osman -- The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer / Ragnar Jónasson -- A Murderous Business / Cathy Pegau.
Jane Eisner. 10/18/2025: An ‘unlikely rabbi’ tells her story in the inspiring ‘Heart of a Stranger.’ Review of: Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi’s Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging / Angela Buchdahl.
Casey Schwartz. 10/18/2025: Russian women take center stage in ‘Motherland,’ a riveting new history. Review of: Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy / Julia Ioffe.
Becca Rothfeld. 10/17/2025: ‘Gertrude Stein’ is an enthralling look at a writer and her reputation. Review of: Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife / Francesca Wade.
Elizabeth Hand. 10/17/2025: The narrator of this horror novel has serious mommy issues. Review of: Mother of God: a novel / Sara Peters
Dennis Duncan. 10/16/2025: Can the dictionary stay relevant in the digital age? Review of: Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary / Stefan Fatsis.
Stephanie Merrie. 10/16/2025: Virginia Giuffre was determined to tell her story one final time. "Ghostwriter Amy Wallace recalls working on “Nobody’s Girl,” which details Giuffre’s allegations of abuse against Jeffrey Epstein, among others." Regarding: Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice / Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
Jennifer Reese. 10/16/2025: Families can be difficult. Then there’s Gabrielle Hamilton’s family. Review of: Next of Kin: A Memoir / Gabrielle Hamilton.
Anjan Sundaram. 10/15/2025: This novel asks: What’s left of our creativity in the age of AI? Review of: All That We See or Seem / Ken Liu.
Ron Charles. 10/15/2025: ‘The Wayfinder’ is an astonishing novel that’s both ancient and modern. Review of: The Wayfinder: A Novel / Adam Johnson.
Mark Athitakis. 10/15/2025: Susan Orlean, master of unusual subjects, turns her gaze inward. Review of: Joyride: A Memoir / Susan Orlean.
Jenny Rogers. 10/15/2025: Mayci Neeley’s memoir is one jaw-dropping revelation after the next. Review of: Told You So / Mayci Neeley
Walker Ruttmann. 10/13/2025: An unusually feral and lovely novel. Review of: The Endless Week / Laura Vazquez, translated from French by Alex Niemi.
Geoff Edgers. 10/12/2025: What made John Candy great? A new book is a welcome reminder. Review of: John Candy: A Life in Comedy / Paul Myers.
Bailey Trela. 10/11/2025: An odd Weimar-era novel, finally in English, probes the folly of war. Review of: Ginster / Siegfried Kracauer; translator Carl Skoggard (NYRB).
Case Schwartz. 10/10/2025: Julian Brave NoiseCat tells the harrowing story of his family’s survival. Profile of documentarian & author of We Survived the Night.
Katherine J. Chen. 10/10/2025: Natsuo Kirino’s novel follows a young woman in Tokyo as she navigates the world of egg donation and surrogacy.. Review of: Swallows: a novel / Natsuo Kirino, translated from Japanese by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda.
Sophia Nguyen. 10/09/2025: Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai awarded Nobel Prize in literature. "The Swedish Academy honored the writer whom critic Susan Sontag once called the “master of the apocalypse” for “his compelling and visionary oeuvre.”"
Becca Rothfeld. 10/09/2025: A hypnotic memoir about, of all things, shipping logistics in China. Review of: I Deliver Parcels in Beijing / Hu Anyan, translated from Chinese by Jack Hargreaves.
Katherine Bouton. 10/08/2025: This deaf writer offers a compelling new way to think about language. Review of: Articulate: A Deaf Memoir of Voice / Rachel Kolb.
Lily Meyer. 10/08/2025: A human rights lawyer’s personal quest for international justice. Review of: 38 Londres Street
On Impunity, Pinochet in England, and a Nazi in Patagonia / Philippe Sands.
Ron Charles. 10/08/2025: Mitch Albom’s ‘Twice’ is somehow both bonkers and bland. Review of: Twice / Mitch Albom
Sophia Nguyen. 10/07/2025: National Book Award finalists announced for 2025. Temporarily unlocked.
Leigh Haber. 10/07/2025: To understand our divided America, she started with her hometown. Review of: Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America / Beth Macy.
Robert Rubsam. 10/07/2025: Nobel Prize winner Jon Fosse begins a new trilogy with ‘Vaim.’ Regarding: Vaim / Jon Fosse.
Allison Stewart. 10/07/2025: Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘Last Rites’ captures the Prince of Darkness in twilight: Osbourne’s posthumous memoir is mainly concerned with his illness-plagued final years as he tried unsuccessfully to complete one last tour. Review of: Last Rites / Ozzy Osbourne.
Karen Iris Tucker. 10/06/2025: ‘Carole King’ tells the story of a songwriting giant. Review of: Carole King: She Made the Earth Move / Jane Eisner (Yale University Press Jewish Lives series).
Abhrajyoti Chakraborty. 10/05/2025: A distinctive Irish novelist returns with ‘The City Changes Its Face’: picks up a romance from one of her previous novels as it moves into a more profound phase. Review of: The City Changes Its Face / Eimear McBride.
Becca Rothfeld. 10/04/2025: To Steven Pinker, human knowledge is just a game. Review of: When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life / Steven Pinker.
Carl Hoffman. 10/04/2025: An aching, dreamlike exploration of colonialism and memory in Mozambique. Review of: The Cartographer of Absences / Mia Couto, translated from Portuguese by David Brookshaw.
David Kirby. 10/03/2025: The women of Parliament-Funkadelic finally get their due. Review of: Mothership Connected: The Women of Parliament-Funkadelic / Seth Neblett (University of Texas Press).
Alma Katsu. 10/02/2025: This writer visited 21 graveyards — and dug up some deep truths. Review of: Someone Is Walking on Your Grave: My Cemetery Journeys / Mariana Enriquez. Translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell (Hogarth).
Ron Charles. 10/02/2025: In ‘Love, Sex, and Frankenstein,’ Mary Shelley is fueled by rage. Review of: Love, Sex, and Frankenstein / Caroline Lea.
Sophia Nguyen. 10/01/2025: Stephen King, Jodi Picoult among most-banned authors in schools. "A report by free-expression advocacy group PEN America documented more than 6,000 instances of restrictions on books in the 2024-2025 school year."
Marin Cogan. 10/01/2025: A new take on true crime narratives – from within the prison walls. Review of: The Tragedy of True Crime: Four Guilty Men and the Stories that Define Us / John J. Lennon.
Michael Dirda. 10/31/2025: Philip Pullman’s imaginary world has become more like our real one. Review of: The Rose Field: The Book of Dust, Volume 3 / Philip Pullman with reference to his earlier works.
Michael O'Sullivan. 10/30/2025: Anthony Hopkins’s memoir is a page-turner. Review of: We Did OK, Kid / Anthony Hopkins.
Ron Charles. 10/29/2025: ‘Queen Esther’ isn’t a ‘Cider House Rules’ sequel, but it’s something. Review of: Queen Esther: A Novel / John Irving.
Jacob Brogan. 10/29/2025: The author of ‘House of Leaves’ returns with a thrilling masterpiece. Review of: Tom’s Crossing / Mark Z. Danielewski.
Daniel Fryer. 10/28/2025: How Jesse Jackson set the stage for today’s political landscape. Review of: A Dream Deferred: Jesse Jackson and the Fight for Black Political Power / Abby Phillip.
Clifford Krauss. 10/28/2025: A new critique of 80 years of American policy in the Middle East. Review of: Kicking the Hornet’s Nest: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East from Truman to Trump / Daniel E. Zoughbie.
Karin Tanabe. 10/26/2025: ‘Sandwich’ was a huge hit. ‘Wreck’ is almost as delightful. Review of: Wreck: a novel / Catherine Newman.
Caleb Gayle. 10/25/2025: An argument for how to tell the story of the civil rights era. Review of: Shattered Dreams, Infinite Hope: A Tragic Vision of the Civil Rights Movement / Brandon M. Terry.
Jacob Brogan. 10/24/2025: How a WWII veteran became one of England’s most prolific ghost hunters. Review of: Chasing the Dark: A 140-Year Investigation of Paranormal Activity / Ben Machell.
Sophia Nguyen. 10/23/2025: ‘I’m alive, but battered’: Philip Pullman’s new novel was a struggle. "After 30 years and two trilogies, Pullman reflects on the world of His Dark Materials."
Hamilton Cain. 10/23/2025: Gish Jen’s ‘Bad Bad Girl’ recasts a fraught relationship. Review of: Bad Bad Girl / Gish Jen.
Rhian Sasseen. 10/23/2025: How do you tell the story of a dying parent? Review of: Death and the Gardener / Georgi Gospodinov, translated from Bulgarian by Angela Rodel.
Becca Rothfeld. 10/22/2025: In her new book, Biden’s former press secretary lets Democrats have it. Review of: Independent
A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines / Karine Jean-Pierre.
Ron Charles. 10/21/2025: National Book Award finalist ‘A Guardian and a Thief’ will make you sweat. Review of: A Guardian and a Thief / Megha Majumdar.
Jacob Brogan. 10/19/2025: This forgotten Australian novel deserves to be discovered and shared. Review of: The Island / Antigone Kefala.
Karen MacPherson. 10/19/2025: 5 new mystery novels to curl up with this fall. Recommending: The Librarians / Sherry Thomas -- The Dentist / Tim Sullivan -- The Impossible Fortune / Richard Osman -- The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer / Ragnar Jónasson -- A Murderous Business / Cathy Pegau.
Jane Eisner. 10/18/2025: An ‘unlikely rabbi’ tells her story in the inspiring ‘Heart of a Stranger.’ Review of: Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi’s Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging / Angela Buchdahl.
Casey Schwartz. 10/18/2025: Russian women take center stage in ‘Motherland,’ a riveting new history. Review of: Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy / Julia Ioffe.
Becca Rothfeld. 10/17/2025: ‘Gertrude Stein’ is an enthralling look at a writer and her reputation. Review of: Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife / Francesca Wade.
Elizabeth Hand. 10/17/2025: The narrator of this horror novel has serious mommy issues. Review of: Mother of God: a novel / Sara Peters
Dennis Duncan. 10/16/2025: Can the dictionary stay relevant in the digital age? Review of: Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary / Stefan Fatsis.
Stephanie Merrie. 10/16/2025: Virginia Giuffre was determined to tell her story one final time. "Ghostwriter Amy Wallace recalls working on “Nobody’s Girl,” which details Giuffre’s allegations of abuse against Jeffrey Epstein, among others." Regarding: Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice / Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
Jennifer Reese. 10/16/2025: Families can be difficult. Then there’s Gabrielle Hamilton’s family. Review of: Next of Kin: A Memoir / Gabrielle Hamilton.
Anjan Sundaram. 10/15/2025: This novel asks: What’s left of our creativity in the age of AI? Review of: All That We See or Seem / Ken Liu.
Ron Charles. 10/15/2025: ‘The Wayfinder’ is an astonishing novel that’s both ancient and modern. Review of: The Wayfinder: A Novel / Adam Johnson.
Mark Athitakis. 10/15/2025: Susan Orlean, master of unusual subjects, turns her gaze inward. Review of: Joyride: A Memoir / Susan Orlean.
Jenny Rogers. 10/15/2025: Mayci Neeley’s memoir is one jaw-dropping revelation after the next. Review of: Told You So / Mayci Neeley
Walker Ruttmann. 10/13/2025: An unusually feral and lovely novel. Review of: The Endless Week / Laura Vazquez, translated from French by Alex Niemi.
Geoff Edgers. 10/12/2025: What made John Candy great? A new book is a welcome reminder. Review of: John Candy: A Life in Comedy / Paul Myers.
Bailey Trela. 10/11/2025: An odd Weimar-era novel, finally in English, probes the folly of war. Review of: Ginster / Siegfried Kracauer; translator Carl Skoggard (NYRB).
Case Schwartz. 10/10/2025: Julian Brave NoiseCat tells the harrowing story of his family’s survival. Profile of documentarian & author of We Survived the Night.
Katherine J. Chen. 10/10/2025: Natsuo Kirino’s novel follows a young woman in Tokyo as she navigates the world of egg donation and surrogacy.. Review of: Swallows: a novel / Natsuo Kirino, translated from Japanese by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda.
Sophia Nguyen. 10/09/2025: Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai awarded Nobel Prize in literature. "The Swedish Academy honored the writer whom critic Susan Sontag once called the “master of the apocalypse” for “his compelling and visionary oeuvre.”"
Becca Rothfeld. 10/09/2025: A hypnotic memoir about, of all things, shipping logistics in China. Review of: I Deliver Parcels in Beijing / Hu Anyan, translated from Chinese by Jack Hargreaves.
Katherine Bouton. 10/08/2025: This deaf writer offers a compelling new way to think about language. Review of: Articulate: A Deaf Memoir of Voice / Rachel Kolb.
Lily Meyer. 10/08/2025: A human rights lawyer’s personal quest for international justice. Review of: 38 Londres Street
On Impunity, Pinochet in England, and a Nazi in Patagonia / Philippe Sands.
Ron Charles. 10/08/2025: Mitch Albom’s ‘Twice’ is somehow both bonkers and bland. Review of: Twice / Mitch Albom
Sophia Nguyen. 10/07/2025: National Book Award finalists announced for 2025. Temporarily unlocked.
Leigh Haber. 10/07/2025: To understand our divided America, she started with her hometown. Review of: Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America / Beth Macy.
Robert Rubsam. 10/07/2025: Nobel Prize winner Jon Fosse begins a new trilogy with ‘Vaim.’ Regarding: Vaim / Jon Fosse.
Allison Stewart. 10/07/2025: Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘Last Rites’ captures the Prince of Darkness in twilight: Osbourne’s posthumous memoir is mainly concerned with his illness-plagued final years as he tried unsuccessfully to complete one last tour. Review of: Last Rites / Ozzy Osbourne.
Karen Iris Tucker. 10/06/2025: ‘Carole King’ tells the story of a songwriting giant. Review of: Carole King: She Made the Earth Move / Jane Eisner (Yale University Press Jewish Lives series).
Abhrajyoti Chakraborty. 10/05/2025: A distinctive Irish novelist returns with ‘The City Changes Its Face’: picks up a romance from one of her previous novels as it moves into a more profound phase. Review of: The City Changes Its Face / Eimear McBride.
Becca Rothfeld. 10/04/2025: To Steven Pinker, human knowledge is just a game. Review of: When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life / Steven Pinker.
Carl Hoffman. 10/04/2025: An aching, dreamlike exploration of colonialism and memory in Mozambique. Review of: The Cartographer of Absences / Mia Couto, translated from Portuguese by David Brookshaw.
David Kirby. 10/03/2025: The women of Parliament-Funkadelic finally get their due. Review of: Mothership Connected: The Women of Parliament-Funkadelic / Seth Neblett (University of Texas Press).
Alma Katsu. 10/02/2025: This writer visited 21 graveyards — and dug up some deep truths. Review of: Someone Is Walking on Your Grave: My Cemetery Journeys / Mariana Enriquez. Translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell (Hogarth).
Ron Charles. 10/02/2025: In ‘Love, Sex, and Frankenstein,’ Mary Shelley is fueled by rage. Review of: Love, Sex, and Frankenstein / Caroline Lea.
Sophia Nguyen. 10/01/2025: Stephen King, Jodi Picoult among most-banned authors in schools. "A report by free-expression advocacy group PEN America documented more than 6,000 instances of restrictions on books in the 2024-2025 school year."
Marin Cogan. 10/01/2025: A new take on true crime narratives – from within the prison walls. Review of: The Tragedy of True Crime: Four Guilty Men and the Stories that Define Us / John J. Lennon.
8featherbear
Guardian Oct 2025
Kathryn Hughes. 10/31/2025: Sparkling reflections on life and literature. Review of: Attention: Writing on Life, Art and the World / Anne Enright (W W Norton).
Rishi Dastidar. 10/31/2025: The best recent poetry – review roundup.
Rebecca Wait. 10/30/2025: A love story to treasure: A companion novel to the brilliant Writers & Lovers, this delightfully witty tale of college romance matures into midlife poignancy. Review of: Heart the Lover / Lily King.
Houman Barekat. 10/29/2025: Essays for an age of anxiety. Review of: Dead and Alive: Essays / Zadie Smith.
Liz Jensen. 10/29/2025: Raw, dark folk horror confronts mortality. Review of: Saltwash / Andrew Michael Hurley.
Guardian staff and agencies. 10/28/2025: Wole Soyinka, Nigerian Nobel laureate and Trump critic, says US visa revoked.
Kevin Power. 10/28/2025: A haunting coda to a groundbreaking career. Review of: The Eleventh Hour: A Quintet of Stories / Salman Rushdie.
Philip Oltermann. 10/27/2025: WH Auden formed ‘intense friendship’ with sex worker who burgled him, unseen letters reveal.
Lara Feigl. 10/27/2025: A cult writer tries something new. Review of: The Four Spent the Day Together / Chris Kraus.
Sukhdev Sandhu. 10/27/2025: Undiscovered gems from the charismatic chef turned writer. Review of: The Anthony Bourdain Reader / Anthony Bourdain, compiled by Kimberly Witherspoon.
Lisa Allardice. 10/27/2025: From White Teeth to Swing Time: Zadie Smith’s best books - ranked!
Anne Enright. 10/26/2025: ‘Under the stuff I can’t throw out is the stuff my parents couldn’t throw out’: novelist Anne Enright on the agony of clearing her family home. Excerpt from: Attention: Writing on Life, Art and the World / Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape, forthcoming Oct 30).
Robert Gottlieb. 10/25/2025: A ‘blueprint’ for a different future in Israel-Palestine: New book, published just before the ceasefire deal, describes in granular detail the conditions for dismantling apartheid in Israel-Palestine. Review of: From Apartheid to Democracy: A Blueprint for Peace in Israel-Palestine / Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man and Sarah Leah Whitson (University of California Press).
Andrew Michael Hurley et al. 10/25/2025: ‘It’s insanely sinister’: horror writers on the scariest stories they’ve ever read.
Rebecca Nicholson. 10/24/2025: A brilliant, blunt and beautiful memoir. Review of: A Mind of My Own / Kathy Burke.
Jenny McGrath. 10/23/2025: The best e-readers in the US, for every kind of book lover.
James Ball. 10/23/2025: The downsides of cheating death. Review of: The Immortalists: The Death of Death and the Race for Eternal Life / Aleks Krotoski (Bodley Head: Amazon: "Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock." hmmm)
Sarah Crown. 10/23/2025: Nail-biting conclusion to the Northern Lights series. "The Book of Dust trilogy is brought to a complex and fitting end as Lyra battles the Magisterium over her lost imagination." Regarding: The Rose Field: The Book of Dust Volume 3 by Philip Pullman.
Pratinav Anil. 10/22/2025: From hijackings to holy war. Review of: The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s / Jason Burke.
Beejay Silcox. 10/22/2025: Sinister stories from the graveyard shift. Review of: Midnight Timetable: A Novel in Ghost Stories / Bora Chung; translator Anton Hur.
Joe Moran. 10/21/2025: Startling stories of China’s new precarity. Review of: I Deliver Parcels in Beijing / Hu Anyan.
Sandra Newman. 10/21/2025: Newly discovered stories from an American great. "If we regard this book as literature, it is an unqualified failure. But these juvenile stories and essays shed fascinating light on the repression of Lee’s early life." The Land of Sweet Forever / Harper Lee.
Hu Anyan, interviewer Rebecca Liu. 10/20/2025: The Beijing courier who went viral: how Hu Anyan wrote about delivering parcels – and became a bestseller. Regarding: I Deliver Parcels in Beijing / Hu AnYan; translator Jack Greaves.
Anthony Cummins. 10/20/2025: A trip inside the frazzled mind of Klaus Kinski. Review of: Jesus Christ Kinski / Benjamin Meyers (UK: Bloomsbury). (not on Amazon for some reason)
Alex Needham. 10/20/2025: Inside rock’s wildest decade: From shadowing a cocaine-addled David Bowie to winning over Joni Mitchell, deliciously readable tales by the director of Almost Famous. Review of: The Uncool: A Memoir / Cameron Crowe.
Emma Brockes. 10/20/2025: A devastating exposé of power, corruption and abuse. Review of: Nobody’s Girl: Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice / Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
Martin Pengelly. 10/19/2025: ‘Disorder, fright and confusion’: looking back at the devastating Wall Street crash of 1929. Talking w/Andrew Ross Sorkin on his new book: 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--and How It Shattered a Nation.
Lily King, interviewed by Hanna Mariott. 10/19/2025: Lily King: ‘What is life without love?’ Regarding: Heart the Lover / Lily King.
Ramon Antonio Vargas. 10/19/2025: Ohio man charged after brandishing gun at New York City Wikipedia conference.
Ashifa Kassam. 10/19/2025: Italian blasphemy and German ingenuity: how swear words differ around the world. "Once dismissed as a sign of low intelligence, researchers now argue the ‘power’ of taboo words has been overlooked."
Alexis Petridis. 10/17/2025: Eye-popping tales of drugs and unpredictability. Review of: Rumors of My Demise: A Memoir / Evan Dando (US publisher Gallery Books); (UK main title: Rumours of My Demise; publisher Faber).
Michael Sunn. 10/16/2025: Britney Spears calls claims in Kevin Federline’s memoir ‘extremely hurtful.
Fiona Sturges. 10/16/2025: The ancient Greek goddess works magic in this retelling. Review of: Hekate: The Witch (Goddesses of the Underworld Book 1) / Nikita Gill.
Sam Leith. 10/16/2025: A literary novelist tries his hand at pulp horror. Review of: The Captive / Kit Burgoyne (Ned Beaumont).
Shahida Bari. 10/15/2025: Painfully clunky lessons in art. Review of: Mona's Eyes / Thomas Schlesser, translated by Hildegarde Serle (Europa Editions). "This French bestseller, in which a girl and her grandfather visit Paris museums, aims to be a Sophie’s World for art history – but the conversations are sentimental and simplistic."
Mythili Rao. 10/14/2025: Growing up in public. "Clambering up bell towers, dancing the night away and falling in love – how ‘saint’ Malala forged a new identity." Review of: Finding My Way: A Memoir / Malala Yousafzai.
Lara Feigl. 10/14/2025: Remembering terrible men"In the latest novel from the acclaimed avant garde author, the narrator considers the impact of the relationships she’s left behind." Review of: Big Kiss, Bye-Bye: A Novel / Claire-Louise Bennett.
Fiona Benson. 10/13/2025: ‘After the reading, the poets hold each other’: what happens when Ukraine’s largest literary festival comes under Russian attack. "Fiona Benson was invited to Lviv’s BookForum by Ukrainian poet-soldier Artur Dron’. She recounts falling in love with the city and its thriving literary culture, before an air raid siren sounds."
Sarah Moss. 10/13/2025: Behind the scenes at the nail salon. Review of: Pick a Color: A Novel / Souvankham Thammavongsa (Little, Brown; UK title, of course: Pick a Colour; publisher Bloomsbury).
Richard Norton-Taylor. 10/12/2025: The story behind the spy stories: show reveals secrets of John le Carré’s craft. "How author researched his plots and letters from Alec Guinness feature in Oxford exhibition."
Sarah Perry. 10/12/2025: ‘I wanted to write more than I wanted to have children’: author Sarah Perry on rejecting motherhood. "When the novelist was faced with the decision of whether to pursue fertility treatment or focus on her career, her literary ambitions kicked in." In the context of the loss of her husband: Death of an Ordinary Man / Sarah Perry.
Ella Creamer. 10/11/2025: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie says she is terrified her sons will ‘join manosphere.’ "Nigerian-American author tells Cheltenham literature festival audience having boys made her ‘worry more.’"
Chris Kraus, interviewer Sophie Bain. 10/11/2025: ‘I’m going to write about all of it’: author Chris Kraus on success, drugs and I Love Dick. Her latest novel: The Four Spent the Day Together / Chris Kraus.
Colm Tóibín. 10/10/2025: Colm Tóibín: Why I set up a press to publish Nobel winner László Krasznahorkai. "The Irish novelist discovered the Hungarian writer two decades ago, and was excited by the verbal pyrotechnics of a rule-breaking storyteller."
Natalia Haynes. 10/10/2025: The Books in my Life: Natalie Haynes: ‘I’ll never read anything by a Brontë again.’ Her latest: No Friend to This House: A Novel / Natalia Haynes.
Pratinav Anil. 10/10/2025: An intimate history of Greece. Review of: Raise Your Soul: A Personal History of Resistance / Yanis Varoufakis.
Emma Loffhagen. 10/09/2025: László Krasznahorkai wins the Nobel prize in literature 2025. "The Hungarian novelist whose books ‘reaffirm the power of art’ was announced as winner at a ceremony in Stockholm."
Philip Terry. 10/09/2025: The Poems of Seamus Heaney review – collected works reveal his colossal achievement: The complete works, including previously unpublished poems and expert notes, are brought together in one volume for the first time. Regarding: The Poems of Seamus Heaney / edited by Rosie Lavan and Bernard O’Donoghue with Matthew Hollis (UK publisher: Faber; US publisher, Nov 18 forthcoming: Farrar Straus & Giroux).
Joseph Gedeon. 10/09/2025: ‘They didn’t even read the book’: How children’s authors are being canceled over Palestine.
Brianna Holt. 10/09/2025: How ‘authenticity’ at work can become a trap for people of color. Regarding: Authentic: The Myth of Bringing Your Full Self to Work / Jodi-Ann Burey.
Emma Loffhagen. 10/08/2025: Can Xue and László Krasznahorkai are joint favourites to win 2025 Nobel prize in literature.
Farrah Jaral. 10/08/2025: Profound, or just a prank?: The director’s provocative seventh book takes in toupees, AI and a pig in a sewer. Should we take him seriously? Review of: The Future of Truth / Werner Herzog, translated by Michael Hofmann.
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett. 10/08/2025: Queer haunted house tale fails to chill. Review of: The Decadence / Leon Craig (Sceptre).
Viv Groskop. 10/07/2025: The matriarchs who built mother Russia. Review of: Motherland: A History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy / Julia Ioffe.
Nina Allan. 10/07/2025: A Danish series that burns with purpose. Review of: The Devil Book / Asta Olivia Nordenhof, translated by Caroline Waight. "This incandescent novel takes in lockdown, the devil, bad investments, erotic thrills and the deadly fire on the Scandinavian Star ferry."
Elle Hunt. 10/07/2025: ‘People screamed. Cried. Threw up’: 10 extraordinary life lessons from Ozzy Osbourne’s new memoir. Regarding: Last Rites / Ozzy Osbourne with Chris Ayres.
Philip Oltermann. 10/07/2025: The Pushkin job: unmasking the thieves behind an international rare books heist. "Between 2022 and 2023, as many as 170 rare and valuable editions of Russian classics were stolen from libraries across Europe. Were the thieves merely low-level opportunists, or were bigger forces at work?"
Lucy Hughes Hallett. 10/06/2025: Wild times with young Tennyson: A masterful account of the poet’s early life during the tumultuous 19th century crisis of faith. Review of: The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science and the Crisis of Belief / Richard Holmes.
James Smart. 10/06/2025: Intertwined tales of trauma: Four novellas about damaged people weighed down by the crimes they have suffered draw you efficiently in, but the cumulative effect is numbing. Review of: The Elements / John Boyne.
Emma Loffhagen. 10/06/2025: The one change that worked: I was lost in the infinite scroll – until a small ritual renewed my love of reading.
Cory Doctorow. 10/05/2025: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish? "Sick of scrolling through junk results, AI-generated ads and links to lookalike products? The author and activist behind the term ‘enshittification’ explains what’s gone wrong with the internet – and what we can do about it." An edited extract from Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It by Cory Doctorow.
Anthony Cummins. 10/03/2025: Ties that bind. Review of: On Friendship / Andrew O’Hagan (Faber) (memoir).
William Dalrymple. 10/02/2025: A monument to Afghan resilience. Review of: The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People's History of Afghanistan / Lyse Doucet. "A sweeping social history of Afghanistan is seen through the lens of Kabul’s InterContinental hotel, where staff endured the horrific realities of life in a war zone."
Joe Moran. 10/01/2025: A brilliant meditation on mortality. Review of: Death of an Ordinary Man / Sarah Perry.
Kathryn Hughes. 10/31/2025: Sparkling reflections on life and literature. Review of: Attention: Writing on Life, Art and the World / Anne Enright (W W Norton).
Rishi Dastidar. 10/31/2025: The best recent poetry – review roundup.
Rebecca Wait. 10/30/2025: A love story to treasure: A companion novel to the brilliant Writers & Lovers, this delightfully witty tale of college romance matures into midlife poignancy. Review of: Heart the Lover / Lily King.
Houman Barekat. 10/29/2025: Essays for an age of anxiety. Review of: Dead and Alive: Essays / Zadie Smith.
Liz Jensen. 10/29/2025: Raw, dark folk horror confronts mortality. Review of: Saltwash / Andrew Michael Hurley.
Guardian staff and agencies. 10/28/2025: Wole Soyinka, Nigerian Nobel laureate and Trump critic, says US visa revoked.
Kevin Power. 10/28/2025: A haunting coda to a groundbreaking career. Review of: The Eleventh Hour: A Quintet of Stories / Salman Rushdie.
Philip Oltermann. 10/27/2025: WH Auden formed ‘intense friendship’ with sex worker who burgled him, unseen letters reveal.
Lara Feigl. 10/27/2025: A cult writer tries something new. Review of: The Four Spent the Day Together / Chris Kraus.
Sukhdev Sandhu. 10/27/2025: Undiscovered gems from the charismatic chef turned writer. Review of: The Anthony Bourdain Reader / Anthony Bourdain, compiled by Kimberly Witherspoon.
Lisa Allardice. 10/27/2025: From White Teeth to Swing Time: Zadie Smith’s best books - ranked!
Anne Enright. 10/26/2025: ‘Under the stuff I can’t throw out is the stuff my parents couldn’t throw out’: novelist Anne Enright on the agony of clearing her family home. Excerpt from: Attention: Writing on Life, Art and the World / Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape, forthcoming Oct 30).
Robert Gottlieb. 10/25/2025: A ‘blueprint’ for a different future in Israel-Palestine: New book, published just before the ceasefire deal, describes in granular detail the conditions for dismantling apartheid in Israel-Palestine. Review of: From Apartheid to Democracy: A Blueprint for Peace in Israel-Palestine / Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man and Sarah Leah Whitson (University of California Press).
Andrew Michael Hurley et al. 10/25/2025: ‘It’s insanely sinister’: horror writers on the scariest stories they’ve ever read.
Rebecca Nicholson. 10/24/2025: A brilliant, blunt and beautiful memoir. Review of: A Mind of My Own / Kathy Burke.
Jenny McGrath. 10/23/2025: The best e-readers in the US, for every kind of book lover.
James Ball. 10/23/2025: The downsides of cheating death. Review of: The Immortalists: The Death of Death and the Race for Eternal Life / Aleks Krotoski (Bodley Head: Amazon: "Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock." hmmm)
Sarah Crown. 10/23/2025: Nail-biting conclusion to the Northern Lights series. "The Book of Dust trilogy is brought to a complex and fitting end as Lyra battles the Magisterium over her lost imagination." Regarding: The Rose Field: The Book of Dust Volume 3 by Philip Pullman.
Pratinav Anil. 10/22/2025: From hijackings to holy war. Review of: The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s / Jason Burke.
Beejay Silcox. 10/22/2025: Sinister stories from the graveyard shift. Review of: Midnight Timetable: A Novel in Ghost Stories / Bora Chung; translator Anton Hur.
Joe Moran. 10/21/2025: Startling stories of China’s new precarity. Review of: I Deliver Parcels in Beijing / Hu Anyan.
Sandra Newman. 10/21/2025: Newly discovered stories from an American great. "If we regard this book as literature, it is an unqualified failure. But these juvenile stories and essays shed fascinating light on the repression of Lee’s early life." The Land of Sweet Forever / Harper Lee.
Hu Anyan, interviewer Rebecca Liu. 10/20/2025: The Beijing courier who went viral: how Hu Anyan wrote about delivering parcels – and became a bestseller. Regarding: I Deliver Parcels in Beijing / Hu AnYan; translator Jack Greaves.
Anthony Cummins. 10/20/2025: A trip inside the frazzled mind of Klaus Kinski. Review of: Jesus Christ Kinski / Benjamin Meyers (UK: Bloomsbury). (not on Amazon for some reason)
Alex Needham. 10/20/2025: Inside rock’s wildest decade: From shadowing a cocaine-addled David Bowie to winning over Joni Mitchell, deliciously readable tales by the director of Almost Famous. Review of: The Uncool: A Memoir / Cameron Crowe.
Emma Brockes. 10/20/2025: A devastating exposé of power, corruption and abuse. Review of: Nobody’s Girl: Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice / Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
Martin Pengelly. 10/19/2025: ‘Disorder, fright and confusion’: looking back at the devastating Wall Street crash of 1929. Talking w/Andrew Ross Sorkin on his new book: 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--and How It Shattered a Nation.
Lily King, interviewed by Hanna Mariott. 10/19/2025: Lily King: ‘What is life without love?’ Regarding: Heart the Lover / Lily King.
Ramon Antonio Vargas. 10/19/2025: Ohio man charged after brandishing gun at New York City Wikipedia conference.
Ashifa Kassam. 10/19/2025: Italian blasphemy and German ingenuity: how swear words differ around the world. "Once dismissed as a sign of low intelligence, researchers now argue the ‘power’ of taboo words has been overlooked."
Alexis Petridis. 10/17/2025: Eye-popping tales of drugs and unpredictability. Review of: Rumors of My Demise: A Memoir / Evan Dando (US publisher Gallery Books); (UK main title: Rumours of My Demise; publisher Faber).
Michael Sunn. 10/16/2025: Britney Spears calls claims in Kevin Federline’s memoir ‘extremely hurtful.
Fiona Sturges. 10/16/2025: The ancient Greek goddess works magic in this retelling. Review of: Hekate: The Witch (Goddesses of the Underworld Book 1) / Nikita Gill.
Sam Leith. 10/16/2025: A literary novelist tries his hand at pulp horror. Review of: The Captive / Kit Burgoyne (Ned Beaumont).
Shahida Bari. 10/15/2025: Painfully clunky lessons in art. Review of: Mona's Eyes / Thomas Schlesser, translated by Hildegarde Serle (Europa Editions). "This French bestseller, in which a girl and her grandfather visit Paris museums, aims to be a Sophie’s World for art history – but the conversations are sentimental and simplistic."
Mythili Rao. 10/14/2025: Growing up in public. "Clambering up bell towers, dancing the night away and falling in love – how ‘saint’ Malala forged a new identity." Review of: Finding My Way: A Memoir / Malala Yousafzai.
Lara Feigl. 10/14/2025: Remembering terrible men"In the latest novel from the acclaimed avant garde author, the narrator considers the impact of the relationships she’s left behind." Review of: Big Kiss, Bye-Bye: A Novel / Claire-Louise Bennett.
Fiona Benson. 10/13/2025: ‘After the reading, the poets hold each other’: what happens when Ukraine’s largest literary festival comes under Russian attack. "Fiona Benson was invited to Lviv’s BookForum by Ukrainian poet-soldier Artur Dron’. She recounts falling in love with the city and its thriving literary culture, before an air raid siren sounds."
Sarah Moss. 10/13/2025: Behind the scenes at the nail salon. Review of: Pick a Color: A Novel / Souvankham Thammavongsa (Little, Brown; UK title, of course: Pick a Colour; publisher Bloomsbury).
Richard Norton-Taylor. 10/12/2025: The story behind the spy stories: show reveals secrets of John le Carré’s craft. "How author researched his plots and letters from Alec Guinness feature in Oxford exhibition."
Sarah Perry. 10/12/2025: ‘I wanted to write more than I wanted to have children’: author Sarah Perry on rejecting motherhood. "When the novelist was faced with the decision of whether to pursue fertility treatment or focus on her career, her literary ambitions kicked in." In the context of the loss of her husband: Death of an Ordinary Man / Sarah Perry.
Ella Creamer. 10/11/2025: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie says she is terrified her sons will ‘join manosphere.’ "Nigerian-American author tells Cheltenham literature festival audience having boys made her ‘worry more.’"
Chris Kraus, interviewer Sophie Bain. 10/11/2025: ‘I’m going to write about all of it’: author Chris Kraus on success, drugs and I Love Dick. Her latest novel: The Four Spent the Day Together / Chris Kraus.
Colm Tóibín. 10/10/2025: Colm Tóibín: Why I set up a press to publish Nobel winner László Krasznahorkai. "The Irish novelist discovered the Hungarian writer two decades ago, and was excited by the verbal pyrotechnics of a rule-breaking storyteller."
Natalia Haynes. 10/10/2025: The Books in my Life: Natalie Haynes: ‘I’ll never read anything by a Brontë again.’ Her latest: No Friend to This House: A Novel / Natalia Haynes.
Pratinav Anil. 10/10/2025: An intimate history of Greece. Review of: Raise Your Soul: A Personal History of Resistance / Yanis Varoufakis.
Emma Loffhagen. 10/09/2025: László Krasznahorkai wins the Nobel prize in literature 2025. "The Hungarian novelist whose books ‘reaffirm the power of art’ was announced as winner at a ceremony in Stockholm."
Philip Terry. 10/09/2025: The Poems of Seamus Heaney review – collected works reveal his colossal achievement: The complete works, including previously unpublished poems and expert notes, are brought together in one volume for the first time. Regarding: The Poems of Seamus Heaney / edited by Rosie Lavan and Bernard O’Donoghue with Matthew Hollis (UK publisher: Faber; US publisher, Nov 18 forthcoming: Farrar Straus & Giroux).
Joseph Gedeon. 10/09/2025: ‘They didn’t even read the book’: How children’s authors are being canceled over Palestine.
Brianna Holt. 10/09/2025: How ‘authenticity’ at work can become a trap for people of color. Regarding: Authentic: The Myth of Bringing Your Full Self to Work / Jodi-Ann Burey.
Emma Loffhagen. 10/08/2025: Can Xue and László Krasznahorkai are joint favourites to win 2025 Nobel prize in literature.
Farrah Jaral. 10/08/2025: Profound, or just a prank?: The director’s provocative seventh book takes in toupees, AI and a pig in a sewer. Should we take him seriously? Review of: The Future of Truth / Werner Herzog, translated by Michael Hofmann.
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett. 10/08/2025: Queer haunted house tale fails to chill. Review of: The Decadence / Leon Craig (Sceptre).
Viv Groskop. 10/07/2025: The matriarchs who built mother Russia. Review of: Motherland: A History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy / Julia Ioffe.
Nina Allan. 10/07/2025: A Danish series that burns with purpose. Review of: The Devil Book / Asta Olivia Nordenhof, translated by Caroline Waight. "This incandescent novel takes in lockdown, the devil, bad investments, erotic thrills and the deadly fire on the Scandinavian Star ferry."
Elle Hunt. 10/07/2025: ‘People screamed. Cried. Threw up’: 10 extraordinary life lessons from Ozzy Osbourne’s new memoir. Regarding: Last Rites / Ozzy Osbourne with Chris Ayres.
Philip Oltermann. 10/07/2025: The Pushkin job: unmasking the thieves behind an international rare books heist. "Between 2022 and 2023, as many as 170 rare and valuable editions of Russian classics were stolen from libraries across Europe. Were the thieves merely low-level opportunists, or were bigger forces at work?"
Lucy Hughes Hallett. 10/06/2025: Wild times with young Tennyson: A masterful account of the poet’s early life during the tumultuous 19th century crisis of faith. Review of: The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science and the Crisis of Belief / Richard Holmes.
James Smart. 10/06/2025: Intertwined tales of trauma: Four novellas about damaged people weighed down by the crimes they have suffered draw you efficiently in, but the cumulative effect is numbing. Review of: The Elements / John Boyne.
Emma Loffhagen. 10/06/2025: The one change that worked: I was lost in the infinite scroll – until a small ritual renewed my love of reading.
Cory Doctorow. 10/05/2025: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish? "Sick of scrolling through junk results, AI-generated ads and links to lookalike products? The author and activist behind the term ‘enshittification’ explains what’s gone wrong with the internet – and what we can do about it." An edited extract from Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It by Cory Doctorow.
Anthony Cummins. 10/03/2025: Ties that bind. Review of: On Friendship / Andrew O’Hagan (Faber) (memoir).
William Dalrymple. 10/02/2025: A monument to Afghan resilience. Review of: The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People's History of Afghanistan / Lyse Doucet. "A sweeping social history of Afghanistan is seen through the lens of Kabul’s InterContinental hotel, where staff endured the horrific realities of life in a war zone."
Joe Moran. 10/01/2025: A brilliant meditation on mortality. Review of: Death of an Ordinary Man / Sarah Perry.
9featherbear
New Yorker Oct 2025 (with belated items from the previous month(s))
Lillian Fishman. 10/31/2025: Claire-Louise Bennett’s Misanthropic Breakup Novel. Review of: Big Kiss Bye-Bye / Claire-Louis Bennett.
Adam Gopnick. 10/30/2025: https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/how-to-endure-authoritarianism. "A visit to a poet’s home in Kraków recalls the lessons of Eastern Europe’s dissidents." Profile of Polish poet Wisława Szymborska, who won the Nobel Prize in 1996.
Manvir Singh. 10/27/2025: How Monsters Went from Menacing to Misunderstood. With reference to: Humans: A Monstrous History / Surekha Davies -- God's Monsters: Vengeful Spirits, Deadly Angels, Hybrid Creatures, and Divine Hitmen of the Bible / Esther J. Hamori. (Also check out the humble brag about his daughter halfway through)
Adam Kirsch. 10/27/2025: Why Immanuel Kant Still Has More to Teach Us. Review of: Kant: A Revolution in Thinking / Marcus Willaschek; translation by Peter Lewis.
Grace Byron. 10/22/2025: The Muscular Compassion of “Paper Girl.” Review of: Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America / Beth Macy.
Karl Ove Knausgaard. 10/21/2025: The Light of “The Brothers Karamazov.” "Although Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote with wildness and urgency, he patiently insisted on asking an essential question: What are we living for?" Anchor link: The Brothers Karamazov / Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Cal Revely-Calder. 10/20/2025: A Dark Ecologist Warns Against Hope. Review of: Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity / Paul Kingsnorth.
Katy Waldman. 10/20/2025: How Corporate Feminism Went from “Love Me” to “Buy Me.” Review of: Authentic: The Myth of Bringing Your Full Self to Work / Jodi-Ann Burey -- Powerfully Likeable: A Woman's Guide to Effective Communication / Kate Mason -- All the Cool Girls Get Fired: How to Let Go of Being Let Go and Come Back on Top / Laura Brown & Kristina O'Neill -- Fly!: A Woman's Guide to Financial Freedom and Building a Life You Love / Steph Wagner.
Julia Ioffe. 10/19/2025: The Real Housewives of Moscow. Excerpt from: Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy / Julia Ioffe.
Joshua Rothman. 10/14/2025: Do You Know What I Know?: Steven Pinker argues that common knowledge makes the world go round—and off the rails. Regarding: When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life / Steven Pinker.
Anthony Lane. 10/13/2025: A Forgotten Queen Bee of Modern Poetry. "A débutante, a burlesque dancer, and a poet, the shape-shifting V. R. Lang—who died at thirty-two—wrote some of the most aching, entrancing lines of the twentieth century. Regarding: The Miraculous Season: Selected Poems / V.R. (Bunny) Lang; Rosa Campbell ed. (UK: Carcanet Press; forthcoming in the US via NYRB Poets in April 2026)
John Cassidy. 10/13/2025: The A.I. Boom and the Spectre of 1929. Regarding various books on the Stockmarket Crash of 1929 as a potential precursor of the AI bubble, including the recent: 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--and How It Shattered a Nation / Andrew Ross Sorkin.
Manvir Singh. 10/13/2025: The Hunt for the World’s Oldest Story. "From thunder gods to serpent slayers, scholars are reconstructing myths that vanished millennia ago. How much further can we go—and what might we find?"
Maggie Doherty. 10/13/2025: Peter Matthiessen Travelled the World, Trying to Escape Himself. Review of: True Nature: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen / Lance Richardson (Pantheon).
Susan Orlean. 10/11/2025: The Making of “Adaptation”: When your quirky book becomes a quirkier movie.. Regarding her book The Orchid Thief & the film Adaptation.
James Wood. 10/09/2025: László Krasznahorkai and Contemporary Europe’s Perilous Reality. "The swirling sentences of the new Nobel laureate’s fiction overlay small-town politics with an uneasy sense of impending apocalypse."
Jessica Winter. 10/08/2025: The “Unfit” Mothers of Ariana Harwicz. Regarding: Die, My Love / translated by Carolina Orloff & Sarah Moses -- Feebleminded / translated by Carolina Orloff & Annie McDermott -- Tender / translated by Carolina Orloff & Annie McDermott -- Unfit / translated by Jessie Mendez Sayer.
Kelefa Sanneh. 10/06/2025: Pan-African Dreams, Post-Colonial Realities. Review of: The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide / Howard W. French -- Slow Poison: Idi Amin, Yoweri Museveni, and the Making of the Ugandan State / Mahmood Mamdani, with reference also to Mamdani's Neither Settler nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities.
Jo Livingstone. 10/06/2025: The Violent, Hilarious Return of “Hothead Paisan”. Revisiting Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist / Diane DiMassa.
Lauren Michele Jackson. 10/05/2025: Brandon Taylor on the Quandary of Black Art. Interview on the occasion of his new novel Minor Black Figures / Brandon Taylor.
Helen Shaw. 10/02/2025: The Unexpected Sweetness of Bill and Ted’s “Waiting for Godot.”
Kyle Chayka. 10/01/2025: The Age of Enshittification. Review of: Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It / Cory Doctorow.
Judith Thurman. 09/29/2025: Gertrude Stein’s Love Language."How a self-appointed genius found her ideal helpmate."
Lillian Fishman. 10/31/2025: Claire-Louise Bennett’s Misanthropic Breakup Novel. Review of: Big Kiss Bye-Bye / Claire-Louis Bennett.
Adam Gopnick. 10/30/2025: https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/how-to-endure-authoritarianism. "A visit to a poet’s home in Kraków recalls the lessons of Eastern Europe’s dissidents." Profile of Polish poet Wisława Szymborska, who won the Nobel Prize in 1996.
Manvir Singh. 10/27/2025: How Monsters Went from Menacing to Misunderstood. With reference to: Humans: A Monstrous History / Surekha Davies -- God's Monsters: Vengeful Spirits, Deadly Angels, Hybrid Creatures, and Divine Hitmen of the Bible / Esther J. Hamori. (Also check out the humble brag about his daughter halfway through)
Adam Kirsch. 10/27/2025: Why Immanuel Kant Still Has More to Teach Us. Review of: Kant: A Revolution in Thinking / Marcus Willaschek; translation by Peter Lewis.
Grace Byron. 10/22/2025: The Muscular Compassion of “Paper Girl.” Review of: Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America / Beth Macy.
Karl Ove Knausgaard. 10/21/2025: The Light of “The Brothers Karamazov.” "Although Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote with wildness and urgency, he patiently insisted on asking an essential question: What are we living for?" Anchor link: The Brothers Karamazov / Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Cal Revely-Calder. 10/20/2025: A Dark Ecologist Warns Against Hope. Review of: Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity / Paul Kingsnorth.
Katy Waldman. 10/20/2025: How Corporate Feminism Went from “Love Me” to “Buy Me.” Review of: Authentic: The Myth of Bringing Your Full Self to Work / Jodi-Ann Burey -- Powerfully Likeable: A Woman's Guide to Effective Communication / Kate Mason -- All the Cool Girls Get Fired: How to Let Go of Being Let Go and Come Back on Top / Laura Brown & Kristina O'Neill -- Fly!: A Woman's Guide to Financial Freedom and Building a Life You Love / Steph Wagner.
Julia Ioffe. 10/19/2025: The Real Housewives of Moscow. Excerpt from: Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy / Julia Ioffe.
Joshua Rothman. 10/14/2025: Do You Know What I Know?: Steven Pinker argues that common knowledge makes the world go round—and off the rails. Regarding: When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life / Steven Pinker.
Anthony Lane. 10/13/2025: A Forgotten Queen Bee of Modern Poetry. "A débutante, a burlesque dancer, and a poet, the shape-shifting V. R. Lang—who died at thirty-two—wrote some of the most aching, entrancing lines of the twentieth century. Regarding: The Miraculous Season: Selected Poems / V.R. (Bunny) Lang; Rosa Campbell ed. (UK: Carcanet Press; forthcoming in the US via NYRB Poets in April 2026)
John Cassidy. 10/13/2025: The A.I. Boom and the Spectre of 1929. Regarding various books on the Stockmarket Crash of 1929 as a potential precursor of the AI bubble, including the recent: 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--and How It Shattered a Nation / Andrew Ross Sorkin.
Manvir Singh. 10/13/2025: The Hunt for the World’s Oldest Story. "From thunder gods to serpent slayers, scholars are reconstructing myths that vanished millennia ago. How much further can we go—and what might we find?"
Maggie Doherty. 10/13/2025: Peter Matthiessen Travelled the World, Trying to Escape Himself. Review of: True Nature: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen / Lance Richardson (Pantheon).
Susan Orlean. 10/11/2025: The Making of “Adaptation”: When your quirky book becomes a quirkier movie.. Regarding her book The Orchid Thief & the film Adaptation.
James Wood. 10/09/2025: László Krasznahorkai and Contemporary Europe’s Perilous Reality. "The swirling sentences of the new Nobel laureate’s fiction overlay small-town politics with an uneasy sense of impending apocalypse."
Jessica Winter. 10/08/2025: The “Unfit” Mothers of Ariana Harwicz. Regarding: Die, My Love / translated by Carolina Orloff & Sarah Moses -- Feebleminded / translated by Carolina Orloff & Annie McDermott -- Tender / translated by Carolina Orloff & Annie McDermott -- Unfit / translated by Jessie Mendez Sayer.
Kelefa Sanneh. 10/06/2025: Pan-African Dreams, Post-Colonial Realities. Review of: The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide / Howard W. French -- Slow Poison: Idi Amin, Yoweri Museveni, and the Making of the Ugandan State / Mahmood Mamdani, with reference also to Mamdani's Neither Settler nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities.
Jo Livingstone. 10/06/2025: The Violent, Hilarious Return of “Hothead Paisan”. Revisiting Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist / Diane DiMassa.
Lauren Michele Jackson. 10/05/2025: Brandon Taylor on the Quandary of Black Art. Interview on the occasion of his new novel Minor Black Figures / Brandon Taylor.
Helen Shaw. 10/02/2025: The Unexpected Sweetness of Bill and Ted’s “Waiting for Godot.”
Kyle Chayka. 10/01/2025: The Age of Enshittification. Review of: Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It / Cory Doctorow.
Judith Thurman. 09/29/2025: Gertrude Stein’s Love Language."How a self-appointed genius found her ideal helpmate."
10featherbear
The Critic (UK) Oct 2025
Jimmy Nichols. 10/30/2025: Slaves’ descendants don’t deserve reparations. Review of: The Big Payback: The Case for Reparations for Slavery and How They Would Work / Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder.
Victoria Smith. 10/28/2025: The case against porn. Review of: Pornocracy / Jo Bartosch and Robert Jessel (Polity).
Ben Sexsmith. 10/23/2025: You don’t hate him enough. Review of: Woke is Dead / Piers Morgan (Harper Collins).
Alexander Larman. 10/23/2025: Why update PG Wodehouse? Review of: Jeeves Again / Frank Skinner, Roddy Doyle, Alan Titchmarsh, Dominic Sandbrook, Deborah Frances-White, Andrew Hunter Murray, Scarlett Curtis, Jasper Fforde, John Finnemore, Ian Moore, William Rayfet Hunter and Fergus Craig. Cynically timed for Christmas, celebrity authors have reimagined the classic characters.
Samuel Rubenstein. 10/18/2025: The dirty secret of the Muslim world. Review of: Captives and Companions: A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World / Justin Marozzi.
John Self. 10/16/2025: Small lives and violent deaths: Not so much nailing down a topic as pricking it with a thousand needles. Omnibus review of: Vaim / Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls --
Lowest Common Denominator / Pirkko Saisio, translated by Mia Spangenberg (Two Lines Press) -- City Primeval / Elmore Leonard.
Jeremy Black. 10/15/2025: Mapping a nation. Review of: The Queen’s Atlas: Saxton’s Elizabethan Masterpiece / David Fletcher (Bodleian Library Publishing).
Lola Salem. 10/13/2025: To have, to hold — and to create. Review of: Who Owns Beauty? / Bénédicte Savoy (Polity).
Sebastian Milbank. 10/12/2025: A man of Rome, out of Africa. Review of: Augustine the African / Catherine Conybeare.
Beatrice Scudeler. 10/11/2025: Vive la difference. Review of: Sex is a Spectrum: The Biological Limits of the Binary / Agustín Fuentes -- The Dignity of Dependence: A Feminist Manifesto / Leah Libresco Sargeant.
Andrew Doyle. 10/09/2025: A fascinating record of a vanished world. Review of: The Benson Diary I: 1885–1906, A.C. Benson, edited by Eamon Duffy and Ronald Hyam.
Andy Owen. 10/07/2025: How Schopenhauer can change your miserable life. Review of: Arthur Schopenhauer: The Life and Thought of Philosophy’s Greatest Pessimist / David Bather Woods (University Chicago Press). (US publication date Nov 19 per Amazon)
Jeremy Black. 10/04/2025: Murders for October: Brazil in the 1930s, France in the 1940s and Britain in the 1950s.
Matthew Elliott. 10/03/2025: The inside story of how Brexit got done. Review of: Between The Waves: The Hidden History of a Very British Revolution, 1945—2016 / Tom McTague.
David Frost. 10/01/2025: Eurocentric view of an American giant. Review of: Henry Kissinger: An Intimate Portrait of the Master of Realpolitik / Jérémie Gallon.
Adrian Tinniswood. 10/01/2025: Bobo, Boofy and all. Review of: Heirs and Graces: A History of the Modern British Aristocracy / Eleanor Doughty.
Catherine McBride. 10/01/2025: What has Brexit done for us? Review of: 75 Brexit Benefits: Tangible Benefits from the UK Having Left the European Union / Gully Foyle (Bruges Group).
Jimmy Nichols. 10/30/2025: Slaves’ descendants don’t deserve reparations. Review of: The Big Payback: The Case for Reparations for Slavery and How They Would Work / Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder.
Victoria Smith. 10/28/2025: The case against porn. Review of: Pornocracy / Jo Bartosch and Robert Jessel (Polity).
Ben Sexsmith. 10/23/2025: You don’t hate him enough. Review of: Woke is Dead / Piers Morgan (Harper Collins).
Alexander Larman. 10/23/2025: Why update PG Wodehouse? Review of: Jeeves Again / Frank Skinner, Roddy Doyle, Alan Titchmarsh, Dominic Sandbrook, Deborah Frances-White, Andrew Hunter Murray, Scarlett Curtis, Jasper Fforde, John Finnemore, Ian Moore, William Rayfet Hunter and Fergus Craig. Cynically timed for Christmas, celebrity authors have reimagined the classic characters.
Samuel Rubenstein. 10/18/2025: The dirty secret of the Muslim world. Review of: Captives and Companions: A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World / Justin Marozzi.
John Self. 10/16/2025: Small lives and violent deaths: Not so much nailing down a topic as pricking it with a thousand needles. Omnibus review of: Vaim / Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls --
Lowest Common Denominator / Pirkko Saisio, translated by Mia Spangenberg (Two Lines Press) -- City Primeval / Elmore Leonard.
Jeremy Black. 10/15/2025: Mapping a nation. Review of: The Queen’s Atlas: Saxton’s Elizabethan Masterpiece / David Fletcher (Bodleian Library Publishing).
Lola Salem. 10/13/2025: To have, to hold — and to create. Review of: Who Owns Beauty? / Bénédicte Savoy (Polity).
Sebastian Milbank. 10/12/2025: A man of Rome, out of Africa. Review of: Augustine the African / Catherine Conybeare.
Beatrice Scudeler. 10/11/2025: Vive la difference. Review of: Sex is a Spectrum: The Biological Limits of the Binary / Agustín Fuentes -- The Dignity of Dependence: A Feminist Manifesto / Leah Libresco Sargeant.
Andrew Doyle. 10/09/2025: A fascinating record of a vanished world. Review of: The Benson Diary I: 1885–1906, A.C. Benson, edited by Eamon Duffy and Ronald Hyam.
Andy Owen. 10/07/2025: How Schopenhauer can change your miserable life. Review of: Arthur Schopenhauer: The Life and Thought of Philosophy’s Greatest Pessimist / David Bather Woods (University Chicago Press). (US publication date Nov 19 per Amazon)
Jeremy Black. 10/04/2025: Murders for October: Brazil in the 1930s, France in the 1940s and Britain in the 1950s.
Matthew Elliott. 10/03/2025: The inside story of how Brexit got done. Review of: Between The Waves: The Hidden History of a Very British Revolution, 1945—2016 / Tom McTague.
David Frost. 10/01/2025: Eurocentric view of an American giant. Review of: Henry Kissinger: An Intimate Portrait of the Master of Realpolitik / Jérémie Gallon.
Adrian Tinniswood. 10/01/2025: Bobo, Boofy and all. Review of: Heirs and Graces: A History of the Modern British Aristocracy / Eleanor Doughty.
Catherine McBride. 10/01/2025: What has Brexit done for us? Review of: 75 Brexit Benefits: Tangible Benefits from the UK Having Left the European Union / Gully Foyle (Bruges Group).
11featherbear
Public Books Oct 2025 (with Sept leftovers)
Adela Pinch. 10/30/2025: B-Sides: Rebecca West’s “The Fountain Overflows.” Revisiting The Fountain Overflows / Rebecca West (NYRB Classics reissue).
Jenny Bhatt. 10/29/2025: The Past as a Site of Radical Otherness in A Bomb Placed Close to the Heart / Nishant Batsha.
Nora Gilbert. 10/28/2025: The Lost Ending of “Gaslight” That You Didn’t Know You Needed. Excerpt (?) from: Victorian Gaslighting: Genealogy of an Injustice / Edited by Diana Bellonby, Nora Gilbert, and Tara MacDonald (State University of New York Press).
Stefania Heim & Ara H. Merjian. 10/23/2025: Fantasy, Pedantry, and Painting: Stefania Heim and Ara H. Merjian on the Novels of De Chirico. Review of: Mr. Dudron / Giorgio de Chirico, translated by Stefania Heim (Public Space Books) -- Hebdomeros / Giorgio de Chirico, introduction by Fabio Benzi.
Priyasha Mukhopadhyay. 10/21/2025: B-Sides: Leonard Woolf’s “The Village in the Jungle.” Revisiting: The Village in the Jungle / Leonard Woolf.
Lilly Irani. 10/16/2025: Imagining Intruders to Imagine a Nation -- Kalindi Vora. 10/15/2025: The Border is a Technology—Art Can Dispute It -- Philipp Sueferling. 10/14/2025: Tech, Stones, and Stories: How the Violence of Border Tech is a Historical Matter -- Iván Chaar López. 10/13/2025: Borders Are War by Other Means. Four essays regarding: The Cybernetic Border: Drones, Technology, and Intrusion / Iván Chaar López.
Editorial Staff. 09/30/2025: On Our Nightstands: September 2025.
Adela Pinch. 10/30/2025: B-Sides: Rebecca West’s “The Fountain Overflows.” Revisiting The Fountain Overflows / Rebecca West (NYRB Classics reissue).
Jenny Bhatt. 10/29/2025: The Past as a Site of Radical Otherness in A Bomb Placed Close to the Heart / Nishant Batsha.
Nora Gilbert. 10/28/2025: The Lost Ending of “Gaslight” That You Didn’t Know You Needed. Excerpt (?) from: Victorian Gaslighting: Genealogy of an Injustice / Edited by Diana Bellonby, Nora Gilbert, and Tara MacDonald (State University of New York Press).
Stefania Heim & Ara H. Merjian. 10/23/2025: Fantasy, Pedantry, and Painting: Stefania Heim and Ara H. Merjian on the Novels of De Chirico. Review of: Mr. Dudron / Giorgio de Chirico, translated by Stefania Heim (Public Space Books) -- Hebdomeros / Giorgio de Chirico, introduction by Fabio Benzi.
Priyasha Mukhopadhyay. 10/21/2025: B-Sides: Leonard Woolf’s “The Village in the Jungle.” Revisiting: The Village in the Jungle / Leonard Woolf.
Lilly Irani. 10/16/2025: Imagining Intruders to Imagine a Nation -- Kalindi Vora. 10/15/2025: The Border is a Technology—Art Can Dispute It -- Philipp Sueferling. 10/14/2025: Tech, Stones, and Stories: How the Violence of Border Tech is a Historical Matter -- Iván Chaar López. 10/13/2025: Borders Are War by Other Means. Four essays regarding: The Cybernetic Border: Drones, Technology, and Intrusion / Iván Chaar López.
Editorial Staff. 09/30/2025: On Our Nightstands: September 2025.
12featherbear
Quillette Oct 2025
Daniel Ellington. 10/222/2025: Terror’s Intelligence Apparatus. Review of: The Hamas Intelligence War Against Israel / Netanel Flamer.
Ronald Radosh. 10/20/2025: Ballad of a Song and Dance Man. Review of: Bob Dylan: Things Have Changed / Ron Rosenbaum.
Graham Daesler. 10/06/2025: Out of the Past: A new book looks back on the making of Billy Wilder’s American classic. Review of: Ready for My Close-Up: The Making of Sunset Boulevard and the Dark Side of the Hollywood Dream / David M. Lubin.
Brian Stewart. 09/30/2025: The Good War No More. Review of: To Lose a War: The Fall and Rise of the Taliban / Jon Lee Anderson.
Daniel Ellington. 10/222/2025: Terror’s Intelligence Apparatus. Review of: The Hamas Intelligence War Against Israel / Netanel Flamer.
Ronald Radosh. 10/20/2025: Ballad of a Song and Dance Man. Review of: Bob Dylan: Things Have Changed / Ron Rosenbaum.
Graham Daesler. 10/06/2025: Out of the Past: A new book looks back on the making of Billy Wilder’s American classic. Review of: Ready for My Close-Up: The Making of Sunset Boulevard and the Dark Side of the Hollywood Dream / David M. Lubin.
Brian Stewart. 09/30/2025: The Good War No More. Review of: To Lose a War: The Fall and Rise of the Taliban / Jon Lee Anderson.
13featherbear
LitHub Oct 2025 plus Sept leftovers
Nick Ripatrazone. 10/31/2025: Reading Anne Sexton’s Rejected Horror Stories.
Rachel Corbett. 10/31/2025: Arthur Conan Doyle, Jack the Ripper and the Fact and Fiction of Criminal Profiling. Excerpt from: The Monsters We Make: Murder, Obsession, and the Rise of Criminal Profiling / Rachel Corbett.
Brittany Allen. 10/30/2025: Libraries are reeling after a major distributor shutdown. Regarding the end of Baker & Taylor & the implication for libraries.
Chelsea G. Summers and Jessica Stoya. 10/30/2025: Porn, But Also Literature: On John Cleland’s Fanny Hill. Regarding: Fanny Hill / John Cleland.
Sophia Rosenfeld. 10/27/2025: Five Essential Books For Understanding Why We Choose What We Choose.
Lyndal Roper. 10/24/2025: Six Essential Texts That Explain the Historical Importance of the German Peasants’ War. See also: Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants’ War / Lyndal Roper.
Maris Kreizman. 10/23/2025: Don’t Let the Publishing Industry Get You Down (It Happens to the Best of Us). Pep talk.
Imaobong Umoren. 10/23/2025: How Christopher Columbus’s Brutal Enslavement of Indigenous Caribbeans Set the Tone For the “New” World. Excerpt from: Empire Without End: A New History of Britain and the Caribbean / Imaobong Umoren.
Akvilė Kavaliauskaitė. 10/22/2025: A Rare and Fragile Cage: On Loving—and Being Trapped By—the Lithuanian Language.
Ben Machell. 10/22/2025: The Mild Mannered Englishman Who Was the World’s Most Prolific Ghost Hunter. Excerpt from: Chasing the Dark: A 140-Year Investigation of Paranormal Activity / Ben Machell.
Anthony Gottlieb. 10/22/2025: On the Simple Life of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Philosophy as “Neverending Therapy.” Excerpt from: Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophy in the Age of Airplanes / Anthony Gottlieb.
Adrienne Mayor. 10/22/2025: Cursed Mountains and Deathly Lakes: When Nature Is Explained By Myth. Excerpt from: Mythopedia: A Brief Compendium of Natural History Lore / Adrienne Mayor.
James Schiff. 10/21/2025: Dear Bill: Letters From a Young John Updike to His Editor, William Maxwell. Excerpt from: Selected Letters of John Updike / edited by James Schiff.
Adam Johnson, interviewer Jane Ciabattari. 10/21/2025: Adam Johnson on Writing a Novel of Ancient Polynesia.
Gish Jen. 10/21/2025: What’s Real and What’s Not: Gish Jen on Writing Between the Factual Lines: Finding the Sweet Spot Between Memoir and Fiction.
Steven J. Zipperstein. 10/20/2025: The Psychology of Portnoy: On the Making of Philip Roth’s Groundbreaking Novel. Regarding: Portnoy's Complaint / Philip Roth.
Joshua Blackburn. 10/20/2025: Barf, Funk, Tug, and Other Etymological Mysteries. Excerpt from: The Language-Lover’s Lexipedia: An A-Z of Linguistic Curiosities / Joshua Blackburn.
Aisling Walsh. 10/17/2025: Why Philip Pullman’s Books Are More Important Than Ever in Speaking Truth to Power. "Aisling Walsh on the 30-Year Legacy of His Dark Materials."
Anna North. 10/15/2025: Anna North Thinks About the Roman Empire All the Time: The Author Explores How Learning Latin Helps Her Untangle History With the Present.
Joe Jackson. 10/15/2025: Why is America’s First Great War of Empire Barely Remembered at Home? Excerpt from: Splendid Liberators: Heroism, Betrayal, Resistance, and the Birth of American Empire / Joe Jackson.
Emily Temple. 10/14/2025: 58 Books You Need to Read (Recommended by People Who Know). "58 Books You Need to Read (Recommended by People Who Know)." It's a long list!
Terry McDonell, interviewer Lance Richardson. 10/14/2025: Who Was Peter Matthiessen, Really? Regarding: True Nature: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen by Lance Richardson (Pantheon).
David Nasaw. 10/14/2025: On the Terrible Toll of the Last Bloody Year of WWII. Excerpt from: The Wounded Generation: Coming Home After World War II / David Nasaw ((Penguin Random House).
Lukas Gage. 10/14/2025: Lukas Gage Recommends His Favorite Celebrity Memoirs. "Demi Moore, Pamela Anderson, and More."
Matthew Restall. 10/13/2025: On the Mysteries, Real and Imagined, Surrounding Christopher Columbus. Excerpt from: The Nine Lives of Christopher Columbus / Matthew Restall.
Marta Figlerowicz. 10/10/2025: Finding Grim Lessons of the 20th Century (and a Little Hope) in the Writing of Maria Janion. I believe this is the introduction to: The Bad Child: A Maria Janion Reader / Maria Janion.
Robert Bartlett. 10/10/2025: How Close Did We Come to Losing Beowulf Forever?. Excerpt from: History in Flames: The Destruction and Survival of Medieval Manuscripts / Robert Bartlett.
Brittany Allen. 10/09/2025: In Line With All the Pynchon Fans at the Midnight Release of Shadow Ticket.
Ed Simon. 10/08/2025: To Haunt and Be Haunted: On the Exhumation of Edgar Allen Poe. "Ed Simon Explores the Terror of Being Buried Alive and Americanism in Poe’s Work."
Devin Thomas O'Shea. 10/07/2025: Thomas Pynchon Has Been Warning Us About American Fascism the Whole Time. (And check out the comments)
Bryan Alistair Charles. 10/07/2025: On Translating Proust and the Art of Not Reading Ahead.
Ryan Barnes. 10/07/2025: The Race to Save a Medieval Palestinian Library: Ryan Byrnes on the Khalidi Family’s Battle to Protect Their Library From Ultra-Orthodox Settlers.
Mark Harman. 10/06/2025: Uncanny Prescience: Revisiting Kafka’s Amerika: Mark Harman Considers the Striking Social Commentary of the Unfinished Novel. Regarding Amerika / Franz Kafka.
Yume Kitasei. 10/06/2025: “It’s Okay But It’s Also Really Not.” When Dystopian Fiction is No Longer a Thought Experiment.
Mira Ptacin. 10/06/2025: My Child Does Not Love to Read, And I’m (Starting to Be) Okay With That.
Jean-Yves Mollier and Patricia Sorel. 10/02/2025: Inside China’s New Wave of Conceptually Innovative Bookstores.
Jonny Diamond. 10/02/2025: Librarian leaves job after declining Melania Trump’s demand for a sword.
Jonny Diamond. 10/01/2025: How many books is a lot of books? How many is too many?
Tamar Shapiro. 10/01/2025: Mother Tongues: Reflections on Memory, Language, and Love in Germany. About the writing of Restitution / Tamar Shapiro (Regal House).
Rebecca Van Laer. 09/30/2025: What Our Relationship With Cats Reveals About Ourselves. Excerpt from: Cat / Rebecca van Laer (Bloomsbury Publishing).
Nick Ripatrazone. 10/31/2025: Reading Anne Sexton’s Rejected Horror Stories.
Rachel Corbett. 10/31/2025: Arthur Conan Doyle, Jack the Ripper and the Fact and Fiction of Criminal Profiling. Excerpt from: The Monsters We Make: Murder, Obsession, and the Rise of Criminal Profiling / Rachel Corbett.
Brittany Allen. 10/30/2025: Libraries are reeling after a major distributor shutdown. Regarding the end of Baker & Taylor & the implication for libraries.
Chelsea G. Summers and Jessica Stoya. 10/30/2025: Porn, But Also Literature: On John Cleland’s Fanny Hill. Regarding: Fanny Hill / John Cleland.
Sophia Rosenfeld. 10/27/2025: Five Essential Books For Understanding Why We Choose What We Choose.
Lyndal Roper. 10/24/2025: Six Essential Texts That Explain the Historical Importance of the German Peasants’ War. See also: Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants’ War / Lyndal Roper.
Maris Kreizman. 10/23/2025: Don’t Let the Publishing Industry Get You Down (It Happens to the Best of Us). Pep talk.
Imaobong Umoren. 10/23/2025: How Christopher Columbus’s Brutal Enslavement of Indigenous Caribbeans Set the Tone For the “New” World. Excerpt from: Empire Without End: A New History of Britain and the Caribbean / Imaobong Umoren.
Akvilė Kavaliauskaitė. 10/22/2025: A Rare and Fragile Cage: On Loving—and Being Trapped By—the Lithuanian Language.
Ben Machell. 10/22/2025: The Mild Mannered Englishman Who Was the World’s Most Prolific Ghost Hunter. Excerpt from: Chasing the Dark: A 140-Year Investigation of Paranormal Activity / Ben Machell.
Anthony Gottlieb. 10/22/2025: On the Simple Life of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Philosophy as “Neverending Therapy.” Excerpt from: Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophy in the Age of Airplanes / Anthony Gottlieb.
Adrienne Mayor. 10/22/2025: Cursed Mountains and Deathly Lakes: When Nature Is Explained By Myth. Excerpt from: Mythopedia: A Brief Compendium of Natural History Lore / Adrienne Mayor.
James Schiff. 10/21/2025: Dear Bill: Letters From a Young John Updike to His Editor, William Maxwell. Excerpt from: Selected Letters of John Updike / edited by James Schiff.
Adam Johnson, interviewer Jane Ciabattari. 10/21/2025: Adam Johnson on Writing a Novel of Ancient Polynesia.
Gish Jen. 10/21/2025: What’s Real and What’s Not: Gish Jen on Writing Between the Factual Lines: Finding the Sweet Spot Between Memoir and Fiction.
Steven J. Zipperstein. 10/20/2025: The Psychology of Portnoy: On the Making of Philip Roth’s Groundbreaking Novel. Regarding: Portnoy's Complaint / Philip Roth.
Joshua Blackburn. 10/20/2025: Barf, Funk, Tug, and Other Etymological Mysteries. Excerpt from: The Language-Lover’s Lexipedia: An A-Z of Linguistic Curiosities / Joshua Blackburn.
Aisling Walsh. 10/17/2025: Why Philip Pullman’s Books Are More Important Than Ever in Speaking Truth to Power. "Aisling Walsh on the 30-Year Legacy of His Dark Materials."
Anna North. 10/15/2025: Anna North Thinks About the Roman Empire All the Time: The Author Explores How Learning Latin Helps Her Untangle History With the Present.
Joe Jackson. 10/15/2025: Why is America’s First Great War of Empire Barely Remembered at Home? Excerpt from: Splendid Liberators: Heroism, Betrayal, Resistance, and the Birth of American Empire / Joe Jackson.
Emily Temple. 10/14/2025: 58 Books You Need to Read (Recommended by People Who Know). "58 Books You Need to Read (Recommended by People Who Know)." It's a long list!
Terry McDonell, interviewer Lance Richardson. 10/14/2025: Who Was Peter Matthiessen, Really? Regarding: True Nature: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen by Lance Richardson (Pantheon).
David Nasaw. 10/14/2025: On the Terrible Toll of the Last Bloody Year of WWII. Excerpt from: The Wounded Generation: Coming Home After World War II / David Nasaw ((Penguin Random House).
Lukas Gage. 10/14/2025: Lukas Gage Recommends His Favorite Celebrity Memoirs. "Demi Moore, Pamela Anderson, and More."
Matthew Restall. 10/13/2025: On the Mysteries, Real and Imagined, Surrounding Christopher Columbus. Excerpt from: The Nine Lives of Christopher Columbus / Matthew Restall.
Marta Figlerowicz. 10/10/2025: Finding Grim Lessons of the 20th Century (and a Little Hope) in the Writing of Maria Janion. I believe this is the introduction to: The Bad Child: A Maria Janion Reader / Maria Janion.
Robert Bartlett. 10/10/2025: How Close Did We Come to Losing Beowulf Forever?. Excerpt from: History in Flames: The Destruction and Survival of Medieval Manuscripts / Robert Bartlett.
Brittany Allen. 10/09/2025: In Line With All the Pynchon Fans at the Midnight Release of Shadow Ticket.
Ed Simon. 10/08/2025: To Haunt and Be Haunted: On the Exhumation of Edgar Allen Poe. "Ed Simon Explores the Terror of Being Buried Alive and Americanism in Poe’s Work."
Devin Thomas O'Shea. 10/07/2025: Thomas Pynchon Has Been Warning Us About American Fascism the Whole Time. (And check out the comments)
Bryan Alistair Charles. 10/07/2025: On Translating Proust and the Art of Not Reading Ahead.
Ryan Barnes. 10/07/2025: The Race to Save a Medieval Palestinian Library: Ryan Byrnes on the Khalidi Family’s Battle to Protect Their Library From Ultra-Orthodox Settlers.
Mark Harman. 10/06/2025: Uncanny Prescience: Revisiting Kafka’s Amerika: Mark Harman Considers the Striking Social Commentary of the Unfinished Novel. Regarding Amerika / Franz Kafka.
Yume Kitasei. 10/06/2025: “It’s Okay But It’s Also Really Not.” When Dystopian Fiction is No Longer a Thought Experiment.
Mira Ptacin. 10/06/2025: My Child Does Not Love to Read, And I’m (Starting to Be) Okay With That.
Jean-Yves Mollier and Patricia Sorel. 10/02/2025: Inside China’s New Wave of Conceptually Innovative Bookstores.
Jonny Diamond. 10/02/2025: Librarian leaves job after declining Melania Trump’s demand for a sword.
Jonny Diamond. 10/01/2025: How many books is a lot of books? How many is too many?
Tamar Shapiro. 10/01/2025: Mother Tongues: Reflections on Memory, Language, and Love in Germany. About the writing of Restitution / Tamar Shapiro (Regal House).
Rebecca Van Laer. 09/30/2025: What Our Relationship With Cats Reveals About Ourselves. Excerpt from: Cat / Rebecca van Laer (Bloomsbury Publishing).
14featherbear
Bookforum Fall 2025
Ryan Ruby. In Search of Lost Stein: The life and lasting influence of an American expat. Review of: Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife / Francesca Wade.
Leo Robson. The Rules of the Dame: Novelist Muriel Spark’s God’s-eye view. Review of: Electric Spark: The Enigma of Dame Muriel / Frances Wilson -- The Letters of Muriel Spark: Volume 1: 1944–1963 / Muriel Spark; edited by Dan Gunn (Virago).
Tausif Noor. Species of Spaces. Review of: TINA GIROUARD: SIGN-IN / edited with text by Andrea Andersson and Jordan Amirkhani; essays by Anaïs Duplan, Pamela M. Lee, Aruna D’Souza, and Lumi Tan Brooklyn, NY/New Orleans: Dancing Foxes Press/Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought.
Stephanie Wambugu. The Realism Deal: Bookforum talks with Brandon Taylor. Regarding: Minor Black Figures / Brandon Taylor.
Christian Lorentzen. If the Gumshoe Fits: The Thomas Pynchon experience. Review of: Shadow Ticket / Thomas Pynchon.
Hannah Zeavin. Hymn to a LifeL A biography of poet James Schuyler. Review of: A DAY LIKE ANY OTHER: THE LIFE OF JAMES SCHUYLER / Nathan Kernan.
Katie Kadue. I Meme Business: Joanna Walsh’s history of amateur creativity on the internet. Review of: AMATEURS!: HOW WE BUILT INTERNET CULTURE AND WHY IT MATTERS / Joanna Walsh.
Hermione Hoby. Raising the Bardo: Amie Barrodale’s contemporary book of the dead. Review of: Trip: a novel / Amie Barrodale.
Sasha Frere-Jones. Translations in an Emergency: Lydia Davis reflects on her inspirations and her craft. Review of: Into the Weeds / Lydia Davis.
Jennifer Krasinski. Personae of Interest: Chris Kraus’s novel of madness, murder, and real estate in small-town Minnesota. Review of: THE FOUR SPENT THE DAY TOGETHER / Chris Kraus.
Harmony Holiday. Missives Impossible: James Baldwin's fierce attachments. Review of: Baldwin: A Love Story / Nicholas Boggs.
Ryan Ruby. In Search of Lost Stein: The life and lasting influence of an American expat. Review of: Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife / Francesca Wade.
Leo Robson. The Rules of the Dame: Novelist Muriel Spark’s God’s-eye view. Review of: Electric Spark: The Enigma of Dame Muriel / Frances Wilson -- The Letters of Muriel Spark: Volume 1: 1944–1963 / Muriel Spark; edited by Dan Gunn (Virago).
Tausif Noor. Species of Spaces. Review of: TINA GIROUARD: SIGN-IN / edited with text by Andrea Andersson and Jordan Amirkhani; essays by Anaïs Duplan, Pamela M. Lee, Aruna D’Souza, and Lumi Tan Brooklyn, NY/New Orleans: Dancing Foxes Press/Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought.
Stephanie Wambugu. The Realism Deal: Bookforum talks with Brandon Taylor. Regarding: Minor Black Figures / Brandon Taylor.
Christian Lorentzen. If the Gumshoe Fits: The Thomas Pynchon experience. Review of: Shadow Ticket / Thomas Pynchon.
Hannah Zeavin. Hymn to a LifeL A biography of poet James Schuyler. Review of: A DAY LIKE ANY OTHER: THE LIFE OF JAMES SCHUYLER / Nathan Kernan.
Katie Kadue. I Meme Business: Joanna Walsh’s history of amateur creativity on the internet. Review of: AMATEURS!: HOW WE BUILT INTERNET CULTURE AND WHY IT MATTERS / Joanna Walsh.
Hermione Hoby. Raising the Bardo: Amie Barrodale’s contemporary book of the dead. Review of: Trip: a novel / Amie Barrodale.
Sasha Frere-Jones. Translations in an Emergency: Lydia Davis reflects on her inspirations and her craft. Review of: Into the Weeds / Lydia Davis.
Jennifer Krasinski. Personae of Interest: Chris Kraus’s novel of madness, murder, and real estate in small-town Minnesota. Review of: THE FOUR SPENT THE DAY TOGETHER / Chris Kraus.
Harmony Holiday. Missives Impossible: James Baldwin's fierce attachments. Review of: Baldwin: A Love Story / Nicholas Boggs.
15featherbear
TLS October 3, 2025|No. 6389
Featured
Seamus Perry. Lioness of God: The sixtieth anniversary ‘heritage’ edition of Ariel. Review of: ARIEL / Sylvia Plath -- I Am the Arrow: The life and art of Sylvia Plath in six poems / Sarah Rudden (Library of America).
James Marcus. The Puritan reflex: Thomas Pynchon’s haunted vision of history. Review of Shadow Ticket / Thomas Pynchon.
Tim Lake. A dashed clever fellow: the Wisdom of Bertie Wooster. (Essay)
Edward N. Luttwack. Avengers assemble: Mossad’s European helpers. Review of: Operation Wrath of God: The secret history of European intelligence and Mossad’s assassination campaign / Aviva Guttmann.
Mary Beard. What to see at Chatsworth. From the TLS landing page.
Literature
Michael Frank. A child in trouble: Joan Didion’s raw response to her daughter’s suffering. Review of: Notes to John / Joan Didion.
Lily Heard. ‘Disneyland with lights’: Oddballs of Las Vegas. Review of: Vegas: A memoir of a dark season / John Gregory Dunne.
Samantha Ellis. Printed by herself: The precocious poetry of Charlotte Brontë. Review of: A Book of Ryhmes / Charlotte Brontë.
Nina Allen. All in the selection: A ‘cumulative’ novel of American deficit. Review of: The Four Spent the Day Together / Chris Kraus.
Annie McDermott. The space between us: Love, sex and friendship for a ‘high priestess of isolation.’ Review of: Big Kiss, Bye-Bye / Claire-Louise Bennett.
Claire Lowden. Pineapple chunks: An attempted ‘masterpiece’ about being confused. Review of: Will There Ever Be Another You / Patricia Lockwood.
D.J. Taylor. Trial by Jura: A writer unimpressed by George Orwell. (Essay)
Heather Cass White. Back to the bughouse: A reissued novel of 1950s America has echoes in the present. Review of: Her First American / Lore Segal.
Randy Boyagoda. Framed in prose: Woody Allen’s debut novel. Review of: What's with Baum? / Woody Allen.
Tim Parks. Afterthoughts: The 13,216th greatest book of all time: algorithms and literature. (Essay) Landing page only
Ian Sansom. Afterthoughts: Coming to fruition: Picking the last apples. Landing page only
In Brief Review of: Bomarzo / Manuel Mujica Lainez; translated by Gregory Rabassa (NYRB Books).
In Brief Review of: Ruth: a novel / Kate Riley.
In Brief Review of: Highway Cottage / Ralf Webb. (poems)
In Brief Review of: Old World / Robert Crawford (Cape) (poems).
In Brief Review of: Night Watch / Kevin Young (Cape) (poems).
Arts
Colin Grant. Social history in musical form: The film that introduced the world to reggae, on stage. Review of the musical The Harder They Come, Adapted by Suzan-Lori Parks; Based on the film co-written by Perry Henzell and Trevor Rhone, with songs by Jimmy Cliff, Stratford East, until November 1.
Larry Wolff. Escape artists: Michael Chabon’s novel of superheroes and villains reborn as opera. Review of the opera The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay / Mason Bates and Gene Scheer; based on the book by Michael Chabon, Metropolitan Opera, New York, until October 11.
Amber Massie-Blomfield. Noises on: Theatre that invites us to listen – to ‘more than human’ beings. Review of: Cow | Deer / Katie Mitchell, Nina Segal and Melanie Wilson, Royal Court, Jerwood Theatre, until October 11.
Philosophy
Alexander V. Gheorghiu. By inference: An alternative account of logic. Review of: Reasons for Logic, Logic for Reasons: Pragmatics, semantics, and conceptual roles / Ulf Hlobil and Robert B. Brandom.
Geertje Bol. Great White Men only: The erasure of women philosophers. Review of: Disappearing ink: Essays in early modern philosophy / Eileen O’Neill; edited by Gary Ostertag (Oxford University Press).
Science, Technology, & Natural History
Nicola Shulman. From cosmos to kitchen garden: A year in the life of an eighteenth-century naturalist. Review of: A Year with Gilbert White the first great nature writer / Jenny Uglow.
Harriet Ritvo. Overcrowded ark: The transmission of diseases between animals and humans. Review of: The Elephant in the Room: How to stop making ourselves and other animals sick / Liz Kalaugher.
Emily Jones. Authentic intelligence: The maverick founder of the world’s first $4 trillion company. Review of: The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World's Most Coveted Microchip (UK subtitle: Jensen Huang and Nvidia, the company shaping the future of AI) / Stephen Witt (US publisher: Viking; UK: Bodley Head).
Mark Nayler. Catch me if you can: A barrister investigates her father’s scientific frauds. Review of: The Scientist Who Wasn’t There: A true story of staggering deception / Joanne Briggs.
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Eleanor Barnett. Tastemakers: Influencers are revolutionizing food culture. Review of: All Consuming: Why we eat the way we eat now / Ruby Tandoh.
Naa Oyo A. Kwate. Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam: The history of a ‘meat of many uses.’ Review of: Spam: A global history / Kelly A. Spring.
Regina Rini. Conceptual hazmat: Jimmy Kimmel and Charlie Kirk. (Essay)
Ian Buruma. The saint of Nagasaki: A city of Catholics in the aftermath of nuclear attack. Review of: The Bells of Nagasaki / Takashi Nagai.
Thomas Small. The red and the black: The Iranian Revolution retold. Review of: King of Kings: The fall of the Shah, the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the unmaking of the modern Middle East / Scott Anderson.
Barnaby Rogerson. Suffering and salvation: The many fates of Islamic slaves. Review of: Captives and Companions: A history of slavery and the slave trade in the Islamic world / Justin Marozzi.
Ophelia Field. What’s in a name?: Untold stories of female slaveholders. Review of: Heiresses: Marriage, inheritance and Caribbean slavery / Miranda Kaufmann.
Maurice J. Casey. Fellow travellers: En route to three Communist revolutions. Review of: Three Revolutions: Russia, China, Cuba and the epic journeys that changed the world / Simon Hall.
Howard Amos. The price of opposition: How Vladimir Putin divided a generation. Review of: Our Dear Friends in Moscow: The inside story of a broken generation / Irina Borogan and Andrei Soldatov.
Bill McKibben. Rage against the Machine: A reactionary radical’s case against progress. Review of: Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity / Paul Kingsnorth.
Libby Purves. Rebel spirit: Mary Portas at ‘Harvey Nicks.’ Review of: I Shop, Therefore I Am / Mary Portas.
In Brief Review of: We Came by Sea: Stories of a greater Britain / Horatio Clare (Little Toller).
In Brief Review of: The Umbrella Murder: The hunt for the notorious Cold War killer / Ulrik Skotte.
In Brief Review of: Life in Spite of Everything: Tales from the Ukrainian East / Victoria Donovan (Daunt).
Featured
Seamus Perry. Lioness of God: The sixtieth anniversary ‘heritage’ edition of Ariel. Review of: ARIEL / Sylvia Plath -- I Am the Arrow: The life and art of Sylvia Plath in six poems / Sarah Rudden (Library of America).
James Marcus. The Puritan reflex: Thomas Pynchon’s haunted vision of history. Review of Shadow Ticket / Thomas Pynchon.
Tim Lake. A dashed clever fellow: the Wisdom of Bertie Wooster. (Essay)
Edward N. Luttwack. Avengers assemble: Mossad’s European helpers. Review of: Operation Wrath of God: The secret history of European intelligence and Mossad’s assassination campaign / Aviva Guttmann.
Mary Beard. What to see at Chatsworth. From the TLS landing page.
Literature
Michael Frank. A child in trouble: Joan Didion’s raw response to her daughter’s suffering. Review of: Notes to John / Joan Didion.
Lily Heard. ‘Disneyland with lights’: Oddballs of Las Vegas. Review of: Vegas: A memoir of a dark season / John Gregory Dunne.
Samantha Ellis. Printed by herself: The precocious poetry of Charlotte Brontë. Review of: A Book of Ryhmes / Charlotte Brontë.
Nina Allen. All in the selection: A ‘cumulative’ novel of American deficit. Review of: The Four Spent the Day Together / Chris Kraus.
Annie McDermott. The space between us: Love, sex and friendship for a ‘high priestess of isolation.’ Review of: Big Kiss, Bye-Bye / Claire-Louise Bennett.
Claire Lowden. Pineapple chunks: An attempted ‘masterpiece’ about being confused. Review of: Will There Ever Be Another You / Patricia Lockwood.
D.J. Taylor. Trial by Jura: A writer unimpressed by George Orwell. (Essay)
Heather Cass White. Back to the bughouse: A reissued novel of 1950s America has echoes in the present. Review of: Her First American / Lore Segal.
Randy Boyagoda. Framed in prose: Woody Allen’s debut novel. Review of: What's with Baum? / Woody Allen.
Tim Parks. Afterthoughts: The 13,216th greatest book of all time: algorithms and literature. (Essay) Landing page only
Ian Sansom. Afterthoughts: Coming to fruition: Picking the last apples. Landing page only
In Brief Review of: Bomarzo / Manuel Mujica Lainez; translated by Gregory Rabassa (NYRB Books).
In Brief Review of: Ruth: a novel / Kate Riley.
In Brief Review of: Highway Cottage / Ralf Webb. (poems)
In Brief Review of: Old World / Robert Crawford (Cape) (poems).
In Brief Review of: Night Watch / Kevin Young (Cape) (poems).
Arts
Colin Grant. Social history in musical form: The film that introduced the world to reggae, on stage. Review of the musical The Harder They Come, Adapted by Suzan-Lori Parks; Based on the film co-written by Perry Henzell and Trevor Rhone, with songs by Jimmy Cliff, Stratford East, until November 1.
Larry Wolff. Escape artists: Michael Chabon’s novel of superheroes and villains reborn as opera. Review of the opera The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay / Mason Bates and Gene Scheer; based on the book by Michael Chabon, Metropolitan Opera, New York, until October 11.
Amber Massie-Blomfield. Noises on: Theatre that invites us to listen – to ‘more than human’ beings. Review of: Cow | Deer / Katie Mitchell, Nina Segal and Melanie Wilson, Royal Court, Jerwood Theatre, until October 11.
Philosophy
Alexander V. Gheorghiu. By inference: An alternative account of logic. Review of: Reasons for Logic, Logic for Reasons: Pragmatics, semantics, and conceptual roles / Ulf Hlobil and Robert B. Brandom.
Geertje Bol. Great White Men only: The erasure of women philosophers. Review of: Disappearing ink: Essays in early modern philosophy / Eileen O’Neill; edited by Gary Ostertag (Oxford University Press).
Science, Technology, & Natural History
Nicola Shulman. From cosmos to kitchen garden: A year in the life of an eighteenth-century naturalist. Review of: A Year with Gilbert White the first great nature writer / Jenny Uglow.
Harriet Ritvo. Overcrowded ark: The transmission of diseases between animals and humans. Review of: The Elephant in the Room: How to stop making ourselves and other animals sick / Liz Kalaugher.
Emily Jones. Authentic intelligence: The maverick founder of the world’s first $4 trillion company. Review of: The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World's Most Coveted Microchip (UK subtitle: Jensen Huang and Nvidia, the company shaping the future of AI) / Stephen Witt (US publisher: Viking; UK: Bodley Head).
Mark Nayler. Catch me if you can: A barrister investigates her father’s scientific frauds. Review of: The Scientist Who Wasn’t There: A true story of staggering deception / Joanne Briggs.
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Eleanor Barnett. Tastemakers: Influencers are revolutionizing food culture. Review of: All Consuming: Why we eat the way we eat now / Ruby Tandoh.
Naa Oyo A. Kwate. Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam: The history of a ‘meat of many uses.’ Review of: Spam: A global history / Kelly A. Spring.
Regina Rini. Conceptual hazmat: Jimmy Kimmel and Charlie Kirk. (Essay)
Ian Buruma. The saint of Nagasaki: A city of Catholics in the aftermath of nuclear attack. Review of: The Bells of Nagasaki / Takashi Nagai.
Thomas Small. The red and the black: The Iranian Revolution retold. Review of: King of Kings: The fall of the Shah, the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the unmaking of the modern Middle East / Scott Anderson.
Barnaby Rogerson. Suffering and salvation: The many fates of Islamic slaves. Review of: Captives and Companions: A history of slavery and the slave trade in the Islamic world / Justin Marozzi.
Ophelia Field. What’s in a name?: Untold stories of female slaveholders. Review of: Heiresses: Marriage, inheritance and Caribbean slavery / Miranda Kaufmann.
Maurice J. Casey. Fellow travellers: En route to three Communist revolutions. Review of: Three Revolutions: Russia, China, Cuba and the epic journeys that changed the world / Simon Hall.
Howard Amos. The price of opposition: How Vladimir Putin divided a generation. Review of: Our Dear Friends in Moscow: The inside story of a broken generation / Irina Borogan and Andrei Soldatov.
Bill McKibben. Rage against the Machine: A reactionary radical’s case against progress. Review of: Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity / Paul Kingsnorth.
Libby Purves. Rebel spirit: Mary Portas at ‘Harvey Nicks.’ Review of: I Shop, Therefore I Am / Mary Portas.
In Brief Review of: We Came by Sea: Stories of a greater Britain / Horatio Clare (Little Toller).
In Brief Review of: The Umbrella Murder: The hunt for the notorious Cold War killer / Ulrik Skotte.
In Brief Review of: Life in Spite of Everything: Tales from the Ukrainian East / Victoria Donovan (Daunt).
16featherbear
Jane Goodall, 1934-2025
Keith Schneider. NYT, 10/01/2025; upd 10/02: Jane Goodall, Who Chronicled the Social Lives of Chimps, Dies at 91. Temporarily Unlocked
Carl Zimmer & Emily Anthes. NYT, 10/01/2025: ‘There Will Always Only Be One Jane Goodall’: Scientists reflect on the life and work of a researcher whose discoveries made them rethink what it means to be human.
Dana G. Smith & Nina Agrawal. NYT, 10/02/2025: What Jane Goodall Taught Us About Living a Long Life: The scientist, who died at 91 on Wednesday, was a model for healthy aging.
Emma Brown. WaPo, 10/01/2025: Jane Goodall, primatologist and friend to chimpanzees, dies at 91. "She used her global fame to draw attention to the plight of dwindling chimpanzee populations and, more broadly, to the perils of environmental destruction."
Matty Edwards. Guardian, 10/01/2025: Jane Goodall, world-renowned primatologist, dies aged 91.
Dale Peterson. Guardian, 10/02/2025: Dame Jane Goodall obituary. "Pioneering scientist whose breakthrough studies of chimpanzees changed how the animals were perceived and led to greater protection."
Joanna Ruck. Guardian, 10/01/2025: Jane Goodall – a life in pictures.
Patrick Greenfield, Phoebe Weston and Helena Horton. Guardian, 10/02/2025: ‘A remarkable ability to inspire’: global tributes pour in for Jane Goodall.
Her LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/goodalljane
Keith Schneider. NYT, 10/01/2025; upd 10/02: Jane Goodall, Who Chronicled the Social Lives of Chimps, Dies at 91. Temporarily Unlocked
Carl Zimmer & Emily Anthes. NYT, 10/01/2025: ‘There Will Always Only Be One Jane Goodall’: Scientists reflect on the life and work of a researcher whose discoveries made them rethink what it means to be human.
Dana G. Smith & Nina Agrawal. NYT, 10/02/2025: What Jane Goodall Taught Us About Living a Long Life: The scientist, who died at 91 on Wednesday, was a model for healthy aging.
Emma Brown. WaPo, 10/01/2025: Jane Goodall, primatologist and friend to chimpanzees, dies at 91. "She used her global fame to draw attention to the plight of dwindling chimpanzee populations and, more broadly, to the perils of environmental destruction."
Matty Edwards. Guardian, 10/01/2025: Jane Goodall, world-renowned primatologist, dies aged 91.
Dale Peterson. Guardian, 10/02/2025: Dame Jane Goodall obituary. "Pioneering scientist whose breakthrough studies of chimpanzees changed how the animals were perceived and led to greater protection."
Joanna Ruck. Guardian, 10/01/2025: Jane Goodall – a life in pictures.
Patrick Greenfield, Phoebe Weston and Helena Horton. Guardian, 10/02/2025: ‘A remarkable ability to inspire’: global tributes pour in for Jane Goodall.
Her LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/goodalljane
17featherbear
Hedgehog Review Summer 2025 items probably should have been in the previous thread:
Paul Reitter. summer 2025: The Kafka Challenge: Translating the Inimitable.
Richard Hughes Gibson. summer 2025: Digesting Dante: Dante’s success was far from guaranteed.
Paul Reitter. summer 2025: The Kafka Challenge: Translating the Inimitable.
Richard Hughes Gibson. summer 2025: Digesting Dante: Dante’s success was far from guaranteed.
18featherbear
LARB Oct 2025
Erik J. Larson. 10/31/2025: The Return of the Luddites. Review of: The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want / Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna.
Rachele Dini. 10/31/2025: Literature Is Not a Vibe: On ChatGPT and the Humanities.
Travis Alexander. 10/30/2025: Pynchon’s Abundance. "Travis Alexander revisits Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel “Vineland,” arguing that it contains a prescient analysis of today’s liberal-leftist divide."
Ivan Kreilkamp. 10/30/2025: Edward Steed’s Posthuman Comedy. Review of: Forces of Nature: A Book of Drawings / Edward Steed.
Gracie Hadland. 10/29/2025: Finishing Last. Review of: Service / John Tottenham.
Eric Vanderwall. 10/29/2025: Destroy Humanism. Review of: Idiocy / Pierre Guyotat. Translated by Peter Behrman de Sinéty.
Tom LeClair. 10/28/2025: Enuf Is Enuf. Review of: Tom’s Crossing / Mark Z. Danielewski.
John Rieder. 10/27/2025: Challenging the Myth of Firstness. Review of: First Contact: Speculative Visions of the Conquest of the Americas / Zac Zimmer.
Josh Billings. 10/27/2025: Beautiful Losing. Review of: Your Name Here / Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff.
Emmet Fraizer. 10/26/2025: The Cancel-Culture Canard. Review of: That Book Is Dangerous! How Moral Panic, Social Media, and the Culture Wars Are Remaking Publishing / Adam Szetela.
Claire Foster. 10/25/2025: Precious Vestiges of Something That Took Place. Review of: Big Kiss, Bye-Bye: a novel / Claire-Louise Bennett.
Corinne Cordasco-Pak. 10/25/2025: The Ghosts of the Delivery Room. Review of: Frontier: A Memoir and a Ghost Story / Erica Stern.
Amy R. Wong. 10/23/2025: Can Tragedies Transcend Borders? Review of: The Chinese Tragedy of King Lear / Nan Z. Da.
Ian Kumekawa. 10/23/2025: Power Hangs by a Literal Thread. Review of: The Web Beneath the Waves: The Fragile Cables That Connect Our World / Samanth Subramanian.
Zachary Gillan. 10/22/2025: Parading Around Among the Living Like Nothing Happened. Review of: Good and Evil and Other Stories / Samantha Schweblin. Translated by Megan McDowell.
Douglas Dowland. 10/21/2025: The Problem of the Parlor. Review of: Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century / Dan Sinykin and Johanna Winant.
Eric Vanderwall. 10/20/2025: The Knight of the Railways. Review of: Driver / Mattia Filice; translated by Jacques Houis (NYRB Books).
Rob Arcand. 10/19/2025: A Network of Global Incinerators. Review of: Medium Hot: Images in the Age of Heat / Hito Steyerl.
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore. 10/18/2025: I Feel Like a Human Bomb Tick Tick Tick. Review of a new edition of: Memories That Smell Like Gasoline / David Wojnarowicz (Nightboat Books).
Forest Lewis. 10/18/2025: We Are the Alien. Review of: Strange Attractor: The Hallucinatory Life of Terence McKenna / Graham St John.
Morten Høi Jensen. 10/17/2025: Our Man in Marseille. Review of: Marseille 1940: The Flight of Literature / Uwe Wittstock. Translated by Daniel Bowles.
W. Patrick McCray. 10/16/2025: From Domination to Derision. Review of: Every American an Innovator: How Innovation Became a Way of Life / Matthew Wisnioski (MIT Press).
Karoline Huber. 10/15/2025: Life Finds an Investor. "Karoline Huber discusses the phenomenon of “de-extinction” in SF and popular culture."
Patrick House. 10/14/2025: What Isn’t Intelligence? Review of: What Is Intelligence? Lessons from AI About Evolution, Computing, and Minds / Blaise Agüera y Arcas.
John Lysaker. 10/13/2025: The Heart of the Matter. Review of: From the Heart: A Memoir and a Meditation on a Vital Organ / Jeffrey L. Kosky.
Kurt Guldentops, Sungshin Kim. 10/12/2025: Memory Dismembered. Review of: Red Sword / Bora Chung. Translated by Anton Hur.
Martin Dolan. 10/12/2025: Common Roots. Review of the graphic (non-fiction) novel: Ginseng Roots: a memoir by Craig Thompson (Pantheon).
Isabel Jacobs. 10/11/2025: Dogito, Ergo Sum. Review of: How to Research Like a Dog: Kafka’s New Science / Aaron Schuster (MIT Press).
Oliver Evans. 10/09/2025: Mausoleum of Dreams. Review of: Ed Wood: Made in Hollywood USA / Will Sloan.
Jaquelyn Ardam. 10/08/2025: A Spectacle and Nothing Strange. Review of: Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife / Francesca Wade.
Justin St. Clair. 10/07/2025: Good Night and Good Luck. Review of: Shadow Ticket / Thomas Pynchon.
Julien Crockett. 10/06/2025: Everything You Think Is Physical. "Julien Crockett discusses cognition and metaphors with George Lakoff and Srini Narayanan, authors of “The Neural Mind: How Brains Think,” in a new installment of the series The Rules We Live By."
Iman Mersal, interviewer Alex Tan. 10/05/2025: Fissure from Within. Interview regarding Motherhood and Its Ghosts / Iman Mersal.
Ryan McIlvain. 10/04/2025: The Deep Engine of Witness. Review of 2 poetry collections: Death of the First Idea / Rickey Laurentiis -- Us from Nothing: A Poetic History / Geoff Bouvier (Black Lawrence Press).
Arjun S. Byju. 10/03/2025: Control Freaks. Review of: I Cannot Control Everything Forever: A Memoir of Motherhood, Science, and Art / Emily C. Bloom.
Greg Barnhisel. 10/02/2025: Did the Buck Stop with Buckley? Review of: Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America / Sam Tanenhaus.
Mikkel Krause Frantzen. 10/02/2025: Making a Killing: the future of the financial thriller in an era of cryptocurrencies and climate crisis.
Erik J. Larson. 10/31/2025: The Return of the Luddites. Review of: The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want / Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna.
Rachele Dini. 10/31/2025: Literature Is Not a Vibe: On ChatGPT and the Humanities.
Travis Alexander. 10/30/2025: Pynchon’s Abundance. "Travis Alexander revisits Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel “Vineland,” arguing that it contains a prescient analysis of today’s liberal-leftist divide."
Ivan Kreilkamp. 10/30/2025: Edward Steed’s Posthuman Comedy. Review of: Forces of Nature: A Book of Drawings / Edward Steed.
Gracie Hadland. 10/29/2025: Finishing Last. Review of: Service / John Tottenham.
Eric Vanderwall. 10/29/2025: Destroy Humanism. Review of: Idiocy / Pierre Guyotat. Translated by Peter Behrman de Sinéty.
Tom LeClair. 10/28/2025: Enuf Is Enuf. Review of: Tom’s Crossing / Mark Z. Danielewski.
John Rieder. 10/27/2025: Challenging the Myth of Firstness. Review of: First Contact: Speculative Visions of the Conquest of the Americas / Zac Zimmer.
Josh Billings. 10/27/2025: Beautiful Losing. Review of: Your Name Here / Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff.
Emmet Fraizer. 10/26/2025: The Cancel-Culture Canard. Review of: That Book Is Dangerous! How Moral Panic, Social Media, and the Culture Wars Are Remaking Publishing / Adam Szetela.
Claire Foster. 10/25/2025: Precious Vestiges of Something That Took Place. Review of: Big Kiss, Bye-Bye: a novel / Claire-Louise Bennett.
Corinne Cordasco-Pak. 10/25/2025: The Ghosts of the Delivery Room. Review of: Frontier: A Memoir and a Ghost Story / Erica Stern.
Amy R. Wong. 10/23/2025: Can Tragedies Transcend Borders? Review of: The Chinese Tragedy of King Lear / Nan Z. Da.
Ian Kumekawa. 10/23/2025: Power Hangs by a Literal Thread. Review of: The Web Beneath the Waves: The Fragile Cables That Connect Our World / Samanth Subramanian.
Zachary Gillan. 10/22/2025: Parading Around Among the Living Like Nothing Happened. Review of: Good and Evil and Other Stories / Samantha Schweblin. Translated by Megan McDowell.
Douglas Dowland. 10/21/2025: The Problem of the Parlor. Review of: Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century / Dan Sinykin and Johanna Winant.
Eric Vanderwall. 10/20/2025: The Knight of the Railways. Review of: Driver / Mattia Filice; translated by Jacques Houis (NYRB Books).
Rob Arcand. 10/19/2025: A Network of Global Incinerators. Review of: Medium Hot: Images in the Age of Heat / Hito Steyerl.
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore. 10/18/2025: I Feel Like a Human Bomb Tick Tick Tick. Review of a new edition of: Memories That Smell Like Gasoline / David Wojnarowicz (Nightboat Books).
Forest Lewis. 10/18/2025: We Are the Alien. Review of: Strange Attractor: The Hallucinatory Life of Terence McKenna / Graham St John.
Morten Høi Jensen. 10/17/2025: Our Man in Marseille. Review of: Marseille 1940: The Flight of Literature / Uwe Wittstock. Translated by Daniel Bowles.
W. Patrick McCray. 10/16/2025: From Domination to Derision. Review of: Every American an Innovator: How Innovation Became a Way of Life / Matthew Wisnioski (MIT Press).
Karoline Huber. 10/15/2025: Life Finds an Investor. "Karoline Huber discusses the phenomenon of “de-extinction” in SF and popular culture."
Patrick House. 10/14/2025: What Isn’t Intelligence? Review of: What Is Intelligence? Lessons from AI About Evolution, Computing, and Minds / Blaise Agüera y Arcas.
John Lysaker. 10/13/2025: The Heart of the Matter. Review of: From the Heart: A Memoir and a Meditation on a Vital Organ / Jeffrey L. Kosky.
Kurt Guldentops, Sungshin Kim. 10/12/2025: Memory Dismembered. Review of: Red Sword / Bora Chung. Translated by Anton Hur.
Martin Dolan. 10/12/2025: Common Roots. Review of the graphic (non-fiction) novel: Ginseng Roots: a memoir by Craig Thompson (Pantheon).
Isabel Jacobs. 10/11/2025: Dogito, Ergo Sum. Review of: How to Research Like a Dog: Kafka’s New Science / Aaron Schuster (MIT Press).
Oliver Evans. 10/09/2025: Mausoleum of Dreams. Review of: Ed Wood: Made in Hollywood USA / Will Sloan.
Jaquelyn Ardam. 10/08/2025: A Spectacle and Nothing Strange. Review of: Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife / Francesca Wade.
Justin St. Clair. 10/07/2025: Good Night and Good Luck. Review of: Shadow Ticket / Thomas Pynchon.
Julien Crockett. 10/06/2025: Everything You Think Is Physical. "Julien Crockett discusses cognition and metaphors with George Lakoff and Srini Narayanan, authors of “The Neural Mind: How Brains Think,” in a new installment of the series The Rules We Live By."
Iman Mersal, interviewer Alex Tan. 10/05/2025: Fissure from Within. Interview regarding Motherhood and Its Ghosts / Iman Mersal.
Ryan McIlvain. 10/04/2025: The Deep Engine of Witness. Review of 2 poetry collections: Death of the First Idea / Rickey Laurentiis -- Us from Nothing: A Poetic History / Geoff Bouvier (Black Lawrence Press).
Arjun S. Byju. 10/03/2025: Control Freaks. Review of: I Cannot Control Everything Forever: A Memoir of Motherhood, Science, and Art / Emily C. Bloom.
Greg Barnhisel. 10/02/2025: Did the Buck Stop with Buckley? Review of: Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America / Sam Tanenhaus.
Mikkel Krause Frantzen. 10/02/2025: Making a Killing: the future of the financial thriller in an era of cryptocurrencies and climate crisis.
19featherbear
Oct 2-4 2025 updates
The Critic (UK) Oct 4: murder fiction for October -- Oct 3: inside the Brexit campaign >10 featherbear:
Guardian Oct 3: Andrew O'Hagan memoir -- Oct 2: William Dalrymple on Afghanistan social history >8 featherbear:
Hedgehog Review summer 2025: Kafka; Dante >17 featherbear:
LARB Oct 4: 2 poetry collections -- Oct 3: motherhood & empowerment traps -- Oct 2: Wm Buckley bio >18 featherbear:
LitHub Oct 2: innovative Chinese bookstores; political pressure leads to librarian resignation -- Oct 1: how many books is too many? >13 featherbear:
New Yorker Oct 1: Cory Doctorow on entshitification >9 featherbear:
NYT Oct 4: Jonathan Lethem story collection; reissue of Siegfried Kracauer's WWI novel -- Oct 3: end of the Best American Poetry series; Pinochet in England; Jane Birkin the It Girl -- Oct 2: Dwight Garner on Pynchon's Shadow Ticket; societal collapse; Evan Dando memoir -- Oct 1: Penguin book ban; PEN report on book bans in US >6 featherbear:
WaPo Oct 3: women of Parliament-Funkadelic -- Oct 2: Visits to graveyards; Love, Sex, & Frankenstein -- Oct 1: most banned authors from PEN report >7 featherbear:
TLS Oct 3: edited for full online issue >15 featherbear:
Oct 2025 index >2 featherbear:
The Critic (UK) Oct 4: murder fiction for October -- Oct 3: inside the Brexit campaign >10 featherbear:
Guardian Oct 3: Andrew O'Hagan memoir -- Oct 2: William Dalrymple on Afghanistan social history >8 featherbear:
Hedgehog Review summer 2025: Kafka; Dante >17 featherbear:
LARB Oct 4: 2 poetry collections -- Oct 3: motherhood & empowerment traps -- Oct 2: Wm Buckley bio >18 featherbear:
LitHub Oct 2: innovative Chinese bookstores; political pressure leads to librarian resignation -- Oct 1: how many books is too many? >13 featherbear:
New Yorker Oct 1: Cory Doctorow on entshitification >9 featherbear:
NYT Oct 4: Jonathan Lethem story collection; reissue of Siegfried Kracauer's WWI novel -- Oct 3: end of the Best American Poetry series; Pinochet in England; Jane Birkin the It Girl -- Oct 2: Dwight Garner on Pynchon's Shadow Ticket; societal collapse; Evan Dando memoir -- Oct 1: Penguin book ban; PEN report on book bans in US >6 featherbear:
WaPo Oct 3: women of Parliament-Funkadelic -- Oct 2: Visits to graveyards; Love, Sex, & Frankenstein -- Oct 1: most banned authors from PEN report >7 featherbear:
TLS Oct 3: edited for full online issue >15 featherbear:
Oct 2025 index >2 featherbear:
20featherbear
Boston Review Oct 2025
Elaine Scarry. summer 2025 (posted 10/09/2025): Plato and the Poets. "The centuries-old debate should be settled: an intellectual world bereft of poetry is a damaged one."
Sandipto Dasgupta. 10/01/2025: The Inventor of the Future. Review of: My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria / Andrée Blouin -- A Season in the Congo / Aimé Césaire, translated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.
Elaine Scarry. summer 2025 (posted 10/09/2025): Plato and the Poets. "The centuries-old debate should be settled: an intellectual world bereft of poetry is a damaged one."
Sandipto Dasgupta. 10/01/2025: The Inventor of the Future. Review of: My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria / Andrée Blouin -- A Season in the Congo / Aimé Césaire, translated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.
21featherbear
Atlantic Oct 2025
Lily Meyer. 10/31/2025: All Our Brilliant Friends. "The explosion of novels about intense female friendships, in the Elena Ferrante mold, is changing the genre—and making it more fun."
Daphne Merkin. 10/31/2025: Gertrude Stein Wanted it All. Review of: Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife / Francesca Wade.
Amy Weiss-Meyer. 10/31/2025: Patti Smith’s Lifetime of Reinvention. Review of: Bread of Angels: A Memoir / Patti Smith.
Tyler Austin Harper. 10/30/2025: Thomas McGuane Is the Last of His Kind. Profile, with reference to: A Wooded Shore: And Other Stories / Thomas McGuane.
Sophie Gilbert. 10/30/2025: The Movies That Capture Women’s Deepest Fears. Review of: Scream with Me: Horror Films and the Rise of American Feminism (1968-1980) / Eleanor Johnson.
George Packer. 10/30/2025: Why Novels Matter. Publicizing his forthcoming The Emergency: A Novel / George Packer.
Alex Kotlowitz. 10/29/2025: A Writer Who Did What Hillbilly Elegy Wouldn’t. Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America / Beth Macy better than Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis / J.D. Vance.
Matteo Wong. 10/28/2025: What Elon Musk’s Version of Wikipedia Thinks About Hitler, Putin, and Apartheid.
Aleksandra Crapanzano. 10/27/2025: The Mysterious, Enchanting Qualities of Chocolate. Excerpt from: Chocolat: Parisian Desserts and Other Delights (Essential Parisian Recipes) / Aleksandra Crapanzano.
Jill Krementz. 10/25/2025: Letters From John Updike. Review of: Selected Letters of John Updike, ed. James Schiff.
Will Leitch. 10/24/2025: Seven Books That Will Change How You Watch Sports.
Lev Grossman. 10/23/2025: Philip Pullman’s Anti-Escapist Fantasy. "In his fiction, the author of The Golden Compass tells us how to love this world. It isn’t easy."
Rhian Sasseen. 10/23/2025: A Novel That Understands Where Romance Is Going. Review of: Big Kiss, Bye-Bye: A Novel / Claire-Louise Bennett.
John McWhorter. 10/23/2025: Why I’m Not Freaking Out About My Students Using AI. "Young people are reading less and relying on bots, but there are other ways to teach people how to think."
Shirley Li. 10/21/2025: It’s Not Enough to Read Orwell. "A new film argues that, in an era of rising authoritarianism, audiences have become too numb to the speculative force of 1984."
Anna Holmes. 10/20/2025: The Great Ghosting Paradox. Regarding: Ghosting: On Disappearance / Dominic Pettman.
Evan Hughes. 10/20/2025: The Recapturing of America: A new history of the circumstances that led to the Great Depression sheds light on the systemic risks we face today. Review of: 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--and How It Shattered a Nation / Andrew Ross Sorkin.
Spencer Kornhaber. 10/17/2025: Traditional Criticism Is in Trouble. Here’s What’s Replacing It. "Demand for cultural commentary is higher than it’s ever been—but now that commentary is coming from unconventional new sources."
Vauhini Vara. 10/16/2025: Why So Many People Are Seduced by ChatGPT. "What makes OpenAI’s chatbot so dangerous? It’s a fictional character without an author."
Atlantic 10/15/2025: 65 Essential Children's Books. Shared
John Kaag. 10/14/2025: A Warning for the Modern Striver. Review of: True Nature: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen / Lance Richardson.
Idrees Kahloon. 10/14/2025: America Is Sliding Toward Illiteracy: Declining standards and low expectations are destroying American education.
Eric Turkheimer. 10/13/2025: My Bet With Charles Murray. "The author of The Bell Curve thought the genetics of intelligence would be settled by now."
Karen Ostergren. 10/13/2025: Eight Romance Novels for Romance Skeptics.
Jane Kamensky. 10/10/2025: The Many Lives of Eliza Schuyler. Review of: Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution / Amanda Vaill.
John Swansberg. 10/10/2025: Wake Up, Rip Van Winkle. "Washington Irving’s story isn’t just about a very long nap. It’s about the making of America."
Walt Hunter. 10/09/2025: Why the Latest Nobel Prize Winner Makes Perfect Sense. "László Krasznahorkai is unusually experimental for a Nobel Prize winner, but in an unstable world, his selection feels perfectly timely."
Mark Leibovich. 10/08/2025: What Not to Fix About Baseball. Regarding: Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong With Baseball and How to Fix It / Jane Leavy.
Daniel L. Ulin. 10/06/2025: The Writing-Advice Book That Teaches Us How to Read. Review of: Into the Weeds / Lydia Davis.
Rebecca Ackermann. 10/05/2025: Romance Fiction’s Secret Weapon: Tight-knit but open-armed fans have made it an especially hot genre.
Scott W. Stern. 10/02/2025: There Is No Green Transition Without Consequences. Review of: Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism / Thea Riofrancos (WW Norton).
Lily Meyer. 10/31/2025: All Our Brilliant Friends. "The explosion of novels about intense female friendships, in the Elena Ferrante mold, is changing the genre—and making it more fun."
Daphne Merkin. 10/31/2025: Gertrude Stein Wanted it All. Review of: Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife / Francesca Wade.
Amy Weiss-Meyer. 10/31/2025: Patti Smith’s Lifetime of Reinvention. Review of: Bread of Angels: A Memoir / Patti Smith.
Tyler Austin Harper. 10/30/2025: Thomas McGuane Is the Last of His Kind. Profile, with reference to: A Wooded Shore: And Other Stories / Thomas McGuane.
Sophie Gilbert. 10/30/2025: The Movies That Capture Women’s Deepest Fears. Review of: Scream with Me: Horror Films and the Rise of American Feminism (1968-1980) / Eleanor Johnson.
George Packer. 10/30/2025: Why Novels Matter. Publicizing his forthcoming The Emergency: A Novel / George Packer.
Alex Kotlowitz. 10/29/2025: A Writer Who Did What Hillbilly Elegy Wouldn’t. Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America / Beth Macy better than Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis / J.D. Vance.
Matteo Wong. 10/28/2025: What Elon Musk’s Version of Wikipedia Thinks About Hitler, Putin, and Apartheid.
Aleksandra Crapanzano. 10/27/2025: The Mysterious, Enchanting Qualities of Chocolate. Excerpt from: Chocolat: Parisian Desserts and Other Delights (Essential Parisian Recipes) / Aleksandra Crapanzano.
Jill Krementz. 10/25/2025: Letters From John Updike. Review of: Selected Letters of John Updike, ed. James Schiff.
Will Leitch. 10/24/2025: Seven Books That Will Change How You Watch Sports.
Lev Grossman. 10/23/2025: Philip Pullman’s Anti-Escapist Fantasy. "In his fiction, the author of The Golden Compass tells us how to love this world. It isn’t easy."
Rhian Sasseen. 10/23/2025: A Novel That Understands Where Romance Is Going. Review of: Big Kiss, Bye-Bye: A Novel / Claire-Louise Bennett.
John McWhorter. 10/23/2025: Why I’m Not Freaking Out About My Students Using AI. "Young people are reading less and relying on bots, but there are other ways to teach people how to think."
Shirley Li. 10/21/2025: It’s Not Enough to Read Orwell. "A new film argues that, in an era of rising authoritarianism, audiences have become too numb to the speculative force of 1984."
Anna Holmes. 10/20/2025: The Great Ghosting Paradox. Regarding: Ghosting: On Disappearance / Dominic Pettman.
Evan Hughes. 10/20/2025: The Recapturing of America: A new history of the circumstances that led to the Great Depression sheds light on the systemic risks we face today. Review of: 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--and How It Shattered a Nation / Andrew Ross Sorkin.
Spencer Kornhaber. 10/17/2025: Traditional Criticism Is in Trouble. Here’s What’s Replacing It. "Demand for cultural commentary is higher than it’s ever been—but now that commentary is coming from unconventional new sources."
Vauhini Vara. 10/16/2025: Why So Many People Are Seduced by ChatGPT. "What makes OpenAI’s chatbot so dangerous? It’s a fictional character without an author."
Atlantic 10/15/2025: 65 Essential Children's Books. Shared
John Kaag. 10/14/2025: A Warning for the Modern Striver. Review of: True Nature: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen / Lance Richardson.
Idrees Kahloon. 10/14/2025: America Is Sliding Toward Illiteracy: Declining standards and low expectations are destroying American education.
Eric Turkheimer. 10/13/2025: My Bet With Charles Murray. "The author of The Bell Curve thought the genetics of intelligence would be settled by now."
Karen Ostergren. 10/13/2025: Eight Romance Novels for Romance Skeptics.
Jane Kamensky. 10/10/2025: The Many Lives of Eliza Schuyler. Review of: Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution / Amanda Vaill.
John Swansberg. 10/10/2025: Wake Up, Rip Van Winkle. "Washington Irving’s story isn’t just about a very long nap. It’s about the making of America."
Walt Hunter. 10/09/2025: Why the Latest Nobel Prize Winner Makes Perfect Sense. "László Krasznahorkai is unusually experimental for a Nobel Prize winner, but in an unstable world, his selection feels perfectly timely."
Mark Leibovich. 10/08/2025: What Not to Fix About Baseball. Regarding: Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong With Baseball and How to Fix It / Jane Leavy.
Daniel L. Ulin. 10/06/2025: The Writing-Advice Book That Teaches Us How to Read. Review of: Into the Weeds / Lydia Davis.
Rebecca Ackermann. 10/05/2025: Romance Fiction’s Secret Weapon: Tight-knit but open-armed fans have made it an especially hot genre.
Scott W. Stern. 10/02/2025: There Is No Green Transition Without Consequences. Review of: Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism / Thea Riofrancos (WW Norton).
22featherbear
Aeon Oct 2025
Camille Caprioglio. 10/17/2025: A poet on Mars: Could autism explain Virginia Woolf’s unique voice? Her extraordinary eye for detail and connections suggests it might.
Vladyslav Vyazovskiy. 10/14/2025: What sleep is: It is our biggest blind spot, a bizarre experience that befalls us every day, and can’t be explained by our need for rest. Since sleep is such a literary trope, thought I'd add it, though no bibliographic association.
Deepak Varuvel Dennison. 10/13/2025: Holes in the web. "Huge swathes of human knowledge are missing from the internet. By definition, generative AI is shockingly ignorant too."
Victoria Wohl. 10/03/2025: From nothing, everything. "The idea of nothing pushes at the limits of thought, spawning paradoxes that have long nourished art, philosophy, and science."
Camille Caprioglio. 10/17/2025: A poet on Mars: Could autism explain Virginia Woolf’s unique voice? Her extraordinary eye for detail and connections suggests it might.
Vladyslav Vyazovskiy. 10/14/2025: What sleep is: It is our biggest blind spot, a bizarre experience that befalls us every day, and can’t be explained by our need for rest. Since sleep is such a literary trope, thought I'd add it, though no bibliographic association.
Deepak Varuvel Dennison. 10/13/2025: Holes in the web. "Huge swathes of human knowledge are missing from the internet. By definition, generative AI is shockingly ignorant too."
Victoria Wohl. 10/03/2025: From nothing, everything. "The idea of nothing pushes at the limits of thought, spawning paradoxes that have long nourished art, philosophy, and science."
23featherbear
fivebooks.com Oct 2025
Mike Downey, interviewer Cal Flyn. 10/25/2025: The Best Historical Thrillers:
Heart of Darkness / Joseph Conrad -- The Name of the Rose / Umberto Eco -- Last Night in Twisted River: A Novel / John Irving -- Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome / Robert Harris -- A Quiet Flame: A Bernie Gunther Novel / Philip Kerr.
Robbie Millen. 10/22/2025: The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist. Half dozen not 5!:
The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s / Jason Burke -- How to End a Story: Diaries 1995-1998 / Helen Garner -- The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science and the Crisis of Belief / Richard Holmes -- Captives and Companions: A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World / Justin Marozzi -- Lone Wolf: Walking the Faultlines of Europe / Adam Weymouth -- Electric Spark: The Enigma of Dame Muriel / Frances Wilson.
Samantha Shannon, interviewer Sylvia Bishop. 10/15/2025: The Best Fantasy Book Series. Recommendations from the author of Among the Burning Flowers: A Novel (The Roots of Chaos):
The Jasmine Throne (The Burning Kingdoms, 1) / Tasha Suri -- Sabriel (Old Kingdom series Book 1) / Garth Nix -- Queen of Coin and Whispers: A kingdom of secrets and a game of lies / Helen Corcoran -- The Final Strife: Book One of The Ending Fire Trilogy / Sara El-Arifi -- The Circle: The Engelsfors Trilogy--Book 1 / Sara B. Elfgren & Mats Strandberg
Rebecca Earle, interviewer Sophie Roell. 10/09/2025: The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 British Academy Book Prize. "The prize celebrates “works of nonfiction, based on exceptional research and written for the general reader, that deepen our understanding of people, societies and cultures and their interactions across time and place.” The key thing is that these are works that are aimed at non-academic readers, but come out of serious research."
The shortlist: The Burning Earth: A History / Sunil Amrith -- The Baton and the Cross: Russia's Church from Pagans to Putin / Lucy Ash -- The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World / William Dalrymple -- Africonomics: a history of Western ignorance / Bronwen Everill -- Sick of It: The Global Fight for Women's Health / Sophie Harman -- Sound Tracks: A Musical Detective Story / Graeme Lawson.
Nathan Gray, interviewer Sophie Roell. 10/03/2025: The Best Adventure Novels: The 2025 Wilbur Smith Prize. A former pilot, Gray also talks about his memoir Hazard Spectrum.
The nominees: Babylonia: A Novel / Costanza Casati (winner) -- Sycorax: A Novel / Nydia Hetherington -- Redemption / Jack Jordan -- A House for Miss Pauline: A Novel / Diana McCaulay -- Water Moon: A Novel / Samantha Sotto Yambao -- Fundamentally: A Novel / Nussaibah Younis.
This turned up on my Twitter feed but I don't think I caught it in the July-Aug-Sept thread:
Michael Dillon. 08/03/2025: The best books on Uyghur Nationalism. Dillon is the author of: Xinjiang in the Twenty-First Century (Routledge Contemporary China Series).
Inner Asian frontiers of China / Owen Lattimore -- Pivot of Asia: Sinkiang and the inner Asian frontiers of China and Russia / Owen Lattimore -- Return to Kashgar (Central Asia Book Series) / Gunnar Jarring (Duke University Press; translator not given) -- Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: A Political History of Republican Sinkiang 1911–1949 / Andrew D.W. Forbes (currently out of print) -- Xinjiang (Studies of Central Asia and the Caucasus) / S. Frederick Starr.
Mike Downey, interviewer Cal Flyn. 10/25/2025: The Best Historical Thrillers:
Heart of Darkness / Joseph Conrad -- The Name of the Rose / Umberto Eco -- Last Night in Twisted River: A Novel / John Irving -- Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome / Robert Harris -- A Quiet Flame: A Bernie Gunther Novel / Philip Kerr.
Robbie Millen. 10/22/2025: The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist. Half dozen not 5!:
The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s / Jason Burke -- How to End a Story: Diaries 1995-1998 / Helen Garner -- The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science and the Crisis of Belief / Richard Holmes -- Captives and Companions: A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World / Justin Marozzi -- Lone Wolf: Walking the Faultlines of Europe / Adam Weymouth -- Electric Spark: The Enigma of Dame Muriel / Frances Wilson.
Samantha Shannon, interviewer Sylvia Bishop. 10/15/2025: The Best Fantasy Book Series. Recommendations from the author of Among the Burning Flowers: A Novel (The Roots of Chaos):
The Jasmine Throne (The Burning Kingdoms, 1) / Tasha Suri -- Sabriel (Old Kingdom series Book 1) / Garth Nix -- Queen of Coin and Whispers: A kingdom of secrets and a game of lies / Helen Corcoran -- The Final Strife: Book One of The Ending Fire Trilogy / Sara El-Arifi -- The Circle: The Engelsfors Trilogy--Book 1 / Sara B. Elfgren & Mats Strandberg
Rebecca Earle, interviewer Sophie Roell. 10/09/2025: The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 British Academy Book Prize. "The prize celebrates “works of nonfiction, based on exceptional research and written for the general reader, that deepen our understanding of people, societies and cultures and their interactions across time and place.” The key thing is that these are works that are aimed at non-academic readers, but come out of serious research."
The shortlist: The Burning Earth: A History / Sunil Amrith -- The Baton and the Cross: Russia's Church from Pagans to Putin / Lucy Ash -- The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World / William Dalrymple -- Africonomics: a history of Western ignorance / Bronwen Everill -- Sick of It: The Global Fight for Women's Health / Sophie Harman -- Sound Tracks: A Musical Detective Story / Graeme Lawson.
Nathan Gray, interviewer Sophie Roell. 10/03/2025: The Best Adventure Novels: The 2025 Wilbur Smith Prize. A former pilot, Gray also talks about his memoir Hazard Spectrum.
The nominees: Babylonia: A Novel / Costanza Casati (winner) -- Sycorax: A Novel / Nydia Hetherington -- Redemption / Jack Jordan -- A House for Miss Pauline: A Novel / Diana McCaulay -- Water Moon: A Novel / Samantha Sotto Yambao -- Fundamentally: A Novel / Nussaibah Younis.
This turned up on my Twitter feed but I don't think I caught it in the July-Aug-Sept thread:
Michael Dillon. 08/03/2025: The best books on Uyghur Nationalism. Dillon is the author of: Xinjiang in the Twenty-First Century (Routledge Contemporary China Series).
Inner Asian frontiers of China / Owen Lattimore -- Pivot of Asia: Sinkiang and the inner Asian frontiers of China and Russia / Owen Lattimore -- Return to Kashgar (Central Asia Book Series) / Gunnar Jarring (Duke University Press; translator not given) -- Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: A Political History of Republican Sinkiang 1911–1949 / Andrew D.W. Forbes (currently out of print) -- Xinjiang (Studies of Central Asia and the Caucasus) / S. Frederick Starr.
24featherbear
Oct 5-11 updates
Atlantic Oct 10: Eliza Schuyler bio; Rip Van Winkle & the making of America -- Oct 9: on the selection of László Krasznahorkai for the Nobel Prize -- Oct 8: fixing baseball -- Oct 6: Lydia Davis on why she writes -- Oct 5: romance fiction boom >21 featherbear:
Boston Review Oct 9: Elaine Scarry on Plato & poets >20 featherbear:
The Critic (UK) Oct 11: 2 books on sex & human reproduction -- Oct 9: Benson diary -- Oct 7: the case for Schopenhauer >10 featherbear:
fivebooks.com Oct 9: British Academy non-fiction shortlist -- Oct 3: best adventure novels -- (belated) Aug 8: Uyghur nationalism recommendations >23 featherbear:
Guardian Oct 11: Chris Kraus interview -- Oct 10: Colm Tóibín publishes László Krasznahorkai; Natalie Haynes interview; intimate history of modern Greece -- Oct 9: László Krasznahorkai wins the Nobel prize in literature 2025; Seamus Heaney's collected poems; children's authors canceled re Palestine; authenticity in the workplace as a trap -- Oct 8: Nobel prize for literature possibilities; Werner Herzog on truth; The Decadence by Leon Craig -- Oct 7: matriarchs of Russia; Devil Book; Ozzy Osbourne memoir; Russian book thieves -- Oct 6: young Tennyson bio; John Boyne novellas; from scrolling back to reading -- Oct 5: Cory Doctorow explains entshittification >8 featherbear:
LARB Oct 11: Kafkaesque science -- Oct 9: Ed Wood bio -- Oct 8: Gertrude Stein bio -- Oct 7: Pynchon's Shadow Ticket -- Oct 6: The Neural Mind >18 featherbear:
LitHub Oct 10: Maria Janion; the manuscript of Beowulf -- Oct 9: Pynchon fans waiting in line for Shadow Ticket -- Oct 8: Ed Simon on Poe's fear of being buried alive --Oct 7: Thomas Pynchon & America; on translating Proust; saving a medieval Palestinian library -- Oct 6: revisiting Amerika; dystopian fiction; child rearing & reading >13 featherbear:
New Yorker Oct 11: Susan Orlean on how her Orchid Thief book was adapted into a movie -- Oct 9: James Wood on László Krasznahorkai -- Oct 8: Ariana Harwicz's fiction -- Oct 6: Pan-Africanism books; Hothead Paisan revisited -- Oct 5: Brandon Taylor interview -- Oct 2: Waiting for Godot w/Bill & Ted >9 featherbear:
NYT Oct 11: Svetlana Alexievich worries about the Soviet Union; America's war in the Phillippines; novel about working on a magazine -- Oct 10: Pleasures of Reading Laszlo Krasznahorkai; new Columbus bio; Brandon Taylor artist novel --Oct 9: Wyoming librarian fired for resisting censorship gets 700k settlement; Laszlo Krasznahorkai wins Nobel Prize for literature; Paper Girl; Orlanda -- Oct 7: Katherine Dunn stories; Thursday Murder Club; graphic history of black activism; Texas conservatives; Jake Tapper's terrorism book; Oct 6: new Gertrude Stein bio; What a Time to Be Alive: 2 novels with the same title; most generic title of the week; Hostage (2nd most generic title of the week) -- Oct 5: Death & the gardener; Cory Doctorow profile; Jenny Erpenbeck's latest novel >6 featherbear:
Quillette Oct 6: on Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard >12 featherbear:
WaPo Oct 11: Kracauer's Ginster -- Oct 10: Julian Brave NoiseCat memoir; novel about surrogacy & egg donation in Tokyo -- Oct 9: Laszlo Krasznahorkai wins Nobel Prize for literature; I Deliver Parcels in Beijing -- Oct 8: growing up deaf; Pinochet in London; Mitch Albom's novel -- Oct 7: National Book Award finalists (unlocked); Paper Girl memoir; Jon Fosse's Vaim; Ozzy Osbourne memoir -- Oct 6: Carole King short bio -- Oct 5: new Eimear McBride novel -- Oct 4: Steven Pinker's new book; novel about Mozambique >7 featherbear:
Oct index >2 featherbear:
Atlantic Oct 10: Eliza Schuyler bio; Rip Van Winkle & the making of America -- Oct 9: on the selection of László Krasznahorkai for the Nobel Prize -- Oct 8: fixing baseball -- Oct 6: Lydia Davis on why she writes -- Oct 5: romance fiction boom >21 featherbear:
Boston Review Oct 9: Elaine Scarry on Plato & poets >20 featherbear:
The Critic (UK) Oct 11: 2 books on sex & human reproduction -- Oct 9: Benson diary -- Oct 7: the case for Schopenhauer >10 featherbear:
fivebooks.com Oct 9: British Academy non-fiction shortlist -- Oct 3: best adventure novels -- (belated) Aug 8: Uyghur nationalism recommendations >23 featherbear:
Guardian Oct 11: Chris Kraus interview -- Oct 10: Colm Tóibín publishes László Krasznahorkai; Natalie Haynes interview; intimate history of modern Greece -- Oct 9: László Krasznahorkai wins the Nobel prize in literature 2025; Seamus Heaney's collected poems; children's authors canceled re Palestine; authenticity in the workplace as a trap -- Oct 8: Nobel prize for literature possibilities; Werner Herzog on truth; The Decadence by Leon Craig -- Oct 7: matriarchs of Russia; Devil Book; Ozzy Osbourne memoir; Russian book thieves -- Oct 6: young Tennyson bio; John Boyne novellas; from scrolling back to reading -- Oct 5: Cory Doctorow explains entshittification >8 featherbear:
LARB Oct 11: Kafkaesque science -- Oct 9: Ed Wood bio -- Oct 8: Gertrude Stein bio -- Oct 7: Pynchon's Shadow Ticket -- Oct 6: The Neural Mind >18 featherbear:
LitHub Oct 10: Maria Janion; the manuscript of Beowulf -- Oct 9: Pynchon fans waiting in line for Shadow Ticket -- Oct 8: Ed Simon on Poe's fear of being buried alive --Oct 7: Thomas Pynchon & America; on translating Proust; saving a medieval Palestinian library -- Oct 6: revisiting Amerika; dystopian fiction; child rearing & reading >13 featherbear:
New Yorker Oct 11: Susan Orlean on how her Orchid Thief book was adapted into a movie -- Oct 9: James Wood on László Krasznahorkai -- Oct 8: Ariana Harwicz's fiction -- Oct 6: Pan-Africanism books; Hothead Paisan revisited -- Oct 5: Brandon Taylor interview -- Oct 2: Waiting for Godot w/Bill & Ted >9 featherbear:
NYT Oct 11: Svetlana Alexievich worries about the Soviet Union; America's war in the Phillippines; novel about working on a magazine -- Oct 10: Pleasures of Reading Laszlo Krasznahorkai; new Columbus bio; Brandon Taylor artist novel --Oct 9: Wyoming librarian fired for resisting censorship gets 700k settlement; Laszlo Krasznahorkai wins Nobel Prize for literature; Paper Girl; Orlanda -- Oct 7: Katherine Dunn stories; Thursday Murder Club; graphic history of black activism; Texas conservatives; Jake Tapper's terrorism book; Oct 6: new Gertrude Stein bio; What a Time to Be Alive: 2 novels with the same title; most generic title of the week; Hostage (2nd most generic title of the week) -- Oct 5: Death & the gardener; Cory Doctorow profile; Jenny Erpenbeck's latest novel >6 featherbear:
Quillette Oct 6: on Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard >12 featherbear:
WaPo Oct 11: Kracauer's Ginster -- Oct 10: Julian Brave NoiseCat memoir; novel about surrogacy & egg donation in Tokyo -- Oct 9: Laszlo Krasznahorkai wins Nobel Prize for literature; I Deliver Parcels in Beijing -- Oct 8: growing up deaf; Pinochet in London; Mitch Albom's novel -- Oct 7: National Book Award finalists (unlocked); Paper Girl memoir; Jon Fosse's Vaim; Ozzy Osbourne memoir -- Oct 6: Carole King short bio -- Oct 5: new Eimear McBride novel -- Oct 4: Steven Pinker's new book; novel about Mozambique >7 featherbear:
Oct index >2 featherbear:
25featherbear
Ivan Klima, 1931-2025
David Binder and Dan Bilefsky. NYT, 10/04/2025: Ivan Klima, Czech Novelist Who Chafed Under Totalitarian Regimes, Dies at 94. "A writer, dissident, teacher and critic, he was deeply affected by an early experience of his life: incarceration as a boy in a concentration camp near Prague."
"Ivan Klima, the Czech novelist whose survival of two totalitarian regimes — one Nazi, the other communist — made him one of Eastern Europe’s most perceptive distillers of the human condition under authoritarianism, died on Saturday at his home in Prague. He was 94.
"A writer of more than 40 books, as well as a dissident, teacher and critic, Mr. Klima was deeply affected by an early experience in his life: incarceration as a boy by the Nazis at Terezin concentration camp north of Prague. While living there from 1941 to 1945, he faced the daily prospect of being transported to Auschwitz. Some of his most memorable short stories and novels, including “Judge on Trial,” touched on the horror of those years.
"But his writing dwelled most heavily on the communist era, including the aftermath of the Prague Spring in 1968, a period of relative freedom when he and other intellectuals supported the reformist efforts of the leader Alexander Dubcek, who hoped to create a “Socialism with a human face” in Czechoslovakia. Their optimism was thwarted when the Soviets sent an estimated 750,000 Warsaw Pact troops to suppress the Prague reforms later that year.
"Unlike dissident writers who left the country or were pushed out — among them Milan Kundera, Josef Skvorecky and Pavel Kohout — Mr. Klima returned to Prague in 1970 from an authorized sabbatical in the United States. He became an important publisher of underground texts, smuggling some out of the country to Western publishers. He also defied the government by organizing an influential (and wine-fueled) clandestine literary salon, attended by other dissident writers, including the Czech playwright and future president Vaclav Havel.
"After the fall of the Communists in 1989, Mr. Klima depicted the lives of those who had obediently served the dictatorship, only to find themselves adrift and lost amid the newfound freedoms of a newly democratic country. After 1989, his books “My Merry Mornings” and “Love and Garbage” were rushed into print and sold more than 100,000 copies each. His work has since been translated into dozens of languages.
"Ivan’s childhood abruptly ended when the Nazis marched into Czechoslovakia. He was 7 years old.
“When I had to wear the yellow star, I felt that I was somebody who was hunted, an outlaw,” he once said. “The German children were shouting ‘Jew! Jew!’ at me, and the feeling I had was shame. From this point of view, I felt better in Terezin than in Prague because there the insults stopped.”
"It was at Terezin that he began to write, finding refuge in his imagination, even amid all the terror. He and his family survived — likely, he surmised, because his father was placed in charge of electricity at the camp and was regarded as an “essential” figure.
“Anyone who has been through a concentration camp as a child, who has been completely dependent on an external power, which can at any moment come in and beat or kill him and everyone around him — probably moves through life at least a bit differently from people who have been spared such an education,” he later wrote. “That life can be snapped like a piece of string — that was my daily lesson as a child.”
"In 1967, he greeted the annual assembly of the Czechoslovak Literary Association with the words “respected friends,” rather than the customary “comrades,” as he called for elimination of censorship. By pointing out that the Czechs had guaranteed press freedom in 1867, he showed that Communist law, in fact, represented a step backward.
"Two months later, Mr. Klima was expelled from the party and barred from publishing, a ban that lasted until 1989 and the so-called Velvet Revolution.
"Choosing to return to Prague in 1970 after a sabbatical in the United States, Mr. Klima signed Charter 77, the manifesto of more than 1,000 Czech and Slovak intellectuals who were protesting repression. He became an active member in the Czech literary underground.
"The novel “Judge on Trial,” considered by many to be his best work, was written during his 20 years of enforced silence. Completed in 1986 and distributed underground by samizdat, it was not published until 1991.
"After 1989, Mr. Klima withdrew from public life, focusing instead for the next 20 years on his writing, including his two-volume memoir, “My Crazy Century,” in which he defined Communism as “a criminal conspiracy against democracy.” Writing in The New York Times, the journalist and author Paul Berman described the memoir as ferocious, with “a bellowing anger at what has happened to many millions of people, himself included, victims of the serial horrors that used to be known, and maybe still are known, as totalitarianism.”
Kate Brady. WaPo, 10/07/2025: Ivan Klíma, acclaimed writer who took on totalitarianism, dies at 94. "The Czech author and dissident survived the Holocaust and challenged Czechoslovakia’s communist regime. His books were translated into dozens of languages."
Ivan Klima LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/klimaivan
David Binder and Dan Bilefsky. NYT, 10/04/2025: Ivan Klima, Czech Novelist Who Chafed Under Totalitarian Regimes, Dies at 94. "A writer, dissident, teacher and critic, he was deeply affected by an early experience of his life: incarceration as a boy in a concentration camp near Prague."
"Ivan Klima, the Czech novelist whose survival of two totalitarian regimes — one Nazi, the other communist — made him one of Eastern Europe’s most perceptive distillers of the human condition under authoritarianism, died on Saturday at his home in Prague. He was 94.
"A writer of more than 40 books, as well as a dissident, teacher and critic, Mr. Klima was deeply affected by an early experience in his life: incarceration as a boy by the Nazis at Terezin concentration camp north of Prague. While living there from 1941 to 1945, he faced the daily prospect of being transported to Auschwitz. Some of his most memorable short stories and novels, including “Judge on Trial,” touched on the horror of those years.
"But his writing dwelled most heavily on the communist era, including the aftermath of the Prague Spring in 1968, a period of relative freedom when he and other intellectuals supported the reformist efforts of the leader Alexander Dubcek, who hoped to create a “Socialism with a human face” in Czechoslovakia. Their optimism was thwarted when the Soviets sent an estimated 750,000 Warsaw Pact troops to suppress the Prague reforms later that year.
"Unlike dissident writers who left the country or were pushed out — among them Milan Kundera, Josef Skvorecky and Pavel Kohout — Mr. Klima returned to Prague in 1970 from an authorized sabbatical in the United States. He became an important publisher of underground texts, smuggling some out of the country to Western publishers. He also defied the government by organizing an influential (and wine-fueled) clandestine literary salon, attended by other dissident writers, including the Czech playwright and future president Vaclav Havel.
"After the fall of the Communists in 1989, Mr. Klima depicted the lives of those who had obediently served the dictatorship, only to find themselves adrift and lost amid the newfound freedoms of a newly democratic country. After 1989, his books “My Merry Mornings” and “Love and Garbage” were rushed into print and sold more than 100,000 copies each. His work has since been translated into dozens of languages.
"Ivan’s childhood abruptly ended when the Nazis marched into Czechoslovakia. He was 7 years old.
“When I had to wear the yellow star, I felt that I was somebody who was hunted, an outlaw,” he once said. “The German children were shouting ‘Jew! Jew!’ at me, and the feeling I had was shame. From this point of view, I felt better in Terezin than in Prague because there the insults stopped.”
"It was at Terezin that he began to write, finding refuge in his imagination, even amid all the terror. He and his family survived — likely, he surmised, because his father was placed in charge of electricity at the camp and was regarded as an “essential” figure.
“Anyone who has been through a concentration camp as a child, who has been completely dependent on an external power, which can at any moment come in and beat or kill him and everyone around him — probably moves through life at least a bit differently from people who have been spared such an education,” he later wrote. “That life can be snapped like a piece of string — that was my daily lesson as a child.”
"In 1967, he greeted the annual assembly of the Czechoslovak Literary Association with the words “respected friends,” rather than the customary “comrades,” as he called for elimination of censorship. By pointing out that the Czechs had guaranteed press freedom in 1867, he showed that Communist law, in fact, represented a step backward.
"Two months later, Mr. Klima was expelled from the party and barred from publishing, a ban that lasted until 1989 and the so-called Velvet Revolution.
"Choosing to return to Prague in 1970 after a sabbatical in the United States, Mr. Klima signed Charter 77, the manifesto of more than 1,000 Czech and Slovak intellectuals who were protesting repression. He became an active member in the Czech literary underground.
"The novel “Judge on Trial,” considered by many to be his best work, was written during his 20 years of enforced silence. Completed in 1986 and distributed underground by samizdat, it was not published until 1991.
"After 1989, Mr. Klima withdrew from public life, focusing instead for the next 20 years on his writing, including his two-volume memoir, “My Crazy Century,” in which he defined Communism as “a criminal conspiracy against democracy.” Writing in The New York Times, the journalist and author Paul Berman described the memoir as ferocious, with “a bellowing anger at what has happened to many millions of people, himself included, victims of the serial horrors that used to be known, and maybe still are known, as totalitarianism.”
Kate Brady. WaPo, 10/07/2025: Ivan Klíma, acclaimed writer who took on totalitarianism, dies at 94. "The Czech author and dissident survived the Holocaust and challenged Czechoslovakia’s communist regime. His books were translated into dozens of languages."
Ivan Klima LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/klimaivan
26featherbear
NYRB Online Oct 23 2025
Literature
Andrew Katzenstein. The Big Cheese. Review of: Shadow Ticket / Thomas Pynchon.
Christopher Tayler. In the Fourth Person. Review of: The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story / Olga Tokarczuk, translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones.
Angie Mlinko. Questions of Compression. Review of: New York Trilogy / Peter Balakian (University of Chicago Press) -- Last Day on Earth in the Eternal City / Angie Estes.
Jessi Jezewska Stevens. Stripped of Myths. Review of: Red Milk / Sjón, translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb.
Arts
Nicole Rudick. Becoming Acquainted with America. Review of: Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity, an exhibition at the Jewish Museum, New York City, May 23–October 26, 2025. Catalog of the exhibition by Laura Katzman, with contributions by Beatriz Cordero Martín, Christof Decker, and John Fagg.
Technology & Economics
Jacob Weisberg. Algorithm Nation. Review of: Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality / Renée DiResta -- Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter / Kate Conger and Ryan Mac -- Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture / Kyle Chayka.
Geoff Mann. The Price of Tomorrow. Review of: Discounting the Future: The Ascendancy of a Political Technology / Liliana Doganova.
Suzanne Schneider. From the Cesspool to the Mainstream. Review of: Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right / Quinn Slobodian.
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Eric Foner. The Underground Railroad’s Stealth Sailors. Review of: Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea / Marcus Rediker.
Vicente L. Rafael. Massacre Under the Starry Flag. Review of: Massacre in the Clouds: An American Atrocity and the Erasure of History / Kim A. Wagner.
Elaine Blair. Equality Without Feminism? Review of: Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy / Julia Ioffe.
Ariel Dorfman. Pinochet and the Vans of Death. Review of: 38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England, and a Nazi in Patagonia / Philippe Sands.
Jay Neugeboren. The Homeless We Don’t See. Review of: There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America / Brian Goldstone.
Gavin Francis. Hope Management. Review of: Fires in the Dark: Healing the Unquiet Mind / Kay Redfield Jamison -- The Art of Binding People / Paolo Milone, translated from the Italian by Lucy Rand (Europa).
David Cole. Getting Away with Murder. (Article)
Literature
Andrew Katzenstein. The Big Cheese. Review of: Shadow Ticket / Thomas Pynchon.
Christopher Tayler. In the Fourth Person. Review of: The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story / Olga Tokarczuk, translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones.
Angie Mlinko. Questions of Compression. Review of: New York Trilogy / Peter Balakian (University of Chicago Press) -- Last Day on Earth in the Eternal City / Angie Estes.
Jessi Jezewska Stevens. Stripped of Myths. Review of: Red Milk / Sjón, translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb.
Arts
Nicole Rudick. Becoming Acquainted with America. Review of: Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity, an exhibition at the Jewish Museum, New York City, May 23–October 26, 2025. Catalog of the exhibition by Laura Katzman, with contributions by Beatriz Cordero Martín, Christof Decker, and John Fagg.
Technology & Economics
Jacob Weisberg. Algorithm Nation. Review of: Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality / Renée DiResta -- Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter / Kate Conger and Ryan Mac -- Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture / Kyle Chayka.
Geoff Mann. The Price of Tomorrow. Review of: Discounting the Future: The Ascendancy of a Political Technology / Liliana Doganova.
Suzanne Schneider. From the Cesspool to the Mainstream. Review of: Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right / Quinn Slobodian.
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Eric Foner. The Underground Railroad’s Stealth Sailors. Review of: Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea / Marcus Rediker.
Vicente L. Rafael. Massacre Under the Starry Flag. Review of: Massacre in the Clouds: An American Atrocity and the Erasure of History / Kim A. Wagner.
Elaine Blair. Equality Without Feminism? Review of: Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy / Julia Ioffe.
Ariel Dorfman. Pinochet and the Vans of Death. Review of: 38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England, and a Nazi in Patagonia / Philippe Sands.
Jay Neugeboren. The Homeless We Don’t See. Review of: There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America / Brian Goldstone.
Gavin Francis. Hope Management. Review of: Fires in the Dark: Healing the Unquiet Mind / Kay Redfield Jamison -- The Art of Binding People / Paolo Milone, translated from the Italian by Lucy Rand (Europa).
David Cole. Getting Away with Murder. (Article)
27featherbear
Jilly Cooper, 1937-2025
Claire Moses. NYT, 10/06/2025: Jilly Cooper, British Romance Novelist, Is Dead at 88. "A prolific writer and keen observer, she sold millions of copies of her juicy, sometimes racy “Rutshire Chronicles” series."
Ella Creamer. Guardian, 10/06/2025: Jilly Cooper, author of Rivals and Riders, dies aged 88. "The author of 18 ‘bonkbuster’ novels including Riders, Rivals and Bella has died following a fall."
Veronica Horwell. Guardian, 10/06/2025: Dame Jilly Cooper obituary. "Author whose bestselling novels, including Riders and Rivals, were set deep in an English countryside where the natives pursued land, sports, and each other, with lust and gusto."
Jenny Colgan, Olivia Laing and Jess Cartner-Morley. Guardian, 10/06/2025: ‘Jilly Cooper was the absolute queen’: writers pay tribute to the beloved author. "The writer was an astute observer of English class – and a champion of complicated female heroines."
Clare Thorp. bbc culture, 10/06/2025: Riders to Tackle!: Why Britain loved Jilly Cooper's raunchy books. "Jilly Cooper, who died yesterday, was beloved in the UK. Her irresistible sagas of sex and shenanigans among England's rural upper-middle class society – featuring dashing cads, ambitious women, and a supporting cast of horses, hounds and huge country houses – have been bestsellers since the 1980s. What made her books so enduringly appealing?"
JC's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/cooperjilly
Claire Moses. NYT, 10/06/2025: Jilly Cooper, British Romance Novelist, Is Dead at 88. "A prolific writer and keen observer, she sold millions of copies of her juicy, sometimes racy “Rutshire Chronicles” series."
Ella Creamer. Guardian, 10/06/2025: Jilly Cooper, author of Rivals and Riders, dies aged 88. "The author of 18 ‘bonkbuster’ novels including Riders, Rivals and Bella has died following a fall."
Veronica Horwell. Guardian, 10/06/2025: Dame Jilly Cooper obituary. "Author whose bestselling novels, including Riders and Rivals, were set deep in an English countryside where the natives pursued land, sports, and each other, with lust and gusto."
Jenny Colgan, Olivia Laing and Jess Cartner-Morley. Guardian, 10/06/2025: ‘Jilly Cooper was the absolute queen’: writers pay tribute to the beloved author. "The writer was an astute observer of English class – and a champion of complicated female heroines."
Clare Thorp. bbc culture, 10/06/2025: Riders to Tackle!: Why Britain loved Jilly Cooper's raunchy books. "Jilly Cooper, who died yesterday, was beloved in the UK. Her irresistible sagas of sex and shenanigans among England's rural upper-middle class society – featuring dashing cads, ambitious women, and a supporting cast of horses, hounds and huge country houses – have been bestsellers since the 1980s. What made her books so enduringly appealing?"
JC's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/cooperjilly
28featherbear
Rebecca Van Laer. Orion, 10/01/2025: Animal Memoirs Gone Wild: What we can learn from more domestic forms of intimacy with nature.
29featherbear
Ian J. Battaglia. Chicago Review of Books, 10/06/2025: The Translator’s Voice — Ann Goldstein on Translating Elena Ferrante’s “Neapolitan Quartet.”
30featherbear
Literary Review, Oct 2025
Alexander Lee. Dead Men Walking. Review of: Killing the Dead: Vampire Epidemics from Mesopotamia to the New World / John Blair.
Ritchie Robertson. Darkness & Light. Review of: Goethe: A Life in Ideas / Matthew Bell.
John Adamson. Hold the Front Page. Review of: The Great Exchange: Making the News in Early Modern Europe / Joad Raymond Wren.
Anna Reid. Mission Impossible. Review of: Mavericks: Empire, Oil, Revolution and the Forgotten Battle of World War One / Nick Higham (Bloomsbury).
Robert Hazell. Strong Constitution. Review of: Power and the Palace: The Inside Story of the Monarchy and 10 Downing Street / Valentine Low.
Alexander Lee. Dead Men Walking. Review of: Killing the Dead: Vampire Epidemics from Mesopotamia to the New World / John Blair.
Ritchie Robertson. Darkness & Light. Review of: Goethe: A Life in Ideas / Matthew Bell.
John Adamson. Hold the Front Page. Review of: The Great Exchange: Making the News in Early Modern Europe / Joad Raymond Wren.
Anna Reid. Mission Impossible. Review of: Mavericks: Empire, Oil, Revolution and the Forgotten Battle of World War One / Nick Higham (Bloomsbury).
Robert Hazell. Strong Constitution. Review of: Power and the Palace: The Inside Story of the Monarchy and 10 Downing Street / Valentine Low.
31featherbear
Alex Marshall. NYT, 10/09/2025: Nobel Prize in Literature Is Awarded to Laszlo Krasznahorkai. Temporarily unlocked
Emma Loffhagen. Guardian, 10/09/2025: László Krasznahorkai wins the Nobel prize in literature 2025. "The Hungarian novelist whose books ‘reaffirm the power of art’ was announced as winner at a ceremony in Stockholm."
Colm Tóibín. Guardian, 10/10/2025: Colm Tóibín: Why I set up a press to publish Nobel winner László Krasznahorkai. "The Irish novelist discovered the Hungarian writer two decades ago, and was excited by the verbal pyrotechnics of a rule-breaking storyteller."
Sophia Nguyen. WaPo, 10/09/2025: Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai awarded Nobel Prize in literature."The Swedish Academy honored the writer whom critic Susan Sontag once called the “master of the apocalypse” for “his compelling and visionary oeuvre.”
James Wood. New Yorker, 06/27/2011: Madness And Civilization. "Reality examined to the point of madness.” What would this look like in contemporary writing? It might look like the fiction of László Krasznahorkai, the difficult, peculiar, obsessive, visionary Hungarian author ..." Wood stated at the time only 2 of K's novels were available in English; probably there are more at this point; check LT page.
James Wood. New Yorker, 10/09/2025: László Krasznahorkai and Contemporary Europe’s Perilous Reality. "The swirling sentences of the new Nobel laureate’s fiction overlay small-town politics with an uneasy sense of impending apocalypse."
Andrew Ervin. LitHub, 10/09/2025 (2011): Is This the First-Ever English Language Review of László Krasznahorkai? Review of: The Melancholy of Resistance.
Walt Hunter. Atlantic, 10/09/2025: Why the Latest Nobel Prize Winner Makes Perfect Sense. "László Krasznahorkai is unusually experimental for a Nobel Prize winner, but in an unstable world, his selection feels perfectly timely."
Nathanial Rich. Atlantic, 01/2018: The Storyteller Who Offers No Escape. "Hungary’s László Krasznahorkai writes fiction devoid of revelation, resolution, and even periods." On The World Goes On.
Hari Kunzru, interviewer. Yale Review, 02/24/2025: László Krasznahorkai: The Nobel laureate insists on the reality of the present.
George Szirtes. TLS, 10/17/2025: Master of the apocalypse: László Krasznahorkai, Nobel laureate in literature.
László Krasznahorkai's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/krasznahorkailaszlo
Emma Loffhagen. Guardian, 10/09/2025: László Krasznahorkai wins the Nobel prize in literature 2025. "The Hungarian novelist whose books ‘reaffirm the power of art’ was announced as winner at a ceremony in Stockholm."
Colm Tóibín. Guardian, 10/10/2025: Colm Tóibín: Why I set up a press to publish Nobel winner László Krasznahorkai. "The Irish novelist discovered the Hungarian writer two decades ago, and was excited by the verbal pyrotechnics of a rule-breaking storyteller."
Sophia Nguyen. WaPo, 10/09/2025: Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai awarded Nobel Prize in literature."The Swedish Academy honored the writer whom critic Susan Sontag once called the “master of the apocalypse” for “his compelling and visionary oeuvre.”
James Wood. New Yorker, 06/27/2011: Madness And Civilization. "Reality examined to the point of madness.” What would this look like in contemporary writing? It might look like the fiction of László Krasznahorkai, the difficult, peculiar, obsessive, visionary Hungarian author ..." Wood stated at the time only 2 of K's novels were available in English; probably there are more at this point; check LT page.
James Wood. New Yorker, 10/09/2025: László Krasznahorkai and Contemporary Europe’s Perilous Reality. "The swirling sentences of the new Nobel laureate’s fiction overlay small-town politics with an uneasy sense of impending apocalypse."
Andrew Ervin. LitHub, 10/09/2025 (2011): Is This the First-Ever English Language Review of László Krasznahorkai? Review of: The Melancholy of Resistance.
Walt Hunter. Atlantic, 10/09/2025: Why the Latest Nobel Prize Winner Makes Perfect Sense. "László Krasznahorkai is unusually experimental for a Nobel Prize winner, but in an unstable world, his selection feels perfectly timely."
Nathanial Rich. Atlantic, 01/2018: The Storyteller Who Offers No Escape. "Hungary’s László Krasznahorkai writes fiction devoid of revelation, resolution, and even periods." On The World Goes On.
Hari Kunzru, interviewer. Yale Review, 02/24/2025: László Krasznahorkai: The Nobel laureate insists on the reality of the present.
George Szirtes. TLS, 10/17/2025: Master of the apocalypse: László Krasznahorkai, Nobel laureate in literature.
László Krasznahorkai's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/krasznahorkailaszlo
32featherbear
Jonathan Lear, 1948-2025
Michael S. Rosenwald. NYT, 10/09/2025: Jonathan Lear, Philosopher Who Embraced Freud, Dies at 76.
"Professor Lear defied certain scholarly norms. He championed Freud, a figure held in disregard by many in academia, and even trained to become a psychoanalyst. He studied resilience by visiting the Crow reservation in Montana — an unorthodox approach for a philosopher.
"“That was Jonathan to a T,” Kay Long, a professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine who studied psychoanalysis with Professor Lear, said in an interview. “He was interested in intellectual ideas, but not just as intellectual ideas. It was lived experience that he was really interested in — what it means to be human from a deeply humanistic point of view.”
"Professor Lear’s early scholarship focused on classical Greek philosophy. In his books “Aristotle and Logical Theory” (1980) and “Aristotle: The Desire to Understand” (1988), he explored how the longing for knowledge provides the contours of a flourishing life.
"Reading Aristotle, he was struck by the philosopher’s somewhat underappreciated descriptions of the natural world: the lives of shepherds, the hierarchy of bees, the frost that rolls in at dusk.
“What captured my imagination was not only the brilliance of his thinking, but also his commitment to life,” Professor Lear wrote in “Wisdom Won From Illness” (2017), a collection of essays. “This showed up in the meticulous detail with which he observed the natural world and the vibrant way his philosophy grew out of those observations. I wanted to imitate this way of living.”
"One day in the early 1980s, when he was teaching at the University of Cambridge in England, a colleague mentioned Freud, and Professor Lear’s mind flashed back to his father’s death a few years earlier, when he had been overcome with sorrow.
"At the funeral, his father’s cousin, the TV writer and producer Norman Lear, told him, “This would be a good time to talk to somebody about your feelings.”
"While teaching at Yale in the mid-1990s, he enrolled at the Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis in New Haven, Conn. As part of his training, he underwent his own analysis, and he began seeing patients at a nearby Department of Veterans Affairs hospital, juggling that work with his teaching.
"In “Love and Its Place in Nature: A Philosophical Interpretation of Freudian Psychoanalysis” (1990), he contended that philosophers have a “tendency to investigate the structure of the human soul in isolation from any consideration of how that structure came about.”
"Among Professor Lear’s 11 books, “Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation” (2008) was his best known. The impetus was a quote from Chief Plenty Coups, of the Crow Nation.
“When the buffalo went away, the hearts of my people fell to the ground, and they could not lift them up again,” Plenty Coups told a friend before dying in 1932. “After this, nothing happened.”
"That “lodged within me and never left,” Professor Lear wrote in “Radical Hope.” “This book was motivated in significant part as an attempt to figure out why these words have mattered.”
Editors. The Point, 10/29/2025: Jonathan Lear (1948-2025): In memoriam.
Jonathan Lear LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/learjonathan
Michael S. Rosenwald. NYT, 10/09/2025: Jonathan Lear, Philosopher Who Embraced Freud, Dies at 76.
"Professor Lear defied certain scholarly norms. He championed Freud, a figure held in disregard by many in academia, and even trained to become a psychoanalyst. He studied resilience by visiting the Crow reservation in Montana — an unorthodox approach for a philosopher.
"“That was Jonathan to a T,” Kay Long, a professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine who studied psychoanalysis with Professor Lear, said in an interview. “He was interested in intellectual ideas, but not just as intellectual ideas. It was lived experience that he was really interested in — what it means to be human from a deeply humanistic point of view.”
"Professor Lear’s early scholarship focused on classical Greek philosophy. In his books “Aristotle and Logical Theory” (1980) and “Aristotle: The Desire to Understand” (1988), he explored how the longing for knowledge provides the contours of a flourishing life.
"Reading Aristotle, he was struck by the philosopher’s somewhat underappreciated descriptions of the natural world: the lives of shepherds, the hierarchy of bees, the frost that rolls in at dusk.
“What captured my imagination was not only the brilliance of his thinking, but also his commitment to life,” Professor Lear wrote in “Wisdom Won From Illness” (2017), a collection of essays. “This showed up in the meticulous detail with which he observed the natural world and the vibrant way his philosophy grew out of those observations. I wanted to imitate this way of living.”
"One day in the early 1980s, when he was teaching at the University of Cambridge in England, a colleague mentioned Freud, and Professor Lear’s mind flashed back to his father’s death a few years earlier, when he had been overcome with sorrow.
"At the funeral, his father’s cousin, the TV writer and producer Norman Lear, told him, “This would be a good time to talk to somebody about your feelings.”
"While teaching at Yale in the mid-1990s, he enrolled at the Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis in New Haven, Conn. As part of his training, he underwent his own analysis, and he began seeing patients at a nearby Department of Veterans Affairs hospital, juggling that work with his teaching.
"In “Love and Its Place in Nature: A Philosophical Interpretation of Freudian Psychoanalysis” (1990), he contended that philosophers have a “tendency to investigate the structure of the human soul in isolation from any consideration of how that structure came about.”
"Among Professor Lear’s 11 books, “Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation” (2008) was his best known. The impetus was a quote from Chief Plenty Coups, of the Crow Nation.
“When the buffalo went away, the hearts of my people fell to the ground, and they could not lift them up again,” Plenty Coups told a friend before dying in 1932. “After this, nothing happened.”
"That “lodged within me and never left,” Professor Lear wrote in “Radical Hope.” “This book was motivated in significant part as an attempt to figure out why these words have mattered.”
Editors. The Point, 10/29/2025: Jonathan Lear (1948-2025): In memoriam.
Jonathan Lear LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/learjonathan
33featherbear
Vox October updates
Constance Grady. 10/31/2025: The right is obsessed with Lord of the Rings. But they don’t understand it. "The bizarre conservative misunderstanding of The Lord of the Rings, explained."
Constance Grady. 10/08/2025: The one Jane Austen scene people are still arguing about: Reckoning with Jane Austen and empire on her 250th anniversary. Regarding Austen's Mansfield Park & Edward Said's essay on MP in Culture and Imperialism.
Constance Grady. 10/31/2025: The right is obsessed with Lord of the Rings. But they don’t understand it. "The bizarre conservative misunderstanding of The Lord of the Rings, explained."
Constance Grady. 10/08/2025: The one Jane Austen scene people are still arguing about: Reckoning with Jane Austen and empire on her 250th anniversary. Regarding Austen's Mansfield Park & Edward Said's essay on MP in Culture and Imperialism.
34featherbear
Asian Review of Books Oct 2025
Mahitash Gopal. 10/31/2025: “12 Years: My Messed-Up Love Story” by Chetan Bhagat. Review of: 12 Years: My Messed-Up Love Story / Chetan Bhagat.
Susan Blumberg-Kason. 10/29/2025: “Chinese on the Beach” by Vanessa Fabiano. Review of: Chinese on the Beach: stories / Vanessa Fabiano (Ybernia).
Kristen Yee. 10/26/2025: “Silk Roads: A Flavor Odyssey with Recipes from Baku to Beijing” by Anna Ansari. Review of: Silk Roads: A Flavor Odyssey with Recipes from Baku to Beijing / Anna Ansari.
Mahika Dar. 10/25/2025: “Mother Mary Comes To Me” by Arundhati Roy. Review of: Mother Mary Comes To Me / Arundhati Roy.
James Herndon. 10/24/2025: “Monsoon Voyagers: An Indian Ocean History” by Fahad Ahmad Bishara. Review of: Monsoon Voyagers: An Indian Ocean History / Fahad Ahmad Bishara.
Susan Blumberg-Kasson. 10/22/2025: “Stain” by Sarah Joseph. Review of: Stain / Sarah Joseph; translated from the Malayalam by Sangeetha Sreenivasan (India Penguin). ("re-imagines the biblical story of Lot, largely set in the town of Sodom.")
Angus Stewart. 10/21/2025: “Delicious Hunger” by Hai Fan. Review of: Delicious Hunger (Tilted/Axis, 39) / Hai Fan; Jeremy Tiang (trans).
Peter Gordon. 10/19/2025: “The Ruins” by Ye Hui. Review of The Ruins: poems / Ye Hui; translation Dong Li (Phoneme Media; publ date Nov 11 2025 per Amazon).
Rosie Milne. 10/17/2025: “Vermillion Eye” by Tunku Halim. Review of: Vermillion Eye / Tunku Halim.
Manitosh Gopal. 10/16/2025: “Tipu Sultan: The Saga of Mysore’s Interregnum” by Vikram Sampath. Review of: Tipu Sultan: The Saga of Mysore’s Interregnum / Vikram Sampath.
Peter Gordon. 10/14/2025: “Assassins and Templars: A Battle in Myth and Blood” by Steve Tibble. Review of: Assassins and Templars: A Battle in Myth and Blood / Steve Tibble.
Peter Gordon. 10/12/2025: “Falling for Saigon” by Connla Stokes. Review of: Falling for Saigon / Connla Stokes.
Jane Wallace. 10/12-11/2025: “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny” by Kiran Desai. Review of: The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny: A Novel / Kiran Desai.
Susan Blumberg-Casson. 10/10-11/2025: “Bad Bad Girl” by Gish Jen. Review of: Bad Bad Girl: A Novel / Gish Jen.
David Chaffetz. 10/08/2025: The Mamluks at the Louvre. Regarding: Mamlouks 1250-1517 Sourya Noujaim (Skira. Louvre, 2025); Mamluks: Legacy of an Empire (Kaph Books).
Soni Wadwha. 10/07/2025: “Whose Urdu Is It Anyway?”, edited by Rakhshanda Jalil. Regarding: Whose Urdu Is It Anyway?: Stories by Non-Muslim Urdu Writers / edited & translated by Rakhshanda Jalil (S&S India).
Peter Gordon. 10/06/2025: “Mirror”, poems by Zhang Zao. Review of: Mirror (Jintian Series of Contemporary Chinese Poetry) / Zhang Zao, Fiona Sze-Lorrain (trans) (Zephyr Press).
Susan Blumberg-Kason. 10/05/2025: “The Morgue Keeper” by Ruyan Meng. Review of: The Morgue Keeper / Ruyan Meng (7.13 Books).
Susan Blumberg-Kason. 10/04/2025: “All Things Under the Moon” by Ann YK Choi. Review of: All Things Under the Moon: A Novel / Ann Y. K. Choi.
James Herndon. 10/02/2025: “The New Geography of Innovation” by Mehran Gul. Review of: The New Geography of Innovation: The Global Contest for Breakthrough Technologies / Mehran Gul (William Collins).
Peter Gordon. 10/01/2025: “Rethinking Ourselves: Justice, Reform and Ignorance in Postnormal Times” by Anwar Ibrahim. Review of: Rethinking Ourselves: Justice, Reform and Ignorance in Postnormal Times, Anwar Ibrahim (Hurst. Penguin Southeast Asia).
Mahitash Gopal. 10/31/2025: “12 Years: My Messed-Up Love Story” by Chetan Bhagat. Review of: 12 Years: My Messed-Up Love Story / Chetan Bhagat.
Susan Blumberg-Kason. 10/29/2025: “Chinese on the Beach” by Vanessa Fabiano. Review of: Chinese on the Beach: stories / Vanessa Fabiano (Ybernia).
Kristen Yee. 10/26/2025: “Silk Roads: A Flavor Odyssey with Recipes from Baku to Beijing” by Anna Ansari. Review of: Silk Roads: A Flavor Odyssey with Recipes from Baku to Beijing / Anna Ansari.
Mahika Dar. 10/25/2025: “Mother Mary Comes To Me” by Arundhati Roy. Review of: Mother Mary Comes To Me / Arundhati Roy.
James Herndon. 10/24/2025: “Monsoon Voyagers: An Indian Ocean History” by Fahad Ahmad Bishara. Review of: Monsoon Voyagers: An Indian Ocean History / Fahad Ahmad Bishara.
Susan Blumberg-Kasson. 10/22/2025: “Stain” by Sarah Joseph. Review of: Stain / Sarah Joseph; translated from the Malayalam by Sangeetha Sreenivasan (India Penguin). ("re-imagines the biblical story of Lot, largely set in the town of Sodom.")
Angus Stewart. 10/21/2025: “Delicious Hunger” by Hai Fan. Review of: Delicious Hunger (Tilted/Axis, 39) / Hai Fan; Jeremy Tiang (trans).
Peter Gordon. 10/19/2025: “The Ruins” by Ye Hui. Review of The Ruins: poems / Ye Hui; translation Dong Li (Phoneme Media; publ date Nov 11 2025 per Amazon).
Rosie Milne. 10/17/2025: “Vermillion Eye” by Tunku Halim. Review of: Vermillion Eye / Tunku Halim.
Manitosh Gopal. 10/16/2025: “Tipu Sultan: The Saga of Mysore’s Interregnum” by Vikram Sampath. Review of: Tipu Sultan: The Saga of Mysore’s Interregnum / Vikram Sampath.
Peter Gordon. 10/14/2025: “Assassins and Templars: A Battle in Myth and Blood” by Steve Tibble. Review of: Assassins and Templars: A Battle in Myth and Blood / Steve Tibble.
Peter Gordon. 10/12/2025: “Falling for Saigon” by Connla Stokes. Review of: Falling for Saigon / Connla Stokes.
Jane Wallace. 10/12-11/2025: “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny” by Kiran Desai. Review of: The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny: A Novel / Kiran Desai.
Susan Blumberg-Casson. 10/10-11/2025: “Bad Bad Girl” by Gish Jen. Review of: Bad Bad Girl: A Novel / Gish Jen.
David Chaffetz. 10/08/2025: The Mamluks at the Louvre. Regarding: Mamlouks 1250-1517 Sourya Noujaim (Skira. Louvre, 2025); Mamluks: Legacy of an Empire (Kaph Books).
Soni Wadwha. 10/07/2025: “Whose Urdu Is It Anyway?”, edited by Rakhshanda Jalil. Regarding: Whose Urdu Is It Anyway?: Stories by Non-Muslim Urdu Writers / edited & translated by Rakhshanda Jalil (S&S India).
Peter Gordon. 10/06/2025: “Mirror”, poems by Zhang Zao. Review of: Mirror (Jintian Series of Contemporary Chinese Poetry) / Zhang Zao, Fiona Sze-Lorrain (trans) (Zephyr Press).
Susan Blumberg-Kason. 10/05/2025: “The Morgue Keeper” by Ruyan Meng. Review of: The Morgue Keeper / Ruyan Meng (7.13 Books).
Susan Blumberg-Kason. 10/04/2025: “All Things Under the Moon” by Ann YK Choi. Review of: All Things Under the Moon: A Novel / Ann Y. K. Choi.
James Herndon. 10/02/2025: “The New Geography of Innovation” by Mehran Gul. Review of: The New Geography of Innovation: The Global Contest for Breakthrough Technologies / Mehran Gul (William Collins).
Peter Gordon. 10/01/2025: “Rethinking Ourselves: Justice, Reform and Ignorance in Postnormal Times” by Anwar Ibrahim. Review of: Rethinking Ourselves: Justice, Reform and Ignorance in Postnormal Times, Anwar Ibrahim (Hurst. Penguin Southeast Asia).
35featherbear
Yale Review Oct 2025
Rachel Jamison Webster. 10/30/2025: An Incomplete Mentorship: Ellen Bryant Voigt helped me become the writer I am today. After a falling out, we never spoke again.
Catherine Barnett, Victoria Chang, Meghan O’Rourke, and Carl Phillips. 10/28/2025: Tribute: Ellen Bryant Voigt: Four poets remember a singular mentor.
Sloane Crossley. 10/06/2025: How Sober Should a Writer Be?: F. Scott Fitzgerald and the ambivalence of American drinking culture.
Rachel Jamison Webster. 10/30/2025: An Incomplete Mentorship: Ellen Bryant Voigt helped me become the writer I am today. After a falling out, we never spoke again.
Catherine Barnett, Victoria Chang, Meghan O’Rourke, and Carl Phillips. 10/28/2025: Tribute: Ellen Bryant Voigt: Four poets remember a singular mentor.
Sloane Crossley. 10/06/2025: How Sober Should a Writer Be?: F. Scott Fitzgerald and the ambivalence of American drinking culture.
36featherbear
Dobrota Pucherová. The Public Domain Review, 10/08/2025: The Adventures and Experiences of the First Slovak Novel. Review of: René, or: A Young Man’s Adventures and Experiences / Jozef Ignác Bajza; edited by Dobrota Pucherová and Erika Brtáňová; translated by David Short (Voltaire Foundation).
37featherbear
John Searle, 1932-2025
Alex Traub. NYT, 10/12/2025: John Searle, Philosopher Who Wrestled With A.I., Dies at 93.
"John R. Searle, an uncompromising and wide-ranging philosopher who was best known for a thought experiment he formulated, decades before the rise of ChatGPT, to disprove that a computer program by itself could ever achieve consciousness, died on Sept. 16 in Safety Harbor, Fla., west of Tampa. He was 93.
"Professor Searle, who taught at the University of California, Berkeley, for 60 years, was the rare philosopher who could proudly declare, “I’m not subtle.”
"He brought ironic humor and bluntness to subjects as diverse as the politics of higher education, the nature of consciousness and the merits of textual deconstruction as a philosophical style. In a 1999 profile, The Los Angeles Times called him “the Sugar Ray Robinson of philosophers,” after the boxer who fought in different weight classes.
"Professor Searle’s most prominent intellectual battleground was The New York Review of Books, to which he contributed from 1972 to 2014.
"His thinking about artificial intelligence became widely known thanks to an article he wrote in The Review: a takedown of a book of essays in which, remarkably, his own work appeared. Another piece of his inspired “The Hard Problem,” a 2015 play by Tom Stoppard, who thanked Professor Searle in a foreword to the script.
"Not everyone was charmed. Critics often complained about, as one antagonist put it, “his pretense that difficult issues are easy.” The philosopher Daniel C. Dennett told The Los Angeles Times, “He just can’t take the other side seriously enough to see what they are saying.” Professor Searle accused Jacques Derrida of “deliberate obscurantism”; Professor Derrida called him “serenely dogmatic.”
"Professor Searle sought to solve the long-running debate over the division between the mind and the body by dispensing with the duality altogether. He argued that mental experiences like pain, ecstasy and drunkenness were all neurobiological phenomena, caused by firing neurons. Consciousness is not, he said, a separate substance of its own: It is a state the brain is in, like liquidity is the state of the molecules in a glass of water.
"That view underpinned his thought experiment about what he called “the Chinese room,” which he made the centerpiece of provocative articles in the early 1980s that interpreted nascent research into artificial intelligence.
“No one supposes that computer simulations of a five-alarm fire will burn the neighborhood down,” Professor Searle wrote in his first paper on the subject, published in 1980. “Why on earth would anyone suppose that a computer simulation of understanding actually understood anything?”
"Professor Searle concluded that psychological states could never be attributed to computer programs, and that it was wrong to compare the brain to hardware or the mind to software.
"According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, an internet reference source, the Searle thought experiment “has probably been the most widely discussed philosophical argument in cognitive science to appear since the Turing Test,” the mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing’s 1950 procedure for determining machine intelligence.
"Professor Searle joined the Berkeley philosophy department in 1959. He was an early supporter of the campus protests of the 1960s but soon turned against student radicals, determining that their “moral outrage” was “essentially a middle-class luxury,” as he later told Mr. Kreisler of Berkeley.
"In 2016, Professor Searle was granted his own campus institute, the John Searle Center for Social Ontology. The next year, an article in BuzzFeed reported on a lawsuit filed against him by a Searle Center research assistant, who said he had sexually harassed and assaulted her. A subsequent BuzzFeed piece recounted a number of other complaints made by female students against him.
"The Searle Center quickly closed. The lawsuit against Professor Searle was settled in 2018. The next year, Berkeley announced that he would be stripped of his emeritus status, following a determination that he had violated university policies against sexual harassment and retaliation in the case involving his former research assistant. The statement did not mention other incidents."
Oliver Traldi. Fusion, 2025: John Searle’s Campus War.
His LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/searlejohn-1
Alex Traub. NYT, 10/12/2025: John Searle, Philosopher Who Wrestled With A.I., Dies at 93.
"John R. Searle, an uncompromising and wide-ranging philosopher who was best known for a thought experiment he formulated, decades before the rise of ChatGPT, to disprove that a computer program by itself could ever achieve consciousness, died on Sept. 16 in Safety Harbor, Fla., west of Tampa. He was 93.
"Professor Searle, who taught at the University of California, Berkeley, for 60 years, was the rare philosopher who could proudly declare, “I’m not subtle.”
"He brought ironic humor and bluntness to subjects as diverse as the politics of higher education, the nature of consciousness and the merits of textual deconstruction as a philosophical style. In a 1999 profile, The Los Angeles Times called him “the Sugar Ray Robinson of philosophers,” after the boxer who fought in different weight classes.
"Professor Searle’s most prominent intellectual battleground was The New York Review of Books, to which he contributed from 1972 to 2014.
"His thinking about artificial intelligence became widely known thanks to an article he wrote in The Review: a takedown of a book of essays in which, remarkably, his own work appeared. Another piece of his inspired “The Hard Problem,” a 2015 play by Tom Stoppard, who thanked Professor Searle in a foreword to the script.
"Not everyone was charmed. Critics often complained about, as one antagonist put it, “his pretense that difficult issues are easy.” The philosopher Daniel C. Dennett told The Los Angeles Times, “He just can’t take the other side seriously enough to see what they are saying.” Professor Searle accused Jacques Derrida of “deliberate obscurantism”; Professor Derrida called him “serenely dogmatic.”
"Professor Searle sought to solve the long-running debate over the division between the mind and the body by dispensing with the duality altogether. He argued that mental experiences like pain, ecstasy and drunkenness were all neurobiological phenomena, caused by firing neurons. Consciousness is not, he said, a separate substance of its own: It is a state the brain is in, like liquidity is the state of the molecules in a glass of water.
"That view underpinned his thought experiment about what he called “the Chinese room,” which he made the centerpiece of provocative articles in the early 1980s that interpreted nascent research into artificial intelligence.
“No one supposes that computer simulations of a five-alarm fire will burn the neighborhood down,” Professor Searle wrote in his first paper on the subject, published in 1980. “Why on earth would anyone suppose that a computer simulation of understanding actually understood anything?”
"Professor Searle concluded that psychological states could never be attributed to computer programs, and that it was wrong to compare the brain to hardware or the mind to software.
"According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, an internet reference source, the Searle thought experiment “has probably been the most widely discussed philosophical argument in cognitive science to appear since the Turing Test,” the mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing’s 1950 procedure for determining machine intelligence.
"Professor Searle joined the Berkeley philosophy department in 1959. He was an early supporter of the campus protests of the 1960s but soon turned against student radicals, determining that their “moral outrage” was “essentially a middle-class luxury,” as he later told Mr. Kreisler of Berkeley.
"In 2016, Professor Searle was granted his own campus institute, the John Searle Center for Social Ontology. The next year, an article in BuzzFeed reported on a lawsuit filed against him by a Searle Center research assistant, who said he had sexually harassed and assaulted her. A subsequent BuzzFeed piece recounted a number of other complaints made by female students against him.
"The Searle Center quickly closed. The lawsuit against Professor Searle was settled in 2018. The next year, Berkeley announced that he would be stripped of his emeritus status, following a determination that he had violated university policies against sexual harassment and retaliation in the case involving his former research assistant. The statement did not mention other incidents."
Oliver Traldi. Fusion, 2025: John Searle’s Campus War.
His LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/searlejohn-1
38featherbear
Hudson Review Summer & Fall
Michael Thurston. Fall 2025: What We Can Do Is to Use Our Minds: T. S. Eliot, Collected Prose. Review of: T.S. Eliot: the collected prose.
Meg Schoerke. Summer 2025: Never Stop Writing: Sylvia Plath’s Prose. Review of: The Collected Prose of Sylvia Plath / ed. by Peter K. Steinberg.
Michael Thurston. Fall 2025: What We Can Do Is to Use Our Minds: T. S. Eliot, Collected Prose. Review of: T.S. Eliot: the collected prose.
Meg Schoerke. Summer 2025: Never Stop Writing: Sylvia Plath’s Prose. Review of: The Collected Prose of Sylvia Plath / ed. by Peter K. Steinberg.
39featherbear
bbc culture Oct 2025
Julie Yoonnyung Lee. 10/18/2025: Why I fell in love with a book called I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki. Anchor link: I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki / Baek Se-Hee.
Paul Glynn. 10/16/2025: Oscar Wilde's library card reissued 130 years after being revoked over gay conviction.
Rebecca Laurence. 10/14/2025: Frankenstein: Why Mary Shelley's 200-year-old horror story is so misunderstood.
Julie Yoonnyung Lee. 10/18/2025: Why I fell in love with a book called I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki. Anchor link: I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki / Baek Se-Hee.
Paul Glynn. 10/16/2025: Oscar Wilde's library card reissued 130 years after being revoked over gay conviction.
Rebecca Laurence. 10/14/2025: Frankenstein: Why Mary Shelley's 200-year-old horror story is so misunderstood.
40featherbear
Washington Monthly Oct 2025
Anita Jain. 10/30/2025: The Cory Doctorow Doctrine. Review of: Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It / Cory Doctorow.
Brian Kettenring. 10/30/2025: Tyranny Is Downstream From the Economy. Review of: The Backsliders: Why Leaders Undermine Their Own Democracies / Susan C. Stokes. "While the root causes of modern authoritarianism have been hotly debated, studies increasingly point to income inequality as the prime culprit."
Alexander Nazaryan. 10/21/2025: Russia Through a Feminist Lens. Review of: Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy / Julia Ioffe.
Sara Bhatia. 10/28/2025: Hitting His Stride. Review of: The Running Ground: A Father, a Son, and the Simplest of Sports / Nicholas Thompson. "Nick Thompson was an above-average runner who suddenly, in middle age, started breaking world records—a mysterious success inspired by a complicated relationship with his father."
Jared Bernstein. 10/03/2025: Measuring the Vibecession: Why top-line federal statistics miss the economic pain average Americans feel. Review of: The Mismeasurement of America: How Outdated Government Statistics Mask the Economic Struggle of Everyday Americans / Gene Ludwig.
Anita Jain. 10/30/2025: The Cory Doctorow Doctrine. Review of: Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It / Cory Doctorow.
Brian Kettenring. 10/30/2025: Tyranny Is Downstream From the Economy. Review of: The Backsliders: Why Leaders Undermine Their Own Democracies / Susan C. Stokes. "While the root causes of modern authoritarianism have been hotly debated, studies increasingly point to income inequality as the prime culprit."
Alexander Nazaryan. 10/21/2025: Russia Through a Feminist Lens. Review of: Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy / Julia Ioffe.
Sara Bhatia. 10/28/2025: Hitting His Stride. Review of: The Running Ground: A Father, a Son, and the Simplest of Sports / Nicholas Thompson. "Nick Thompson was an above-average runner who suddenly, in middle age, started breaking world records—a mysterious success inspired by a complicated relationship with his father."
Jared Bernstein. 10/03/2025: Measuring the Vibecession: Why top-line federal statistics miss the economic pain average Americans feel. Review of: The Mismeasurement of America: How Outdated Government Statistics Mask the Economic Struggle of Everyday Americans / Gene Ludwig.
41featherbear
Eshe Nelson. NYT, 10/13/2025: Three Share Nobel in Economics for Work on How Technology Drives Growth.
"The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded on Monday to Joel Mokyr of Northwestern University; Philippe Aghion of Collège de France, INSEAD and the London School of Economics; and Peter Howitt of Brown University for their work on how innovation drives economic growth.
"The award for the economists’ work comes as artificial intelligence has become an increasingly dominant force in the global economy and has the potential to spur another technology-driven boom. But other policies are expected to restrain economic growth, such as the Trump administration’s tariffs and protectionist policies like China’s curbs on exports of rare earth minerals and battery-making equipment. On Monday, the laureates warned against policies that could hamper growth, including by restricting immigration and erecting trade barriers.
"Mr. Mokyr, an American-Israeli, also teaches at Tel Aviv University, was awarded half the prize for his work in explaining how sustained economic growth became the norm.
"He showed that for innovations to succeed and become a self-generating process, people needed a scientific explanation for why the breakthroughs worked. Before the industrial revolution, a lack of this knowledge made it difficult to build on new discoveries, the committee said.
"Mr. Mokyr’s work, such as his book “A Culture of Growth: Origins of the Modern Economy,” has also emphasized the importance of society being open to new ideas and allowing change.
Mr. Mokyr was at his vacation home in Western Michigan when he got the news of his prize. In an interview with The New York Times, he said he was preoccupied by the news of Israeli hostages being released and had forgotten the Nobel Prize announcement until he noticed congratulatory emails and a missed call from Sweden.
“Then I called them and they told me the good news,” he said.
"Mr. Mokyr said he was optimistic about the prospects for more economic growth because of the “human capability of manipulating and harnessing the forces of nature to its own needs.”
FWIW from Twitter: https://x.com/johanknorberg/status/1977678780341932381
and, https://x.com/pseudoerasmus/status/1977695506517184901
Joel Mokyr LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/mokyrjoel
"The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded on Monday to Joel Mokyr of Northwestern University; Philippe Aghion of Collège de France, INSEAD and the London School of Economics; and Peter Howitt of Brown University for their work on how innovation drives economic growth.
"The award for the economists’ work comes as artificial intelligence has become an increasingly dominant force in the global economy and has the potential to spur another technology-driven boom. But other policies are expected to restrain economic growth, such as the Trump administration’s tariffs and protectionist policies like China’s curbs on exports of rare earth minerals and battery-making equipment. On Monday, the laureates warned against policies that could hamper growth, including by restricting immigration and erecting trade barriers.
"Mr. Mokyr, an American-Israeli, also teaches at Tel Aviv University, was awarded half the prize for his work in explaining how sustained economic growth became the norm.
"He showed that for innovations to succeed and become a self-generating process, people needed a scientific explanation for why the breakthroughs worked. Before the industrial revolution, a lack of this knowledge made it difficult to build on new discoveries, the committee said.
"Mr. Mokyr’s work, such as his book “A Culture of Growth: Origins of the Modern Economy,” has also emphasized the importance of society being open to new ideas and allowing change.
Mr. Mokyr was at his vacation home in Western Michigan when he got the news of his prize. In an interview with The New York Times, he said he was preoccupied by the news of Israeli hostages being released and had forgotten the Nobel Prize announcement until he noticed congratulatory emails and a missed call from Sweden.
“Then I called them and they told me the good news,” he said.
"Mr. Mokyr said he was optimistic about the prospects for more economic growth because of the “human capability of manipulating and harnessing the forces of nature to its own needs.”
FWIW from Twitter: https://x.com/johanknorberg/status/1977678780341932381
and, https://x.com/pseudoerasmus/status/1977695506517184901
Joel Mokyr LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/mokyrjoel
42featherbear
TLS October 17, 2025|No. 6390
Featured
George Szirtes. Master of the apocalypse: László Krasznahorkai, Nobel laureate in literature. (Essay)
Joyce Carol Oates. Uniquely hers: A how-to book by ‘one of the greatest’ American photographers.’ Review of: Art Work: On the creative life / Sally Mann.
Michael Hall. Peer group: The British upper classes today. Review of: Heirs and Graces: A History of the Modern British Aristocracy (UK subtitle: A history of the moden aristocracy) / Eleanor Doughty (US publisher: Penguin; UK pub: Hutchinson Heinemann) -- Mistress: A history of women and their country houses / Anthony Fletcher and Ruth Larsen.
Mary Beard. Thoroughly modern maenads: Religion, immigration, gender politics and severed heads. Review of: Bacchae, Olivier Theatre, National Theatre, London, until November 1; Nima Taleghani, after Euripides.
Mary Beard. Did Horace throw away his shield? (From the TLS Current Issue landing page)
Literature: LitCrit/Literary History:
Victoria Moul. Calm tales of home: Translating Virgil across continents. Review of: Translating Virgil: A cultural history of the western tradition from the eleventh century to the present / Susanna Morton Braund (Cambridge University Press).
Andrew Hadfield. Baroque and roll: Literature written in England after 1603. Review of: The Oxford English Literary History: Volume 4, 1603–1660, Literary cultures of the early seventeenth century / Katharine Eisaman Maus -- The Baroque in Early English Literature / Robert Hudson Vincent.
Nooresahar Ahmad. Rude about mechanicals: Eighteenth-century writers’ contempt for trade. Review of: Satire, Instruction and Useful Knowledge in Eighteenth-Century Britain: The Enlightenment mock arts / Paddy Bullard (Cambridge University Press).
Min Wild. Funny peculiar: Bizarre moments, gothic excess and weirdness in three fantastical novels. Review of: A Funny Thing: Eighteenth-century literature undisciplined / Eugenia Zuroski (Cambridge University Press).
Ad Putter. An affair of the heart: Love trumps conventional ethics in Chaucer’s work. Review of: Chaucer’s Ethical Philosophy / Laura Ashe (Oxford University Press).
Eleanor Janega. Character lessons: How the charge of rape against Chaucer has been explained. Review of: Father Chaucer and the Apologists: Cecily Chaumpaigne and 700 years of rape culture / Sarah Baechle.
Margaret Drabble. Ways of escape: Robert Louis Stevenson’s flight from Presbyterian Scotland. Review of: Storyteller: The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson / Leo Damrosch.
Andrew Motion. Always a stranger: George Borrow’s writing of the road. Review of: The Wandering Fictions of George Borrow: A literature on the move 1840–1940 / Andrew D. Radford (Edinburgh University Press).
Literature: Fiction
Miranda France. Cat-astrophe: Galdós’s classic novel of an overwrought family at work and play. Review of: Miaow / Benito Pérez Galdós.
Norma Clarke. If on a whim … : A hybrid novel that is ‘2FC2E’. Review of: Your Name Here / Helen DeWitt.
Sheena Joughin. From me to you: A letter to Bob Dylan. Review of: Boy from the North Country / Sam Sussman.
Lucasta Miller. Chain and lash: A requiem for Fellini and Pasolini. Review of: The Silver Book: a novel / Olivia Laing.
Mia Levitin. As if by magic: A prankster at the fun house. Review of: Thrilled to Death / Lynne Tillman.
Keith Miller. A fistful of insults: The deranged performance of a would-be messiah. Review of: Jesus Christ Kinski / Benjamin Myers.
Anna Aslanyan. Slow train coming: A ‘so-called writer’ takes a railway journey into his past. Review of: Every Time We Say Goodbye / Ivana Sajko; translated by Mima Simić.
Jude Cook. Reborn as a poem: A son prepares for his father’s departure to a care home. Review of: Mr Outside / Caleb Klaces (Prototype).
In Brief Review of: Catalina / Karla Cornejo Villavicencio.
In Brief Review: Fresh Dirt from the Grave / Giovanna Rivero; translated by Isabel Adey.
Literature: Bibliography
M.C. NB: Micro aggressions: Small press struggles, Ursula K. Le Guin’s cartography, Protesting poets.
Arts: Film
Graham Daseler. And cut!: A Hollywood film and sound editor explains his craft. Review of: Suddenly Something Clicked: The languages of film editing and sound design / Walter Murch.
Georgie Carr. Queer as folk: Gay cinema and the critic. Review of: It Used to be Witches: Under the spell of queer cinema / Ryan Gilbey.
Muriel Zagha. World of sin: A Spanish auteur in the making. Review of: The Passion of Pedro Almodovar: A self-portrait in seven films / Pedro Almodovar.
Adam Mars-Jones. Systems and sans-papiers: The life of an asylum seeker in Paris, in close-up. Review of Boris Lojkine's film: Souleymane’s Story
Arts: Video Games
Kate Cook. Hell with other people: Greek myths brought to exhilarating, playable life. Review of: Hades II for PC, Mac, Nintendo Switch 2 / Supergiant Games.
Arts: Theatre
Rozalind Dineen. Life in the round: The many selves of one woman, co-existing on stage. Review of Tracy Letts's play Mary Page Marlowe, Old Vic, London, until November 1. "The play consists of eleven scenes from Mary Page’s life, which are presented in a non-chronological order, and she is played by five actors (and, in one scene, by a baby doll, who cries, whose mother walks out, whose father rocks as he sings), which works particularly well because one defining characteristic of Mary Page is that she seems unknowable to herself (or is perhaps reluctant, or unable to know); she might look in a mirror and not necessarily recognize, or understand, the reflection she finds there."
Arts: Visual & Manuscript Arts
Eva Fiedler and Christos Hadjiyiannis. Lines emerging from the brush: Visual art by Louise Glück. (Essay)
In Brief Review of: The Book of Kells: Unlocking the enigma / Victoria Whitworth.
Philosophy
Andrew David Field. Take my word for it?: The weighing of evidence and human progress. Review of: Proof: The uncertain science of certainty / Adam Kucharski.
Ben Hutchinson. Greyness visible: A negatively coded colour has become cool. Review of: If You Have Never Thought Gray: A theory of color / Peter Sloterdijk; translated by Corey Anderson Dansereau and Robert Hughes (Polity).
Science, Technology, Medicine, & Natural History
Michele Pridmore-Brown. Altered states: Brain injuries and personality disorders. Review of: The Mind Electric: Stories of the strangeness and wonder of our brain / Pria Anand.
In Brief Review of: Impasse: Climate change and the limits of progress / Roy Scranton.
In Brief Review of: Starwatchers: A history of discovery in the night sky / Joanne Baker (Bloomsbury).
In Brief Review of: Birdland: A journey around Britain on the wing / Jon Gower.
In Brief Review of: My Head for a Tree: The extraordinary story of the Bishnoi, the world’s first eco-warriors / Martin Goodman (Profile).
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Joan C. Williams. Untrad wives: Women’s empowerment: the path to prosperity. Review of: Economica: A global history of women, wealth and power / Victoria Bateman.
Irina Dumitrescu. How the other half lives: Medieval attitudes to social class. Essay, including re-reading Class: A guide through the American status system (1983) plus a look at Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery Books / Thomas Austin (1888) & the medieval romance Sir Gowther.
Michael Wood. One of the greats: Alfred’s over-ambitious grandson. Review of: The First King of England: Æthelstan and the birth of a kingdom / David Woodman.
Chris Given-Wilson. High and mighty princess: Coming out on top in the War of the Roses. Review of: Margaret Beaufort: Survivor, rebel, kingmaker / Lauren Johnson (Apollo).
Dinyar Patel. Truth teller of Empire: Dadabhai Naoroji, the first Indian elected to the House of Commons. (Essay)
James Robins. Murder mysteries: A look at the ‘mouldering underbelly’ of the War on Terror. Review of: The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug trafficking and murder in the special forces / Seth Harp.
James O'Brien. Tragedy in five acts: A detailed account of the terrorist attacks of July 2005. Review of: Three Weeks in July 7/7, the aftermath and the deadly manhunt / Adam Wishart and James Nally.
Ferdinand Mount. Second mover advantage: The British state fails when it innovates. Review of: The Art of Delivery: The inside story of how the Blair government transformed Britain’s public services / Michelle Clement -- The Delivery Gap: Why government projects really fail and what can be done about it / Jonathan Simcock (Emerald) -- Reforming Lessons: Why English schools have improved since 2010 and how this was achieved / Nick Gibb and Robert Peal (Routledge).
In Brief Review of: Between Prison and Freedom: Memoir of a Soviet dissident / Alexander Podrabinek; translated by Marian Schwartz.
In Brief Review of: Those Who Are About to Die: Gladiators and the Roman mind / Harry Sidebottom.
Featured
George Szirtes. Master of the apocalypse: László Krasznahorkai, Nobel laureate in literature. (Essay)
Joyce Carol Oates. Uniquely hers: A how-to book by ‘one of the greatest’ American photographers.’ Review of: Art Work: On the creative life / Sally Mann.
Michael Hall. Peer group: The British upper classes today. Review of: Heirs and Graces: A History of the Modern British Aristocracy (UK subtitle: A history of the moden aristocracy) / Eleanor Doughty (US publisher: Penguin; UK pub: Hutchinson Heinemann) -- Mistress: A history of women and their country houses / Anthony Fletcher and Ruth Larsen.
Mary Beard. Thoroughly modern maenads: Religion, immigration, gender politics and severed heads. Review of: Bacchae, Olivier Theatre, National Theatre, London, until November 1; Nima Taleghani, after Euripides.
Mary Beard. Did Horace throw away his shield? (From the TLS Current Issue landing page)
Literature: LitCrit/Literary History:
Victoria Moul. Calm tales of home: Translating Virgil across continents. Review of: Translating Virgil: A cultural history of the western tradition from the eleventh century to the present / Susanna Morton Braund (Cambridge University Press).
Andrew Hadfield. Baroque and roll: Literature written in England after 1603. Review of: The Oxford English Literary History: Volume 4, 1603–1660, Literary cultures of the early seventeenth century / Katharine Eisaman Maus -- The Baroque in Early English Literature / Robert Hudson Vincent.
Nooresahar Ahmad. Rude about mechanicals: Eighteenth-century writers’ contempt for trade. Review of: Satire, Instruction and Useful Knowledge in Eighteenth-Century Britain: The Enlightenment mock arts / Paddy Bullard (Cambridge University Press).
Min Wild. Funny peculiar: Bizarre moments, gothic excess and weirdness in three fantastical novels. Review of: A Funny Thing: Eighteenth-century literature undisciplined / Eugenia Zuroski (Cambridge University Press).
Ad Putter. An affair of the heart: Love trumps conventional ethics in Chaucer’s work. Review of: Chaucer’s Ethical Philosophy / Laura Ashe (Oxford University Press).
Eleanor Janega. Character lessons: How the charge of rape against Chaucer has been explained. Review of: Father Chaucer and the Apologists: Cecily Chaumpaigne and 700 years of rape culture / Sarah Baechle.
Margaret Drabble. Ways of escape: Robert Louis Stevenson’s flight from Presbyterian Scotland. Review of: Storyteller: The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson / Leo Damrosch.
Andrew Motion. Always a stranger: George Borrow’s writing of the road. Review of: The Wandering Fictions of George Borrow: A literature on the move 1840–1940 / Andrew D. Radford (Edinburgh University Press).
Literature: Fiction
Miranda France. Cat-astrophe: Galdós’s classic novel of an overwrought family at work and play. Review of: Miaow / Benito Pérez Galdós.
Norma Clarke. If on a whim … : A hybrid novel that is ‘2FC2E’. Review of: Your Name Here / Helen DeWitt.
Sheena Joughin. From me to you: A letter to Bob Dylan. Review of: Boy from the North Country / Sam Sussman.
Lucasta Miller. Chain and lash: A requiem for Fellini and Pasolini. Review of: The Silver Book: a novel / Olivia Laing.
Mia Levitin. As if by magic: A prankster at the fun house. Review of: Thrilled to Death / Lynne Tillman.
Keith Miller. A fistful of insults: The deranged performance of a would-be messiah. Review of: Jesus Christ Kinski / Benjamin Myers.
Anna Aslanyan. Slow train coming: A ‘so-called writer’ takes a railway journey into his past. Review of: Every Time We Say Goodbye / Ivana Sajko; translated by Mima Simić.
Jude Cook. Reborn as a poem: A son prepares for his father’s departure to a care home. Review of: Mr Outside / Caleb Klaces (Prototype).
In Brief Review of: Catalina / Karla Cornejo Villavicencio.
In Brief Review: Fresh Dirt from the Grave / Giovanna Rivero; translated by Isabel Adey.
Literature: Bibliography
M.C. NB: Micro aggressions: Small press struggles, Ursula K. Le Guin’s cartography, Protesting poets.
Arts: Film
Graham Daseler. And cut!: A Hollywood film and sound editor explains his craft. Review of: Suddenly Something Clicked: The languages of film editing and sound design / Walter Murch.
Georgie Carr. Queer as folk: Gay cinema and the critic. Review of: It Used to be Witches: Under the spell of queer cinema / Ryan Gilbey.
Muriel Zagha. World of sin: A Spanish auteur in the making. Review of: The Passion of Pedro Almodovar: A self-portrait in seven films / Pedro Almodovar.
Adam Mars-Jones. Systems and sans-papiers: The life of an asylum seeker in Paris, in close-up. Review of Boris Lojkine's film: Souleymane’s Story
Arts: Video Games
Kate Cook. Hell with other people: Greek myths brought to exhilarating, playable life. Review of: Hades II for PC, Mac, Nintendo Switch 2 / Supergiant Games.
Arts: Theatre
Rozalind Dineen. Life in the round: The many selves of one woman, co-existing on stage. Review of Tracy Letts's play Mary Page Marlowe, Old Vic, London, until November 1. "The play consists of eleven scenes from Mary Page’s life, which are presented in a non-chronological order, and she is played by five actors (and, in one scene, by a baby doll, who cries, whose mother walks out, whose father rocks as he sings), which works particularly well because one defining characteristic of Mary Page is that she seems unknowable to herself (or is perhaps reluctant, or unable to know); she might look in a mirror and not necessarily recognize, or understand, the reflection she finds there."
Arts: Visual & Manuscript Arts
Eva Fiedler and Christos Hadjiyiannis. Lines emerging from the brush: Visual art by Louise Glück. (Essay)
In Brief Review of: The Book of Kells: Unlocking the enigma / Victoria Whitworth.
Philosophy
Andrew David Field. Take my word for it?: The weighing of evidence and human progress. Review of: Proof: The uncertain science of certainty / Adam Kucharski.
Ben Hutchinson. Greyness visible: A negatively coded colour has become cool. Review of: If You Have Never Thought Gray: A theory of color / Peter Sloterdijk; translated by Corey Anderson Dansereau and Robert Hughes (Polity).
Science, Technology, Medicine, & Natural History
Michele Pridmore-Brown. Altered states: Brain injuries and personality disorders. Review of: The Mind Electric: Stories of the strangeness and wonder of our brain / Pria Anand.
In Brief Review of: Impasse: Climate change and the limits of progress / Roy Scranton.
In Brief Review of: Starwatchers: A history of discovery in the night sky / Joanne Baker (Bloomsbury).
In Brief Review of: Birdland: A journey around Britain on the wing / Jon Gower.
In Brief Review of: My Head for a Tree: The extraordinary story of the Bishnoi, the world’s first eco-warriors / Martin Goodman (Profile).
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Joan C. Williams. Untrad wives: Women’s empowerment: the path to prosperity. Review of: Economica: A global history of women, wealth and power / Victoria Bateman.
Irina Dumitrescu. How the other half lives: Medieval attitudes to social class. Essay, including re-reading Class: A guide through the American status system (1983) plus a look at Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery Books / Thomas Austin (1888) & the medieval romance Sir Gowther.
Michael Wood. One of the greats: Alfred’s over-ambitious grandson. Review of: The First King of England: Æthelstan and the birth of a kingdom / David Woodman.
Chris Given-Wilson. High and mighty princess: Coming out on top in the War of the Roses. Review of: Margaret Beaufort: Survivor, rebel, kingmaker / Lauren Johnson (Apollo).
Dinyar Patel. Truth teller of Empire: Dadabhai Naoroji, the first Indian elected to the House of Commons. (Essay)
James Robins. Murder mysteries: A look at the ‘mouldering underbelly’ of the War on Terror. Review of: The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug trafficking and murder in the special forces / Seth Harp.
James O'Brien. Tragedy in five acts: A detailed account of the terrorist attacks of July 2005. Review of: Three Weeks in July 7/7, the aftermath and the deadly manhunt / Adam Wishart and James Nally.
Ferdinand Mount. Second mover advantage: The British state fails when it innovates. Review of: The Art of Delivery: The inside story of how the Blair government transformed Britain’s public services / Michelle Clement -- The Delivery Gap: Why government projects really fail and what can be done about it / Jonathan Simcock (Emerald) -- Reforming Lessons: Why English schools have improved since 2010 and how this was achieved / Nick Gibb and Robert Peal (Routledge).
In Brief Review of: Between Prison and Freedom: Memoir of a Soviet dissident / Alexander Podrabinek; translated by Marian Schwartz.
In Brief Review of: Those Who Are About to Die: Gladiators and the Roman mind / Harry Sidebottom.
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Alexander Lee. History Today, 10/10/2025: The Master and Mikhail Bulgakov: Portrait of the Author as a Historian. "In the chaos unleashed by the October Revolution, Mikhail Bulgakov found a past become fragmented and confused, and history the domain of madmen and devils."
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Tulasi Cherukuri & Wiann Wilson. Columbia Spectator, 10/15/2025: ‘Reading against the grain’: Literature Humanities instructors on ‘noncanonical’ interpretations of gender and sexuality in ancient texts. "Instructors said their students find evidence of unexpected themes through close reading."
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Sara Ivy. JStor Daily, 10/15/2025: Enchanting Imposters. "Johns Hopkins University’s Bibliotheca Fictiva Collection of Literary and Historical Forgery shows that humans have been creating fan fiction and fake news for millennia."
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Hilton Als. Paris Review, 10/15/2025: Death, Love, Taxes, and Beauty, Among Other Issue. Revisiting The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again / Andy Warhol.
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Jennifer Frey & Anastasia Berg. The Point (Substack), 10/15/2025: Can the Humanities Be Saved?: A conversation with Jennifer Frey and Anastasia Berg.
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NYRB Online Nov 11/06/2025 (posted week of Oct 12-18)
Belles-Lettres
Wyatt Mason. An Epistolary Critic: The correspondence of Guy Davenport is a syllabus for the twentieth century. Review of: The Geography of the Imagination: Forty Essays / Guy Davenport, with an introduction by John Jeremiah Sullivan -- Questioning Minds: The Letters of Guy Davenport and Hugh Kenner / edited by Edward M. Burns -- Guy Davenport and James Laughlin: Selected Letters / edited by W.C. Bamberger (Norton) -- I Remember This Detail: 40 Letters from and 4 Essays on Guy Davenport / edited by W.C. Bamberger (Bamberger Books) -- A Garden Carried in a Pocket: Letters, 1964–1968 / Guy Davenport and Jonathan Williams, edited by Thomas Meyer -- The Guy Davenport Reader / edited and with an afterword by Erik Reece -- The Sayings of Jesus: The Logia of Yeshua / translated from the Greek and with commentaries by Guy Davenport and Benjamin Urrutia -- A Balthus Notebook / Guy Davenport.
Jed Perl. Impassioned Ferocity: A critic’s power lies in the testing of deeply held beliefs about the nature of art and art’s place in the world against the experience of specific artworks. Review of: Authority: essays / Andrea Long Chu -- All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess / Becca Rothfeld -- Those Passions: On Art and Politics / T.J. Clark -- Criticism and Truth: On Method in Literary Studies / Jonathan Kramnick -- No Judgment: essays / Lauren Oyler
Literature
Clare Bucknell. A Brief Literary Emancipation: Early modern female writers, who were denied the sort of authority usually needed to write literary criticism, were also freed from its constraints. Review of: Sex and Style: Literary Criticism and Gender in Early Modern England / Elizabeth Scott-Baumann (Princeton University Press).
Francine Prose. Eden of Wolves: A nineteenth-century novella daringly suggests that there’s no reason the apparently contradictory theories of creationism and evolutionism can’t be reconcile. Review of: Adam and Eve in Paradise / Eça de Queirós, translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa.
Darryl Pinckney. Love’s Anguish and Force and Terror: Nicholas Boggs structures his moving new biography of James Baldwin around the writer’s most important relationships with men. Review of: Baldwin: A Love Story / Nicholas Boggs.
Hillary Kelly. Bedsit Metamorphoses: Tessa Hadley’s greatest subject is the unfulfilled promise of womanhood.. Review of the following by Tessa Hadley: The Party -- After the Funeral and Other Stories -- Free Love: a novel -- Bad Dreams and Other Stories -- The Past: a novel -- Clever Girl -- Married Love and Other Stories -- The Master Bedroom -- Everything Will Be All Right -- Accidents in the Home
Arts
Matthew Aucoin. Inside the Music: The decline of traditional newspaper reviews of new music offers an opportunity to expand our ideas of what music criticism could be.
Geoffrey O'Brien. The Escape Artists. Review of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, an opera by Mason Bates, with a libretto by Gene Scheer, based on the novel by Michael Chabon, at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, September 21–October 11, 2025.
Regina Marler. Avant-Garde Égalité: Gabriële Buffet-Picabia tended to minimize her part in the development of modern art, but a new book positions her as a central figure. Review of: Gabriële / Anne and Claire Berest, translated from the French by Tina Kover.
Medicine, Science, & Technology
Ben Lerner. Cardiography: After open-heart surgery. (Essay)
Nitin K. Ahuja. Looking Behind the Veil: Can the tools of science be used to investigate the mysteries of death? Review of: Lucid Dying: The New Science Revolutionizing How We Understand Life and Death / Sam Parnia.
Religion
Josephine Quinn. ‘Insider and Outsider’: How did Saint Augustine’s African origins and his life among Christians there shape his theology? Review of: Augustine the African / Catherine Conybeare.
Peter E. Gordon. Secular Priests: In its efforts to define religion, modern sociology has also sought to define itself. Review of: Captive Gods: Religion and the Rise of Social Science / Kwame Anthony Appiah.
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
David A. Bell. A Baleful Legacy: Enlightenment writers who proposed ways of improving and even perfecting the human species laid the theoretical foundations of modern racism. Review of: Enlightenment Biopolitics: A History of Race, Eugenics, and the Making of Citizens / William Max Nelson.
Cora Currier. Pervasive Impunity: Richard Beck’s Homeland charts how four presidential administrations managed to evade moral responsibility for the “war on terror” by hiding behind legality and process. Review of: Homeland: The War on Terror in American Life / Richard Beck.
Mark Lilla. Storm Warnings: The MAGA movement is not fed by conservative ideas but by a nihilistic, apocalyptic determination to stage a counterrevolution against the Sixties, against liberalism, against even democracy itself. Review of: When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s / John Ganz -- Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right / Laura K. Field.
Maira Kalman. On Devil’s Island. A visit to: Alfred Dreyfus: Vérité et justice, at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme, Paris, March 13–August 31, 2025.
Belles-Lettres
Wyatt Mason. An Epistolary Critic: The correspondence of Guy Davenport is a syllabus for the twentieth century. Review of: The Geography of the Imagination: Forty Essays / Guy Davenport, with an introduction by John Jeremiah Sullivan -- Questioning Minds: The Letters of Guy Davenport and Hugh Kenner / edited by Edward M. Burns -- Guy Davenport and James Laughlin: Selected Letters / edited by W.C. Bamberger (Norton) -- I Remember This Detail: 40 Letters from and 4 Essays on Guy Davenport / edited by W.C. Bamberger (Bamberger Books) -- A Garden Carried in a Pocket: Letters, 1964–1968 / Guy Davenport and Jonathan Williams, edited by Thomas Meyer -- The Guy Davenport Reader / edited and with an afterword by Erik Reece -- The Sayings of Jesus: The Logia of Yeshua / translated from the Greek and with commentaries by Guy Davenport and Benjamin Urrutia -- A Balthus Notebook / Guy Davenport.
Jed Perl. Impassioned Ferocity: A critic’s power lies in the testing of deeply held beliefs about the nature of art and art’s place in the world against the experience of specific artworks. Review of: Authority: essays / Andrea Long Chu -- All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess / Becca Rothfeld -- Those Passions: On Art and Politics / T.J. Clark -- Criticism and Truth: On Method in Literary Studies / Jonathan Kramnick -- No Judgment: essays / Lauren Oyler
Literature
Clare Bucknell. A Brief Literary Emancipation: Early modern female writers, who were denied the sort of authority usually needed to write literary criticism, were also freed from its constraints. Review of: Sex and Style: Literary Criticism and Gender in Early Modern England / Elizabeth Scott-Baumann (Princeton University Press).
Francine Prose. Eden of Wolves: A nineteenth-century novella daringly suggests that there’s no reason the apparently contradictory theories of creationism and evolutionism can’t be reconcile. Review of: Adam and Eve in Paradise / Eça de Queirós, translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa.
Darryl Pinckney. Love’s Anguish and Force and Terror: Nicholas Boggs structures his moving new biography of James Baldwin around the writer’s most important relationships with men. Review of: Baldwin: A Love Story / Nicholas Boggs.
Hillary Kelly. Bedsit Metamorphoses: Tessa Hadley’s greatest subject is the unfulfilled promise of womanhood.. Review of the following by Tessa Hadley: The Party -- After the Funeral and Other Stories -- Free Love: a novel -- Bad Dreams and Other Stories -- The Past: a novel -- Clever Girl -- Married Love and Other Stories -- The Master Bedroom -- Everything Will Be All Right -- Accidents in the Home
Arts
Matthew Aucoin. Inside the Music: The decline of traditional newspaper reviews of new music offers an opportunity to expand our ideas of what music criticism could be.
Geoffrey O'Brien. The Escape Artists. Review of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, an opera by Mason Bates, with a libretto by Gene Scheer, based on the novel by Michael Chabon, at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, September 21–October 11, 2025.
Regina Marler. Avant-Garde Égalité: Gabriële Buffet-Picabia tended to minimize her part in the development of modern art, but a new book positions her as a central figure. Review of: Gabriële / Anne and Claire Berest, translated from the French by Tina Kover.
Medicine, Science, & Technology
Ben Lerner. Cardiography: After open-heart surgery. (Essay)
Nitin K. Ahuja. Looking Behind the Veil: Can the tools of science be used to investigate the mysteries of death? Review of: Lucid Dying: The New Science Revolutionizing How We Understand Life and Death / Sam Parnia.
Religion
Josephine Quinn. ‘Insider and Outsider’: How did Saint Augustine’s African origins and his life among Christians there shape his theology? Review of: Augustine the African / Catherine Conybeare.
Peter E. Gordon. Secular Priests: In its efforts to define religion, modern sociology has also sought to define itself. Review of: Captive Gods: Religion and the Rise of Social Science / Kwame Anthony Appiah.
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
David A. Bell. A Baleful Legacy: Enlightenment writers who proposed ways of improving and even perfecting the human species laid the theoretical foundations of modern racism. Review of: Enlightenment Biopolitics: A History of Race, Eugenics, and the Making of Citizens / William Max Nelson.
Cora Currier. Pervasive Impunity: Richard Beck’s Homeland charts how four presidential administrations managed to evade moral responsibility for the “war on terror” by hiding behind legality and process. Review of: Homeland: The War on Terror in American Life / Richard Beck.
Mark Lilla. Storm Warnings: The MAGA movement is not fed by conservative ideas but by a nihilistic, apocalyptic determination to stage a counterrevolution against the Sixties, against liberalism, against even democracy itself. Review of: When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s / John Ganz -- Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right / Laura K. Field.
Maira Kalman. On Devil’s Island. A visit to: Alfred Dreyfus: Vérité et justice, at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme, Paris, March 13–August 31, 2025.
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Baek Se-Hee, 1990-2025
Julie Yoonnyung Lee. bbc culture, 10/18/2025: Why I fell in love with a book called I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki.
Koh Ewe. bbc culture, 10/17/2025: Baek Se-hee, author of I Want To Die But I Want To Eat Tteokbokki, dies at 35.
Victoria Haw & Jintak Han. WaPo, 10/17/2025: Baek Sehee, whose therapy memoir resonated around the world, dies at 35.
Baek Se-Hee's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/seheebaek
Julie Yoonnyung Lee. bbc culture, 10/18/2025: Why I fell in love with a book called I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki.
Koh Ewe. bbc culture, 10/17/2025: Baek Se-hee, author of I Want To Die But I Want To Eat Tteokbokki, dies at 35.
Victoria Haw & Jintak Han. WaPo, 10/17/2025: Baek Sehee, whose therapy memoir resonated around the world, dies at 35.
Baek Se-Hee's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/seheebaek
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Oct 12-18 updates
Aeon: Oct 17: neurodiverse Virginia Woolf? -- Oct 14: sleep -- Oct 13: holes in the Internet >22 featherbear:
Asian Review of Books: Oct 17: Vermillion Eye -- Oct 16: Tipu Sultan -- Oct 14: Templars history book -- Oct 12: Falling for Saigon -- Oct 11: Kiran Desai's Loneliness of Sonia & Sunny -- Oct 10: Gish Jen's Bad Bad Girl novel >34 featherbear:
Atlantic: Oct 17: new avenues for criticism -- Oct 16: seductions of ChatGPT -- Oct 15: 65 essential children's books -- Oct 14: Peter Matthiessen bio; America's slide toward illiteracy -- Oct 13: IQ; romance recommendations >21 featherbear:
bbc culture: Oct 18: the influence of the late Baek Se-Hee's I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki -- Oct 16: Oscar Wilde's library card reissued >39 featherbear:
The Critic (UK): Oct 18: slavery & slave trade in the Islamic world -- Oct 16: John Self on Vaim, Lowest Common Denominator, & City Primeval -- Oct 15: the Queen's Atlas -- Oct 13: who owns beauty? -- Oct 12: St. Augustine the African >10 featherbear:
fivebooks.com: Oct 15: best fantasy series >23 featherbear:
Guardian: Oct 17: Evan Dando memoir -- Oct 16: Britney Spears on Federline memoir; Hekate; The Captive (pulp horror, not Proust) -- Oct 15: Mona's Eyes, an intro to art appreciation -- Oct 14: Malala memoir; Big Kiss Bye Bye -- Oct 13: Ukraine literary festival under attack; nail salon novel -- Oct 12: John Le Carre sources; Sarah Perry on motherhood & the death of her husband -- Oct 11: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie & a mother's worries >8 featherbear:
LARB: Oct 18: new ed of David Wojnarowicz's Memories that Smell Like Gasoline; Terence McKenna bio --Oct 17: Marseille 1940 -- Oct 16: innovation -- Oct 15: dystopias -- Oct 14: what is/isn't intelligence? -- Oct 13: the heart -- Oct 12: Red Sword; Ginseng Roots, a graphic memoir novel >18 featherbear:
LitHub: Oct 17: relevance of His Dark Materials trilogy -- Oct 15: learning Latin; Spanish-American war history excerpt -- Oct 14: 58 books you need to read; interview w/Peter Matthiessen biographer; toll of WWII on the greatest generation; favorite celebrity memoirs -- Oct 13: Christopher Columbus bio excerpt >13 featherbear:
New Yorker: Oct 14: Steven Pinker's book on common knowledge -- Oct 13: V.R. Lang's poems; 1929 as a warning regarding the AI boom; world's oldest stories; Peter Mathiessen bio >9 featherbear:
NYRB Online: Nov. 6 (posted week of Oct 12-18) >48 featherbear:
NYT: Oct 18: favorite Pynchon; Claire-Louise Bennett's Kiss Kiss Bye Bye; short Ludwig Wittgenstein bio; Erin Somers Ten Year Affair novel --Oct 17: James Van Der Zee's Harlem funeral parlor photos; profile of Caroline Palmer & her experiences at Vogue -- Oct 16: slave trade history; posthumous memoir by Epstein victim; Ada Limon's new & selected poems; morbidly curious; -- Oct 15: Eye of the Monkey; Jelani Cobb's writings -- Oct 14: corruption in US foreign policy; South Pacific myth & history novel; A Guardian and a Thief; Andrew Ross Sorkin's 1929; Britney Spears in Kevin Federline's memoir -- Oct 13: WWII; The Unveiling; Peter Matthiessen bio; Tim Curry memoir >6 featherbear:
Public Books: Oct 13-16: reviews/articles on the cybernetic border >11 featherbear:
TLS: Oct 17: >42 featherbear:
WaPo: Oct 18: Angela Buchdahl, a celebrity rabbi's autobio; Ioffe's feminist history of modern Russia -- Oct 17: Gertrude Stein bio; Mother of God horror novel -- Oct 16: fate of the dictionary; on ghostwriting Virginia Roberts Giuffre's Epstein memoir; Gabrielle Hamilton's family memoir -- Oct 15: Ken Liu novel about AI; The Wayfinder; Susan Orlean memoir; Mormon wife tells all --Oct 13: The Endless Week by Laura Vazquez -- Oct 12: John Candy bio >7 featherbear:
Oct index >2 featherbear:
Oct 2-4 >19 featherbear:
Oct 5-11 updates >24 featherbear:
New journals/sites this week:
bbc culture >39 featherbear:
Columbia Spectator >44 featherbear:
History Today >43 featherbear:
Hudson Review >38 featherbear:
JStor Daily >45 featherbear:
Paris Review >46 featherbear:
The Point>47 featherbear:
Public Domain Review >36 featherbear:
Washington Monthly >40 featherbear:
Yale Review >35 featherbear:
Aeon: Oct 17: neurodiverse Virginia Woolf? -- Oct 14: sleep -- Oct 13: holes in the Internet >22 featherbear:
Asian Review of Books: Oct 17: Vermillion Eye -- Oct 16: Tipu Sultan -- Oct 14: Templars history book -- Oct 12: Falling for Saigon -- Oct 11: Kiran Desai's Loneliness of Sonia & Sunny -- Oct 10: Gish Jen's Bad Bad Girl novel >34 featherbear:
Atlantic: Oct 17: new avenues for criticism -- Oct 16: seductions of ChatGPT -- Oct 15: 65 essential children's books -- Oct 14: Peter Matthiessen bio; America's slide toward illiteracy -- Oct 13: IQ; romance recommendations >21 featherbear:
bbc culture: Oct 18: the influence of the late Baek Se-Hee's I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki -- Oct 16: Oscar Wilde's library card reissued >39 featherbear:
The Critic (UK): Oct 18: slavery & slave trade in the Islamic world -- Oct 16: John Self on Vaim, Lowest Common Denominator, & City Primeval -- Oct 15: the Queen's Atlas -- Oct 13: who owns beauty? -- Oct 12: St. Augustine the African >10 featherbear:
fivebooks.com: Oct 15: best fantasy series >23 featherbear:
Guardian: Oct 17: Evan Dando memoir -- Oct 16: Britney Spears on Federline memoir; Hekate; The Captive (pulp horror, not Proust) -- Oct 15: Mona's Eyes, an intro to art appreciation -- Oct 14: Malala memoir; Big Kiss Bye Bye -- Oct 13: Ukraine literary festival under attack; nail salon novel -- Oct 12: John Le Carre sources; Sarah Perry on motherhood & the death of her husband -- Oct 11: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie & a mother's worries >8 featherbear:
LARB: Oct 18: new ed of David Wojnarowicz's Memories that Smell Like Gasoline; Terence McKenna bio --Oct 17: Marseille 1940 -- Oct 16: innovation -- Oct 15: dystopias -- Oct 14: what is/isn't intelligence? -- Oct 13: the heart -- Oct 12: Red Sword; Ginseng Roots, a graphic memoir novel >18 featherbear:
LitHub: Oct 17: relevance of His Dark Materials trilogy -- Oct 15: learning Latin; Spanish-American war history excerpt -- Oct 14: 58 books you need to read; interview w/Peter Matthiessen biographer; toll of WWII on the greatest generation; favorite celebrity memoirs -- Oct 13: Christopher Columbus bio excerpt >13 featherbear:
New Yorker: Oct 14: Steven Pinker's book on common knowledge -- Oct 13: V.R. Lang's poems; 1929 as a warning regarding the AI boom; world's oldest stories; Peter Mathiessen bio >9 featherbear:
NYRB Online: Nov. 6 (posted week of Oct 12-18) >48 featherbear:
NYT: Oct 18: favorite Pynchon; Claire-Louise Bennett's Kiss Kiss Bye Bye; short Ludwig Wittgenstein bio; Erin Somers Ten Year Affair novel --Oct 17: James Van Der Zee's Harlem funeral parlor photos; profile of Caroline Palmer & her experiences at Vogue -- Oct 16: slave trade history; posthumous memoir by Epstein victim; Ada Limon's new & selected poems; morbidly curious; -- Oct 15: Eye of the Monkey; Jelani Cobb's writings -- Oct 14: corruption in US foreign policy; South Pacific myth & history novel; A Guardian and a Thief; Andrew Ross Sorkin's 1929; Britney Spears in Kevin Federline's memoir -- Oct 13: WWII; The Unveiling; Peter Matthiessen bio; Tim Curry memoir >6 featherbear:
Public Books: Oct 13-16: reviews/articles on the cybernetic border >11 featherbear:
TLS: Oct 17: >42 featherbear:
WaPo: Oct 18: Angela Buchdahl, a celebrity rabbi's autobio; Ioffe's feminist history of modern Russia -- Oct 17: Gertrude Stein bio; Mother of God horror novel -- Oct 16: fate of the dictionary; on ghostwriting Virginia Roberts Giuffre's Epstein memoir; Gabrielle Hamilton's family memoir -- Oct 15: Ken Liu novel about AI; The Wayfinder; Susan Orlean memoir; Mormon wife tells all --Oct 13: The Endless Week by Laura Vazquez -- Oct 12: John Candy bio >7 featherbear:
Oct index >2 featherbear:
Oct 2-4 >19 featherbear:
Oct 5-11 updates >24 featherbear:
New journals/sites this week:
bbc culture >39 featherbear:
Columbia Spectator >44 featherbear:
History Today >43 featherbear:
Hudson Review >38 featherbear:
JStor Daily >45 featherbear:
Paris Review >46 featherbear:
The Point>47 featherbear:
Public Domain Review >36 featherbear:
Washington Monthly >40 featherbear:
Yale Review >35 featherbear:
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Alison Rose, 1941-2025
Penelope Green. NYT, 10/18/2025: Alison Rose, The New Yorker’s Femme Fatale, Dies at 81.
"Alison Rose, a beguiling, if inept, receptionist at The New Yorker who found her way into the magazine’s pages with her idiosyncratic essays and profiles — including one article about her time there and the men who were her mentors and lovers that landed like a grenade and became the basis of a memoir — died in late September at her home in Manhattan. She was 81.
"Ms. Rose was 41 when she arrived at The New Yorker. She was beautiful, bright and hapless, having careened through her previous decades between New York and California trying to find a place in the world. She had worked, or tried to work, as an actor and a model. She was nearly photographed for Vogue, but had a habit of canceling bookings at the last minute, frozen with anxiety and the aftereffects of binge eating.
"She typed manuscripts for Gardner McKay, the heartthrob actor turned author and drama critic. Later, she worked as a temporary typist in, by her count, 128 different offices.
"She had a disastrous long-term relationship with Bill Lancaster, a son of Burt Lancaster, the conclusion of which kept her sleeping on a roommate’s sofa for the better part of a year. Her psychiatrist prescribed Valium; her psychiatrist father prescribed speed.
"Landing the receptionist’s job on 18 — the writers’ floor of The New Yorker, which was then still in its longtime home on West 45th Street — was a coup, though she was aided by Brendan Gill, a family friend.
"So was securing a studio apartment on East 68th Street, where she lived for the rest of her life. She also procured a cat she named Toast, a reward for giving up Valium.
"“I couldn’t afford one more round of my famous bad judgment, which was, according to my own records at that point, eternal,” she wrote in her memoir, “Better Than Sane: Tales From a Dangling Girl.”
"Harold Brodkey, one of the many New Yorker writers who scooped her up, told her, “Build a life out of bad judgment.” He added, “I have.”
"The most epigrammatic of her admirers, and her staunchest mentors, were Mr. Brodkey and George W. S. Trow, the acerbic cultural critic best known for his essay “Within the Context of No-Context,” which introduced a catchphrase for the ages.
"She called The New Yorker “School” and treated it as such. She studied hard, reading back issues and writing notes to her boyfriends, a trio of married writers she nicknamed Europe, Mr. Normalcy and Personality Plus, who all wrote back to her.
"This made her a less-than-attentive receptionist. She was an erratic message-taker, and her cubicle was often so full of her coterie that she failed to notice when a visitor needed to be buzzed through.
"Inevitably, she was fired.
"At home in her apartment, she began to write. At first she played amanuensis to Mr. Trow, in a pairing encouraged by Charles McGrath, then an editor at The New Yorker and later the editor of The New York Times Book Review."
She wrote Talk of the Town pieces w/Trow, then returned to the New Yorker as a profile writer
"By the time he dropped her as his project and his friend, she was writing solo and was back in the building, with an office of her own.
“She so took the dive when she profiled somebody,” James L. Brooks, the movie director and producer, said in an interview. She met Mr. Brooks when she was writing about the actor and filmmaker Albert Brooks (no relation to James); the article she produced was a tour de force that resulted from spending hours on the phone chatting with her subject.
"It was Tina Brown, when she was the editor of The New Yorker, who encouraged Ms. Rose to write about her romantic life. “How I Became a Single Woman,” an elliptical coming-of-age tale, appeared in April 1996.
"The piece caused a minor ruckus at School. Despite their nicknames, the married men were easily identifiable, and that meant upsets at home and the snubbing of Ms. Rose at the office. It also earned her a book deal, a sizable advance and a terrible case of writer’s block.
"It took Ms. Rose eight years, and the ministrations of three editors, to finish the book, which was published in 2004 to good reviews but not wide acclaim. Many reviewers portrayed her as a madcap singleton, despite the book’s dark underpinnings.
"By then, she had lost her office; she was one of the many underperforming writers cut from The New Yorker’s roster when the magazine moved into Condé Nast headquarters, then at 4 Times Square, in 1999.
"In 2023, the independent Boston-based publisher Godine brought “Better Than Sane” back into print at the suggestion of Porochista Khakpour, a novelist and essayist who had been teaching the book to her creative writing students at Bard, Wesleyan and other institutions. The new edition is now in its second printing."
No info on her life after The New Yorker, but nice to know her book is still in print.
Her LT page, under Alison C. Rose: https://www.librarything.com/author/rosealisonc
Penelope Green. NYT, 10/18/2025: Alison Rose, The New Yorker’s Femme Fatale, Dies at 81.
"Alison Rose, a beguiling, if inept, receptionist at The New Yorker who found her way into the magazine’s pages with her idiosyncratic essays and profiles — including one article about her time there and the men who were her mentors and lovers that landed like a grenade and became the basis of a memoir — died in late September at her home in Manhattan. She was 81.
"Ms. Rose was 41 when she arrived at The New Yorker. She was beautiful, bright and hapless, having careened through her previous decades between New York and California trying to find a place in the world. She had worked, or tried to work, as an actor and a model. She was nearly photographed for Vogue, but had a habit of canceling bookings at the last minute, frozen with anxiety and the aftereffects of binge eating.
"She typed manuscripts for Gardner McKay, the heartthrob actor turned author and drama critic. Later, she worked as a temporary typist in, by her count, 128 different offices.
"She had a disastrous long-term relationship with Bill Lancaster, a son of Burt Lancaster, the conclusion of which kept her sleeping on a roommate’s sofa for the better part of a year. Her psychiatrist prescribed Valium; her psychiatrist father prescribed speed.
"Landing the receptionist’s job on 18 — the writers’ floor of The New Yorker, which was then still in its longtime home on West 45th Street — was a coup, though she was aided by Brendan Gill, a family friend.
"So was securing a studio apartment on East 68th Street, where she lived for the rest of her life. She also procured a cat she named Toast, a reward for giving up Valium.
"“I couldn’t afford one more round of my famous bad judgment, which was, according to my own records at that point, eternal,” she wrote in her memoir, “Better Than Sane: Tales From a Dangling Girl.”
"Harold Brodkey, one of the many New Yorker writers who scooped her up, told her, “Build a life out of bad judgment.” He added, “I have.”
"The most epigrammatic of her admirers, and her staunchest mentors, were Mr. Brodkey and George W. S. Trow, the acerbic cultural critic best known for his essay “Within the Context of No-Context,” which introduced a catchphrase for the ages.
"She called The New Yorker “School” and treated it as such. She studied hard, reading back issues and writing notes to her boyfriends, a trio of married writers she nicknamed Europe, Mr. Normalcy and Personality Plus, who all wrote back to her.
"This made her a less-than-attentive receptionist. She was an erratic message-taker, and her cubicle was often so full of her coterie that she failed to notice when a visitor needed to be buzzed through.
"Inevitably, she was fired.
"At home in her apartment, she began to write. At first she played amanuensis to Mr. Trow, in a pairing encouraged by Charles McGrath, then an editor at The New Yorker and later the editor of The New York Times Book Review."
She wrote Talk of the Town pieces w/Trow, then returned to the New Yorker as a profile writer
"By the time he dropped her as his project and his friend, she was writing solo and was back in the building, with an office of her own.
“She so took the dive when she profiled somebody,” James L. Brooks, the movie director and producer, said in an interview. She met Mr. Brooks when she was writing about the actor and filmmaker Albert Brooks (no relation to James); the article she produced was a tour de force that resulted from spending hours on the phone chatting with her subject.
"It was Tina Brown, when she was the editor of The New Yorker, who encouraged Ms. Rose to write about her romantic life. “How I Became a Single Woman,” an elliptical coming-of-age tale, appeared in April 1996.
"The piece caused a minor ruckus at School. Despite their nicknames, the married men were easily identifiable, and that meant upsets at home and the snubbing of Ms. Rose at the office. It also earned her a book deal, a sizable advance and a terrible case of writer’s block.
"It took Ms. Rose eight years, and the ministrations of three editors, to finish the book, which was published in 2004 to good reviews but not wide acclaim. Many reviewers portrayed her as a madcap singleton, despite the book’s dark underpinnings.
"By then, she had lost her office; she was one of the many underperforming writers cut from The New Yorker’s roster when the magazine moved into Condé Nast headquarters, then at 4 Times Square, in 1999.
"In 2023, the independent Boston-based publisher Godine brought “Better Than Sane” back into print at the suggestion of Porochista Khakpour, a novelist and essayist who had been teaching the book to her creative writing students at Bard, Wesleyan and other institutions. The new edition is now in its second printing."
No info on her life after The New Yorker, but nice to know her book is still in print.
Her LT page, under Alison C. Rose: https://www.librarything.com/author/rosealisonc
52featherbear
Sarah Jones. New York, Intelligencer, 10/19/2025: The Wife Trap. Review of: Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Social Safety Net / Jessica Calarco -- Wages for Housework: The Feminist Fight Against Unpaid Labor / Emily Callaci -- The Dignity of Dependence: A Feminist Manifesto / Leah Libresco Sargeant.
53featherbear
Xiaolou Guo. Words Without Borders, 10/22/2025: Fiction as an Exercise in Sabotage. "In this year's Lancaster International Fiction Lecture from Litfest's “Autumn Weekend,” Xiaolu Guo, the author of Call Me Ishmaelle, reflects on the experience of disrupting and reinventing a classic of the Western canon."
54featherbear
Nathalie op de Beeck. Publisher's Weekly, 10/23/2025: Federal Judge Rules Texas Book Ratings Law Unconstitutional.
"After two years of litigation over Texas House Bill 900, a federal judge has granted summary judgment and ordered a permanent injunction to block the mandatory book ratings law. In his October 21 decision, Judge Alan D. Albright of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin division, wrote that HB 900 “compels speech, is void for vagueness, and is an unconstitutional prior restraint” and that “Plaintiffs’ First and Fourteenth Amendment claims are all successful.”
The "mandatory book ratings" were supposed to apply to books in bookstores.
"After two years of litigation over Texas House Bill 900, a federal judge has granted summary judgment and ordered a permanent injunction to block the mandatory book ratings law. In his October 21 decision, Judge Alan D. Albright of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin division, wrote that HB 900 “compels speech, is void for vagueness, and is an unconstitutional prior restraint” and that “Plaintiffs’ First and Fourteenth Amendment claims are all successful.”
The "mandatory book ratings" were supposed to apply to books in bookstores.
55featherbear
Phyllis Trible, 1932-2025
Phyllis Trible, Who Studied Bible Through Feminist Lens, Dies at 92.
"In books and articles beginning in the early 1970s, in tandem with the larger feminist movement of the era, Dr. Trible touched off a revolution in biblical exegesis, insisting that an alternative view of the Bible could be arrived at through close textual analysis. She argued against interpretations in which the authors of Scripture intended to promote misogyny or give men primacy.
"Two books set out her credo. “God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality” (1978), which re-evaluated the Bible as holding women no longer subordinate; and “Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives” (1984), in which Dr. Trible amplified the significance of nameless or often-overlooked women who sometimes met grim fates in the Old and New Testaments.
"Her vision defied centuries of biblical interpretation in which, for male scholars, it went without saying that men alone are made in the image of God, and in which, for feminist critics, the Bible was irredeemably patriarchal and should therefore be looked at askance.
"Dr. Trible, who was conversant with many languages of biblical times, rejected both points of view.
“Two things are beyond question for me: I am a feminist and I love the Bible,” she told the journalist Cullen Murphy, who profiled Dr. Trible in his 1998 book “The Word According to Eve.”
"To many scholars, she largely succeeded. “Her impact on the field was tremendous,” John J. Collins, emeritus professor of Old Testament criticism and interpretation at Yale Divinity School, said in an interview. “She was quite right that the prevalent interpretation before she wrote was more sexist than was warranted.” He called her “one of the most influential biblical scholars of the second half of the 20th century.”
"Her opening shot came in 1973, at the height of the women’s liberation movement, when Dr. Trible, then teaching at Andover Newton Theological School in suburban Boston, published a bold declaration in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion.
“I affirm that the intentionality of biblical faith, is neither to create nor to perpetuate patriarchy but rather to function as salvation for both women and men,” she wrote in the journal article, titled “Depatriarchalizing in Biblical Interpretation.”
"Woman, whom Yahweh “builds” from the rib of Adam, was not an “afterthought” at all, in Dr. Trible’s interpretation, but the “culmination" of creation.
"“The God of scripture is beyond sexuality, neither male nor female, nor a combination of the two,” she said in a 1989 interview with Sunstone, a journal of liberal Mormon thought. “Many places in the Bible, God is described as a male and a few places as a female. But that is not to say that God as God is male, or female, or male and female.”
Phyllis Trible's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/triblephyllis
Phyllis Trible, Who Studied Bible Through Feminist Lens, Dies at 92.
"In books and articles beginning in the early 1970s, in tandem with the larger feminist movement of the era, Dr. Trible touched off a revolution in biblical exegesis, insisting that an alternative view of the Bible could be arrived at through close textual analysis. She argued against interpretations in which the authors of Scripture intended to promote misogyny or give men primacy.
"Two books set out her credo. “God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality” (1978), which re-evaluated the Bible as holding women no longer subordinate; and “Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives” (1984), in which Dr. Trible amplified the significance of nameless or often-overlooked women who sometimes met grim fates in the Old and New Testaments.
"Her vision defied centuries of biblical interpretation in which, for male scholars, it went without saying that men alone are made in the image of God, and in which, for feminist critics, the Bible was irredeemably patriarchal and should therefore be looked at askance.
"Dr. Trible, who was conversant with many languages of biblical times, rejected both points of view.
“Two things are beyond question for me: I am a feminist and I love the Bible,” she told the journalist Cullen Murphy, who profiled Dr. Trible in his 1998 book “The Word According to Eve.”
"To many scholars, she largely succeeded. “Her impact on the field was tremendous,” John J. Collins, emeritus professor of Old Testament criticism and interpretation at Yale Divinity School, said in an interview. “She was quite right that the prevalent interpretation before she wrote was more sexist than was warranted.” He called her “one of the most influential biblical scholars of the second half of the 20th century.”
"Her opening shot came in 1973, at the height of the women’s liberation movement, when Dr. Trible, then teaching at Andover Newton Theological School in suburban Boston, published a bold declaration in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion.
“I affirm that the intentionality of biblical faith, is neither to create nor to perpetuate patriarchy but rather to function as salvation for both women and men,” she wrote in the journal article, titled “Depatriarchalizing in Biblical Interpretation.”
"Woman, whom Yahweh “builds” from the rib of Adam, was not an “afterthought” at all, in Dr. Trible’s interpretation, but the “culmination" of creation.
"“The God of scripture is beyond sexuality, neither male nor female, nor a combination of the two,” she said in a 1989 interview with Sunstone, a journal of liberal Mormon thought. “Many places in the Bible, God is described as a male and a few places as a female. But that is not to say that God as God is male, or female, or male and female.”
Phyllis Trible's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/triblephyllis
56featherbear
Oct 19-25 updates
Asian Review of Books Oct 25: Arundhati Roy's mother memoir -- Oct 24: Indian Ocean history -- Oct 22: re-telling the story of Lot in Malayalam (translated to English) -- Oct 21: Hai Fan short stories -- Oct 19: bilingual ed of The Ruins by Ye Hui >34 featherbear:
Atlantic Oct 24: John Updike's letters; book recommendations for sports fans -- Oct 23: on Phillip Pullman's books (movies?); Big Kiss, Bye-Bye; McWhorter on students using AI bots -- Oct 20: ghosting; Andrew Ross Sorkin's 1929 >21 featherbear:
The Critic (UK) Oct 23: Piers Morgan's anti-woke book; celebrity authors do Wodehouse impersonations >10 featherbear:
fivebooks Oct 25: best historical thrillers -- Oct 22: 6 best non-fiction books >23 featherbear:
Guardian Oct 25: blueprint for peace in Israel-Palestine; stories that scared horror writers -- Oct 24: Kathy Burke memoir -- Oct 23: eternal life book (not available); the fate of Lyla in the 3rd vol of Book of Dust -- Oct 22: extremism in the 70s; Bora Chung horror stories collection -- Oct 21: review of the delivering packages book; Harper Lee's early work -- Oct 20: delivering packages in Beijing; Jesus Christ Kinski; Cameron Crowe's Uncool memoir; Virginia Roberts Giuffre's posthumous Epstein memoir -- Oct 19: Andrew Ross Sorkin on his 1929 history; interview of Lily King on her new novel; man w/a gun at the Wikipedia Conference; swearing benefits >8 featherbear:
LARB Oct 25: Big Kiss, Bye-Bye review; ghosts of the delivery room -- Oct 23: Chinese King Lear; vulnerable fiberoptic cables -- Oct 22: Samantha Schweblin stories -- Oct 21: close reading -- Oct 20: Driver by Mattia Filice -- Oct 19: Hito Steyerl essay collection >18 featherbear:
Literary Review the undead >30 featherbear:
LitHub Oct 23: pep talk from Maris Kreizman; excerpt from a new history of Britain & the Caribbean -- Oct 22: Lithuanian as a literary language; paranormal activity; Ludwig Wittgenstein -- Oct 21: mythopedia; Adam Johnson talks about The Wayfarer; Gish Jen between memoir & fiction -- Oct 20: the making of Portnoy's Complaint; etymology curiosities >13 featherbear:
New Yorker Oct 22: Paper Girl memoir -- Oct 21: Knausgaard on The Brothers Karamazov -- Oct 20: ecologist gives up; corporate feminism nowadays -- Oct 19: excerpt from Julia Ioffe's feminist history of modern Russia >9 featherbear:
NYT Oct 24: profile of Chris Kraus -- Oct 23: Susan Orlean memoir; how Pullman's Lyra turned out at the end of the series -- Oct 22: modern dictionaries; feminist history of Russia; Schuyler sisters bio -- Oct 21: surfing, eugenics, & Duke Kahanamoku; Harper Lee's early work collected; Marie Kondo interviewed on her new Japanese culture book; Nic Stone crime thriller; Joe Hill's new horror novel; cannibalism in academe novel -- Oct 20: persistence of literary fiction; John Updike's selected letters; Churchill & the royal family; the last Lyra Belacqua adventure -- Oct 19: new history of the Civil Rights movement; new Hiromi Kawakami novel; NFL football's growth >6 featherbear:
Public Books Oct 23: 2 De Chirico books -- Oct 21: revisiting Leonard Woolf's Sri Lanka memoir >11 featherbear:
Quillette Oct 22: Hamas intelligence -- Oct 20: Bob Dylan book >12 featherbear:
Smithsonian Nov posting for an article on The Hardy Boys series >3 featherbear:
Washington Monthly Oct 21: Julia Ioffe's feminist history of modern Russia >40 featherbear:
WaPo Oct 25: Civil Rights movement as tragedy -- Oct 24: paranormal activity -- Oct 23: Philip Pullman looks back; Death & the Gardener; Bad Bad Girl -- Oct 22: Karine Jean-Pierre memoir -- Oct 21: A Guardian and a Thief -- Oct 19: The Island by Antigone Kefala; new mystery novels >7 featherbear:
Oct index >2 featherbear:
Oct 2-4 updates >19 featherbear:
Oct 5-11 updates >24 featherbear:
Oct 12-18 updates >50 featherbear:
New websites/journals:
New York Intelligencer >52 featherbear:
Publishers Weekly >54 featherbear:
Words Without Borders >53 featherbear:
Asian Review of Books Oct 25: Arundhati Roy's mother memoir -- Oct 24: Indian Ocean history -- Oct 22: re-telling the story of Lot in Malayalam (translated to English) -- Oct 21: Hai Fan short stories -- Oct 19: bilingual ed of The Ruins by Ye Hui >34 featherbear:
Atlantic Oct 24: John Updike's letters; book recommendations for sports fans -- Oct 23: on Phillip Pullman's books (movies?); Big Kiss, Bye-Bye; McWhorter on students using AI bots -- Oct 20: ghosting; Andrew Ross Sorkin's 1929 >21 featherbear:
The Critic (UK) Oct 23: Piers Morgan's anti-woke book; celebrity authors do Wodehouse impersonations >10 featherbear:
fivebooks Oct 25: best historical thrillers -- Oct 22: 6 best non-fiction books >23 featherbear:
Guardian Oct 25: blueprint for peace in Israel-Palestine; stories that scared horror writers -- Oct 24: Kathy Burke memoir -- Oct 23: eternal life book (not available); the fate of Lyla in the 3rd vol of Book of Dust -- Oct 22: extremism in the 70s; Bora Chung horror stories collection -- Oct 21: review of the delivering packages book; Harper Lee's early work -- Oct 20: delivering packages in Beijing; Jesus Christ Kinski; Cameron Crowe's Uncool memoir; Virginia Roberts Giuffre's posthumous Epstein memoir -- Oct 19: Andrew Ross Sorkin on his 1929 history; interview of Lily King on her new novel; man w/a gun at the Wikipedia Conference; swearing benefits >8 featherbear:
LARB Oct 25: Big Kiss, Bye-Bye review; ghosts of the delivery room -- Oct 23: Chinese King Lear; vulnerable fiberoptic cables -- Oct 22: Samantha Schweblin stories -- Oct 21: close reading -- Oct 20: Driver by Mattia Filice -- Oct 19: Hito Steyerl essay collection >18 featherbear:
Literary Review the undead >30 featherbear:
LitHub Oct 23: pep talk from Maris Kreizman; excerpt from a new history of Britain & the Caribbean -- Oct 22: Lithuanian as a literary language; paranormal activity; Ludwig Wittgenstein -- Oct 21: mythopedia; Adam Johnson talks about The Wayfarer; Gish Jen between memoir & fiction -- Oct 20: the making of Portnoy's Complaint; etymology curiosities >13 featherbear:
New Yorker Oct 22: Paper Girl memoir -- Oct 21: Knausgaard on The Brothers Karamazov -- Oct 20: ecologist gives up; corporate feminism nowadays -- Oct 19: excerpt from Julia Ioffe's feminist history of modern Russia >9 featherbear:
NYT Oct 24: profile of Chris Kraus -- Oct 23: Susan Orlean memoir; how Pullman's Lyra turned out at the end of the series -- Oct 22: modern dictionaries; feminist history of Russia; Schuyler sisters bio -- Oct 21: surfing, eugenics, & Duke Kahanamoku; Harper Lee's early work collected; Marie Kondo interviewed on her new Japanese culture book; Nic Stone crime thriller; Joe Hill's new horror novel; cannibalism in academe novel -- Oct 20: persistence of literary fiction; John Updike's selected letters; Churchill & the royal family; the last Lyra Belacqua adventure -- Oct 19: new history of the Civil Rights movement; new Hiromi Kawakami novel; NFL football's growth >6 featherbear:
Public Books Oct 23: 2 De Chirico books -- Oct 21: revisiting Leonard Woolf's Sri Lanka memoir >11 featherbear:
Quillette Oct 22: Hamas intelligence -- Oct 20: Bob Dylan book >12 featherbear:
Smithsonian Nov posting for an article on The Hardy Boys series >3 featherbear:
Washington Monthly Oct 21: Julia Ioffe's feminist history of modern Russia >40 featherbear:
WaPo Oct 25: Civil Rights movement as tragedy -- Oct 24: paranormal activity -- Oct 23: Philip Pullman looks back; Death & the Gardener; Bad Bad Girl -- Oct 22: Karine Jean-Pierre memoir -- Oct 21: A Guardian and a Thief -- Oct 19: The Island by Antigone Kefala; new mystery novels >7 featherbear:
Oct index >2 featherbear:
Oct 2-4 updates >19 featherbear:
Oct 5-11 updates >24 featherbear:
Oct 12-18 updates >50 featherbear:
New websites/journals:
New York Intelligencer >52 featherbear:
Publishers Weekly >54 featherbear:
Words Without Borders >53 featherbear:
58featherbear
Johanna Winant and Dan Sinykin. Slate, 10/24/2025: The Case for Whole Books: You can’t get better at reading until you care about a text.
59featherbear
UnHerd Oct 2025
Terry Eagleton. 10/28/2025: Jonathan Swift’s lessons in irony: He understood the bigotry of relativism. Regarding Gulliver's Travels.
Morten Høi Jensen. 10/25/2025: Climbing ‘The Magic Mountain’ today Thomas Mann’s novel is an antidote to nihilism. Anchor link: The Magic Mountain / Thomas Mann.
Terry Eagleton. 10/28/2025: Jonathan Swift’s lessons in irony: He understood the bigotry of relativism. Regarding Gulliver's Travels.
Morten Høi Jensen. 10/25/2025: Climbing ‘The Magic Mountain’ today Thomas Mann’s novel is an antidote to nihilism. Anchor link: The Magic Mountain / Thomas Mann.
60featherbear
Ross Barkan, Lou Bahet, and The Metropolitan Review. Metropolitan Review, 10/27/2025: The Last Literary Lion of New York, Gay Talese.
61featherbear
Jason Koebler. 404media, 10/28/2025: Grokipedia Is the Antithesis of Everything That Makes Wikipedia Good, Useful, and Human.
62featherbear
Greta Rainbow. dirt.fyi, 10/27/2025: Laptop nonfiction: The fantasy of the fragment.
"In late August, The Cut’s Book Gossip newsletter asked whether the braided essay form—creative nonfiction that blends disparate topics and weaves memoir in with criticism, reporting, theory, etc.—still “hit the same,” sending virtual molotov cocktails into the southern France sublets and Long Island houseshares inhabited by publishing professionals who’d made a bag off the personal essay boom."
"In late August, The Cut’s Book Gossip newsletter asked whether the braided essay form—creative nonfiction that blends disparate topics and weaves memoir in with criticism, reporting, theory, etc.—still “hit the same,” sending virtual molotov cocktails into the southern France sublets and Long Island houseshares inhabited by publishing professionals who’d made a bag off the personal essay boom."
63featherbear
TLS October 31, 2025|No. 6391.
Featured
Two belated Mary Beard blogposts: How new is Halloween? and Jane Harrison and Virginia Woolf.
Angela Leighton. The Kraken wakes: Tennyson’s embrace of science and catastrophe theory. Review of: The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, science and the crisis of belief / Richard Holmes.
Joyce Carol Oates. Winter is coming!: Tales of the uncanny from a master of ambiguity. Review of: After Midnight: Thirteen chilling tales for dark hours / Daphne du Maurier.
Katie Stallard. Collision course: The troubled history of US-China relations. Review of: The Party’s Interests Come First: The life of Xi Zhongxun, father of Xi Jinping / Joseph Torigian -- Breaking the Engagement: How China won and lost America / David Shambaugh (Oxford University Press) -- Breakneck: China’s quest to engineer the future / Dan Wang -- Command of Commerce: America’s enduring economic power advantage over China / Ben A. Vagle and Stephen G. Brooks.
Miles Leeson. Playing a game to tell the truth: Iris Murdoch’s unseen poetry, transcribed for the first time. (Essay, w/two of Murdoch's poems)
Literature, Linguistics, & Bibliography
Lynne Murphy. From cradle to grave: Baby talk and deathbed speech. Review of: Bye Bye I Love You: The story of our first and last words / Michael Erard.
Imogen Russell Williams. Paradise postponed: The conclusion to the Book of Dust trilogy. Review of: The Rose Field: The Book of Dust, volume three / Philip Pullman.
Lucy Fleming. His materials: Philip Pullman’s debt to ‘the long seventeenth century.’ Review of: Philip Pullman and the Historical Imagination: Seventeenth-century literature, science, and religion in His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust / Kristen Poole (Oxford University Press).
A.K. Blakemore. Tomb raiders: Spooky tales that resurrect the mythological past. Review of: Return of the Ancients: Unruly tales of the mythological weird / ed. Katy Soar -- Weird Sisters: Tales from the queens of the pulp era / ed. Mike Ashley.
Philip Ross Bullock. From the real to the more real: A pivotal figure in Russian Silver Age literature. Review of: Viacheslav Ivanov: A symbolist life / Michael Wachtel (Columbia University Press).
Tim Parks. Glorious droppings: The lucrative afterlife of literary papers. (Essay)
Michael LaPointe. This is why we come: This is why we come. Review of: Saltwash / Andrew Michael Hurley.
Beejay Silcox. Earthly binds: Generations of women grapple with a family jinx. Review of: Cursed Daughters / Oyinkan Braithwaite.
David Annand. Scotland the savage: A triple murder in the Outer Hebrides. Review of: Benbecula / Graeme Macrae Burnet.
Alison Kelly. Of birds and men: The short story as an ‘event.’ Review of: Pulse / Cynan Jones (Granta).
Inés Arteta. Virtues of omission: Violent tales of a rural collective. Review of: Cuentos completos / Diego Angelino (Eterna Cadencia).
Sasha Garwood. Pleasure and longing: E. F. Benson’s tortured sexuality. (Essay)
In Brief Review of: Frida Kahlo’s month in Paris: A friendship with Mary Reynolds / Edited by Caitlin Haskell, with Tamar Kharatishvili and Alivé Piliado Santana.
In Brief Review of: The Homecoming / Zoë Apostolides.
In Brief Review of: Cleaner / Jess Shannon.
In Brief Review of: Poor Ghost! / Gabriel Flynn.
In Brief Review of: whitewards / Katarína Kucbelová; translated by Julia Sherwood and Peter Sherwood (Seagull; poems).
TLS. Lore Segal revised.
Arts & Architecture
Nat Segnit. The urgency of then: Paul Thomas Anderson on the road with Thomas Pynchon. Review of Anderson's film One Battle After Another, based on Thomas Pynchon's Vineland.
George Berridge. To Victor, the spoils: Guillermo del Toro’s version of Mary Shelley’s myth. Review of Guillermo del Toro’s film Frankenstein.
Gabriel Byng. Romanesque or Arabesque: Who built Europe’s cathedrals? Review of: Islamesque: The forgotten craftsmen who built Europe’s medieval monuments / Diana Darke.
Emily May. They’ve got a little List: Crystal Pite and Simon McBurney tackle the ecological crisis. Review of Figures in Extinction / Nederlands Dans Theater and Complicité, Théâtre de la Ville, Paris, then Sadler’s Wells, London, November 5-8.
Nadia Beard. Barely there: The rediscovered nudes of Elio Luxardo. Review of the exhibition Corpi Nudi / Elio Luxardo, Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio, Rome, until December 7.
Simon Morrison. Give ’em what they want: The memoirs of a high- and lowbrow émigré composer. Review of: Passport to Paris: And Los Angeles poems / Vernon Duke; introduction by Boris Dralyuk (Paul Dry).
M.C. NB: Starr man: Collecting the ‘Long Sixties’, Nemo returns, Veronica Forrest-Thomson at Cambridge.
Philosophy
Caryl Emerson. The opportunistic philosopher: A Parisian intellectual star, maker of Europe, Stalinist. Review of: The Life and Thought of Alexandre Kojève / Marco Filoni; translated by David Broder -- Alexandre Kojève: An intellectual biography / Boris Groys (Verso paperback) -- Alexandre Kojève and the Specters of Russian Philosophy / Trevor Wilson.
Religion
Ronald Hutton. Spirit levels: Shamanism across many cultures. Review of: Shamanism: The timeless religion / Manvir Singh -- Shamans: The visual culture of animism, healing and journeys to other planes / Max Carocci.
Felipe Fernández-Armesto. Mad about God: A Spanish novelist’s portrait of Pope Francis. Review of: El loco de Dios en el fin del mundo / Javier Cercas.
In Brief Review of: Fascist Yoga: Grifters, occultists, white supremacists and the new order in wellness / Stewart Home.
Science, Technology, & Medicine
Roger Atwood. Martyr to the cause: A tragic eyewitness to the devastation of Amazonia. Review of: How to Save the Amazon: A journalist’s deadly quest for answers / Dom Phillips and Contributors.
Jennie Erin Smith. Bug killers: The arms race between antibiotics and bacteria. Review of: Dangerous Miracle: A natural history of antibiotics – and how we burned through them / Liam Shaw.
In Brief Review of: Bad Dust: A history of the asbestos disaster / Tom White.
In Brief Review of: In This Faulty Machine: A memoir of loss and transformation / Kathy Page (a Parkinson's memoir).
History, Politics, Society & Culture
Paul Cartledge. Only human: Classical Greek and modern ideas of beauty. Review of: Beauty and the Gods: A history from Homer to Plato / Hugo Shakeshaft.
Johanna Hanink. Us and them: What the West owes to the ancient world. Review of: The Wisdom of the Ancients: Four ideas that changed the world / H.A. Drake.
John Merrington. Soft on the infidel: A tolerant Shia rival to the Sunni caliphs. Review of: The Fatimids: Portrait of a dynasty / Delia Cortese.
Jonathan Sumption. Little England, big France: A war that was always a losing game. Review of: The Two Hundred Years War: The bloody crowns of England and France, 1292-1492 / Michael Livingston.
Hans Kundnani. Culture clash: A civilization defined by Russophobia. Review of: The West: The history of an idea / Georgios Varouxakis.
Linda Kinstler. Under surveillance: A family history scarred by communist rule. Review of: Indignity: A life reimagined / Lea Ypi.
Terri Apter. Before she became a mommy: Four views of modern maternity. Review of: Four Mothers: An Intimate Journey through the First Year of Parenthood in Four Countries UK subtitle: A year of motherhood around the world / Abigail Leonard (US publisher: Algonquin Books; UK publisher: Sceptre) -- The Republic of Parenthood: On bringing up babies / Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett (September) -- Second Life: Having a child in the digital age / Amanda Hess -- Childless by Choice: The meaning and legacy of a childfree life / Helen Taylor (Whitefox Publishing).
Mark Storey. New maps of hell: Dark tourist guides to America. Review of: Sick Houses: Haunted homes and the architecture of dread / Leila Taylor -- Haunted States: An American Gothic guidebook / Miranda Corcoran.
Lawrence Douglas. Tyranny of the dead: The US Constitution as a straitjacket. Review of: We the People: A history of the US Constitution / Jill Lepore.
Jessie Munton. Groupthink: Can communal beliefs be reconciled with empirical facts? Review of: When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows: Common knowledge and the science of harmony, hypocrisy and outrage / Steven Pinker.
Brian Morton. Letter from Kintyre: The rewards of isolation. (Essay)
In Brief Review of: Ahora y en la hora / Héctor Abad Faciolince.
Featured
Two belated Mary Beard blogposts: How new is Halloween? and Jane Harrison and Virginia Woolf.
Angela Leighton. The Kraken wakes: Tennyson’s embrace of science and catastrophe theory. Review of: The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, science and the crisis of belief / Richard Holmes.
Joyce Carol Oates. Winter is coming!: Tales of the uncanny from a master of ambiguity. Review of: After Midnight: Thirteen chilling tales for dark hours / Daphne du Maurier.
Katie Stallard. Collision course: The troubled history of US-China relations. Review of: The Party’s Interests Come First: The life of Xi Zhongxun, father of Xi Jinping / Joseph Torigian -- Breaking the Engagement: How China won and lost America / David Shambaugh (Oxford University Press) -- Breakneck: China’s quest to engineer the future / Dan Wang -- Command of Commerce: America’s enduring economic power advantage over China / Ben A. Vagle and Stephen G. Brooks.
Miles Leeson. Playing a game to tell the truth: Iris Murdoch’s unseen poetry, transcribed for the first time. (Essay, w/two of Murdoch's poems)
Literature, Linguistics, & Bibliography
Lynne Murphy. From cradle to grave: Baby talk and deathbed speech. Review of: Bye Bye I Love You: The story of our first and last words / Michael Erard.
Imogen Russell Williams. Paradise postponed: The conclusion to the Book of Dust trilogy. Review of: The Rose Field: The Book of Dust, volume three / Philip Pullman.
Lucy Fleming. His materials: Philip Pullman’s debt to ‘the long seventeenth century.’ Review of: Philip Pullman and the Historical Imagination: Seventeenth-century literature, science, and religion in His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust / Kristen Poole (Oxford University Press).
A.K. Blakemore. Tomb raiders: Spooky tales that resurrect the mythological past. Review of: Return of the Ancients: Unruly tales of the mythological weird / ed. Katy Soar -- Weird Sisters: Tales from the queens of the pulp era / ed. Mike Ashley.
Philip Ross Bullock. From the real to the more real: A pivotal figure in Russian Silver Age literature. Review of: Viacheslav Ivanov: A symbolist life / Michael Wachtel (Columbia University Press).
Tim Parks. Glorious droppings: The lucrative afterlife of literary papers. (Essay)
Michael LaPointe. This is why we come: This is why we come. Review of: Saltwash / Andrew Michael Hurley.
Beejay Silcox. Earthly binds: Generations of women grapple with a family jinx. Review of: Cursed Daughters / Oyinkan Braithwaite.
David Annand. Scotland the savage: A triple murder in the Outer Hebrides. Review of: Benbecula / Graeme Macrae Burnet.
Alison Kelly. Of birds and men: The short story as an ‘event.’ Review of: Pulse / Cynan Jones (Granta).
Inés Arteta. Virtues of omission: Violent tales of a rural collective. Review of: Cuentos completos / Diego Angelino (Eterna Cadencia).
Sasha Garwood. Pleasure and longing: E. F. Benson’s tortured sexuality. (Essay)
In Brief Review of: Frida Kahlo’s month in Paris: A friendship with Mary Reynolds / Edited by Caitlin Haskell, with Tamar Kharatishvili and Alivé Piliado Santana.
In Brief Review of: The Homecoming / Zoë Apostolides.
In Brief Review of: Cleaner / Jess Shannon.
In Brief Review of: Poor Ghost! / Gabriel Flynn.
In Brief Review of: whitewards / Katarína Kucbelová; translated by Julia Sherwood and Peter Sherwood (Seagull; poems).
TLS. Lore Segal revised.
Arts & Architecture
Nat Segnit. The urgency of then: Paul Thomas Anderson on the road with Thomas Pynchon. Review of Anderson's film One Battle After Another, based on Thomas Pynchon's Vineland.
George Berridge. To Victor, the spoils: Guillermo del Toro’s version of Mary Shelley’s myth. Review of Guillermo del Toro’s film Frankenstein.
Gabriel Byng. Romanesque or Arabesque: Who built Europe’s cathedrals? Review of: Islamesque: The forgotten craftsmen who built Europe’s medieval monuments / Diana Darke.
Emily May. They’ve got a little List: Crystal Pite and Simon McBurney tackle the ecological crisis. Review of Figures in Extinction / Nederlands Dans Theater and Complicité, Théâtre de la Ville, Paris, then Sadler’s Wells, London, November 5-8.
Nadia Beard. Barely there: The rediscovered nudes of Elio Luxardo. Review of the exhibition Corpi Nudi / Elio Luxardo, Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio, Rome, until December 7.
Simon Morrison. Give ’em what they want: The memoirs of a high- and lowbrow émigré composer. Review of: Passport to Paris: And Los Angeles poems / Vernon Duke; introduction by Boris Dralyuk (Paul Dry).
M.C. NB: Starr man: Collecting the ‘Long Sixties’, Nemo returns, Veronica Forrest-Thomson at Cambridge.
Philosophy
Caryl Emerson. The opportunistic philosopher: A Parisian intellectual star, maker of Europe, Stalinist. Review of: The Life and Thought of Alexandre Kojève / Marco Filoni; translated by David Broder -- Alexandre Kojève: An intellectual biography / Boris Groys (Verso paperback) -- Alexandre Kojève and the Specters of Russian Philosophy / Trevor Wilson.
Religion
Ronald Hutton. Spirit levels: Shamanism across many cultures. Review of: Shamanism: The timeless religion / Manvir Singh -- Shamans: The visual culture of animism, healing and journeys to other planes / Max Carocci.
Felipe Fernández-Armesto. Mad about God: A Spanish novelist’s portrait of Pope Francis. Review of: El loco de Dios en el fin del mundo / Javier Cercas.
In Brief Review of: Fascist Yoga: Grifters, occultists, white supremacists and the new order in wellness / Stewart Home.
Science, Technology, & Medicine
Roger Atwood. Martyr to the cause: A tragic eyewitness to the devastation of Amazonia. Review of: How to Save the Amazon: A journalist’s deadly quest for answers / Dom Phillips and Contributors.
Jennie Erin Smith. Bug killers: The arms race between antibiotics and bacteria. Review of: Dangerous Miracle: A natural history of antibiotics – and how we burned through them / Liam Shaw.
In Brief Review of: Bad Dust: A history of the asbestos disaster / Tom White.
In Brief Review of: In This Faulty Machine: A memoir of loss and transformation / Kathy Page (a Parkinson's memoir).
History, Politics, Society & Culture
Paul Cartledge. Only human: Classical Greek and modern ideas of beauty. Review of: Beauty and the Gods: A history from Homer to Plato / Hugo Shakeshaft.
Johanna Hanink. Us and them: What the West owes to the ancient world. Review of: The Wisdom of the Ancients: Four ideas that changed the world / H.A. Drake.
John Merrington. Soft on the infidel: A tolerant Shia rival to the Sunni caliphs. Review of: The Fatimids: Portrait of a dynasty / Delia Cortese.
Jonathan Sumption. Little England, big France: A war that was always a losing game. Review of: The Two Hundred Years War: The bloody crowns of England and France, 1292-1492 / Michael Livingston.
Hans Kundnani. Culture clash: A civilization defined by Russophobia. Review of: The West: The history of an idea / Georgios Varouxakis.
Linda Kinstler. Under surveillance: A family history scarred by communist rule. Review of: Indignity: A life reimagined / Lea Ypi.
Terri Apter. Before she became a mommy: Four views of modern maternity. Review of: Four Mothers: An Intimate Journey through the First Year of Parenthood in Four Countries UK subtitle: A year of motherhood around the world / Abigail Leonard (US publisher: Algonquin Books; UK publisher: Sceptre) -- The Republic of Parenthood: On bringing up babies / Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett (September) -- Second Life: Having a child in the digital age / Amanda Hess -- Childless by Choice: The meaning and legacy of a childfree life / Helen Taylor (Whitefox Publishing).
Mark Storey. New maps of hell: Dark tourist guides to America. Review of: Sick Houses: Haunted homes and the architecture of dread / Leila Taylor -- Haunted States: An American Gothic guidebook / Miranda Corcoran.
Lawrence Douglas. Tyranny of the dead: The US Constitution as a straitjacket. Review of: We the People: A history of the US Constitution / Jill Lepore.
Jessie Munton. Groupthink: Can communal beliefs be reconciled with empirical facts? Review of: When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows: Common knowledge and the science of harmony, hypocrisy and outrage / Steven Pinker.
Brian Morton. Letter from Kintyre: The rewards of isolation. (Essay)
In Brief Review of: Ahora y en la hora / Héctor Abad Faciolince.
64featherbear
Oct 26-31 updates
Asian Review of Books Oct 31: Indian relationship novel -- Oct 29: Chinese on the beach: stories -- Oct 26: Silk Roads cookery >34 featherbear:
Atlantic Oct 31: intense female friendships in novels; Gertrude Stein bio; Patti Smith memoir -- Oct 30: Thomas McGuane profile; women in 1970s horror movies; Why George Packer's novel matters -- Oct 29: Paper Girl vs Hillbilly Elegy -- Oct 28: Grokipedia vs Wikipedia -- Oct 27: chocolate (French) >21 featherbear:
The Critic (UK): Oct 30: no UK reparations for slavery trade -- Oct 28: porn bad >10 featherbear:
Guardian Oct 31: Anne Enright memoir; best recent poetry -- Oct 30: Heart the Lover -- Oct 28: new collection of Salman Rushdie stories -- Oct 27: WH Auden's intense friendship; new Chris Kraus book; Anthony Bourdain reader; ranking Zadie Smith books -- Oct 26: excerpt from Anne Enright memoir >8 featherbear:
Hudson Review Autumn 2025: TS Eliot's Collected Prose >38 featherbear:
LARB Oct 31: The AI Con; ChatGPT & the Humanities -- Oct 30: Revisiting Pynchon's Vineland; Edward Steed's drawings -- Oct 29: John Tottenham's Service; Idiocy -- Oct 28: Tom's Crossing -- Oct 27: conquest of the Americas; new Helen Dewitt (& another person) novel -- Oct 26: cancel culture book >18 featherbear:
LitHub Oct 31: Anne Sexton's horror stories; criminal profiling & Sherlock Holmes -- Oct 30: Baker & Taylor's end & impact on libraries; Fanny Hill -- Oct 27: list of books on why we choose >13 featherbear:
New Yorker Oct 31: Big Kiss Bye Bye -- Oct 30: profile of Polish poet Wisława Szymborska; monsters -- Oct 27: new insights on Kant >9 featherbear:
NYRB Online Nov 20 (posted 10/30): >65 featherbear:
NYT Oct 31: Lea Ypi's Indignity -- Oct 30: Gothic fiction starter pack; profile of Mark Danielewski -- Oct 29: tech platforms, markets, & democracy; Your Name Here controversy -- Oct 28: Joaquin Murrieta legend; Mark Danielewski's new novel is a Western?; Joseph Ellis on the founding of America; Zadie Smith essays; Indian revolutionaries at Berkeley -- Oct 27: changes in teaching of history; Cameron Crowe; Jack Carr -- Oct 26: Review of The Rose Field, concluding the series begun with the Dark Materials trilogy >6 featherbear:
Public Books Oct 30: Rebecca West's child narration in The Fountain Overflows -- Oct 29: A Bomb Placed Close to the Heart by Nishant Batsha -- Oct 28: gaslighting in movies >11 featherbear:
TLS Oct 31 >63 featherbear:
UnHerd Oct 28: Jonathan Swift >59 featherbear:
Vox Oct 31: Lord of the Ring & the right >33 featherbear:
WaPo Oct 31: Michael Dirda on Philip Pullman's Rose Field in the context of his works -- Oct 30: Anthony Hopkins memoir -- Oct 29: Danielewski's Tom's Crossing; John Irving's Queen Esther -- Oct 28: Jesse Jackson; critique of US Middle East policy -- Oct 26: Catherine Newman's Wreck of a novel >7 featherbear:
Washington Monthly Oct 30: Cory Doctorow on enshittification; income inequality & modern authoritariansim -- Oct 28: running & father >40 featherbear:
Oct index >2 featherbear:
Oct 2-4 updates >19 featherbear:
Oct 5-11 updates >24 featherbear:
Oct 12-18 updates >50 featherbear:
Oct 19-25 updates >56 featherbear:
New websites/journals:
404media >61 featherbear:
dirt.fyi >62 featherbear:
JStor Daily >66 featherbear:
Metropolitan Review >60 featherbear:
Slate >58 featherbear:
UnHerd >59 featherbear:
Vogue >57 featherbear:
Asian Review of Books Oct 31: Indian relationship novel -- Oct 29: Chinese on the beach: stories -- Oct 26: Silk Roads cookery >34 featherbear:
Atlantic Oct 31: intense female friendships in novels; Gertrude Stein bio; Patti Smith memoir -- Oct 30: Thomas McGuane profile; women in 1970s horror movies; Why George Packer's novel matters -- Oct 29: Paper Girl vs Hillbilly Elegy -- Oct 28: Grokipedia vs Wikipedia -- Oct 27: chocolate (French) >21 featherbear:
The Critic (UK): Oct 30: no UK reparations for slavery trade -- Oct 28: porn bad >10 featherbear:
Guardian Oct 31: Anne Enright memoir; best recent poetry -- Oct 30: Heart the Lover -- Oct 28: new collection of Salman Rushdie stories -- Oct 27: WH Auden's intense friendship; new Chris Kraus book; Anthony Bourdain reader; ranking Zadie Smith books -- Oct 26: excerpt from Anne Enright memoir >8 featherbear:
Hudson Review Autumn 2025: TS Eliot's Collected Prose >38 featherbear:
LARB Oct 31: The AI Con; ChatGPT & the Humanities -- Oct 30: Revisiting Pynchon's Vineland; Edward Steed's drawings -- Oct 29: John Tottenham's Service; Idiocy -- Oct 28: Tom's Crossing -- Oct 27: conquest of the Americas; new Helen Dewitt (& another person) novel -- Oct 26: cancel culture book >18 featherbear:
LitHub Oct 31: Anne Sexton's horror stories; criminal profiling & Sherlock Holmes -- Oct 30: Baker & Taylor's end & impact on libraries; Fanny Hill -- Oct 27: list of books on why we choose >13 featherbear:
New Yorker Oct 31: Big Kiss Bye Bye -- Oct 30: profile of Polish poet Wisława Szymborska; monsters -- Oct 27: new insights on Kant >9 featherbear:
NYRB Online Nov 20 (posted 10/30): >65 featherbear:
NYT Oct 31: Lea Ypi's Indignity -- Oct 30: Gothic fiction starter pack; profile of Mark Danielewski -- Oct 29: tech platforms, markets, & democracy; Your Name Here controversy -- Oct 28: Joaquin Murrieta legend; Mark Danielewski's new novel is a Western?; Joseph Ellis on the founding of America; Zadie Smith essays; Indian revolutionaries at Berkeley -- Oct 27: changes in teaching of history; Cameron Crowe; Jack Carr -- Oct 26: Review of The Rose Field, concluding the series begun with the Dark Materials trilogy >6 featherbear:
Public Books Oct 30: Rebecca West's child narration in The Fountain Overflows -- Oct 29: A Bomb Placed Close to the Heart by Nishant Batsha -- Oct 28: gaslighting in movies >11 featherbear:
TLS Oct 31 >63 featherbear:
UnHerd Oct 28: Jonathan Swift >59 featherbear:
Vox Oct 31: Lord of the Ring & the right >33 featherbear:
WaPo Oct 31: Michael Dirda on Philip Pullman's Rose Field in the context of his works -- Oct 30: Anthony Hopkins memoir -- Oct 29: Danielewski's Tom's Crossing; John Irving's Queen Esther -- Oct 28: Jesse Jackson; critique of US Middle East policy -- Oct 26: Catherine Newman's Wreck of a novel >7 featherbear:
Washington Monthly Oct 30: Cory Doctorow on enshittification; income inequality & modern authoritariansim -- Oct 28: running & father >40 featherbear:
Oct index >2 featherbear:
Oct 2-4 updates >19 featherbear:
Oct 5-11 updates >24 featherbear:
Oct 12-18 updates >50 featherbear:
Oct 19-25 updates >56 featherbear:
New websites/journals:
404media >61 featherbear:
dirt.fyi >62 featherbear:
JStor Daily >66 featherbear:
Metropolitan Review >60 featherbear:
Slate >58 featherbear:
UnHerd >59 featherbear:
Vogue >57 featherbear:
65featherbear
NYRB Online 11/20/2025
Literature
Langdon Hammer. Alert to Reality: The first biography of James Schuyler suggests that his tendency to withdraw was both a harbinger of his disabling mood disorder and the wellspring of his shimmering poetry. Review of: A Day Like Any Other: The Life of James Schuyler / Nathan Kernan.
Joanna Biggs. Staying Power. Review of: Ruth: a novel / Kate Riley.
Arts
Adam Shatz. The Spiritual Jazz of Alice Coltrane. Review of Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal, an exhibition at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, February 9–May 4, 2025; catalog of the exhibition edited by Erin Christovale -- Monument Eternal / Alice Coltrane, with a foreword by Ashley Kahn.
Miranda Seymour. Mary Shelley’s ‘Hideous Progeny.’ Review of: Mary Shelley in Bath / with an introduction by Fiona Sampson -- Frankenstein, a film written and directed by Guillermo del Toro.
Jonathan Lethem. Frantic Realism: Paul Thomas Anderson fits a generation’s worth of cineplex joys into One Battle After Another, but the revolution refuses to get off the couch.
Colin B. Bailey. Watteau’s Theater: In Pierrot, Jean-Antoine Watteau depicted the all-embracing humanity of commedia dell’arte. Review of Revoir Watteau, un comédien sans réplique: Pierrot, dit le Gilles = A New Look at Watteau, an Actor with No Lines: Pierrot, Known as Gilles / an exhibition at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, October 16, 2024–February 3, 2025; catalog of the exhibition by Guillaume Faroult.
Science, Technology, Medicine
Anne Diebel. A Woman’s Burden: Freezing eggs has been marketed as a panacea for ambitious professional women supposedly hungry for more time to focus on their careers, when in reality it’s often a last resort for women negotiating a mating crisis. Review of: Motherhood on Ice: The Mating Gap and Why Women Freeze Their Eggs / Marcia C. Inhorn -- The Big Freeze: A Reporter’s Personal Journey into the World of Egg Freezing and the Quest to Control Our Fertility / Natalie Lampert.
History, Politics, Culture
James Oakes. Speculation in Human Property: The survival of slave trading during the Civil War suggests that enslaved people remained valuable commodities in a time of economic upheaval. Review of: An Unholy Traffic: Slave Trading in the Civil War South / Robert K.D. Colby.
Linda Kinstler. Falling Off the Map: World War I set the stage a century ago for new ways of thinking about where states come from and what happens when they disappear.. Review of: The Life and Death of States: Central Europe and the Transformation of Modern Sovereignty / Natasha Wheatley -- How States Die: Membership and Survival in the International System / Douglas Lemke.
Samuel Stein. Reshaping the City: What does zoning reform have the power to change? Review of: Key to the City: How Zoning Shapes Our World / Sara C. Bronin.
Fintan O'Toole. The Lingering Delusion. Review of: 107 Days / Kamala Harris.
Literature
Langdon Hammer. Alert to Reality: The first biography of James Schuyler suggests that his tendency to withdraw was both a harbinger of his disabling mood disorder and the wellspring of his shimmering poetry. Review of: A Day Like Any Other: The Life of James Schuyler / Nathan Kernan.
Joanna Biggs. Staying Power. Review of: Ruth: a novel / Kate Riley.
Arts
Adam Shatz. The Spiritual Jazz of Alice Coltrane. Review of Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal, an exhibition at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, February 9–May 4, 2025; catalog of the exhibition edited by Erin Christovale -- Monument Eternal / Alice Coltrane, with a foreword by Ashley Kahn.
Miranda Seymour. Mary Shelley’s ‘Hideous Progeny.’ Review of: Mary Shelley in Bath / with an introduction by Fiona Sampson -- Frankenstein, a film written and directed by Guillermo del Toro.
Jonathan Lethem. Frantic Realism: Paul Thomas Anderson fits a generation’s worth of cineplex joys into One Battle After Another, but the revolution refuses to get off the couch.
Colin B. Bailey. Watteau’s Theater: In Pierrot, Jean-Antoine Watteau depicted the all-embracing humanity of commedia dell’arte. Review of Revoir Watteau, un comédien sans réplique: Pierrot, dit le Gilles = A New Look at Watteau, an Actor with No Lines: Pierrot, Known as Gilles / an exhibition at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, October 16, 2024–February 3, 2025; catalog of the exhibition by Guillaume Faroult.
Science, Technology, Medicine
Anne Diebel. A Woman’s Burden: Freezing eggs has been marketed as a panacea for ambitious professional women supposedly hungry for more time to focus on their careers, when in reality it’s often a last resort for women negotiating a mating crisis. Review of: Motherhood on Ice: The Mating Gap and Why Women Freeze Their Eggs / Marcia C. Inhorn -- The Big Freeze: A Reporter’s Personal Journey into the World of Egg Freezing and the Quest to Control Our Fertility / Natalie Lampert.
History, Politics, Culture
James Oakes. Speculation in Human Property: The survival of slave trading during the Civil War suggests that enslaved people remained valuable commodities in a time of economic upheaval. Review of: An Unholy Traffic: Slave Trading in the Civil War South / Robert K.D. Colby.
Linda Kinstler. Falling Off the Map: World War I set the stage a century ago for new ways of thinking about where states come from and what happens when they disappear.. Review of: The Life and Death of States: Central Europe and the Transformation of Modern Sovereignty / Natasha Wheatley -- How States Die: Membership and Survival in the International System / Douglas Lemke.
Samuel Stein. Reshaping the City: What does zoning reform have the power to change? Review of: Key to the City: How Zoning Shapes Our World / Sara C. Bronin.
Fintan O'Toole. The Lingering Delusion. Review of: 107 Days / Kamala Harris.
66featherbear
Amelia Soth. JStor Daily, 10/30/2025: Tutivillus Is Watching You. "For medieval scribes, mistakes couldn’t be easily shrugged off, as Tutivillus, the stickler demon, was always looking over their shoulders."
67featherbear
November 2025 Index
404media >83 featherbear:
Atlantic >75 featherbear:
Asian Review of Books >72 featherbear:
Commonweal >138 featherbear:
The Critic >70 featherbear:
fivebooks.com >80 featherbear:
The Guardian >71 featherbear:
LARB >69 featherbear:
Literary Review >95 featherbear:
LitHub >77 featherbear:
Metropolitan Review >90 featherbear:
New Yorker >76 featherbear:
NYT >68 featherbear:
The Point >79 featherbear:
Public Books >78 featherbear:
TLS Nov 14 >91 featherbear:
WaPo >74 featherbear:
Washington Monthly >93 featherbear:
Oct index >2 featherbear:
404media >83 featherbear:
Atlantic >75 featherbear:
Asian Review of Books >72 featherbear:
Commonweal >138 featherbear:
The Critic >70 featherbear:
fivebooks.com >80 featherbear:
The Guardian >71 featherbear:
LARB >69 featherbear:
Literary Review >95 featherbear:
LitHub >77 featherbear:
Metropolitan Review >90 featherbear:
New Yorker >76 featherbear:
NYT >68 featherbear:
The Point >79 featherbear:
Public Books >78 featherbear:
TLS Nov 14 >91 featherbear:
WaPo >74 featherbear:
Washington Monthly >93 featherbear:
Oct index >2 featherbear:
68featherbear
NYT November 2025
Jessica Bennett. 11/30/2025: How Should a Victim Be? Review of: GIRLS PLAY DEAD: Acts of Self-Preservation / Jen Percy.
Ben Brantley. 11/29/2025: The Language of Tom Stoppard, Ablaze With Energy and Urgency. "In works like “Travesties” and “Arcadia,” the playwright embraced the really big questions and wrestled words into coherent, exhilarating shape."
Ben Markovits. 11/29/2025: A Nobel Winner Blurs Genres and Genders in This Bewitching Novel. Review of: HOUSE OF DAY, HOUSE OF NIGHT / Olga Tokarczuk; translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones.
Jeff Giles. 11/29/2025: I Was Once a Broken Reader. I Found My Way Back to Books. Temporarily unlocked; over 400 responses to this article at NYT.
Drew Lichtenberg. 11/28/2025: Every Generation Gets the Shakespeare It Deserves.
Markus Rediker. 11/26/2025: How Capitalism Took Over the World. Review of: CAPITALISM: A Global History / Sven Beckert.
Sarah Lyall. 11/26/2025: Everyone Is Invited to Jane Austen’s Birthday Party. "For this story, Sarah Lyall traveled to Bath, England, and Baltimore; saw two exhibits and two plays; re-read six novels; purchased a handbag made to look like a copy of “Pride and Prejudice”; and tried on a Regency bonnet."
New York Times Books Staff. 11/24/2025, upd 11/25: 100 Notable Books of 2025: Here is the standout fiction and nonfiction of the year, selected by the staff of The New York Times Book Review. Temporarily unlocked
Sylvia Brownrigg. 11/24/2025: A Secret Defined Her Life. She Had No Idea. Review of: FAMILY OF SPIES: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor / Christine Kuehn.
Michelle Ruiz. 11/24/2025: She’ll Do Anything to Land Her Dream House. No, Really: Anything. Review of: BEST OFFER WINS: a novel / Marisa Kashino.
Alexandra Jacobs. 11/23/2025: Reintroducing Jessica Mitford, the Activist With a ‘Concrete Upper Lip.’ Review of: TROUBLEMAKER: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford / Carla Kaplan.
Brian Bannon. 11/23/2025: Do Audiobooks Count as Reading? Not in my book with certain exceptions, but Temporarily unlocked to hear the other side; didn't realize the head of the New York Public Library was dyslexic.
Ed Simon. 11/22/2025: Shakespeare Becoming Shakespeare, With Help From His Working-Class Peers. Review of: THE DREAM FACTORY: London’s First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare / Daniel Swift.
Jennifer Szalai. 11/21/2025: Pop Culture Got Stale. Counterculture Went Right-Wing. Considering Blank Space: A Cultural History of the Twenty-First Century / W. David Marx, with reference also to Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics / Elle Reeve, Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture / Kyle Chayka, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion, and Constant Change / W. David Marx.
Álvaro Enrigue. 11/19/2025: It’s a Miracle That Mexico Exists at All. Review of: MEXICO: A 500-Year History / Paul Gillingham.
Sharon Otterman. 11/19/2025: At This College, the English Dept. Is Out. ‘Human Narratives’ Is In. 65 comments at last count
Jin Yu Young. 11/19/2025: These Books Were Judged by Their A.I. Covers, and Disqualified. "A New Zealand book competition dropped two of a publisher’s books because they had A.I.-generated covers. The publisher and the designer pushed back."
Sam Kean. 11/19/2025: Night — and a Gentleman Burglar — at the Museum. Review of: THE BUTTERFLY THIEF: Adventure, Fraud, Scotland Yard, and Australia’s Greatest Museum Heist / Walter Marsh (Scribe).
Dennis Zhou. NY Times Magazine, 11/18/2025: She Has Taken 30 Years to Write a 7-Part Novel About 1 Day. It’s a Sensation. "The Danish author Solvej Balle’s experimental opus reframes the tedium of contemporary life as a source of unexpected wonders."
Joshua Hammer. 11/18/2025: The Answer? According to Simon Winchester, It’s Blowing in the Wind. Review of: THE BREATH OF THE GODS: The History and Future of the Wind / Simon Winchester.
Martin Riker. 11/18/2025: The Literary Master Who Made Play His Life’s Work. Revisiting: A Certain Lucas / Julio Cortázar.
Sebastian Castillo. 11/18/2025: The Secret to Getting Through Big, Dense, Difficult Books.
Chloe Gong. 11/18/2025: Great Cyberpunk Novels That Imagine New Futures.
Sam Thielman. 11/17/2025: The Voluptuous Return of ‘Love and Rockets.’ Review of:LOVERS AND HATERS: A Love and Rockets Book / Gilbert Hernandez.
Dwight Garner. 11/17/2025: Her Father Wrote ‘On the Road.’ She Lived Her Own Version. Regarding the reissue of Baby Driver / Jan Kerouac.
Robert Pinsky. 11/16/2025: This 1,200-Page Poetry Book Affirms Seamus Heaney’s Towering Genius. Review of: THE POEMS OF SEAMUS HEANEY / edited by Rosie Lavan and Bernard O’Donoghue with Matthew Hollis.
Jean M. Twenge. 11/16/2025: The Screen That Ate Your Child’s Education. Related: Claire Cain Miller & Sarah Mervosh, 11/12/2025: How Much Screen Time Is Your Child Getting at School? We Asked 350 Teachers.
Alexandra Jacobs. 11/16/2025: Talking Dogs and the Spirit of Sontag Show Up in This Story Collection. Review of: THE PELICAN CHILD: Stories / Joy Williams.
Sarah Lyall. 11/16/2025: Pulse-Pounding, Nail-Biting New Thrillers: Murder at the Christmas Emporium: a novel / Andreina Cordani -- Predicament: a Gabriel Dax novel / William Boyd -- Gone Before Goodbye: a novel / Reese Witherspoon & Harlen Coben (Grand Central Publishing).
Ruth Margalit. 11/15/2025: Around the World, From the Trenches to the Club, Youth Are in Revolt. Review of: THE FIRE: Voices of a Generation in Iran, Ukraine, and Afghanistan / Cecilia Sala; translated by Oonagh Stransky (Europa Editions).
María Sánchez Díez. 11/15/2025: Feeling the Angst? These Nuns Have You Covered. (Not Like That.) Profile of the authors, regarding their: Convent Wisdom: How Sixteenth Century Nuns Could Save Your Twenty-First Century Life / Ana Gariga & Carmen Urbita.
Janice P. Nimura. 11/14/2025: The Building Blocks of Life Were Just the Beginning. Review of: CRICK: A Mind in Motion / Matthew Cobb.
John McWhorter. 11/13/2025: One Horror of Slavery That Until Recently Could Not Be Told. Regarding: The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery / Siddharth Kara.
Lydia Millett. 11/13/2025: A Moving, Urgent Novel About … the Wind? Yes, the Wind. Review of: Helm: a novel / Sarah Hall.
Sarah Weinman. 11/13/2025: Have Yourself a Deadly Little Christmas. Four new mysteries.
Vanessa Friedman. 11/12/2025: Michelle Obama’s New Book Is a Historical Document Dressed Up as a Coffee-Table Tome. Regarding: The Look / Michelle Obama.
Anthony Marra. 11/12/2025: A Cold Case and a Bold New Voice Fuel This Potent Novel. Review of: The Slip: A Novel / Lucas Schaefer.
Trish Bendix. 11/12/2025: This Club Kid Knows How to Survive. The Better Question Is: How to Live? Review of: TERRY DACTYL / Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore.
Joumana Khatib. 11/11/2025: Notes From a Young Mother, to the Daughter She Left Behind. Review of: THE WHITE HOT: a novel / Quiara Alegría Hudes.
Casey Schwartz. 11/11/2025: What Could Have Stopped Hitler — and Didn’t. Review of: FATEFUL HOURS: The Collapse of the Weimar Republic / Volker Ullrich; translated by Jefferson Chase.
Thomas Mallon. 11/11/2025: What Happens When an Empire Falls? This Novel Has Some Ideas. Review of: THE EMERGENCY: a novel / George Packer.
Rachel Louise Snyder. 11/11/2025: She Was a Victim. She Became a Headline. Here, She’s a Person. Review of: WITHOUT CONSENT: A Landmark Trial and the Decades-Long Struggle to Make Spousal Rape a Crime / Sarah Weinman.
Jennifer Szalai. 11/11/2025: John Fetterman’s Memoir Is Unlike Any Politician’s Book You’ve Read. Review of: UNFETTERED / John Fetterman (Crown).
Alex Marshall. 11/10/2025; upd 11/11: David Szalay’s ‘Flesh’ Wins 2025 Booker Prize. "The rags-to-riches tale had already made fans of Zadie Smith and Dua Lipa. Roddy Doyle, who chaired the judging panel, called the book “singular” and “extraordinary." Anchor link: Flesh: a novel / David Szalay.
Naomi Huffman. 11/10/2025: Sylvia Plath Was Reading This Novel Before She Died. It’s Brilliant. Revisiting: The Ha-Ha / Jennifer Dawson.
Ted Widmer. 11/10/2025: Ken Burns Brings the War of Independence to the Unruly Present. Review of: THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION: An Intimate History / Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns (book of the TV series).
Dwight Garner. 11/10/2025: American Literature Owes a Great Debt to This 20th-Century ‘Insider.’ Review of: THE INSIDER: Malcolm Cowley and the Triumph of American Literature / Gerald Howard.
Julia Moskin. 11/10/2025: In Padma Lakshmi’s Kitchen, the Key Ingredient Is Immigration. Profile regarding: Padma's All American: Tales, Travels, and Recipes from Taste the Nation and Beyond: A Cookbook / Padma Lakshmi.
Joan Silber. 11/20/2025: She Wanted a Good Death — Without Her Beloved Husband by Her Side. Review of: SOME BRIGHT NOWHERE / Ann Packer.
Alexandra Jacobs. 11/09/2025: Making Sense of Dollars and Cents. Review of: THE HISTORY OF MONEY: A Story of Humanity / David McWilliams.
Kathryn Hughes. 11/09/2025: A Tale of Two Couples, and a Nation, Emerging From a Deep Freeze. Review of: THE LAND IN WINTER / Andrew Miller.
Sadie Stein. 11/08/2025: The Essential Kate Atkinson.
11/07/2025: The 2025 New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books.
Everdeen Mason. 11/07/2025: A Dystopian Novel for Our ChatGPT-Filled Times. Review of: WHO KNOWS YOU BY HEART / C.J. Farley.
Hannah Gold. 11/07/2025: Welcome to Japan. Now Please Leave Me Alone. Review of: PALAVER: a novel / Bryan Washington.
Christopher Bollen. 11/07/2025: An Extravagant Dive Into Italian Cinema, Filled With Love and Death. Review of: THE SILVER BOOK: a novel / Olivia Laing
Jordan Ellenberg. 11/06/2025: Can Math Be Violent? For 3 Scholars, the Solution Was Yes. Review of: THE GREAT MATH WAR: How Three Brilliant Minds Fought for the Foundation of Mathematics / Jason Socrates Bardi.
David Hajdu. 11/06/2025: Taking Stock: Patti Smith Looks Back on Everything. Review of: BREAD OF ANGELS: a memoir / Patti Smith.
Stefano Montali. 11/06/2025: The First Time I Read ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’: Katherine Rundell, Christopher Paolini and other writers mark the 75th anniversary of the book’s U.S. publication: “It taught me to long for big pleasures.” Anchor link: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe / C.S. Lewis.
Harriet Lane. 11/05/2025: For These Wild Irish Party Girls, Hints of an Adult Reckoning. Review of: THIRST TRAP: a novel / Gráinne O’Hare.
Irina Dumitrescu. 11/05/2025: The Wedding Cake Was a Triumph. The Marriage Went Stale. Review of: THE HEART-SHAPED TIN: Love, Loss, and Kitchen Objects / Bee Wilson.
Leah Greenblatt. 11/05/2025: To Shrimp, Perchance to Dream: A Tale of a Young Man and the Sea. Review of: Seascraper / Benjamin Wood.
Ivan Nechepurenko. 11/05/2025: In Russia, Bookstores Offer a Shrinking Refuge as Censorship Tightens.
Jonathan M. Metzl. 11/04/2025: Murderer, Martyr or Mirror? The First Luigi Mangione Book Is Here. Review of: LUIGI: The Making and the Meaning / John H. Richardson.
Abigail Dean. 11/04/2025: A Tale of Toxic Friendship, With a Midlife Mean-Girl Twist. Review of: OTHER PEOPLE’S FUN: a novel / Harriet Lane.
Ivy Pochoda. 11/04/2025: A Bad Man, a Wronged Woman and a Knife: Welcome to Dinner Party Hell. Review of: THE DINNER PARTY: a novel / Viola van de Sandt.
Charlie Lee. 11/04/2025: Forget Nostalgia: The Exiles in This Dreamlike Novel Are Angry. Review of: FALSE WAR / Carlos Manuel Álvarez; translated by Natasha Wimmer.
Erin Somers. 11/04/2025: It’s Hard to Be Chronically Online and Hate Your Friends. Review of: FLAT EARTH / Anika Jade Levy.
Jeffrey Toobin. 11/03/2025: INJUSTICE: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America’s Justice Department / Carol Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis.
Julia Moskin. 11/03/2025: Martha Stewart Transformed the Dinner Party. Was That a Good Thing? Regarding the reissue of: Entertaining / Martha Stewart.
Constant Méheut. 11/03/2025: A Celebrated French Writer Loved Russia. War Forced a Reckoning. "Emmanuel Carrère’s best sellers on Russia grew out of a deep affection. Since Moscow invaded Ukraine, he has traveled to the war-torn country to rethink his views."
Peter Orner. 11/02/2025: John Irving’s Latest Revisits the World of ‘Cider House Rules.’ Review of: QUEEN ESTHER / John Irving.
Amy Waldman. 11/02/2025: Disco, Djinns and 5-Star Service in Afghanistan. Review of: THE FINEST HOTEL IN KABUL: A People’s History of Afghanistan / Lyse Doucet.
Alexandra Jacobs. 11/02/2025: Rushdie Returns to Fiction, With Mortality on His Mind. Review of: THE ELEVENTH HOUR: A Quintet of Stories / Salman Rushdie.
Corey Kilgannon. 11/01/2025: One Bookstore, 3 Sisters and 100 Years. "A Midtown Manhattan anomaly, the Argosy Book Store continues to thrive thanks to the dedication of the three women who have presided over it for decades."
Bobby Finger. 11/01/2025: Red State Meets Blue State, in One Quaint Vacation Town. Review of: TOWN & COUNTRY: a novel / Brian Schaefer.
Alexandra Alter. 11/01/2025: For a Literary Saint, Margaret Atwood Can Sure Hold a Grudge. Profile of Atwood regarding her forthcoming: Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts.
Sam Thielman. 11/01/2025: Turning Grief Into Art With Unusual Wit. Review of: THE EPHEMERATA: Shaping the Exquisite Nature of Grief / Carol Tyler.
Jessica Bennett. 11/30/2025: How Should a Victim Be? Review of: GIRLS PLAY DEAD: Acts of Self-Preservation / Jen Percy.
Ben Brantley. 11/29/2025: The Language of Tom Stoppard, Ablaze With Energy and Urgency. "In works like “Travesties” and “Arcadia,” the playwright embraced the really big questions and wrestled words into coherent, exhilarating shape."
Ben Markovits. 11/29/2025: A Nobel Winner Blurs Genres and Genders in This Bewitching Novel. Review of: HOUSE OF DAY, HOUSE OF NIGHT / Olga Tokarczuk; translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones.
Jeff Giles. 11/29/2025: I Was Once a Broken Reader. I Found My Way Back to Books. Temporarily unlocked; over 400 responses to this article at NYT.
Drew Lichtenberg. 11/28/2025: Every Generation Gets the Shakespeare It Deserves.
Markus Rediker. 11/26/2025: How Capitalism Took Over the World. Review of: CAPITALISM: A Global History / Sven Beckert.
Sarah Lyall. 11/26/2025: Everyone Is Invited to Jane Austen’s Birthday Party. "For this story, Sarah Lyall traveled to Bath, England, and Baltimore; saw two exhibits and two plays; re-read six novels; purchased a handbag made to look like a copy of “Pride and Prejudice”; and tried on a Regency bonnet."
New York Times Books Staff. 11/24/2025, upd 11/25: 100 Notable Books of 2025: Here is the standout fiction and nonfiction of the year, selected by the staff of The New York Times Book Review. Temporarily unlocked
Sylvia Brownrigg. 11/24/2025: A Secret Defined Her Life. She Had No Idea. Review of: FAMILY OF SPIES: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor / Christine Kuehn.
Michelle Ruiz. 11/24/2025: She’ll Do Anything to Land Her Dream House. No, Really: Anything. Review of: BEST OFFER WINS: a novel / Marisa Kashino.
Alexandra Jacobs. 11/23/2025: Reintroducing Jessica Mitford, the Activist With a ‘Concrete Upper Lip.’ Review of: TROUBLEMAKER: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford / Carla Kaplan.
Brian Bannon. 11/23/2025: Do Audiobooks Count as Reading? Not in my book with certain exceptions, but Temporarily unlocked to hear the other side; didn't realize the head of the New York Public Library was dyslexic.
Ed Simon. 11/22/2025: Shakespeare Becoming Shakespeare, With Help From His Working-Class Peers. Review of: THE DREAM FACTORY: London’s First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare / Daniel Swift.
Jennifer Szalai. 11/21/2025: Pop Culture Got Stale. Counterculture Went Right-Wing. Considering Blank Space: A Cultural History of the Twenty-First Century / W. David Marx, with reference also to Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics / Elle Reeve, Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture / Kyle Chayka, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion, and Constant Change / W. David Marx.
Álvaro Enrigue. 11/19/2025: It’s a Miracle That Mexico Exists at All. Review of: MEXICO: A 500-Year History / Paul Gillingham.
Sharon Otterman. 11/19/2025: At This College, the English Dept. Is Out. ‘Human Narratives’ Is In. 65 comments at last count
Jin Yu Young. 11/19/2025: These Books Were Judged by Their A.I. Covers, and Disqualified. "A New Zealand book competition dropped two of a publisher’s books because they had A.I.-generated covers. The publisher and the designer pushed back."
Sam Kean. 11/19/2025: Night — and a Gentleman Burglar — at the Museum. Review of: THE BUTTERFLY THIEF: Adventure, Fraud, Scotland Yard, and Australia’s Greatest Museum Heist / Walter Marsh (Scribe).
Dennis Zhou. NY Times Magazine, 11/18/2025: She Has Taken 30 Years to Write a 7-Part Novel About 1 Day. It’s a Sensation. "The Danish author Solvej Balle’s experimental opus reframes the tedium of contemporary life as a source of unexpected wonders."
Joshua Hammer. 11/18/2025: The Answer? According to Simon Winchester, It’s Blowing in the Wind. Review of: THE BREATH OF THE GODS: The History and Future of the Wind / Simon Winchester.
Martin Riker. 11/18/2025: The Literary Master Who Made Play His Life’s Work. Revisiting: A Certain Lucas / Julio Cortázar.
Sebastian Castillo. 11/18/2025: The Secret to Getting Through Big, Dense, Difficult Books.
Chloe Gong. 11/18/2025: Great Cyberpunk Novels That Imagine New Futures.
Sam Thielman. 11/17/2025: The Voluptuous Return of ‘Love and Rockets.’ Review of:LOVERS AND HATERS: A Love and Rockets Book / Gilbert Hernandez.
Dwight Garner. 11/17/2025: Her Father Wrote ‘On the Road.’ She Lived Her Own Version. Regarding the reissue of Baby Driver / Jan Kerouac.
Robert Pinsky. 11/16/2025: This 1,200-Page Poetry Book Affirms Seamus Heaney’s Towering Genius. Review of: THE POEMS OF SEAMUS HEANEY / edited by Rosie Lavan and Bernard O’Donoghue with Matthew Hollis.
Jean M. Twenge. 11/16/2025: The Screen That Ate Your Child’s Education. Related: Claire Cain Miller & Sarah Mervosh, 11/12/2025: How Much Screen Time Is Your Child Getting at School? We Asked 350 Teachers.
Alexandra Jacobs. 11/16/2025: Talking Dogs and the Spirit of Sontag Show Up in This Story Collection. Review of: THE PELICAN CHILD: Stories / Joy Williams.
Sarah Lyall. 11/16/2025: Pulse-Pounding, Nail-Biting New Thrillers: Murder at the Christmas Emporium: a novel / Andreina Cordani -- Predicament: a Gabriel Dax novel / William Boyd -- Gone Before Goodbye: a novel / Reese Witherspoon & Harlen Coben (Grand Central Publishing).
Ruth Margalit. 11/15/2025: Around the World, From the Trenches to the Club, Youth Are in Revolt. Review of: THE FIRE: Voices of a Generation in Iran, Ukraine, and Afghanistan / Cecilia Sala; translated by Oonagh Stransky (Europa Editions).
María Sánchez Díez. 11/15/2025: Feeling the Angst? These Nuns Have You Covered. (Not Like That.) Profile of the authors, regarding their: Convent Wisdom: How Sixteenth Century Nuns Could Save Your Twenty-First Century Life / Ana Gariga & Carmen Urbita.
Janice P. Nimura. 11/14/2025: The Building Blocks of Life Were Just the Beginning. Review of: CRICK: A Mind in Motion / Matthew Cobb.
John McWhorter. 11/13/2025: One Horror of Slavery That Until Recently Could Not Be Told. Regarding: The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery / Siddharth Kara.
Lydia Millett. 11/13/2025: A Moving, Urgent Novel About … the Wind? Yes, the Wind. Review of: Helm: a novel / Sarah Hall.
Sarah Weinman. 11/13/2025: Have Yourself a Deadly Little Christmas. Four new mysteries.
Vanessa Friedman. 11/12/2025: Michelle Obama’s New Book Is a Historical Document Dressed Up as a Coffee-Table Tome. Regarding: The Look / Michelle Obama.
Anthony Marra. 11/12/2025: A Cold Case and a Bold New Voice Fuel This Potent Novel. Review of: The Slip: A Novel / Lucas Schaefer.
Trish Bendix. 11/12/2025: This Club Kid Knows How to Survive. The Better Question Is: How to Live? Review of: TERRY DACTYL / Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore.
Joumana Khatib. 11/11/2025: Notes From a Young Mother, to the Daughter She Left Behind. Review of: THE WHITE HOT: a novel / Quiara Alegría Hudes.
Casey Schwartz. 11/11/2025: What Could Have Stopped Hitler — and Didn’t. Review of: FATEFUL HOURS: The Collapse of the Weimar Republic / Volker Ullrich; translated by Jefferson Chase.
Thomas Mallon. 11/11/2025: What Happens When an Empire Falls? This Novel Has Some Ideas. Review of: THE EMERGENCY: a novel / George Packer.
Rachel Louise Snyder. 11/11/2025: She Was a Victim. She Became a Headline. Here, She’s a Person. Review of: WITHOUT CONSENT: A Landmark Trial and the Decades-Long Struggle to Make Spousal Rape a Crime / Sarah Weinman.
Jennifer Szalai. 11/11/2025: John Fetterman’s Memoir Is Unlike Any Politician’s Book You’ve Read. Review of: UNFETTERED / John Fetterman (Crown).
Alex Marshall. 11/10/2025; upd 11/11: David Szalay’s ‘Flesh’ Wins 2025 Booker Prize. "The rags-to-riches tale had already made fans of Zadie Smith and Dua Lipa. Roddy Doyle, who chaired the judging panel, called the book “singular” and “extraordinary." Anchor link: Flesh: a novel / David Szalay.
Naomi Huffman. 11/10/2025: Sylvia Plath Was Reading This Novel Before She Died. It’s Brilliant. Revisiting: The Ha-Ha / Jennifer Dawson.
Ted Widmer. 11/10/2025: Ken Burns Brings the War of Independence to the Unruly Present. Review of: THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION: An Intimate History / Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns (book of the TV series).
Dwight Garner. 11/10/2025: American Literature Owes a Great Debt to This 20th-Century ‘Insider.’ Review of: THE INSIDER: Malcolm Cowley and the Triumph of American Literature / Gerald Howard.
Julia Moskin. 11/10/2025: In Padma Lakshmi’s Kitchen, the Key Ingredient Is Immigration. Profile regarding: Padma's All American: Tales, Travels, and Recipes from Taste the Nation and Beyond: A Cookbook / Padma Lakshmi.
Joan Silber. 11/20/2025: She Wanted a Good Death — Without Her Beloved Husband by Her Side. Review of: SOME BRIGHT NOWHERE / Ann Packer.
Alexandra Jacobs. 11/09/2025: Making Sense of Dollars and Cents. Review of: THE HISTORY OF MONEY: A Story of Humanity / David McWilliams.
Kathryn Hughes. 11/09/2025: A Tale of Two Couples, and a Nation, Emerging From a Deep Freeze. Review of: THE LAND IN WINTER / Andrew Miller.
Sadie Stein. 11/08/2025: The Essential Kate Atkinson.
11/07/2025: The 2025 New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books.
Everdeen Mason. 11/07/2025: A Dystopian Novel for Our ChatGPT-Filled Times. Review of: WHO KNOWS YOU BY HEART / C.J. Farley.
Hannah Gold. 11/07/2025: Welcome to Japan. Now Please Leave Me Alone. Review of: PALAVER: a novel / Bryan Washington.
Christopher Bollen. 11/07/2025: An Extravagant Dive Into Italian Cinema, Filled With Love and Death. Review of: THE SILVER BOOK: a novel / Olivia Laing
Jordan Ellenberg. 11/06/2025: Can Math Be Violent? For 3 Scholars, the Solution Was Yes. Review of: THE GREAT MATH WAR: How Three Brilliant Minds Fought for the Foundation of Mathematics / Jason Socrates Bardi.
David Hajdu. 11/06/2025: Taking Stock: Patti Smith Looks Back on Everything. Review of: BREAD OF ANGELS: a memoir / Patti Smith.
Stefano Montali. 11/06/2025: The First Time I Read ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’: Katherine Rundell, Christopher Paolini and other writers mark the 75th anniversary of the book’s U.S. publication: “It taught me to long for big pleasures.” Anchor link: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe / C.S. Lewis.
Harriet Lane. 11/05/2025: For These Wild Irish Party Girls, Hints of an Adult Reckoning. Review of: THIRST TRAP: a novel / Gráinne O’Hare.
Irina Dumitrescu. 11/05/2025: The Wedding Cake Was a Triumph. The Marriage Went Stale. Review of: THE HEART-SHAPED TIN: Love, Loss, and Kitchen Objects / Bee Wilson.
Leah Greenblatt. 11/05/2025: To Shrimp, Perchance to Dream: A Tale of a Young Man and the Sea. Review of: Seascraper / Benjamin Wood.
Ivan Nechepurenko. 11/05/2025: In Russia, Bookstores Offer a Shrinking Refuge as Censorship Tightens.
Jonathan M. Metzl. 11/04/2025: Murderer, Martyr or Mirror? The First Luigi Mangione Book Is Here. Review of: LUIGI: The Making and the Meaning / John H. Richardson.
Abigail Dean. 11/04/2025: A Tale of Toxic Friendship, With a Midlife Mean-Girl Twist. Review of: OTHER PEOPLE’S FUN: a novel / Harriet Lane.
Ivy Pochoda. 11/04/2025: A Bad Man, a Wronged Woman and a Knife: Welcome to Dinner Party Hell. Review of: THE DINNER PARTY: a novel / Viola van de Sandt.
Charlie Lee. 11/04/2025: Forget Nostalgia: The Exiles in This Dreamlike Novel Are Angry. Review of: FALSE WAR / Carlos Manuel Álvarez; translated by Natasha Wimmer.
Erin Somers. 11/04/2025: It’s Hard to Be Chronically Online and Hate Your Friends. Review of: FLAT EARTH / Anika Jade Levy.
Jeffrey Toobin. 11/03/2025: INJUSTICE: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America’s Justice Department / Carol Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis.
Julia Moskin. 11/03/2025: Martha Stewart Transformed the Dinner Party. Was That a Good Thing? Regarding the reissue of: Entertaining / Martha Stewart.
Constant Méheut. 11/03/2025: A Celebrated French Writer Loved Russia. War Forced a Reckoning. "Emmanuel Carrère’s best sellers on Russia grew out of a deep affection. Since Moscow invaded Ukraine, he has traveled to the war-torn country to rethink his views."
Peter Orner. 11/02/2025: John Irving’s Latest Revisits the World of ‘Cider House Rules.’ Review of: QUEEN ESTHER / John Irving.
Amy Waldman. 11/02/2025: Disco, Djinns and 5-Star Service in Afghanistan. Review of: THE FINEST HOTEL IN KABUL: A People’s History of Afghanistan / Lyse Doucet.
Alexandra Jacobs. 11/02/2025: Rushdie Returns to Fiction, With Mortality on His Mind. Review of: THE ELEVENTH HOUR: A Quintet of Stories / Salman Rushdie.
Corey Kilgannon. 11/01/2025: One Bookstore, 3 Sisters and 100 Years. "A Midtown Manhattan anomaly, the Argosy Book Store continues to thrive thanks to the dedication of the three women who have presided over it for decades."
Bobby Finger. 11/01/2025: Red State Meets Blue State, in One Quaint Vacation Town. Review of: TOWN & COUNTRY: a novel / Brian Schaefer.
Alexandra Alter. 11/01/2025: For a Literary Saint, Margaret Atwood Can Sure Hold a Grudge. Profile of Atwood regarding her forthcoming: Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts.
Sam Thielman. 11/01/2025: Turning Grief Into Art With Unusual Wit. Review of: THE EPHEMERATA: Shaping the Exquisite Nature of Grief / Carol Tyler.
69featherbear
LARB November 2025
Joel Edward Goza. 11/30/2025: Racialized Economic Piracy. Review of: The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made / Calvin Schermerhorn.
Alexis Clements. 11/29/2025: Spent / Alison Bechdel. "Alexis Clements uses Alison Bechdel’s new graphic novel “Spent” to meditate on the predicament of the creative artist today."
Cory Oldweiler. 11/26/2025: A Power Built on Lies. Review of: Eye of the Monkey: a novel / Krisztina Tóth; translated by Ottilie Mulzet.
Shehryar Fazli. 11/25/2025: A Citadel of Fatuousness. Review of: King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution; A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation / Scott Anderson.
Sam Shpall. 11/24/2025: Herzog in the Jungle of Truth. Review of: The Future of Truth / Werner Herzog; translator Michael Hofmann.
Ariel Dorfman. 11/23/2025: Chile Yesterday, America Today. Review of: Chile in Their Hearts: The Untold Story of Two Americans Who Went Missing After the Coup / John Dinges.
Leah Litman. 11/22/2025: Is Justice Barrett Listening? Review of: Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution / Amy Coney Barrett.
Gideon Leek. 11/21/2025: Our Reigning Prophet of Doom. Review of: The Pelican Child / Joy Williams.
Lois Parkinson Zamora. 11/19/2025: A Radical Functionalist. Review of: Architect Hannes Meyer and Radical Modernism / Georg Leidenberger (Peter Lang).
Cory Oldweiler. 11/18/2025: You Can Go Home Again, and Again, and Again. Review of: On the Calculation of Volume (Book III) / Solvej Balle. Translated by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell.
Helena Aeberli. 11/18/2025: The Cult of Orgasm. Review of: Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult / Ellen Huet.
Aurelian Craiutu. 11/17/2025: In the Shadow of Yesterday. Review of: Intellectuals and the Crisis of Politics in the Interwar Period and Beyond: A Transnational History / Balázs Trencsényi (Oxford University Press).
Harry Stecopoulos. 11/16/2025: Laboring in the Dream Factory. Review of: The Silver Book: a novel / Olivia Laing.
Alexander Lefebvre. 11/14/2025: A Mole in MAGA’s Midst. Review of: Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right / Laura K. Field.
Zoe Adams. 11/13/2025: An Emergency Born of Prosperity. Review of: There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America / Brian Goldstone.
William Egginton. 11/12/2025: Philosophy’s Warnings in the “Absence” of Emergency. Review of: Signs from the Future: A Philosophy of Warnings / Santiago Zabala.
Cameron Engwall. 11/11/2025: Everyone Feels Deeply Alabamian. Review of: Blessings and Disasters: A Story of Alabama / Alexis Okeowo.
Minjie Chen. 11/10/2025: Hello, Kitty; Goodbye, Illusions. Review of: Hello, Kitty and Other Stories / Anne Stevenson-Yang.
Victoria Dailey. 11/08/2025: Los Angeles in Black and White. Review of: Paul Landacre: California Hills, Hollywood and the World Beyond / Jake Milgram Wien.
Randy M. Browne. 11/08/2025: Uniquely Positioned to Combat Injustice. Review of: Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights / Keisha N. Blain.
Noemí Fierros. 11/08/2025: On the Receiving End of “Crisis.” Out of a job.
Jordan Williamson. 11/06/2025: Disenchanted Enchantment. Review of: Parascientific Revolutions: The Science and Culture of the Paranormal / Derek Lee -- Spectropolis: The Enchantment of Capital in Singapore / Joshua Comaroff (University of Minnesota Press).
Dave Mandl. 11/05/2025: Giant Platforms of Shit. Review of: Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It / Cory Doctorow.
Aniko Bodroghkozy. 11/04/2025: Very Fine People: Charlottesville, Eight Years Later. Review of: Charlottesville: An American Story / Deborah Baker -- Harbingers: What January 6 and Charlottesville Reveal About Rising Threats to American Democracy / Timothy Heaphy.
Alexander Billet. 11/02/2025: Sound Epistemology. Review of: Why Sound Matters / Damon Krukowski.
Lana Lin. 11/01/2025: Archive, Appendix, Hoodie, Home: the literary and bodily significance of the appendix.
Lindsey Webb. 11/01/2025: I Could Smell Without Smelling. Review of: Lilacs / Rainer Diana Hamilton (Krupskaya). (poems)
Joel Edward Goza. 11/30/2025: Racialized Economic Piracy. Review of: The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made / Calvin Schermerhorn.
Alexis Clements. 11/29/2025: Spent / Alison Bechdel. "Alexis Clements uses Alison Bechdel’s new graphic novel “Spent” to meditate on the predicament of the creative artist today."
Cory Oldweiler. 11/26/2025: A Power Built on Lies. Review of: Eye of the Monkey: a novel / Krisztina Tóth; translated by Ottilie Mulzet.
Shehryar Fazli. 11/25/2025: A Citadel of Fatuousness. Review of: King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution; A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation / Scott Anderson.
Sam Shpall. 11/24/2025: Herzog in the Jungle of Truth. Review of: The Future of Truth / Werner Herzog; translator Michael Hofmann.
Ariel Dorfman. 11/23/2025: Chile Yesterday, America Today. Review of: Chile in Their Hearts: The Untold Story of Two Americans Who Went Missing After the Coup / John Dinges.
Leah Litman. 11/22/2025: Is Justice Barrett Listening? Review of: Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution / Amy Coney Barrett.
Gideon Leek. 11/21/2025: Our Reigning Prophet of Doom. Review of: The Pelican Child / Joy Williams.
Lois Parkinson Zamora. 11/19/2025: A Radical Functionalist. Review of: Architect Hannes Meyer and Radical Modernism / Georg Leidenberger (Peter Lang).
Cory Oldweiler. 11/18/2025: You Can Go Home Again, and Again, and Again. Review of: On the Calculation of Volume (Book III) / Solvej Balle. Translated by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell.
Helena Aeberli. 11/18/2025: The Cult of Orgasm. Review of: Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult / Ellen Huet.
Aurelian Craiutu. 11/17/2025: In the Shadow of Yesterday. Review of: Intellectuals and the Crisis of Politics in the Interwar Period and Beyond: A Transnational History / Balázs Trencsényi (Oxford University Press).
Harry Stecopoulos. 11/16/2025: Laboring in the Dream Factory. Review of: The Silver Book: a novel / Olivia Laing.
Alexander Lefebvre. 11/14/2025: A Mole in MAGA’s Midst. Review of: Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right / Laura K. Field.
Zoe Adams. 11/13/2025: An Emergency Born of Prosperity. Review of: There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America / Brian Goldstone.
William Egginton. 11/12/2025: Philosophy’s Warnings in the “Absence” of Emergency. Review of: Signs from the Future: A Philosophy of Warnings / Santiago Zabala.
Cameron Engwall. 11/11/2025: Everyone Feels Deeply Alabamian. Review of: Blessings and Disasters: A Story of Alabama / Alexis Okeowo.
Minjie Chen. 11/10/2025: Hello, Kitty; Goodbye, Illusions. Review of: Hello, Kitty and Other Stories / Anne Stevenson-Yang.
Victoria Dailey. 11/08/2025: Los Angeles in Black and White. Review of: Paul Landacre: California Hills, Hollywood and the World Beyond / Jake Milgram Wien.
Randy M. Browne. 11/08/2025: Uniquely Positioned to Combat Injustice. Review of: Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights / Keisha N. Blain.
Noemí Fierros. 11/08/2025: On the Receiving End of “Crisis.” Out of a job.
Jordan Williamson. 11/06/2025: Disenchanted Enchantment. Review of: Parascientific Revolutions: The Science and Culture of the Paranormal / Derek Lee -- Spectropolis: The Enchantment of Capital in Singapore / Joshua Comaroff (University of Minnesota Press).
Dave Mandl. 11/05/2025: Giant Platforms of Shit. Review of: Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It / Cory Doctorow.
Aniko Bodroghkozy. 11/04/2025: Very Fine People: Charlottesville, Eight Years Later. Review of: Charlottesville: An American Story / Deborah Baker -- Harbingers: What January 6 and Charlottesville Reveal About Rising Threats to American Democracy / Timothy Heaphy.
Alexander Billet. 11/02/2025: Sound Epistemology. Review of: Why Sound Matters / Damon Krukowski.
Lana Lin. 11/01/2025: Archive, Appendix, Hoodie, Home: the literary and bodily significance of the appendix.
Lindsey Webb. 11/01/2025: I Could Smell Without Smelling. Review of: Lilacs / Rainer Diana Hamilton (Krupskaya). (poems)
70featherbear
The Critic (UK) November 2025
Daniel Johnson. 11/28/2025: Heroes, villains and lessons in life. Review of: Margaret Thatcher: the Authorised Biography / Charles Moore, ed. Daniel Collings (Single Volume Centenary Edition) -- The Incidental Feminist: Friend, foe, femme fatale? The truth about Thatcher / Tina Gaudoin (Swift Press) -- Margaret Thatcher: The Prime Ministers Series / Iain Dale -- The Builder’s Stone: How Jews and Christians Built the West—and Why Only They Can Save It / Melanie Phillips (Wicked Son) -- Fly, Wild Swans: My Mother, Myself and China / Jung Chang -- The West: The History of an Idea / Georgios Varouxakis -- The German Empire, 1871 — 1918 / Roger Chickering -- The French Revolution: A Political History / John Hardman -- Goethe: A Life in Ideas / Matthew Bell -- The Life and Thought of Alexandre Kojève / David Broder -- The Poems of Seamus Heaney / Seamus Heaney, edd Rosie Lavan, Bernard O’Donoghue and Matthew Hollis -- Lady Pamela Berry: Passion, Politics and Power / Harriet Cullen.
Jeremy Black. 11/24/2025: Fundamentally ahistorical. Review of: On Strategists and Strategy, Collected Essays, 2014-2024 / Lawrence Freedman (Oxford University Press).
Megan Dent. 11/16/2025: Have we got alcoholism wrong? Review of: Drink Your Way Sober: The Science-Based Method to Break Free from Alcohol / Katie Herzog.
Christopher Bray. 11/15/2025: Strong, silent — but still box office gold. Review of: Clint: The Man and the Movies / Shawn Levy.
Kirsty Stark. 11/15/2025: Suffering: the consequences. Review of: Trauma Industrial Complex: How Oversharing Became a Product in a Digital World / Darren McGarvey -- I Suffer Therefore I Am: Portrait of the Victim as Hero / Pascal Bruckner (Ebury).
John Self. 11/14/2025: From Celtic fringe to Bible belt. Fiction round-up: Pulse / Cynan Jones -- Saints / Tim MacGabhann (short fiction: Scratch Books) -- Good Country People / Flannery O’Connor; selected & introduced by Lauren Groff.
D.J. Taylor. 11/13/2025: The rise and fall of English Lit.. Review of: Literature and Learning: A History of English Studies in Britain / Stefan Collini.
The Secret Author. 11/13/2025: Time to start a new chapter: The rapid decline of reading should set alarm bells ringing at the Ministry of Education.
Gavin McCormick. 11/12/2025: Maker’s dozen. Review of: Twelve Churches: an Unlikely History of the Buildings that Made Christianity / Fergus Butler-Gallie.
Daniel Johnson. 11/11/2025: Goethe, a man of ideas: Even to list the academic fields in which he was a pioneer is exhausting. Review of: Goethe: A Life in Ideas / Matthew Bell.
Joshua T. Katz. 11/10/2025: Will “they” catch on?: Pronouns are far too interesting to be left to trans activists on either side. Review of: Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words / John McWhorter.
Mehmet Çiftçi. 11/10/2025: Wrangling over the writings of a rogue. Review of: The Strange History of Samuel Pepys’s Diary / Kate Loveman .
Bijan Omrani. 11/09/2025: Lyrical wormholes into the past. Review of: A History of England in 25 Poems: Treasures and Discoveries / Catherine Clarke (Allen Lane).
Jonathan Gaisman. 11/08/2025: A heavyweight companion for life. Review of: Music’s Odyssey: An Invitation to Western Classical Music / Robin Holloway (Allen Lane).
Jeremy Black. 11/01/2025: Murders for November. (omnibus crime fiction review)
Daniel Johnson. 11/28/2025: Heroes, villains and lessons in life. Review of: Margaret Thatcher: the Authorised Biography / Charles Moore, ed. Daniel Collings (Single Volume Centenary Edition) -- The Incidental Feminist: Friend, foe, femme fatale? The truth about Thatcher / Tina Gaudoin (Swift Press) -- Margaret Thatcher: The Prime Ministers Series / Iain Dale -- The Builder’s Stone: How Jews and Christians Built the West—and Why Only They Can Save It / Melanie Phillips (Wicked Son) -- Fly, Wild Swans: My Mother, Myself and China / Jung Chang -- The West: The History of an Idea / Georgios Varouxakis -- The German Empire, 1871 — 1918 / Roger Chickering -- The French Revolution: A Political History / John Hardman -- Goethe: A Life in Ideas / Matthew Bell -- The Life and Thought of Alexandre Kojève / David Broder -- The Poems of Seamus Heaney / Seamus Heaney, edd Rosie Lavan, Bernard O’Donoghue and Matthew Hollis -- Lady Pamela Berry: Passion, Politics and Power / Harriet Cullen.
Jeremy Black. 11/24/2025: Fundamentally ahistorical. Review of: On Strategists and Strategy, Collected Essays, 2014-2024 / Lawrence Freedman (Oxford University Press).
Megan Dent. 11/16/2025: Have we got alcoholism wrong? Review of: Drink Your Way Sober: The Science-Based Method to Break Free from Alcohol / Katie Herzog.
Christopher Bray. 11/15/2025: Strong, silent — but still box office gold. Review of: Clint: The Man and the Movies / Shawn Levy.
Kirsty Stark. 11/15/2025: Suffering: the consequences. Review of: Trauma Industrial Complex: How Oversharing Became a Product in a Digital World / Darren McGarvey -- I Suffer Therefore I Am: Portrait of the Victim as Hero / Pascal Bruckner (Ebury).
John Self. 11/14/2025: From Celtic fringe to Bible belt. Fiction round-up: Pulse / Cynan Jones -- Saints / Tim MacGabhann (short fiction: Scratch Books) -- Good Country People / Flannery O’Connor; selected & introduced by Lauren Groff.
D.J. Taylor. 11/13/2025: The rise and fall of English Lit.. Review of: Literature and Learning: A History of English Studies in Britain / Stefan Collini.
The Secret Author. 11/13/2025: Time to start a new chapter: The rapid decline of reading should set alarm bells ringing at the Ministry of Education.
Gavin McCormick. 11/12/2025: Maker’s dozen. Review of: Twelve Churches: an Unlikely History of the Buildings that Made Christianity / Fergus Butler-Gallie.
Daniel Johnson. 11/11/2025: Goethe, a man of ideas: Even to list the academic fields in which he was a pioneer is exhausting. Review of: Goethe: A Life in Ideas / Matthew Bell.
Joshua T. Katz. 11/10/2025: Will “they” catch on?: Pronouns are far too interesting to be left to trans activists on either side. Review of: Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words / John McWhorter.
Mehmet Çiftçi. 11/10/2025: Wrangling over the writings of a rogue. Review of: The Strange History of Samuel Pepys’s Diary / Kate Loveman .
Bijan Omrani. 11/09/2025: Lyrical wormholes into the past. Review of: A History of England in 25 Poems: Treasures and Discoveries / Catherine Clarke (Allen Lane).
Jonathan Gaisman. 11/08/2025: A heavyweight companion for life. Review of: Music’s Odyssey: An Invitation to Western Classical Music / Robin Holloway (Allen Lane).
Jeremy Black. 11/01/2025: Murders for November. (omnibus crime fiction review)
71featherbear
The Guardian November 2025
Dorian Lynskey. 12/23/2025: An extraordinary history of the economic system that controls our lives. Review of: Capitalism: A Global History / Sven Beckert.
Chelsea Leu. 12/23/2025: Why was my mother so cruel to me? Review of: Bad Bad Girl: A Novel / Gish Jen.
12/23/2025: What to read in 2026: recommendations from booksellers and publishers in Abuja, Nairobi and Brighton. "A selection of the best Kenyan, Nigerian and black diaspora writing from 2025 – and some to look out for next year."
Mircea Cărtărescu, interviewer Philip Oltermann. 11/30/2025: ‘I took literary revenge against the people who stole my youth’: Romanian author Mircea Cărtărescu. "As the first part of his acclaimed Blinding trilogy is released in the UK, the novelist talks about communism, Vladimir Nabokov – and those Nobel rumours." Regarding: Blinding: The Left Wing / Mircea Cărtărescu, translated by Sean Cotter.
Sian Cain. 11/29/2025: Fran Lebowitz: ‘Hiking is the most stupid thing I could ever imagine.’ "The US author and orator on leaf blowers and Labubus, the weirdest thing she has done for love and struggling with contemporary novels."
Ella Creamer. 11/28/2025: From Dylan Thomas’ shopping list to a note from Sylvia Plath’s doctor: newly uncovered case files reveal the hidden lives of famous writers. "Exclusive: Hardship grant applications to the Royal Literary Fund, including unseen letters by Doris Lessing and a note from James Joyce saying that he ‘gets nothing in the way of royalties’, show authors at their most vulnerable."
Tessa Hadley. 11/28/2025: Tessa Hadley: ‘Uneasy books are good in uneasy times’ (The Books In My Life Series).
Richard Horan. 11/27/2025: Sympathy for a devil? Review of: Luigi: The Making and the Meaning / John H Richardson.
Sam Leith. 11/26/2025: Comic confessions of a grumpy bookseller: Working in a bookshop while failing to write a novel, the narrator admits to being a ‘living cliche’ in this bitter black comedy. Review of: Service (Semiotext(e) / Native Agents) / John Tottenham (US: Semiotext(e); UK: Tuskar Rock).
Charles Arrowsmith. 11/25/2025: Can this sprawling epic deliver on its promise? Review of: The School of Night: a novel / Karl Ove Knausgård; translator Martin Aitken (US publisher: Penguin Press; UK: Harvill).
Sophie McBain. 11/25/2025: The charismatic philanderer who changed science. Review of: Crick: A Mind in Motion / Matthew Cobb (US publisher: Basic Books; UK: Profile).
Kathryn Hughes. 11/24/2025: A magnificent portrait of the artist. Review of: Holbein: Renaissance Master / Elizabeth Goldring.
Viv Groskop. 11/23/2025: ‘He was just trying to earn a few kopecks’: how newly translated stories reveal Chekhov’s silly side. Review of: Anton Chekhov: Earliest Stories: Stories, Novellas, Humoresques, 1880–1882 / edited by Rosamund Bartlett and Elena Michajlowska.
Karl Ove Knausgård, interviewer Chris Power. 11/23/2025: ‘I knew I was doing something I shouldn’t’: Karl Ove Knausgård on the fallout from My Struggle and the dark side of ambition. With reference to Knausgard's The School of Night: A Novel / translated by Martin Aitken (US publisher: Penguin Press; UK: Harvill) as well as My Struggle.
Alex Clark. 11/21/2025: A kaleidoscopic study of transience. Review of: Things That Disappear: Reflections and Memories / Jenny Erpenbeck and translated by Kurt Beals (US: New Directions; UK: Granta).
Aisha Down. 11/21/2025: Hundreds of English-language websites link to pro-Kremlin propaganda. "Thinktank says internet flooded with disinformation by Russia-aligned Pravda network, which many websites treat as credible."
Keith Connolly. 11/20/2025: Digitised official records of Nuremberg trials made available online. "Launch on 80th anniversary of groundbreaking legal effort comes after 25-year project by Harvard law school library."
Adam Rutherford. 11/19/2025: The author of Palestine turns his attention to the legacies of Indian partition in this brilliant portrait of the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. Review of the documentary graphic novel The Once and Future Riot / Joe Sacco.
Ruth Gilligan. 11/19/2025: An intimate soiree builds to a horrific climax in this visceral novel about a young woman tasked with hosting a meal for her fiance. Review of: The Dinner Party: a novel / Viola van de Sandt.
Emma Loffhagen. 11/19/2025: Sarah Ferguson’s new children’s book ‘pulped’ after scrutiny over Jeffrey Epstein links. "Copies of Flora and Fern: Kindness Along the Way, which was set to be published in October, have been sent for recycling."
Aida Edemariam. 11/18/2025: A visceral tale of witchcraft. Review of: The Wax Child / Olga Ravn.
Steven Poole. 11/18/2025: Portrait of a Python. Review of: Seriously Silly: The Life of Terry Jones / Robert Ross.
Guardian, 11/18/2025: The wild old wicked gang: great Irish writers – in pictures. "Edna O’Brien on her sofa, Joseph O’Connor in his garden, Seamus Heaney surrounded by books … British photographer Steve Pyke on capturing the greats of Irish literature."
Jason Wilson. 11/17/2025: White nationalist talking points and racial pseudoscience: welcome to Elon Musk’s Grokipedia.
Lanre Bakare. 11/17/2025: Not OK? Booker winner Flesh ignites debate about state of masculinity. Talking about Flesh / David Szalay.
John Banville. 11/17/2025: The man incapable of writing a bad sentence. Review of: Selected Letters of John Updike (UK title: John Updike: A Life in Letters / John Updike, editor James Schiff (US publisher: Knopf; UK: Hamish Hamilton).
Yagnishsing Dawoor. 11/17/2025: Life with borderline personality disorder. Review of: That Reminds Me / Derek Owusu.
John Self. 11/17/2025: Memoirs, myths and Midnight’s Children: Salman Rushdie’s 10 best books – ranked.
Alice Jolly. 11/16/2025: His research on autism was compassionate – how could Hans Asperger have collaborated with the Nazis? Alice Jolly on her novel The Matchbox Girl.
Guardian editors. 11/15/2025: The Guardian view on the Booker prize winner: putting masculinity back at the centre of literary fiction: editorial. Regarding: Flesh / David Szalay.
Ellen E. Jones. 11/14/2025: Secrets from the set of a definitive 80s movie. Review of: Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum / Michael J Fox and Nelle Fortenberry.
Laura Wilson. 11/14/2025: The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup.
Alison Flood. 11/13/2025: Dragon-fired horror epic is a tour de force. Review of: King Sorrow / Joe Hill.
Sam Byers. 11/13/2025: A thin line of beauty. Review of: The Silver Book: A Novel / Olivia Laing.
Kath Larsen. 11/13/2025: An imperfect end to an extraordinary era. Review of: Murder in the Cathedral / Kerry Greenwood.
Martin Pengelly. 11/12/2025: ‘Every account is slightly different’: who were the real Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday? Review of: Brothers of the Gun: Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and a Reckoning in Tombstone / Mark Lee Gardner.
Peter Bradshaw. 11/12/2025: A legend with a temper. Review of: We Did OK, Kid: A Memoir / Anthony Hopkins.
Jude Cook. 11/12/2025: Chronically funny satire of the literary scene. Review of: Loren Ipsum / Andrew Gallix.
Lisa Allardyce w/David Szalay. 11/11/2025: David Szalay on Flesh, his astounding Booker prize-winner. Link: Flesh: a novel / David Szalay.
Sukhdev Sandhu. 11/11/2025: The Nobel laureate performs a strange miracle. Review of: Vaim / Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls.
Anthony Cummins. 11/11/2025: Freewheeling reflections on life, art and AI. Review of: One Aladdin Two Lamps / Jeanette Winterson.
Ella Creamer. 11/10/2025: David Szalay wins 2025 Booker prize for ‘dark’ Flesh. Link: Flesh: a novel / David Szalay.
Will Hermes. 11/10/2025: A wild ride with the poet of punk. Review of: Bread of Angels: a memoir / Patti Smith.
Arifa Akbar. 11/09/2025: ‘Ambition is a punishing sphere for women’: author Maggie Nelson on why Taylor Swift is the Sylvia Plath of her generation. Regarding: The Slicks: On Sylvia Plath and Taylor Swift and also Pathemata: Or, the Story of My Mouth by Maggie Nelson.
Walter Marsh. 11/08/2025: ‘They’re not wolves – they’re sheep’: the psychiatrist who spent decades meeting and studying lone-actor mass killers. Interview regarding: Running Amok: Inside the Mind of the Lone Mass Killer / Paul E Mullen (Extraordinary Books).
Kathryn Hughes. 11/07/2025: A sexy celebration of romantic fiction. Review of: In Love With Love: The Persistence and Joy of Romantic Fiction / Ella Risbridger.
Jessie Greengrass. 11/06/2025: A hypnotic tale of the sea cow’s extinction. Review of: Beasts of the Sea: A Novel / Lida Turpeinen; translated from the Finnish by David Hackston (US: Little, Brown; UK: MacLehose).
Ian Leslie. 11/05/2025: A brilliant story of post-Beatles revival. Review of: Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run / Paul McCartney.
Sian Cain. 11/05/2025: ‘I’m never surprised when I read about a woman murdering a man’: Helen Garner on her Baillie Gifford prize-winning diaries. Regarding: How to End a Story: Collected Diaries by Helen Garner.
Amanda Craig. 11/05/2025: Darkly comic tale of envy and revenge in the Insta age. Review of: High & Low: a novel / Amanda Craig (Abacus; forthcoming in May).
Chloe McDonnell. 11/04/2025: Michelle Obama’s book details how the media’s fixation on her arms was used to ‘otherize’ her. Regarding: The Look / Michelle Obama.
Marcel Theroux. 11/04/2025: House of Leaves author returns with a 1200-page western. Review of: Tom’s Crossing / Mark Z Danielewski.
Robert Booth. 11/03/2025: In Grok we don’t trust: academics assess Elon Musk’s AI-powered encyclopedia. "In Grok we don’t trust: academics assess Elon Musk’s AI-powered encyclopedia."
Ramon Antonio Vargas. 11/03/2025: ‘Badass’ Salman Rushdie says he doesn’t have PTSD symptoms after 2022 attack.
Anthony Hopkins, interviewer Steve Rose. 11/03/2025: ‘I knew I needed help. I knew it was over.’ Regarding the memoir We Did OK, Kid / Anthony Hopkins.
Blake Morrison. 11/03/2025: The great novelist reveals her hidden side. Review of: Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts / Margaret Atwood.
John Self. 11/03/2025: A disappointing companion to The Cider House Rules. Review of: Queen Esther: a novel / (by "The once-great author") John Irving.
John Self. 11/02/2025: ‘It’s not just a book, it’s a window to my soul’: why we’re in love with literary angst. "Why did an obscure Dostoevsky novella sell 100,000 copies in the UK last year? And why are TikTokers raving about a 1943 Turkish novel? The way young people are discovering books is changing – and their literary tastes reflect our times."
Lisa Allardice. 11/01/2025: ‘It is the scariest of times’: Margaret Atwood on defying Trump, banned books – and her score-settling memoir. Review of: Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts / Margaret Atwood.
Dorian Lynskey. 12/23/2025: An extraordinary history of the economic system that controls our lives. Review of: Capitalism: A Global History / Sven Beckert.
Chelsea Leu. 12/23/2025: Why was my mother so cruel to me? Review of: Bad Bad Girl: A Novel / Gish Jen.
12/23/2025: What to read in 2026: recommendations from booksellers and publishers in Abuja, Nairobi and Brighton. "A selection of the best Kenyan, Nigerian and black diaspora writing from 2025 – and some to look out for next year."
Mircea Cărtărescu, interviewer Philip Oltermann. 11/30/2025: ‘I took literary revenge against the people who stole my youth’: Romanian author Mircea Cărtărescu. "As the first part of his acclaimed Blinding trilogy is released in the UK, the novelist talks about communism, Vladimir Nabokov – and those Nobel rumours." Regarding: Blinding: The Left Wing / Mircea Cărtărescu, translated by Sean Cotter.
Sian Cain. 11/29/2025: Fran Lebowitz: ‘Hiking is the most stupid thing I could ever imagine.’ "The US author and orator on leaf blowers and Labubus, the weirdest thing she has done for love and struggling with contemporary novels."
Ella Creamer. 11/28/2025: From Dylan Thomas’ shopping list to a note from Sylvia Plath’s doctor: newly uncovered case files reveal the hidden lives of famous writers. "Exclusive: Hardship grant applications to the Royal Literary Fund, including unseen letters by Doris Lessing and a note from James Joyce saying that he ‘gets nothing in the way of royalties’, show authors at their most vulnerable."
Tessa Hadley. 11/28/2025: Tessa Hadley: ‘Uneasy books are good in uneasy times’ (The Books In My Life Series).
Richard Horan. 11/27/2025: Sympathy for a devil? Review of: Luigi: The Making and the Meaning / John H Richardson.
Sam Leith. 11/26/2025: Comic confessions of a grumpy bookseller: Working in a bookshop while failing to write a novel, the narrator admits to being a ‘living cliche’ in this bitter black comedy. Review of: Service (Semiotext(e) / Native Agents) / John Tottenham (US: Semiotext(e); UK: Tuskar Rock).
Charles Arrowsmith. 11/25/2025: Can this sprawling epic deliver on its promise? Review of: The School of Night: a novel / Karl Ove Knausgård; translator Martin Aitken (US publisher: Penguin Press; UK: Harvill).
Sophie McBain. 11/25/2025: The charismatic philanderer who changed science. Review of: Crick: A Mind in Motion / Matthew Cobb (US publisher: Basic Books; UK: Profile).
Kathryn Hughes. 11/24/2025: A magnificent portrait of the artist. Review of: Holbein: Renaissance Master / Elizabeth Goldring.
Viv Groskop. 11/23/2025: ‘He was just trying to earn a few kopecks’: how newly translated stories reveal Chekhov’s silly side. Review of: Anton Chekhov: Earliest Stories: Stories, Novellas, Humoresques, 1880–1882 / edited by Rosamund Bartlett and Elena Michajlowska.
Karl Ove Knausgård, interviewer Chris Power. 11/23/2025: ‘I knew I was doing something I shouldn’t’: Karl Ove Knausgård on the fallout from My Struggle and the dark side of ambition. With reference to Knausgard's The School of Night: A Novel / translated by Martin Aitken (US publisher: Penguin Press; UK: Harvill) as well as My Struggle.
Alex Clark. 11/21/2025: A kaleidoscopic study of transience. Review of: Things That Disappear: Reflections and Memories / Jenny Erpenbeck and translated by Kurt Beals (US: New Directions; UK: Granta).
Aisha Down. 11/21/2025: Hundreds of English-language websites link to pro-Kremlin propaganda. "Thinktank says internet flooded with disinformation by Russia-aligned Pravda network, which many websites treat as credible."
Keith Connolly. 11/20/2025: Digitised official records of Nuremberg trials made available online. "Launch on 80th anniversary of groundbreaking legal effort comes after 25-year project by Harvard law school library."
Adam Rutherford. 11/19/2025: The author of Palestine turns his attention to the legacies of Indian partition in this brilliant portrait of the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. Review of the documentary graphic novel The Once and Future Riot / Joe Sacco.
Ruth Gilligan. 11/19/2025: An intimate soiree builds to a horrific climax in this visceral novel about a young woman tasked with hosting a meal for her fiance. Review of: The Dinner Party: a novel / Viola van de Sandt.
Emma Loffhagen. 11/19/2025: Sarah Ferguson’s new children’s book ‘pulped’ after scrutiny over Jeffrey Epstein links. "Copies of Flora and Fern: Kindness Along the Way, which was set to be published in October, have been sent for recycling."
Aida Edemariam. 11/18/2025: A visceral tale of witchcraft. Review of: The Wax Child / Olga Ravn.
Steven Poole. 11/18/2025: Portrait of a Python. Review of: Seriously Silly: The Life of Terry Jones / Robert Ross.
Guardian, 11/18/2025: The wild old wicked gang: great Irish writers – in pictures. "Edna O’Brien on her sofa, Joseph O’Connor in his garden, Seamus Heaney surrounded by books … British photographer Steve Pyke on capturing the greats of Irish literature."
Jason Wilson. 11/17/2025: White nationalist talking points and racial pseudoscience: welcome to Elon Musk’s Grokipedia.
Lanre Bakare. 11/17/2025: Not OK? Booker winner Flesh ignites debate about state of masculinity. Talking about Flesh / David Szalay.
John Banville. 11/17/2025: The man incapable of writing a bad sentence. Review of: Selected Letters of John Updike (UK title: John Updike: A Life in Letters / John Updike, editor James Schiff (US publisher: Knopf; UK: Hamish Hamilton).
Yagnishsing Dawoor. 11/17/2025: Life with borderline personality disorder. Review of: That Reminds Me / Derek Owusu.
John Self. 11/17/2025: Memoirs, myths and Midnight’s Children: Salman Rushdie’s 10 best books – ranked.
Alice Jolly. 11/16/2025: His research on autism was compassionate – how could Hans Asperger have collaborated with the Nazis? Alice Jolly on her novel The Matchbox Girl.
Guardian editors. 11/15/2025: The Guardian view on the Booker prize winner: putting masculinity back at the centre of literary fiction: editorial. Regarding: Flesh / David Szalay.
Ellen E. Jones. 11/14/2025: Secrets from the set of a definitive 80s movie. Review of: Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum / Michael J Fox and Nelle Fortenberry.
Laura Wilson. 11/14/2025: The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup.
Alison Flood. 11/13/2025: Dragon-fired horror epic is a tour de force. Review of: King Sorrow / Joe Hill.
Sam Byers. 11/13/2025: A thin line of beauty. Review of: The Silver Book: A Novel / Olivia Laing.
Kath Larsen. 11/13/2025: An imperfect end to an extraordinary era. Review of: Murder in the Cathedral / Kerry Greenwood.
Martin Pengelly. 11/12/2025: ‘Every account is slightly different’: who were the real Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday? Review of: Brothers of the Gun: Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and a Reckoning in Tombstone / Mark Lee Gardner.
Peter Bradshaw. 11/12/2025: A legend with a temper. Review of: We Did OK, Kid: A Memoir / Anthony Hopkins.
Jude Cook. 11/12/2025: Chronically funny satire of the literary scene. Review of: Loren Ipsum / Andrew Gallix.
Lisa Allardyce w/David Szalay. 11/11/2025: David Szalay on Flesh, his astounding Booker prize-winner. Link: Flesh: a novel / David Szalay.
Sukhdev Sandhu. 11/11/2025: The Nobel laureate performs a strange miracle. Review of: Vaim / Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls.
Anthony Cummins. 11/11/2025: Freewheeling reflections on life, art and AI. Review of: One Aladdin Two Lamps / Jeanette Winterson.
Ella Creamer. 11/10/2025: David Szalay wins 2025 Booker prize for ‘dark’ Flesh. Link: Flesh: a novel / David Szalay.
Will Hermes. 11/10/2025: A wild ride with the poet of punk. Review of: Bread of Angels: a memoir / Patti Smith.
Arifa Akbar. 11/09/2025: ‘Ambition is a punishing sphere for women’: author Maggie Nelson on why Taylor Swift is the Sylvia Plath of her generation. Regarding: The Slicks: On Sylvia Plath and Taylor Swift and also Pathemata: Or, the Story of My Mouth by Maggie Nelson.
Walter Marsh. 11/08/2025: ‘They’re not wolves – they’re sheep’: the psychiatrist who spent decades meeting and studying lone-actor mass killers. Interview regarding: Running Amok: Inside the Mind of the Lone Mass Killer / Paul E Mullen (Extraordinary Books).
Kathryn Hughes. 11/07/2025: A sexy celebration of romantic fiction. Review of: In Love With Love: The Persistence and Joy of Romantic Fiction / Ella Risbridger.
Jessie Greengrass. 11/06/2025: A hypnotic tale of the sea cow’s extinction. Review of: Beasts of the Sea: A Novel / Lida Turpeinen; translated from the Finnish by David Hackston (US: Little, Brown; UK: MacLehose).
Ian Leslie. 11/05/2025: A brilliant story of post-Beatles revival. Review of: Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run / Paul McCartney.
Sian Cain. 11/05/2025: ‘I’m never surprised when I read about a woman murdering a man’: Helen Garner on her Baillie Gifford prize-winning diaries. Regarding: How to End a Story: Collected Diaries by Helen Garner.
Amanda Craig. 11/05/2025: Darkly comic tale of envy and revenge in the Insta age. Review of: High & Low: a novel / Amanda Craig (Abacus; forthcoming in May).
Chloe McDonnell. 11/04/2025: Michelle Obama’s book details how the media’s fixation on her arms was used to ‘otherize’ her. Regarding: The Look / Michelle Obama.
Marcel Theroux. 11/04/2025: House of Leaves author returns with a 1200-page western. Review of: Tom’s Crossing / Mark Z Danielewski.
Robert Booth. 11/03/2025: In Grok we don’t trust: academics assess Elon Musk’s AI-powered encyclopedia. "In Grok we don’t trust: academics assess Elon Musk’s AI-powered encyclopedia."
Ramon Antonio Vargas. 11/03/2025: ‘Badass’ Salman Rushdie says he doesn’t have PTSD symptoms after 2022 attack.
Anthony Hopkins, interviewer Steve Rose. 11/03/2025: ‘I knew I needed help. I knew it was over.’ Regarding the memoir We Did OK, Kid / Anthony Hopkins.
Blake Morrison. 11/03/2025: The great novelist reveals her hidden side. Review of: Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts / Margaret Atwood.
John Self. 11/03/2025: A disappointing companion to The Cider House Rules. Review of: Queen Esther: a novel / (by "The once-great author") John Irving.
John Self. 11/02/2025: ‘It’s not just a book, it’s a window to my soul’: why we’re in love with literary angst. "Why did an obscure Dostoevsky novella sell 100,000 copies in the UK last year? And why are TikTokers raving about a 1943 Turkish novel? The way young people are discovering books is changing – and their literary tastes reflect our times."
Lisa Allardice. 11/01/2025: ‘It is the scariest of times’: Margaret Atwood on defying Trump, banned books – and her score-settling memoir. Review of: Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts / Margaret Atwood.
72featherbear
Asian Review of Books November 2025
Prarthana Prakash. 11/30/2025: “A Sixth of Humanity: Independent India’s Development Odyssey” by Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian. Review of: A Sixth of Humanity: Independent India’s Development Odyssey / Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian.
Angus Stewart. 11/29/2025: “Women, Seated” by Zhang Yueran. Review of: Women, Seated / Zhang Yueran; translator Jeremy Tiang.
Ian Rapley. 11/28/2025: “Fuji: A Mountain In The Making” by Andrew Bernstein. Review of: Fuji: A Mountain In The Making / Andrew W. Bernstein.
Maximillian Morch. 11/26/2025: “River Traveller: Journeys on the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra from Tibet to the Bay of Bengal” by Sanjoy Hazarika. Review of: River Traveller: Journeys on the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra from Tibet to the Bay of Bengal / Sanjoy Hazarika (Speaking Tiger).
Vikram Zutshi. 11/25/2025: “The Only City: Bombay in Eighteen Stories”, edited by Anindita Ghose. Review of: The Only City: Bombay in Eighteen Stories / edited by Anindita Ghose (Fourth Estate India).
Aidan Hall. 11/24/2025: “Exposed: A Visual History of the Destruction of the Indonesian Left” by Geoffrey Robinson and Douglas Kammen. Review of: Exposed: A Visual History of the Destruction of the Indonesian Left / Geoffrey Robinson and Douglas Kammen.
Mahika Dahr. 11/22/2025: “The Woman Dies” by Aoko Matsuda. Review of: The Woman Dies / Aoko Matsuda; Polly Barton (trans) (Europa Editions). "fifty odd flash stories."
Peter Gordon. 11/21/2025: “Skin Deep: Contemporary Thai Tales” by V Vinicchayakul. Review of: Skin Deep: Contemporary Thai Tales / by V Vinicchayakul; translated by Lucy Srisuphapreeda (River Books).
Christopher Corker. 11/19/2025: “Swallows” by Natsuo Kirino. Review of: Swallows: a novel / Natsuo Kirino, Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda (trans).
Mahitosh Gopal. 11/18/2025: “The Emperor’s General: The Life and Times of Raja Man Singh of Amber” by Rima Hooja. Review of: The Emperor’s General: The Life and Times of Raja Man Singh of Amber / Rima Hooja (Speaking Tiger Books).
Vikram Zutshi. 11/17/2025: “The Samurai Detectives” by Shōtarō Ikenami. Review of: The Samurai Detectives / Shōtarō Ikenami.
David Chaffetz. 11/16/2025: “The Poetic Way of Xie Lingyun: Literary Expression and the Natural World” by Ping Wang. Review of: The Poetic Way of Xie Lingyun: Literary Expression and the Natural World / Ping Wang (University of Washington Press).
Soni Wadhwa. 11/15/2025: “Father Tongue, Motherland: The Birth of Languages in South Asia” by Peggy Mohan. Review of: Father Tongue, Motherland: The Birth of Languages in South Asia / Peggy Mohan.
Susan Blumberg-Kason. 11/14/2025: “Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window: The Sequel” by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi. Review of: Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window: The Sequel / Tetsuko Kuroyanagi (Vertical).
Francis P. Sempa. 11/12/2025: “The Battle of Manila: Poisoned Victory in the Pacific War” by Nicholas Evan Sarantakes. Review of: The Battle of Manila: Poisoned Victory in the Pacific War / Nicholas Evan Sarantakes.
Shehrazade Zafar-Arif. 11/11/2025: “Half Light” by Mahesh Rao. Review of: Half Light / Mahesh Rao (Pushkin Press; Hamish Hamilton India).
Joshua Bird. 11/09/2025: “Silk Mirage: Through the Looking Glass in Uzbekistan” by Joanna Lillis. Review of: Silk Mirage: Through the Looking Glass in Uzbekistan / by Joanna Lillis (Bloomsbury).
Melanie Ho. 11/08/2025: “Lucky Seed” by Justinian Huang. Review of: Lucky Seed / Justinian Huang.
Yorim Spoelder. 11/07/2025: “Glorious Failure: The Forgotten History of French Imperialism in India” by Robert Ivermee. Review of: Glorious Failure: The Forgotten History of French Imperialism in India / Robert Ivermee.
Ben Woollard. 11/04/2025: “Archipelago of the Sun” by Yoko Tawada. Review of: Archipelago of the Sun / Yoko Tawada. The third novel of the trilogy preceded by: Scattered All Over the Earth & Suggested in the Stars.
David Chaffetz. 11/02/2025: “Rock Art and its Legacy in Myth and Art Petroglyphs from Eurasia, Arabia and North Africa” by Christophe Baumer and Teresa Weber. Review of: Rock Art and its Legacy in Myth and Art Petroglyphs from Eurasia, Arabia and North Africa / Christophe Baumer and Teresa Weber (Bloomsbury).
Susan Blumberg-Kason. 11/01/2025: “The Stateless Central Asian Merchant: The Life of Haim Aghajan Abraham Based on His Journal 1897-1986” by Dahlia Abraham-Klein. Review of: The Stateless Central Asian Merchant: The Life of Haim Aghajan Abraham Based on His Journal 1897-1986 / Dahlia Abraham-Klein (Shamashi Press).
Prarthana Prakash. 11/30/2025: “A Sixth of Humanity: Independent India’s Development Odyssey” by Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian. Review of: A Sixth of Humanity: Independent India’s Development Odyssey / Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian.
Angus Stewart. 11/29/2025: “Women, Seated” by Zhang Yueran. Review of: Women, Seated / Zhang Yueran; translator Jeremy Tiang.
Ian Rapley. 11/28/2025: “Fuji: A Mountain In The Making” by Andrew Bernstein. Review of: Fuji: A Mountain In The Making / Andrew W. Bernstein.
Maximillian Morch. 11/26/2025: “River Traveller: Journeys on the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra from Tibet to the Bay of Bengal” by Sanjoy Hazarika. Review of: River Traveller: Journeys on the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra from Tibet to the Bay of Bengal / Sanjoy Hazarika (Speaking Tiger).
Vikram Zutshi. 11/25/2025: “The Only City: Bombay in Eighteen Stories”, edited by Anindita Ghose. Review of: The Only City: Bombay in Eighteen Stories / edited by Anindita Ghose (Fourth Estate India).
Aidan Hall. 11/24/2025: “Exposed: A Visual History of the Destruction of the Indonesian Left” by Geoffrey Robinson and Douglas Kammen. Review of: Exposed: A Visual History of the Destruction of the Indonesian Left / Geoffrey Robinson and Douglas Kammen.
Mahika Dahr. 11/22/2025: “The Woman Dies” by Aoko Matsuda. Review of: The Woman Dies / Aoko Matsuda; Polly Barton (trans) (Europa Editions). "fifty odd flash stories."
Peter Gordon. 11/21/2025: “Skin Deep: Contemporary Thai Tales” by V Vinicchayakul. Review of: Skin Deep: Contemporary Thai Tales / by V Vinicchayakul; translated by Lucy Srisuphapreeda (River Books).
Christopher Corker. 11/19/2025: “Swallows” by Natsuo Kirino. Review of: Swallows: a novel / Natsuo Kirino, Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda (trans).
Mahitosh Gopal. 11/18/2025: “The Emperor’s General: The Life and Times of Raja Man Singh of Amber” by Rima Hooja. Review of: The Emperor’s General: The Life and Times of Raja Man Singh of Amber / Rima Hooja (Speaking Tiger Books).
Vikram Zutshi. 11/17/2025: “The Samurai Detectives” by Shōtarō Ikenami. Review of: The Samurai Detectives / Shōtarō Ikenami.
David Chaffetz. 11/16/2025: “The Poetic Way of Xie Lingyun: Literary Expression and the Natural World” by Ping Wang. Review of: The Poetic Way of Xie Lingyun: Literary Expression and the Natural World / Ping Wang (University of Washington Press).
Soni Wadhwa. 11/15/2025: “Father Tongue, Motherland: The Birth of Languages in South Asia” by Peggy Mohan. Review of: Father Tongue, Motherland: The Birth of Languages in South Asia / Peggy Mohan.
Susan Blumberg-Kason. 11/14/2025: “Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window: The Sequel” by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi. Review of: Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window: The Sequel / Tetsuko Kuroyanagi (Vertical).
Francis P. Sempa. 11/12/2025: “The Battle of Manila: Poisoned Victory in the Pacific War” by Nicholas Evan Sarantakes. Review of: The Battle of Manila: Poisoned Victory in the Pacific War / Nicholas Evan Sarantakes.
Shehrazade Zafar-Arif. 11/11/2025: “Half Light” by Mahesh Rao. Review of: Half Light / Mahesh Rao (Pushkin Press; Hamish Hamilton India).
Joshua Bird. 11/09/2025: “Silk Mirage: Through the Looking Glass in Uzbekistan” by Joanna Lillis. Review of: Silk Mirage: Through the Looking Glass in Uzbekistan / by Joanna Lillis (Bloomsbury).
Melanie Ho. 11/08/2025: “Lucky Seed” by Justinian Huang. Review of: Lucky Seed / Justinian Huang.
Yorim Spoelder. 11/07/2025: “Glorious Failure: The Forgotten History of French Imperialism in India” by Robert Ivermee. Review of: Glorious Failure: The Forgotten History of French Imperialism in India / Robert Ivermee.
Ben Woollard. 11/04/2025: “Archipelago of the Sun” by Yoko Tawada. Review of: Archipelago of the Sun / Yoko Tawada. The third novel of the trilogy preceded by: Scattered All Over the Earth & Suggested in the Stars.
David Chaffetz. 11/02/2025: “Rock Art and its Legacy in Myth and Art Petroglyphs from Eurasia, Arabia and North Africa” by Christophe Baumer and Teresa Weber. Review of: Rock Art and its Legacy in Myth and Art Petroglyphs from Eurasia, Arabia and North Africa / Christophe Baumer and Teresa Weber (Bloomsbury).
Susan Blumberg-Kason. 11/01/2025: “The Stateless Central Asian Merchant: The Life of Haim Aghajan Abraham Based on His Journal 1897-1986” by Dahlia Abraham-Klein. Review of: The Stateless Central Asian Merchant: The Life of Haim Aghajan Abraham Based on His Journal 1897-1986 / Dahlia Abraham-Klein (Shamashi Press).
73featherbear
Zoë Wicomb, 1948–2025
Rebecca Chao. NYT, 10/31, upd 11/01/2025: Zoë Wicomb, Acclaimed South African Author, Dies at 76.
"Ms. Wicomb (pronounced WICK-um) grew up in a desert-like region of arid scrubland, within a country that enforced racial discrimination through law and terror. She left South Africa in 1970, she said, to put “the whole oppressiveness” she’d felt far behind her, and settled in Britain. She taught secondary school before embarking on an acclaimed literary career in her 30s.
"Her body of work was compact — four novels, two short-story collections and a book of essays — but she nevertheless became, the South African author and Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee wrote in an email, “the most significant of the writers who quit South Africa in the 1970s to get away from the grinding pressures of apartheid.”
Her first book, You Can't Get Lost in Cape Town (1987), is "A collection of loosely connected stories, “Cape Town” offers scenes from the life of Frieda Shenton, a mixed-race girl growing up under apartheid, from childhood to young adulthood. Despite the city’s breadth, the world available to Frieda is constrained to segregated sections of trains and buses and unpaved sides of the road. As the novel’s title wryly suggests, in a way she cannot get lost in Cape Town.
"Ms. Wicomb’s first novel, “David’s Story,” published in 2000, is set during South Africa’s transition out of apartheid. The main character, David Dirkse, a leader in the military arm of the previously outlawed African National Congress, is disoriented in the new political era. As he sets out to uncover the history of his mixed-raced ancestors known as the Griquas, he finds himself on a hit list, possibly by embittered former colleagues or maybe by newer acquaintances.
"In 2013, Yale University awarded Ms. Wicomb the inaugural Windham Campbell Literature Prize for fiction, which came with a $150,000 purse."
As a child, "She wore out the only two works of English-language fiction available to her at home, Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and Charles Dickens’s “Oliver Twist.” “I still love both,” Ms. Wicomb said in a 2017 interview for the website the Bookseller. “I was transported from the vulgarity of apartheid by books — books opened up different worlds, and brought freedom from an oppressive social order.”
"She taught English and creative writing at the University of Strathclyde from 1994 to 2012 and also taught at universities in South Africa. She continued to dissect themes of dislocation and identity in a post-apartheid South Africa in two more novels — “Playing in the Light” (2006) and “October” (2014) — and a short-story collection, “The One That Got Away” (2008), set in Cape Town and Glasgow.
"Her last novel, “Still Life” (2020), chosen by The Times as one of the 10 best historical novels of the year, examined the life of Thomas Pringle, the Scottish-born 19th-century writer often described as the English-language father of South African poetry."
Zoë Wicomb's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/wicombzoe
Rebecca Chao. NYT, 10/31, upd 11/01/2025: Zoë Wicomb, Acclaimed South African Author, Dies at 76.
"Ms. Wicomb (pronounced WICK-um) grew up in a desert-like region of arid scrubland, within a country that enforced racial discrimination through law and terror. She left South Africa in 1970, she said, to put “the whole oppressiveness” she’d felt far behind her, and settled in Britain. She taught secondary school before embarking on an acclaimed literary career in her 30s.
"Her body of work was compact — four novels, two short-story collections and a book of essays — but she nevertheless became, the South African author and Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee wrote in an email, “the most significant of the writers who quit South Africa in the 1970s to get away from the grinding pressures of apartheid.”
Her first book, You Can't Get Lost in Cape Town (1987), is "A collection of loosely connected stories, “Cape Town” offers scenes from the life of Frieda Shenton, a mixed-race girl growing up under apartheid, from childhood to young adulthood. Despite the city’s breadth, the world available to Frieda is constrained to segregated sections of trains and buses and unpaved sides of the road. As the novel’s title wryly suggests, in a way she cannot get lost in Cape Town.
"Ms. Wicomb’s first novel, “David’s Story,” published in 2000, is set during South Africa’s transition out of apartheid. The main character, David Dirkse, a leader in the military arm of the previously outlawed African National Congress, is disoriented in the new political era. As he sets out to uncover the history of his mixed-raced ancestors known as the Griquas, he finds himself on a hit list, possibly by embittered former colleagues or maybe by newer acquaintances.
"In 2013, Yale University awarded Ms. Wicomb the inaugural Windham Campbell Literature Prize for fiction, which came with a $150,000 purse."
As a child, "She wore out the only two works of English-language fiction available to her at home, Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and Charles Dickens’s “Oliver Twist.” “I still love both,” Ms. Wicomb said in a 2017 interview for the website the Bookseller. “I was transported from the vulgarity of apartheid by books — books opened up different worlds, and brought freedom from an oppressive social order.”
"She taught English and creative writing at the University of Strathclyde from 1994 to 2012 and also taught at universities in South Africa. She continued to dissect themes of dislocation and identity in a post-apartheid South Africa in two more novels — “Playing in the Light” (2006) and “October” (2014) — and a short-story collection, “The One That Got Away” (2008), set in Cape Town and Glasgow.
"Her last novel, “Still Life” (2020), chosen by The Times as one of the 10 best historical novels of the year, examined the life of Thomas Pringle, the Scottish-born 19th-century writer often described as the English-language father of South African poetry."
Zoë Wicomb's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/wicombzoe
74featherbear
Washington Post November 2025
Ron Charles. 11/27/2025: ‘Evensong’ offers a lesson in how to live long and well. Review of: Evensong: a novel / Stewart O'Nan.
Virginia Evans, interviewer Nora Krug. 11/26/2025: The story behind the feel-good novel of the year. Regarding: The Correspondent: A Novel / Virginia Evans.
Andrew Ervin. 11/24/2025: A moving, inventive novel about physics, time and love. Review of: Lightbreakers: a novel / Aja Gabel.
Lance Richardson, interviewer John Williams. 11/22/2025: An ‘accidental biographer’ on Peter Matthiessen. Regarding: True Nature: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen / Lance Richardson.
Jacob Brogan. 11/22/2025: The best graphic novels of 2025.
Washington Post staff. 11/21/2025: The 10 best books of 2025. "The year’s best fiction and nonfiction, as selected by the staff of The Washington Post’s Book World."
Washington Post staff. 11/20/2025: 50 notable works of nonfiction from 2025.
Washington Post staff. 11/20/2025: 50 notable works of fiction from 2025.
Charlie Jane Anders. 11/19/2025: The 10 best sci-fi and fantasy novels of 2025.
Jacob Brogan. 11/19/2025: Take the time to read this emotional time loop novel. Review of: On the Calculation of Volume III / Solvej Balle, translated from Danish by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell.
Camilla Townsend. 11/19/2025: ‘Mexico’ is a sparkling history that captures a nation’s complexity. Review of: Mexico: A 500-Year History / Paul Gillingham.
WaPo editors & reviewers. 11/18/2025: The 10 best thrillers of 2025.
Jake Cline. 11/15/2025: At 81, Joy Williams is as good as she’s ever been. Review of: The Pelican Child: Stories / Joy Williams.
Nora Krug; photos Richmond Lam. 11/15/2025: Louise Penny gives us a tour of her book collection. Her dogs come, too. An interactive tour.
Michael Dirda. 11/13/2025: A classic Greek history puts our current turmoil in context. Review of The History of the Peloponnesian War / Thucydides. Translated from Greek by Robin Waterfield (Basic Books).
James Clyburn, interviewer Sophia Nguyen. 11/12/2025: Rep. James Clyburn doesn’t want to repeat the past, so he wrote about it. Regarding: The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation / Jim Clyburn.
Becca Rothfeld. 11/12/2025: A conservative argues we need to value ‘women as women.’ But what does that mean? Review of: The Dignity of Dependence: A Feminist Manifesto / Leah Libresco Sargeant.
Ron Charles. 11/12/2025: In Sarah Hall’s ‘Helm,’ the wind is a central character: The rapidly increasing complexity of this novel’s weather system is wild. Review of: Helm: A Novel / Sarah Hall.
Karen Heller. 11/11/2025: John Fetterman makes a case for himself. It’s not very convincing. Review of: Unfettered / John Fetterman (Crown).
Jess Keiser. 11/10/2025: Horror oozes out of the internet in this inventively creepy novel. Review of: There Is No Antimemetics Division / qntm.
Tim Carman. 11/09/2025: Three celebrated restaurateurs dish about life behind the scenes. Survey of: I'm Not Trying To Be Difficult: Stories from the Restaurant Trenches / Drew Nieporent -- I Regret Almost Everything: A Memoir / Keith McNally -- A Seat at the Table: The Making of Busboys and Poets / Andy Shallal.
Paul Alexander. 11/08/2025: As ‘Dorian Gray’ ages, its relevance only grows. Regarding: The Picture of Dorian Gray / Oscar Wilde.
Becca Rothfeld. 11/05/2025: ‘Girls Play Dead’ is a captivating, myth-busting look at sexual assault. Review of: Girls Play Dead: Acts of Self-Preservation / Jen Percy.
Sophia Nguyen. 11/05/2025: ‘Your Name Here’ has tortured its co-authors for 20 years: Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff refer to the novel as a monstrosity, but it’s finally out in the world. Regarding: Your Name Here / Helen DeWitt & Ilay Gridneff.
Roxana Robinson. 11/04/2025: Margaret Atwood’s long-awaited memoir is a humble look at greatness. Regarding: Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts / Margaret Atwood.
Mark Berman. 11/04/2025: New book details tensions, history-making decisions during Trump cases. Regarding: Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America's Justice Department / Carol Leonig & Aaron C. Davis.
Alexis Burling. 11/04/2025: A National Book Award finalist lands readers in the frenetic heart of Tokyo. Review of: Palaver: a novel / Bryan Washington.
Maureen Corrigan. 11/03/2025: Patti Smith is more candid than ever in her book ‘Bread of Angels.’ Review of: Bread of Angels: a memoir / Patti Smith.
Kristen Martin. 11/02/2025: A rare novel that deepens the human drama of covid. Review of: Sacrament: a novel / Susan Straight.
Mark Dery. 11/02/2025: A philosophical approach to psychedelic experiences. Review of: On Drugs
Psychedelics, Philosophy, and the Nature of Reality / Justin Smith-Ruiu. Book review with a reading list at the end!
Ron Charles. 11/27/2025: ‘Evensong’ offers a lesson in how to live long and well. Review of: Evensong: a novel / Stewart O'Nan.
Virginia Evans, interviewer Nora Krug. 11/26/2025: The story behind the feel-good novel of the year. Regarding: The Correspondent: A Novel / Virginia Evans.
Andrew Ervin. 11/24/2025: A moving, inventive novel about physics, time and love. Review of: Lightbreakers: a novel / Aja Gabel.
Lance Richardson, interviewer John Williams. 11/22/2025: An ‘accidental biographer’ on Peter Matthiessen. Regarding: True Nature: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen / Lance Richardson.
Jacob Brogan. 11/22/2025: The best graphic novels of 2025.
Washington Post staff. 11/21/2025: The 10 best books of 2025. "The year’s best fiction and nonfiction, as selected by the staff of The Washington Post’s Book World."
Washington Post staff. 11/20/2025: 50 notable works of nonfiction from 2025.
Washington Post staff. 11/20/2025: 50 notable works of fiction from 2025.
Charlie Jane Anders. 11/19/2025: The 10 best sci-fi and fantasy novels of 2025.
Jacob Brogan. 11/19/2025: Take the time to read this emotional time loop novel. Review of: On the Calculation of Volume III / Solvej Balle, translated from Danish by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell.
Camilla Townsend. 11/19/2025: ‘Mexico’ is a sparkling history that captures a nation’s complexity. Review of: Mexico: A 500-Year History / Paul Gillingham.
WaPo editors & reviewers. 11/18/2025: The 10 best thrillers of 2025.
Jake Cline. 11/15/2025: At 81, Joy Williams is as good as she’s ever been. Review of: The Pelican Child: Stories / Joy Williams.
Nora Krug; photos Richmond Lam. 11/15/2025: Louise Penny gives us a tour of her book collection. Her dogs come, too. An interactive tour.
Michael Dirda. 11/13/2025: A classic Greek history puts our current turmoil in context. Review of The History of the Peloponnesian War / Thucydides. Translated from Greek by Robin Waterfield (Basic Books).
James Clyburn, interviewer Sophia Nguyen. 11/12/2025: Rep. James Clyburn doesn’t want to repeat the past, so he wrote about it. Regarding: The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation / Jim Clyburn.
Becca Rothfeld. 11/12/2025: A conservative argues we need to value ‘women as women.’ But what does that mean? Review of: The Dignity of Dependence: A Feminist Manifesto / Leah Libresco Sargeant.
Ron Charles. 11/12/2025: In Sarah Hall’s ‘Helm,’ the wind is a central character: The rapidly increasing complexity of this novel’s weather system is wild. Review of: Helm: A Novel / Sarah Hall.
Karen Heller. 11/11/2025: John Fetterman makes a case for himself. It’s not very convincing. Review of: Unfettered / John Fetterman (Crown).
Jess Keiser. 11/10/2025: Horror oozes out of the internet in this inventively creepy novel. Review of: There Is No Antimemetics Division / qntm.
Tim Carman. 11/09/2025: Three celebrated restaurateurs dish about life behind the scenes. Survey of: I'm Not Trying To Be Difficult: Stories from the Restaurant Trenches / Drew Nieporent -- I Regret Almost Everything: A Memoir / Keith McNally -- A Seat at the Table: The Making of Busboys and Poets / Andy Shallal.
Paul Alexander. 11/08/2025: As ‘Dorian Gray’ ages, its relevance only grows. Regarding: The Picture of Dorian Gray / Oscar Wilde.
Becca Rothfeld. 11/05/2025: ‘Girls Play Dead’ is a captivating, myth-busting look at sexual assault. Review of: Girls Play Dead: Acts of Self-Preservation / Jen Percy.
Sophia Nguyen. 11/05/2025: ‘Your Name Here’ has tortured its co-authors for 20 years: Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff refer to the novel as a monstrosity, but it’s finally out in the world. Regarding: Your Name Here / Helen DeWitt & Ilay Gridneff.
Roxana Robinson. 11/04/2025: Margaret Atwood’s long-awaited memoir is a humble look at greatness. Regarding: Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts / Margaret Atwood.
Mark Berman. 11/04/2025: New book details tensions, history-making decisions during Trump cases. Regarding: Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America's Justice Department / Carol Leonig & Aaron C. Davis.
Alexis Burling. 11/04/2025: A National Book Award finalist lands readers in the frenetic heart of Tokyo. Review of: Palaver: a novel / Bryan Washington.
Maureen Corrigan. 11/03/2025: Patti Smith is more candid than ever in her book ‘Bread of Angels.’ Review of: Bread of Angels: a memoir / Patti Smith.
Kristen Martin. 11/02/2025: A rare novel that deepens the human drama of covid. Review of: Sacrament: a novel / Susan Straight.
Mark Dery. 11/02/2025: A philosophical approach to psychedelic experiences. Review of: On Drugs
Psychedelics, Philosophy, and the Nature of Reality / Justin Smith-Ruiu. Book review with a reading list at the end!
75featherbear
Atlantic November 2025
Hillary Kelly. 11/29/2025: How Terror Works: A 1947 German novel explores the sometimes corrosive, sometimes energizing nature of fear. Regarding: Every Man Dies Alone / Hans Fallada; translation Michael Hofmann.
Michael Clune. 11/29/2025: Colleges Are Preparing to Self-Lobotomize. "The skills that students will need in an age of automation are precisely those that are eroded by inserting AI into the educational process."
James Parker. 11/26/2025: Respect the Drummer: A new history of rock, told through its overlooked heroes. Review of: Backbeats: A History of Rock and Roll in Fifteen Drummers / John Lingan. Nice to see the reference to Iggy Pop's admiration for Sam Lay, the Howling Wolf/Paul Butterfield drummer both of whom introduced me to the blues via recordings I found in high school.
Michael O'Donnell. 11/25/2025: What Sam Shepard Couldn’t Outrun: The actor, playwright, and self-made cowboy was also a poet of masculine angst. Review of: Coyote: The Dramatic Lives of Sam Shepard / Robert M. Dowling.
Sophie Gilbert. 11/25/2025: What’s for Dinner, Mom? Review of: What to Eat Now: The Indispensable Guide to Good Food, How to Find It, and Why It Matter / Marion Nestle -- All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now / Ruby Tandoh -- The Last Supper: How to Overcome the Coming Food Crisis / Sam Kass -- A School Lunch Revolution: A Cookbook / Alice Waters.
George Packer. 11/24/2025: An Anatomy of the MAGA Mind. Review of: Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right / Laura K. Field, with reference to Why Liberalism Failed (Politics and Culture) / Patsrick J. Deneen.
Bekah Walkes. 11/17/2025: A Generational Portrait That Actually Says Something New. Review of: Flat Earth: A Novel / Anika Jade Levy.
Jake Lundberg. 11/13/2025: Doomscrolling in the 1850s: The Atlantic was born in an era of information overload.
Anastasia Edel. 11/12/2025: The Accidental Trailblazers of a New Global Condition. Review of: Chernobyl Children: A Transnational History of a Nuclear Disaster (Studies in Environment and History) / Melanie Arndt.
Renée DiResta. 11/11/2025: The Right-Wing Attack on Wikipedia. "The free internet encyclopedia is widely used to train AI. That’s why conservatives are trying to dethrone it."
Tyler Austin Harper. 11/11/2025: What a Cranky New Book About Progress Gets Right. Review of: Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity / Paul Kingsnorth.
Ross Benjamin. 11/10/2025: Ditch the Translation App and Use Your Mediocre French: AirPods promise to perfect seamless interpretation, but bumbling your way through any language can be unexpectedly exhilarating.
Tope Folarin. 11/08/2025: When Scarcity Blurs the Line Between Right and Wrong. Review of: A Guardian and a Thief: a novel / Megha Majumdar.
Questlove. 11/07/2025: What I Learned From Sammy Davis Jr. Revisiting: Yes I Can: The Story of Sammy Davis, Jr. / Sammy Davis, Jr., Jane Boyar, and Burt Boyar, with a new foreword by Questlove.
Anna Louie Sussman. 11/07/2025: A Conservative Case for Feminization. Review of: The Dignity of Dependence: A Feminist Manifesto / Leah Libresco Sargeant.
Michael Waters. 11/06/2025: American Suburbs Have a Financial Secret: Municipal bonds have become an unavoidable part of local governance—and their costs divide rich towns from poor ones. Review of: Cracked Foundations: Debt and Inequality in Suburban America (Politics and Culture in Modern America) / Michael Glass.
Michael Gorra. 11/04/2025: The Man Who Rescued Faulkner. "How the critic Malcolm Cowley made American literature into its own great tradition."
Isaac Butler. 11/03/2025: The Stubborn Myth of the Literary Genius. Review of: Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival / Stephen Greenblatt -- The Dream Factory: London’s First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare / Daniel Swift.
Hillary Kelly. 11/29/2025: How Terror Works: A 1947 German novel explores the sometimes corrosive, sometimes energizing nature of fear. Regarding: Every Man Dies Alone / Hans Fallada; translation Michael Hofmann.
Michael Clune. 11/29/2025: Colleges Are Preparing to Self-Lobotomize. "The skills that students will need in an age of automation are precisely those that are eroded by inserting AI into the educational process."
James Parker. 11/26/2025: Respect the Drummer: A new history of rock, told through its overlooked heroes. Review of: Backbeats: A History of Rock and Roll in Fifteen Drummers / John Lingan. Nice to see the reference to Iggy Pop's admiration for Sam Lay, the Howling Wolf/Paul Butterfield drummer both of whom introduced me to the blues via recordings I found in high school.
Michael O'Donnell. 11/25/2025: What Sam Shepard Couldn’t Outrun: The actor, playwright, and self-made cowboy was also a poet of masculine angst. Review of: Coyote: The Dramatic Lives of Sam Shepard / Robert M. Dowling.
Sophie Gilbert. 11/25/2025: What’s for Dinner, Mom? Review of: What to Eat Now: The Indispensable Guide to Good Food, How to Find It, and Why It Matter / Marion Nestle -- All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now / Ruby Tandoh -- The Last Supper: How to Overcome the Coming Food Crisis / Sam Kass -- A School Lunch Revolution: A Cookbook / Alice Waters.
George Packer. 11/24/2025: An Anatomy of the MAGA Mind. Review of: Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right / Laura K. Field, with reference to Why Liberalism Failed (Politics and Culture) / Patsrick J. Deneen.
Bekah Walkes. 11/17/2025: A Generational Portrait That Actually Says Something New. Review of: Flat Earth: A Novel / Anika Jade Levy.
Jake Lundberg. 11/13/2025: Doomscrolling in the 1850s: The Atlantic was born in an era of information overload.
Anastasia Edel. 11/12/2025: The Accidental Trailblazers of a New Global Condition. Review of: Chernobyl Children: A Transnational History of a Nuclear Disaster (Studies in Environment and History) / Melanie Arndt.
Renée DiResta. 11/11/2025: The Right-Wing Attack on Wikipedia. "The free internet encyclopedia is widely used to train AI. That’s why conservatives are trying to dethrone it."
Tyler Austin Harper. 11/11/2025: What a Cranky New Book About Progress Gets Right. Review of: Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity / Paul Kingsnorth.
Ross Benjamin. 11/10/2025: Ditch the Translation App and Use Your Mediocre French: AirPods promise to perfect seamless interpretation, but bumbling your way through any language can be unexpectedly exhilarating.
Tope Folarin. 11/08/2025: When Scarcity Blurs the Line Between Right and Wrong. Review of: A Guardian and a Thief: a novel / Megha Majumdar.
Questlove. 11/07/2025: What I Learned From Sammy Davis Jr. Revisiting: Yes I Can: The Story of Sammy Davis, Jr. / Sammy Davis, Jr., Jane Boyar, and Burt Boyar, with a new foreword by Questlove.
Anna Louie Sussman. 11/07/2025: A Conservative Case for Feminization. Review of: The Dignity of Dependence: A Feminist Manifesto / Leah Libresco Sargeant.
Michael Waters. 11/06/2025: American Suburbs Have a Financial Secret: Municipal bonds have become an unavoidable part of local governance—and their costs divide rich towns from poor ones. Review of: Cracked Foundations: Debt and Inequality in Suburban America (Politics and Culture in Modern America) / Michael Glass.
Michael Gorra. 11/04/2025: The Man Who Rescued Faulkner. "How the critic Malcolm Cowley made American literature into its own great tradition."
Isaac Butler. 11/03/2025: The Stubborn Myth of the Literary Genius. Review of: Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival / Stephen Greenblatt -- The Dream Factory: London’s First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare / Daniel Swift.
76featherbear
New Yorker November 2025
Helen Shaw. 11/26/2025: Sam Shepard’s Enactments of Manhood. Review of: Coyote: The Dramatic Lives of Sam Shepard / Robert M. Dowling.
Claudia Roth Pierpont. 11/24/2025: Where Dante Guides Us. Regarding: Dante: The Essential Commedia / Dante Alighieri, Prue Shaw (Liverwright: a 1 vol abridgement w/commentary) & others.
Gideon Lewis-Kraus. 11/24/2025: What Does “Capitalism” Really Mean, Anyway? Review of: Capitalism: A Global History / Sven Beckert.
Joshua Rothman. 11/22/2025: Does MAGA Have Ideas? Review of: Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right / Laura K. Field. (Also reviewed by George Packer in The Atlantic)
Kevin Lozano. 11/19/2025: The Man Who Helped Make the American Literary Canon. Review of: The Insider: Malcolm Cowley and the Triumph of American Literature / Gerald Howard.
Richard Brody. 11/18/2025: A new biography traces the self-transformative creation of the most movie-made actress of classic Hollywood. Review of: Joan Crawford: A Woman’s Face / Scott Eyman.
Amy Davidson Sorkin. 11/17/2025: If the Legal Campaigns Against Donald Trump Had Ended Differently. Review of: Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America’s Justice Department / Carol Leonnig & Aaron C. Davies -- Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign That Changed America / Jonathan Karl.
Naomi Fry. 11/15/2025: Life at the Edge of a Famous Family. Review of: Two of Me: Notes on Living and Leaving / Eleanor Coppola (no publisher given).
Rachel Morris. 11/14/2025: The Liberal Scholars Who Influenced Trump’s Attack on Birthright Citizenship. The unintended influence of: Citizenship Without Consent: Illegal Aliens in the American Policy (Yale Fastback, No 29) / Peter H. Schuck & Rogers M. Smith.
Joshua Rothman. 11/14/2025: Is “Six Seven” Really Brain Rot?
Ruth Marcus. 11/12/2025: How the Supreme Court Defines Liberty. Review of: Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution / Amy Coney Barrett -- Life, Law & Liberty: A Memoir / Anthony Kennedy. (many other Supreme Court Justice memoirs are also cited)
Jessica Winter. 11/11/2025: The Grim Resonance of “The Innocents of Florence.” Review of: The Innocents of Florence: The Renaissance Discovery of Childhood / Joseph Luzzi.
David Denby. 11/10/2025: The Comic Genius Who Pushed Television Further Than It Could Go. Review of: When Caesar Was King: How Sid Caesar Reinvented American Comedy / David Margolick.
Katy Waldman. 11/10/2025: Solvej Balle’s Novels Rewire the Time Loop. Review of: On the Calculation of Volume / Solvej Balle; translation Barbara J. Haveland.
Jessica Winter. 11/09/2025: What Did Men Do to Deserve This? Regarding: Notes on Being a Man / Scott Galloway.
Jennifer Wilson. 11/06/2025: The Prime Minister Who Tried to Have a Life Outside the Office. Regarding: Hope in Action: A Memoir About the Courage to Lead / Sanna Marin.
Salman Rushdie. 11/05/2025: Salman Rushdie’s Literary Inspirations.
James Wood. 11/03/2025: A Bulgarian Novelist Explores What Dies When Your Father Does. Review of: Death and the Gardener: A Novel / Georgi Gospodinov, translator Angela Rodel.
Anthony Lane. 11/03/2025: Anthony Hopkins’s Beckettian Memoir. Review of: We Did OK, Kid: a memoir / Anthony Hopkins.
James Somers. 11/03/2025: The Case That A.I. Is Thinking. "ChatGPT does not have an inner life. Yet it seems to know what it’s talking about."
Hannah Goldfield. 11/03/2025: The Surprising Endurance of Martha Stewart’s “Entertaining.” Regarding the reissue of Entertaining / Martha Stewart.
Helen Shaw. 11/26/2025: Sam Shepard’s Enactments of Manhood. Review of: Coyote: The Dramatic Lives of Sam Shepard / Robert M. Dowling.
Claudia Roth Pierpont. 11/24/2025: Where Dante Guides Us. Regarding: Dante: The Essential Commedia / Dante Alighieri, Prue Shaw (Liverwright: a 1 vol abridgement w/commentary) & others.
Gideon Lewis-Kraus. 11/24/2025: What Does “Capitalism” Really Mean, Anyway? Review of: Capitalism: A Global History / Sven Beckert.
Joshua Rothman. 11/22/2025: Does MAGA Have Ideas? Review of: Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right / Laura K. Field. (Also reviewed by George Packer in The Atlantic)
Kevin Lozano. 11/19/2025: The Man Who Helped Make the American Literary Canon. Review of: The Insider: Malcolm Cowley and the Triumph of American Literature / Gerald Howard.
Richard Brody. 11/18/2025: A new biography traces the self-transformative creation of the most movie-made actress of classic Hollywood. Review of: Joan Crawford: A Woman’s Face / Scott Eyman.
Amy Davidson Sorkin. 11/17/2025: If the Legal Campaigns Against Donald Trump Had Ended Differently. Review of: Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America’s Justice Department / Carol Leonnig & Aaron C. Davies -- Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign That Changed America / Jonathan Karl.
Naomi Fry. 11/15/2025: Life at the Edge of a Famous Family. Review of: Two of Me: Notes on Living and Leaving / Eleanor Coppola (no publisher given).
Rachel Morris. 11/14/2025: The Liberal Scholars Who Influenced Trump’s Attack on Birthright Citizenship. The unintended influence of: Citizenship Without Consent: Illegal Aliens in the American Policy (Yale Fastback, No 29) / Peter H. Schuck & Rogers M. Smith.
Joshua Rothman. 11/14/2025: Is “Six Seven” Really Brain Rot?
Ruth Marcus. 11/12/2025: How the Supreme Court Defines Liberty. Review of: Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution / Amy Coney Barrett -- Life, Law & Liberty: A Memoir / Anthony Kennedy. (many other Supreme Court Justice memoirs are also cited)
Jessica Winter. 11/11/2025: The Grim Resonance of “The Innocents of Florence.” Review of: The Innocents of Florence: The Renaissance Discovery of Childhood / Joseph Luzzi.
David Denby. 11/10/2025: The Comic Genius Who Pushed Television Further Than It Could Go. Review of: When Caesar Was King: How Sid Caesar Reinvented American Comedy / David Margolick.
Katy Waldman. 11/10/2025: Solvej Balle’s Novels Rewire the Time Loop. Review of: On the Calculation of Volume / Solvej Balle; translation Barbara J. Haveland.
Jessica Winter. 11/09/2025: What Did Men Do to Deserve This? Regarding: Notes on Being a Man / Scott Galloway.
Jennifer Wilson. 11/06/2025: The Prime Minister Who Tried to Have a Life Outside the Office. Regarding: Hope in Action: A Memoir About the Courage to Lead / Sanna Marin.
Salman Rushdie. 11/05/2025: Salman Rushdie’s Literary Inspirations.
James Wood. 11/03/2025: A Bulgarian Novelist Explores What Dies When Your Father Does. Review of: Death and the Gardener: A Novel / Georgi Gospodinov, translator Angela Rodel.
Anthony Lane. 11/03/2025: Anthony Hopkins’s Beckettian Memoir. Review of: We Did OK, Kid: a memoir / Anthony Hopkins.
James Somers. 11/03/2025: The Case That A.I. Is Thinking. "ChatGPT does not have an inner life. Yet it seems to know what it’s talking about."
Hannah Goldfield. 11/03/2025: The Surprising Endurance of Martha Stewart’s “Entertaining.” Regarding the reissue of Entertaining / Martha Stewart.
77featherbear
LitHub November 2025
Ed Simon. 11/24/2025: Nothing Better Than a Whole Lot of Books: In Praise of Bibliomania.
Cecily Parks. 11/24/2025: A Close Reading of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Counting-Out Rhyme.”
Maris Kreizman. 11/20/2025: Amid the MAHA Anti-Vaxxers at the Texas Book Festival. “Books are not fact-checked. Books are the perfect medium for grifters.”
Evangeline Riddiford Graham. 11/17/2025: On Barbara Pym, Author... and Stalker?
Trenton B. Olsen. 11/13/2025: Robert Louis Stevenson’s Art of Living (and Dying).
Boris Groys. 11/11/2025: What Does It Mean to be Human? (According to Philosopher Alexandre Kojève). Excerpt from: Alexandre Kojève: An Intellectual Biography / Boris Groys (scheduled for release May 2026 per Amazon; Verso).
LitHub, 11/10/2025: Reading Around the World: 17 Great Books in Translation From University Presses. "Featuring Titles Translated from Uzbek, French, Arabic and More."
Emma Donoghue. 11/07/2025: Emma Donoghue on Populating Historical Fiction.
Maris Kreizman. 11/06/2025: When We Devalue Art (Books!) We Devalue the Future: on the dangers of the AI content churn.
Sarah Weinman. 11/03/2025: In Praise of Librarians in Dangerous Times.
Ed Simon. 11/24/2025: Nothing Better Than a Whole Lot of Books: In Praise of Bibliomania.
Cecily Parks. 11/24/2025: A Close Reading of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Counting-Out Rhyme.”
Maris Kreizman. 11/20/2025: Amid the MAHA Anti-Vaxxers at the Texas Book Festival. “Books are not fact-checked. Books are the perfect medium for grifters.”
Evangeline Riddiford Graham. 11/17/2025: On Barbara Pym, Author... and Stalker?
Trenton B. Olsen. 11/13/2025: Robert Louis Stevenson’s Art of Living (and Dying).
Boris Groys. 11/11/2025: What Does It Mean to be Human? (According to Philosopher Alexandre Kojève). Excerpt from: Alexandre Kojève: An Intellectual Biography / Boris Groys (scheduled for release May 2026 per Amazon; Verso).
LitHub, 11/10/2025: Reading Around the World: 17 Great Books in Translation From University Presses. "Featuring Titles Translated from Uzbek, French, Arabic and More."
Emma Donoghue. 11/07/2025: Emma Donoghue on Populating Historical Fiction.
Maris Kreizman. 11/06/2025: When We Devalue Art (Books!) We Devalue the Future: on the dangers of the AI content churn.
Sarah Weinman. 11/03/2025: In Praise of Librarians in Dangerous Times.
78featherbear
Public Books November 2025
Kristen Weld. 11/26/2025: No End to the Spanish Civil War? Review of: Retrospective: a novel / Juan Gabriel Vásquez; translator Anne McLean.
Chris Moffatt. 11/19/2025: Walking Lahore, Watching the World. Review of: Disrupted City: Walking the Pathways of Memory and History in Lahore / Manan Ahmed Asif.
Daniel Hack. 11/13/2025: B-Sides: J. L. Carr’s “A Month in the Country." Revisiting A Month in the Country / J.L. Carr.
Jonathan Elmer. 11/06/2025: Two Ways of Disliking Poetry. Review of: Modern Poetry: poems / Diane Seuss.
Karen Weingarten. 11/04/2025: After “Abortion”: A 1966 Book and the World That It Made. Revisiting Abortion / Lawrence Lader.
Kristen Weld. 11/26/2025: No End to the Spanish Civil War? Review of: Retrospective: a novel / Juan Gabriel Vásquez; translator Anne McLean.
Chris Moffatt. 11/19/2025: Walking Lahore, Watching the World. Review of: Disrupted City: Walking the Pathways of Memory and History in Lahore / Manan Ahmed Asif.
Daniel Hack. 11/13/2025: B-Sides: J. L. Carr’s “A Month in the Country." Revisiting A Month in the Country / J.L. Carr.
Jonathan Elmer. 11/06/2025: Two Ways of Disliking Poetry. Review of: Modern Poetry: poems / Diane Seuss.
Karen Weingarten. 11/04/2025: After “Abortion”: A 1966 Book and the World That It Made. Revisiting Abortion / Lawrence Lader.
79featherbear
The Point (Substack) November 2025
Jon Baskin & Michael Lipkin. 11/05/2025: Is Humanistic Knowledge Useless?: And so what if it is?
Michael Barron. 11/04/2025: Sanctify Yourself: Schattenfroh’s art of salvation. Regarding Schattenfroh / Michael Lentz; translator Michael Lawton, & publisher Deep Vellum.
Jon Baskin & Michael Lipkin. 11/05/2025: Is Humanistic Knowledge Useless?: And so what if it is?
Michael Barron. 11/04/2025: Sanctify Yourself: Schattenfroh’s art of salvation. Regarding Schattenfroh / Michael Lentz; translator Michael Lawton, & publisher Deep Vellum.
80featherbear
fivebooks.com Nov 2025
Helen King, interviewer Benedict King. 11/28/2025: The Best History Books of 2025: the Wolfson History Prize Shortlist.
11/27/2025: Nonfiction Books. Omnium gatherum.
Andrew Hill, interviewer Sophie Roell. 11/26/2025: The Best Business Books of 2025: the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award. Hill talks about the 6 nominees.
Tamsin Mather, interviewer Tuva Kahrs. 11/25/2025: The Best Science Books for Kids
Best New Science Books for Children: Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize 2025.
Dave Zeltserman, interviewer Cal Flynn. 11/20/2025, upd 11/21: The Best 20th-Century American Detective Novels:
Red Harvest / Dashiell Hammett -- Solomon's Vineyard / Jonathan Latimer -- Over My Dead Body / Rex Stout -- The Chill / Ross McDonald -- The New York Trilogy / Paul Auster.
Stephanie Merritt, interviewer Cal Flynn. 11/18/2025: The Funniest Books of 2025. Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction "short list" is 8 books. Look it up ha ha ha.
Andile Cele, interviewer Sophie Roell. 11/16/2025: The Best South African Novels:
Coconut: a novel / Kopano Matlwa -- The Yearning: a novel / Mohale Mashigo -- The ones with purpose / Nozizwe Cynthia Jele -- Scatterlings: A Novel / Resoketswe Martha Manenzhe -- Black Widow Society: A Novel / Angela Makholwa.
Andile Cele is the author of: Braids & Migraines (Holland House Books).
Sravana Borkataky-Varma, interviewer Tuva Kahrs. 11/14/2025: The best books on Hinduism:
An Introduction to Hinduism (Introduction to Religion) / Gavin D. Flood -- Hinduism / Vasudha Narayanan -- The Hindus: An Alternative History / Wendy Doniger -- Darśan: Seeing the Divine Image in India / Diana Eck -- Handbook of Hindu Mythology (Handbooks of World Mythology) / George M. Williams.
Sravana Borkataky-Varma is the co-author of: The Serpent's Tale: Kuṇḍalinī, Yoga, and the History of an Experience / Sravana Borkataky-Varma and Anya Foxen (Columbia University Press).
Michael E. Smith, interviewer Benedict King. 11/12/2025, upd 11/13: The best books on The Aztecs:
The Essential Codex Mendoza (abridged ed) / Frances E. Berdan & Patricia Rieff Anawalt -- Book of the gods and rites and The ancient calendar (Civilization of the American Indian series) / Diego Duran -- Aztec Imperial Strategies (Dumbarton Oaks Pre-Columbian Symposia and Colloquia) / Elizabeth Hill Boone et al. ("Papers from the 1986 Summer Seminar, “Empire, Province, and Village in Aztec History.”") -- The Nahuas After the Conquest: A Social and Cultural History of the Indians of Central Mexico, Sixteenth Through Eighteenth Centuries / James Lockhart -- Offerings of the Templo Mayor at Tenochtitlan / Leonardo Lujan Lujan (University of New Mexico Press).
See also: At Home with the Aztecs: An Archaeologist Uncovers Their Daily Life / Michael E. Smith
Robert E. Goodin, interviewer Sylvia Bishop. 11/07/2025: The Best Political Science Books:
The American Voter / Angus Campbell et al. -- The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups / Mancur Olson -- Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis / Graham Ellison & Philip Zelikow -- Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed / James C. Scott -- Deliberation Naturalized: Improving Real Existing Deliberative Democracy / Ana Tanasoca.
(Goodin is the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Political Science)
Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, interviewer Cal Flyn. 11/05/2025: The Best Novels of 2025: The Booker Prize Shortlist:
Flashlight: a novel / Susan Choi -- The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny: A Novel / Kiran Desai -- Audition: A Novel / Katie Kitamura -- The Rest of Our Lives: A Novel / Benjamin Markovits -- The Land in Winter / Andrew Miller -- Flesh: A Novel / David Szalay.
Helen King, interviewer Benedict King. 11/28/2025: The Best History Books of 2025: the Wolfson History Prize Shortlist.
11/27/2025: Nonfiction Books. Omnium gatherum.
Andrew Hill, interviewer Sophie Roell. 11/26/2025: The Best Business Books of 2025: the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award. Hill talks about the 6 nominees.
Tamsin Mather, interviewer Tuva Kahrs. 11/25/2025: The Best Science Books for Kids
Best New Science Books for Children: Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize 2025.
Dave Zeltserman, interviewer Cal Flynn. 11/20/2025, upd 11/21: The Best 20th-Century American Detective Novels:
Red Harvest / Dashiell Hammett -- Solomon's Vineyard / Jonathan Latimer -- Over My Dead Body / Rex Stout -- The Chill / Ross McDonald -- The New York Trilogy / Paul Auster.
Stephanie Merritt, interviewer Cal Flynn. 11/18/2025: The Funniest Books of 2025. Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction "short list" is 8 books. Look it up ha ha ha.
Andile Cele, interviewer Sophie Roell. 11/16/2025: The Best South African Novels:
Coconut: a novel / Kopano Matlwa -- The Yearning: a novel / Mohale Mashigo -- The ones with purpose / Nozizwe Cynthia Jele -- Scatterlings: A Novel / Resoketswe Martha Manenzhe -- Black Widow Society: A Novel / Angela Makholwa.
Andile Cele is the author of: Braids & Migraines (Holland House Books).
Sravana Borkataky-Varma, interviewer Tuva Kahrs. 11/14/2025: The best books on Hinduism:
An Introduction to Hinduism (Introduction to Religion) / Gavin D. Flood -- Hinduism / Vasudha Narayanan -- The Hindus: An Alternative History / Wendy Doniger -- Darśan: Seeing the Divine Image in India / Diana Eck -- Handbook of Hindu Mythology (Handbooks of World Mythology) / George M. Williams.
Sravana Borkataky-Varma is the co-author of: The Serpent's Tale: Kuṇḍalinī, Yoga, and the History of an Experience / Sravana Borkataky-Varma and Anya Foxen (Columbia University Press).
Michael E. Smith, interviewer Benedict King. 11/12/2025, upd 11/13: The best books on The Aztecs:
The Essential Codex Mendoza (abridged ed) / Frances E. Berdan & Patricia Rieff Anawalt -- Book of the gods and rites and The ancient calendar (Civilization of the American Indian series) / Diego Duran -- Aztec Imperial Strategies (Dumbarton Oaks Pre-Columbian Symposia and Colloquia) / Elizabeth Hill Boone et al. ("Papers from the 1986 Summer Seminar, “Empire, Province, and Village in Aztec History.”") -- The Nahuas After the Conquest: A Social and Cultural History of the Indians of Central Mexico, Sixteenth Through Eighteenth Centuries / James Lockhart -- Offerings of the Templo Mayor at Tenochtitlan / Leonardo Lujan Lujan (University of New Mexico Press).
See also: At Home with the Aztecs: An Archaeologist Uncovers Their Daily Life / Michael E. Smith
Robert E. Goodin, interviewer Sylvia Bishop. 11/07/2025: The Best Political Science Books:
The American Voter / Angus Campbell et al. -- The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups / Mancur Olson -- Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis / Graham Ellison & Philip Zelikow -- Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed / James C. Scott -- Deliberation Naturalized: Improving Real Existing Deliberative Democracy / Ana Tanasoca.
(Goodin is the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Political Science)
Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, interviewer Cal Flyn. 11/05/2025: The Best Novels of 2025: The Booker Prize Shortlist:
Flashlight: a novel / Susan Choi -- The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny: A Novel / Kiran Desai -- Audition: A Novel / Katie Kitamura -- The Rest of Our Lives: A Novel / Benjamin Markovits -- The Land in Winter / Andrew Miller -- Flesh: A Novel / David Szalay.
81featherbear
Tony Harrison, 1937-2025
Clay Risen. NYT, 11/06/2025: Tony Harrison, British Poet of the Working Class, Dies at 88.
"Mr. Harrison, who died on Sept. 26, was widely considered Britain’s reigning poet of the working class, and in particular the miners, mechanics and shopkeepers of his native Yorkshire, in north-central England.
"If he was better known in his native land than in the United States, it may be because his dominant themes were distinctly British — in particular, the class divisions that draw lines of exclusion between people like his father, a baker, and himself, a renowned and cultured writer.
"Mr. Harrison typically wrote in a rhymed iambic pentameter, with a heavy dose of alliteration and concrete imagery. Like yet another postwar British poet, Philip Larkin, he seeded his poems with humor and irony. They were never academic or obscure, and his meanings were never subtle.
“I’d like to be the poet my father reads!” Mr. Harrison wrote in his poem “The Rhubarbarians” (1978).
"He was never just a poet of the page. He wrote television and film scripts, pairing his poetry with phantasmagorical imagery.
"His 1998 poem-film, “Prometheus,” which he directed as well as writing, retells the Greek myth of a titan the gods punished for giving fire to humans. As the poem proceeds, a golden statue of Prometheus, forged from the bodies of English miners, is transported by truck around squalid European cities.
"Having studied classics at the University of Leeds, he retained a lifelong fascination with ancient Greek and Latin texts. He translated many of them and drew on many others to produce genre-bending works like the play “The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus” (1990).
"For many British TV viewers, Mr. Harrison was best known for a 1987 BBC production of his poem “v.” The film intersperses historical newsreel clips with shots of Mr. Harrison reading his poem, which was inspired by the desecration of his parents’ grave by soccer hooligans.
Tony Harrison's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/harrisontony-1
Clay Risen. NYT, 11/06/2025: Tony Harrison, British Poet of the Working Class, Dies at 88.
"Mr. Harrison, who died on Sept. 26, was widely considered Britain’s reigning poet of the working class, and in particular the miners, mechanics and shopkeepers of his native Yorkshire, in north-central England.
"If he was better known in his native land than in the United States, it may be because his dominant themes were distinctly British — in particular, the class divisions that draw lines of exclusion between people like his father, a baker, and himself, a renowned and cultured writer.
"Mr. Harrison typically wrote in a rhymed iambic pentameter, with a heavy dose of alliteration and concrete imagery. Like yet another postwar British poet, Philip Larkin, he seeded his poems with humor and irony. They were never academic or obscure, and his meanings were never subtle.
“I’d like to be the poet my father reads!” Mr. Harrison wrote in his poem “The Rhubarbarians” (1978).
"He was never just a poet of the page. He wrote television and film scripts, pairing his poetry with phantasmagorical imagery.
"His 1998 poem-film, “Prometheus,” which he directed as well as writing, retells the Greek myth of a titan the gods punished for giving fire to humans. As the poem proceeds, a golden statue of Prometheus, forged from the bodies of English miners, is transported by truck around squalid European cities.
"Having studied classics at the University of Leeds, he retained a lifelong fascination with ancient Greek and Latin texts. He translated many of them and drew on many others to produce genre-bending works like the play “The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus” (1990).
"For many British TV viewers, Mr. Harrison was best known for a 1987 BBC production of his poem “v.” The film intersperses historical newsreel clips with shots of Mr. Harrison reading his poem, which was inspired by the desecration of his parents’ grave by soccer hooligans.
Tony Harrison's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/harrisontony-1
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Dan Kagan-Kas. American Scholar, 10/29/2025: Baby Shoggoth Is Listening: Why are some writers tailoring their work for AI, and what does this mean for the future of writing and reading?
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Jacob Koebler. 404media, 11/06/2025: AI Is Supercharging the War on Libraries, Education, and Human Knowledge.
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John Russell Taylor, 1935-2025
Sam Roberts. NYT, 11/06/2025: John Russell Taylor, 90, Dies; Cultural Critic and Hitchcock Biographer.
"As a young and prescient arts critic and author, John Russell Taylor praised the future Nobel laureate Harold Pinter as “the greatest” of the new wave of stylistically revolutionary playwrights to emerge in their native England in the late 1950s.
"During his stint in the 1970s as a Los Angeles-based correspondent for The Times of London, Mr. Taylor bonded with Alfred Hitchcock over their mutual affection for English candy and, trust earned, wrote the filmmaker’s only authorized biography — one of many well-received and comprehensive books he published about secretive public figures in the arts. (Hitch: The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock (1978))
"Perhaps most memorably, Mr. Taylor, a lifelong movie aficionado, recalled writing for The Times such an effusive late-career appraisal of Bette Davis that she rang him up to say “she was thinking of forging down to the office to kiss me.”
"Mr. Taylor spent much of his career, which spanned more than five decades, with The Times, where he was art critic from 1978 to 2005. He was also a contributor to The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times and edited the now-defunct monthly magazine Films and Filming, in addition to lecturing on cinema at University of Southern California and other institutions.
"His corpus of some 40 books included biographies of the actors Ingrid Bergman, Alec Guinness, Vivien Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor as well as the actor and filmmaker Orson Welles. He also wrote “Strangers in Paradise: The Hollywood Émigrés 1933-1950” (1983), about film-industry refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe who rebuilt their lives in Southern California.
"His other books included biographies of the artists Roberto Bernardi, Peter Coker and Claude Monet as well as monographs on the playwrights Peter Shaffer, David Storey and Mr. Pinter (Mr. Taylor was one of the first journalists to interview him).
"His book “Anger and After” (1962), released in the United States as “The Angry Theatre,” was credited with adopting the term “new wave” — which had previously been applied to rule-breaking French filmmakers like Jean-Luc Godard — to characterize the generational upheaval in British theater prompted by John Osborne’s 1956 play, “Look Back in Anger,” and other menacing dramas with often brutish antiheroes.
"One of Mr. Taylor’s early books, “Cinema Eye, Cinema Ear: Some Key Filmmakers of the Sixties” (1964), made an early case for Hitchcock among the ranks of directors regarded as “auteurs” like Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni and Ingmar Bergman."
JRT's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/taylorjohnrussell
Sam Roberts. NYT, 11/06/2025: John Russell Taylor, 90, Dies; Cultural Critic and Hitchcock Biographer.
"As a young and prescient arts critic and author, John Russell Taylor praised the future Nobel laureate Harold Pinter as “the greatest” of the new wave of stylistically revolutionary playwrights to emerge in their native England in the late 1950s.
"During his stint in the 1970s as a Los Angeles-based correspondent for The Times of London, Mr. Taylor bonded with Alfred Hitchcock over their mutual affection for English candy and, trust earned, wrote the filmmaker’s only authorized biography — one of many well-received and comprehensive books he published about secretive public figures in the arts. (Hitch: The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock (1978))
"Perhaps most memorably, Mr. Taylor, a lifelong movie aficionado, recalled writing for The Times such an effusive late-career appraisal of Bette Davis that she rang him up to say “she was thinking of forging down to the office to kiss me.”
"Mr. Taylor spent much of his career, which spanned more than five decades, with The Times, where he was art critic from 1978 to 2005. He was also a contributor to The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times and edited the now-defunct monthly magazine Films and Filming, in addition to lecturing on cinema at University of Southern California and other institutions.
"His corpus of some 40 books included biographies of the actors Ingrid Bergman, Alec Guinness, Vivien Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor as well as the actor and filmmaker Orson Welles. He also wrote “Strangers in Paradise: The Hollywood Émigrés 1933-1950” (1983), about film-industry refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe who rebuilt their lives in Southern California.
"His other books included biographies of the artists Roberto Bernardi, Peter Coker and Claude Monet as well as monographs on the playwrights Peter Shaffer, David Storey and Mr. Pinter (Mr. Taylor was one of the first journalists to interview him).
"His book “Anger and After” (1962), released in the United States as “The Angry Theatre,” was credited with adopting the term “new wave” — which had previously been applied to rule-breaking French filmmakers like Jean-Luc Godard — to characterize the generational upheaval in British theater prompted by John Osborne’s 1956 play, “Look Back in Anger,” and other menacing dramas with often brutish antiheroes.
"One of Mr. Taylor’s early books, “Cinema Eye, Cinema Ear: Some Key Filmmakers of the Sixties” (1964), made an early case for Hitchcock among the ranks of directors regarded as “auteurs” like Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni and Ingmar Bergman."
JRT's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/taylorjohnrussell
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James D. Watson, 1928-2025
Cornelia Dean. NYT, 11/07/2025; upd 11/08: James D. Watson, Co-Discoverer of the Structure of DNA, Is Dead at 97. (temporarily unlocked) "His decoding of the blueprint for life with Francis H.C. Crick made him one of the most important scientists of the 20th century. He wrote a celebrated memoir and later ignited an uproar with racist views."
"Dr. Watson’s role in decoding DNA, the genetic blueprint for life, would have been enough to establish him as one of the most important scientists of the 20th century. But he cemented that fame by leading the ambitious Human Genome Project and writing perhaps the most celebrated memoir in science.
"For decades a famous and famously cantankerous American man of science, Dr. Watson lived on the grounds of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, which, in another considerable accomplishment, he took over as director in 1968 and transformed from a relatively small establishment on Long Island with a troubled past into one of the world’s major centers of microbiology. He stepped down in 1993 and took a largely honorary position of chancellor.
"Dr. Watson’s relations with the rest of the Harvard biology faculty were fraught. He offended his departmental colleagues by dismissing evolution, taxonomy, ecology and other biological research as “stamp collecting,” saying those fields must give way to the study of molecules and cells.
"“I found him the most unpleasant human being I had ever met,” one of his young colleagues, the evolutionary biologist E.O. Wilson, wrote in a 1994 memoir, “Naturalist.”
"It was Dr. Wilson who maintained that Dr. Watson, having achieved fame with stunning work and at an early age, had become “the Caligula of biology.”
"At Harvard, Dr. Watson also wrote “Molecular Biology of the Gene,” his first in a series of notable textbooks. The book, now with co-authors in later editions, remains one of the most influential, widely used and admired texts in the history of biology.
"Dr. Watson leaves an enormous scientific legacy — his work on the structure of DNA; his inaugural leadership in the sequencing of the human genome, one of the biggest and most significant international scientific efforts ever completed; the researchers he encouraged; and his work at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, now a major global institution with a string of Nobel laureates among its faculty and associates. His books, especially “The Double Helix,” will no doubt be read as long as people study biology."
Author of: The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA
James Watson LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/watsonjamesd
Cornelia Dean. NYT, 11/07/2025; upd 11/08: James D. Watson, Co-Discoverer of the Structure of DNA, Is Dead at 97. (temporarily unlocked) "His decoding of the blueprint for life with Francis H.C. Crick made him one of the most important scientists of the 20th century. He wrote a celebrated memoir and later ignited an uproar with racist views."
"Dr. Watson’s role in decoding DNA, the genetic blueprint for life, would have been enough to establish him as one of the most important scientists of the 20th century. But he cemented that fame by leading the ambitious Human Genome Project and writing perhaps the most celebrated memoir in science.
"For decades a famous and famously cantankerous American man of science, Dr. Watson lived on the grounds of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, which, in another considerable accomplishment, he took over as director in 1968 and transformed from a relatively small establishment on Long Island with a troubled past into one of the world’s major centers of microbiology. He stepped down in 1993 and took a largely honorary position of chancellor.
"Dr. Watson’s relations with the rest of the Harvard biology faculty were fraught. He offended his departmental colleagues by dismissing evolution, taxonomy, ecology and other biological research as “stamp collecting,” saying those fields must give way to the study of molecules and cells.
"“I found him the most unpleasant human being I had ever met,” one of his young colleagues, the evolutionary biologist E.O. Wilson, wrote in a 1994 memoir, “Naturalist.”
"It was Dr. Wilson who maintained that Dr. Watson, having achieved fame with stunning work and at an early age, had become “the Caligula of biology.”
"At Harvard, Dr. Watson also wrote “Molecular Biology of the Gene,” his first in a series of notable textbooks. The book, now with co-authors in later editions, remains one of the most influential, widely used and admired texts in the history of biology.
"Dr. Watson leaves an enormous scientific legacy — his work on the structure of DNA; his inaugural leadership in the sequencing of the human genome, one of the biggest and most significant international scientific efforts ever completed; the researchers he encouraged; and his work at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, now a major global institution with a string of Nobel laureates among its faculty and associates. His books, especially “The Double Helix,” will no doubt be read as long as people study biology."
Author of: The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA
James Watson LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/watsonjamesd
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Gillian Tindall, 1938-2025
Penelope Green. NYT, 11/07/2025; upd 11/08: Gillian Tindall, 87, Dies; Author Who Probed the Layers of Places. "A novelist and biographer, she was also a preservationist, and her meticulous investigations of houses, villages and cities revealed intricate histories."
"One day in the early 1970s, Ms. Tindall was wandering through Kentish Town, the district in northwest London where she had been living since 1964, when she was struck by an inscription carved into the lintel of a run-down Victorian rowhouse: “The Fields Lie Sleeping Beneath.”
"It was a declaration of her own particular worldview — that cities are palimpsests, each era engraved over the one preceding it, and all still accessible if you knew where to look.
"At the time, she had already published half a dozen novels — she would go on to write six more — as well as a collection of short stories and a biography of the Victorian novelist George Gissing. Her first novel, “The Water and the Sound,” set in Paris, about a young woman’s efforts to track down her bohemian origins, was published in 1959, the year Ms. Tindall graduated from Oxford. Her sixth, “Fly Away Home” (1971), also set in Paris, won the Somerset Maugham Award.
"Ms. Tindall’s Kentish Town ramble led her elsewhere, into social history. “The Fields Beneath: The History of One London Village” (1977) was a wonderfully discursive portrait of a community that Mary Shelley had described as an “odious swamp.”
"Ms. Tindall exhumed the vanished cow paths, hedgerows and waterways — the drains and foul effluents! — that had defined what was once a village, a small settlement that 1,600 years after its beginnings along a pre-Roman track had become a bustling inner-city neighborhood.
"For four decades, she and her family spent part of each year at a cottage in Chassignolles, a village in central France. When she found a cache of letters from the 1860s in an abandoned house nearby, she began work on her 1996 book, “Celestine: Voices From a French Village,” a record of the life of Celestine Chaumette, an innkeeper’s daughter.
"Ms. Tindall’s many literary cartographies also included “City of Gold: The Biography of Bombay” (1982), which focused on the buildings, and builders, of the Raj.
"“The House by the Thames and the People Who Lived There” (2006) was a portrait of a 1710 brick dwelling known, curiously, as Wren’s House, although the architect Christopher Wren didn’t design it and never lived there. But a succession of working- and middle-class Londoners had — including coal and iron merchants, pastry chefs and shirt-makers and, in the 20th century, a filmmaker, an ambassador and a psychiatrist.
"“The Tunnel Through Time: A New Route for an Old London Journey” (2015) explored the history of a subway line. Her last book, published this month, was a novel, “Journal of a Man Unknown,” the imaginary diary of the life of one of her Huguenot forebears, an ironworker laboring in Britain during the 17th century."
Gillian Tindall LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/tindallgillian
Penelope Green. NYT, 11/07/2025; upd 11/08: Gillian Tindall, 87, Dies; Author Who Probed the Layers of Places. "A novelist and biographer, she was also a preservationist, and her meticulous investigations of houses, villages and cities revealed intricate histories."
"One day in the early 1970s, Ms. Tindall was wandering through Kentish Town, the district in northwest London where she had been living since 1964, when she was struck by an inscription carved into the lintel of a run-down Victorian rowhouse: “The Fields Lie Sleeping Beneath.”
"It was a declaration of her own particular worldview — that cities are palimpsests, each era engraved over the one preceding it, and all still accessible if you knew where to look.
"At the time, she had already published half a dozen novels — she would go on to write six more — as well as a collection of short stories and a biography of the Victorian novelist George Gissing. Her first novel, “The Water and the Sound,” set in Paris, about a young woman’s efforts to track down her bohemian origins, was published in 1959, the year Ms. Tindall graduated from Oxford. Her sixth, “Fly Away Home” (1971), also set in Paris, won the Somerset Maugham Award.
"Ms. Tindall’s Kentish Town ramble led her elsewhere, into social history. “The Fields Beneath: The History of One London Village” (1977) was a wonderfully discursive portrait of a community that Mary Shelley had described as an “odious swamp.”
"Ms. Tindall exhumed the vanished cow paths, hedgerows and waterways — the drains and foul effluents! — that had defined what was once a village, a small settlement that 1,600 years after its beginnings along a pre-Roman track had become a bustling inner-city neighborhood.
"For four decades, she and her family spent part of each year at a cottage in Chassignolles, a village in central France. When she found a cache of letters from the 1860s in an abandoned house nearby, she began work on her 1996 book, “Celestine: Voices From a French Village,” a record of the life of Celestine Chaumette, an innkeeper’s daughter.
"Ms. Tindall’s many literary cartographies also included “City of Gold: The Biography of Bombay” (1982), which focused on the buildings, and builders, of the Raj.
"“The House by the Thames and the People Who Lived There” (2006) was a portrait of a 1710 brick dwelling known, curiously, as Wren’s House, although the architect Christopher Wren didn’t design it and never lived there. But a succession of working- and middle-class Londoners had — including coal and iron merchants, pastry chefs and shirt-makers and, in the 20th century, a filmmaker, an ambassador and a psychiatrist.
"“The Tunnel Through Time: A New Route for an Old London Journey” (2015) explored the history of a subway line. Her last book, published this month, was a novel, “Journal of a Man Unknown,” the imaginary diary of the life of one of her Huguenot forebears, an ironworker laboring in Britain during the 17th century."
Gillian Tindall LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/tindallgillian
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November 1-8 updates
Atlantic Nov 8: Megha Majumdar's A Guardian and a Thief -- Nov 7: Sammy Davis, Jr.; conservative case for feminization -- Nov 6: the book on municipal bonds -- Nov 4: Malcolm Cowley's influence >75 featherbear:
Asian Review of Books Nov 8: "Crazy Rich Asians meets Succession" -- Nov 7: French imperialism in India -- Nov 4: conclusion of Yoko Towada's trilogy -- Nov 2: rock art in Eurasia, Arabia, & North Africa >72 featherbear:
The Critic (UK) Nov 8: Robin Holloway opus on classical music >70 featherbear:
fivebooks.com Nov 7: best books on political science >80 featherbear:
Guardian Nov 8: genesis of a book on a lone serial killer -- Nov 7: on romantic fiction -- Nov 6: Beasts of the Sea novel -- Nov 5: McCartney's Wings memoir; Helen Garner's diaries; Amanda Craig's forthcoming novel -- Nov 4: Michelle Obama's fashion & politics book; Tom's Crossing a Western too academic? -- Nov 3: Grok; Salman Rushdie; Anthony Hopkins memoir interview; Margaret Atwood memoir; new novel by has-been author John Irving -- Nov 2: Tik Tok boosting literary angst? >71 featherbear:
LARB Nov 8: Paul Landacres' photography; Black women's contribution to human rights; out of a humanities job in academia -- Nov 6: rationalism run amok -- Nov 5: Cory Doctorow's Enshittification -- Nov 3: 2 books on Charlottesville -- Nov 2: Why Sound Matters >69 featherbear:
LitHub Nov 7: Emma Donoghue on historical fiction -- Nov 6: Maris Kriezman on the dangers of AI >77 featherbear:
New Yorker Nov 6: Sanna Marin (Finland Leader) memoir --Nov 5: Salman Rushdie's literary influences -- Nov 3: Georgi Gospodinov's Death and the Gardener; Anthony Hopkins memoir; is AI thinking? >76 featherbear:
NYT Nov 8: essential Kate Atkinson -- Nov 7: best illustrated children's books; another dystopian novel; Palaver; golden age of Italian cinema (a novel) -- Nov 6: math wars; Patti Smith memoir; on first reading The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe -- Nov 5: Irish party girls novel; love, loss & kitchen objects; young man & the sea; Russian bookstores -- Nov 4: Luigi Mangione; toxic friendship novel; dinner party hell novel; Cuban exiles novel; art world frenemies novel -- Nov 3: WaPo writers on the Justice Department; Martha Stewart Entertaining reissue; Emmanuel Carrere reconsidering Russia -- Nov 2: John Irving's Queen Esther; people's history of Afghanistan & a hotel; Salman Rushdie stories >68 featherbear:
The Point Nov 5: Is Humanistic Knowledge Useless? >79 featherbear:
Public Books Nov 6: Diane Seuss's Modern Poetry poems >78 featherbear:
WaPo Nov 9: 3 restaurateur memoirs -- Nov 8: continuing relevance of Wilde's Dorian Gray -- Nov 5: how women react to sexual assault; Your Name Here collaboration -- Nov 4: Margaret Atwood memoir; WaPo reporters book on Justice Dept; frenetic heart of Tokyo -- Nov 3: Patti Smith memoir >74 featherbear:
Nov index >67 featherbear:
Sites added this week:
404media >83 featherbear:
Aeon >84 featherbear:
American Scholar (for October, belatedly) >82 featherbear:
fivebooks.com >80 featherbear:
LitHub >77 featherbear:
The Point >79 featherbear:
Public Books >78 featherbear:
Atlantic Nov 8: Megha Majumdar's A Guardian and a Thief -- Nov 7: Sammy Davis, Jr.; conservative case for feminization -- Nov 6: the book on municipal bonds -- Nov 4: Malcolm Cowley's influence >75 featherbear:
Asian Review of Books Nov 8: "Crazy Rich Asians meets Succession" -- Nov 7: French imperialism in India -- Nov 4: conclusion of Yoko Towada's trilogy -- Nov 2: rock art in Eurasia, Arabia, & North Africa >72 featherbear:
The Critic (UK) Nov 8: Robin Holloway opus on classical music >70 featherbear:
fivebooks.com Nov 7: best books on political science >80 featherbear:
Guardian Nov 8: genesis of a book on a lone serial killer -- Nov 7: on romantic fiction -- Nov 6: Beasts of the Sea novel -- Nov 5: McCartney's Wings memoir; Helen Garner's diaries; Amanda Craig's forthcoming novel -- Nov 4: Michelle Obama's fashion & politics book; Tom's Crossing a Western too academic? -- Nov 3: Grok; Salman Rushdie; Anthony Hopkins memoir interview; Margaret Atwood memoir; new novel by has-been author John Irving -- Nov 2: Tik Tok boosting literary angst? >71 featherbear:
LARB Nov 8: Paul Landacres' photography; Black women's contribution to human rights; out of a humanities job in academia -- Nov 6: rationalism run amok -- Nov 5: Cory Doctorow's Enshittification -- Nov 3: 2 books on Charlottesville -- Nov 2: Why Sound Matters >69 featherbear:
LitHub Nov 7: Emma Donoghue on historical fiction -- Nov 6: Maris Kriezman on the dangers of AI >77 featherbear:
New Yorker Nov 6: Sanna Marin (Finland Leader) memoir --Nov 5: Salman Rushdie's literary influences -- Nov 3: Georgi Gospodinov's Death and the Gardener; Anthony Hopkins memoir; is AI thinking? >76 featherbear:
NYT Nov 8: essential Kate Atkinson -- Nov 7: best illustrated children's books; another dystopian novel; Palaver; golden age of Italian cinema (a novel) -- Nov 6: math wars; Patti Smith memoir; on first reading The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe -- Nov 5: Irish party girls novel; love, loss & kitchen objects; young man & the sea; Russian bookstores -- Nov 4: Luigi Mangione; toxic friendship novel; dinner party hell novel; Cuban exiles novel; art world frenemies novel -- Nov 3: WaPo writers on the Justice Department; Martha Stewart Entertaining reissue; Emmanuel Carrere reconsidering Russia -- Nov 2: John Irving's Queen Esther; people's history of Afghanistan & a hotel; Salman Rushdie stories >68 featherbear:
The Point Nov 5: Is Humanistic Knowledge Useless? >79 featherbear:
Public Books Nov 6: Diane Seuss's Modern Poetry poems >78 featherbear:
WaPo Nov 9: 3 restaurateur memoirs -- Nov 8: continuing relevance of Wilde's Dorian Gray -- Nov 5: how women react to sexual assault; Your Name Here collaboration -- Nov 4: Margaret Atwood memoir; WaPo reporters book on Justice Dept; frenetic heart of Tokyo -- Nov 3: Patti Smith memoir >74 featherbear:
Nov index >67 featherbear:
Sites added this week:
404media >83 featherbear:
Aeon >84 featherbear:
American Scholar (for October, belatedly) >82 featherbear:
fivebooks.com >80 featherbear:
LitHub >77 featherbear:
The Point >79 featherbear:
Public Books >78 featherbear:
89featherbear
Maya Krishnan. Boston Review, 11/11/2025: What We Call Progress: Can we still imagine change for the better? Critical theorist Rahel Jaeggi tries in her new book. Review of: Progress and Regression / Rahel Jaeggi, translated from the German by Robert Savage.
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Donna Rifkind and The Metropolitan Review. Metropolitan Review, 11/05/2025: Why Woolf?. "On Mark Hussey’s ‘Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel.’"
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TLS November 14, 2025|No. 6392
Featured
David Abulafia et al. Books of the Year 2025: Our contributors choose their favourites.
Roy Foster. Blazing graft: Charting Seamus Heaney’s Wordsworthian journey. Review of: The Poems of Seamus Heaney / Seamus Heaney; edited with an introduction and commentary by Bernard O’Donoghue and Rosie Lavan, with Matthew Hollis -- North / Seamus Heaney.
A. Rebecca Rozelle-Stone. Touching the void: Simone Weil’s ethical life class. "This is an extract from Good and Evil: 12 philosophers on how to live, with essays drawn from the TLS philosophy series Footnotes to Plato, edited by Andrew Irwin, with an introduction by Rory Stewart, published this month by TLS Books."
Gordon Fraser. What the public wants?: Writing novels by AI – and committee. Review of: People’s Choice Literature: The most wanted and unwanted novels / Tom Comitta.
Mary Beard. 11/11/2025: Heads on coins. From her blog post via the TLS landing page
Literature
Becca Rothfeld. Adventures in a foreign tongue: A happy band of travellers goes in search of a lost Japan. Review of 3 books by Yoko Tawada, translated by Margaret Mitsutani: Scattered All Over the Earth -- Suggested in the Stars -- Archipelago of the Sun.
Suzi Feay. Twenty-first-century genie: A riff on One Thousand and One Nights. Review of: One Aladdin Two Lamps / Jeanette Winterson.
James Campbell. Unquiet American: Peter Matthiessen, novelist, naturalist, spy. Review of: True Nature: True Nature: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen (UK subtitle: The lives of Peter Matthiessen) / Lance Richardson. (US publisher: Pantheon; UK: Chatto & Windus)
Daniel Karlin. Too much information: A history of English literary studies that refuses to be relevant. Review of: Literature and Learning: A history of English studies in Britain / Stefan Collini.
Stephen Henighan. Renditions of her: Margaret Atwood’s lives in memoir. Review of: Book of Lives: A memoir of sorts / Margaret Atwood.
Phillip Lopate. In love and war: Two self-destructive cultural heavyweights. Review of: A Duel of Bulls: Hemingway and Welles in love and war / Pete Carvill (Biteback Publishing).
Patricia Craig. When Irish eyes aren’t smiling: A literary history of national guilt. Review of: Irish Shame: A literary reckoning / Seán Kennedy and Joseph Valente, editors.
Eva Kenny. Improving Beckett: An author famously protective of his text. Review of: Bad Godots / S. E. Gontarski (Cambridge University Press) -- Beckett and Derrida / James Farrell.
Louise Rogers Lalaurie. Sade’s ‘great-granddaughter’: Necrophilia, poisoning and murder: a transgressive French novelist. Review of: La Mort de C. suivi de Le Puritain Passionné / Gabrielle Wittkop.
Beejay Silcox. Shapeshifter: A novel of a seventeenth-century witch trial, for the era of AI. Review of: The Wax Child / Olga Ravn; translated by Martin Aitken.
Ian Sansom. Better to delete: Autofiction satirized in a ‘superlative’ work of autofiction. Review of: Service / John Tottenham.
Damon Galgut. Different self, same tings: A young man toggles between youth and maturity. Review of: Borderline Fiction / Derek Owusu.
Nick Holdstock. Beauty and terror: A dream-like pilgrimage through a Bucharest childhood. Review of: Blinding: The left wing / Mircea Cărtărescu; translated by Sean Cotter.
M.C. NB: Demolition jobs: More British Library blues, Proliferating prizes, Cover art.
In Brief Review of: Paradise Lost: A biography / Alan Jacobs.
In Brief Review of: Modernism: A literature in crisis / Terry Eagleton.
In Brief Review of: Anthony Trollope: A very short introduction / Dinah Birch.
In Brief Review of: Yankees in Petrograd / Marietta S. Shaginyan; translated by Jill Roese.
In Brief Review of: Sister Europe / Nell Zink.
Arts
Barnaby Phillips. Bursting with genius: Radical visions of what modern art can be. Review of the exhibition Nigerian Modernism, Tate Modern, until May 10.
Boyd Tonkin. Methods and materials: Inside a writer’s workshop. Review of the exhibition Tradecraft / John le Carré, Treasury, Weston Library, Oxford, until April 6 & the catalog Tradecraft: Writers on John le Carré / Federico Varese, editor.
Matthew Bown. Nostalgia for nostalgia: War-baby artists in the digital age. Review of the exhibition Gilbert and George: Twenty-first century pictures, Hayward Gallery, until January 11.
Toby Lichtig. Seeing right through us: Alan Hollinghurst’s Booker-winning novel adapted for the stage. Review of: The Line of Beauty / Jack Holden; based on the novel by Alan Hollinghurst, Almeida Theatre, London, until November 29.
J.E. Smyth. Who controls the past: The BBC is restricting access to its archives. (Essay)
Science & Technology
Emily Jones. The end of the world or the end of the month: The tension between economic and environmental policy. Review of: Climate Injustice: Why we need to fight global inequality to combat climate change / Friederike Otto; translated by Sarah Pybus -- Just Earth: How a fairer world will save the planet / Tony Juniper.
In Brief Review of: Vanished: An unnatural history of extinction / Sadiah Qureshi.
In Brief Review of: The Cuckoo’s Lea: The forgotten history of birds and place / Michael J. Warren.
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Edward Platt. Maps that rule the world: Geopolitics past and present. Review of:Prisoners of Geography: Ten maps that tell you everything you need to know about global politics / Tim Marshall -- Earth Shapers: How humans mastered geography and remade the world / Maxim Samson.
Guy Stagg. Graveyard elegies: A literary guide to cemeteries around the world. Review of: Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave: My cemetery journeys / Mariana Enriquez; translated by Megan McDowell.
Sarah Baxter. Everybody’s fault but their own: Why the Democrats lost to Donald Trump in 2024. Review of: 107 Days / Kamala Harris -- Independent: A look inside a broken White House, outside the party lines / Karine Jean-Pierre.
Lawrence Douglas. Witness for the prosecution: The case against Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Review of: Without Precedent: How Chief Justice Roberts and his accomplices rewrote the Constitution and dismantled our rights / Lisa Graves.
Ian Sansom. Out of the loop: On failing to keep up.
In Brief Review of: No Place Like Nome: The Bering Strait seen through its most storied city / Michael Engelhard.
In Brief Review of: Shameless: Exploiting the Holocaust / Tanya Gold.
Featured
David Abulafia et al. Books of the Year 2025: Our contributors choose their favourites.
Roy Foster. Blazing graft: Charting Seamus Heaney’s Wordsworthian journey. Review of: The Poems of Seamus Heaney / Seamus Heaney; edited with an introduction and commentary by Bernard O’Donoghue and Rosie Lavan, with Matthew Hollis -- North / Seamus Heaney.
A. Rebecca Rozelle-Stone. Touching the void: Simone Weil’s ethical life class. "This is an extract from Good and Evil: 12 philosophers on how to live, with essays drawn from the TLS philosophy series Footnotes to Plato, edited by Andrew Irwin, with an introduction by Rory Stewart, published this month by TLS Books."
Gordon Fraser. What the public wants?: Writing novels by AI – and committee. Review of: People’s Choice Literature: The most wanted and unwanted novels / Tom Comitta.
Mary Beard. 11/11/2025: Heads on coins. From her blog post via the TLS landing page
Literature
Becca Rothfeld. Adventures in a foreign tongue: A happy band of travellers goes in search of a lost Japan. Review of 3 books by Yoko Tawada, translated by Margaret Mitsutani: Scattered All Over the Earth -- Suggested in the Stars -- Archipelago of the Sun.
Suzi Feay. Twenty-first-century genie: A riff on One Thousand and One Nights. Review of: One Aladdin Two Lamps / Jeanette Winterson.
James Campbell. Unquiet American: Peter Matthiessen, novelist, naturalist, spy. Review of: True Nature: True Nature: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen (UK subtitle: The lives of Peter Matthiessen) / Lance Richardson. (US publisher: Pantheon; UK: Chatto & Windus)
Daniel Karlin. Too much information: A history of English literary studies that refuses to be relevant. Review of: Literature and Learning: A history of English studies in Britain / Stefan Collini.
Stephen Henighan. Renditions of her: Margaret Atwood’s lives in memoir. Review of: Book of Lives: A memoir of sorts / Margaret Atwood.
Phillip Lopate. In love and war: Two self-destructive cultural heavyweights. Review of: A Duel of Bulls: Hemingway and Welles in love and war / Pete Carvill (Biteback Publishing).
Patricia Craig. When Irish eyes aren’t smiling: A literary history of national guilt. Review of: Irish Shame: A literary reckoning / Seán Kennedy and Joseph Valente, editors.
Eva Kenny. Improving Beckett: An author famously protective of his text. Review of: Bad Godots / S. E. Gontarski (Cambridge University Press) -- Beckett and Derrida / James Farrell.
Louise Rogers Lalaurie. Sade’s ‘great-granddaughter’: Necrophilia, poisoning and murder: a transgressive French novelist. Review of: La Mort de C. suivi de Le Puritain Passionné / Gabrielle Wittkop.
Beejay Silcox. Shapeshifter: A novel of a seventeenth-century witch trial, for the era of AI. Review of: The Wax Child / Olga Ravn; translated by Martin Aitken.
Ian Sansom. Better to delete: Autofiction satirized in a ‘superlative’ work of autofiction. Review of: Service / John Tottenham.
Damon Galgut. Different self, same tings: A young man toggles between youth and maturity. Review of: Borderline Fiction / Derek Owusu.
Nick Holdstock. Beauty and terror: A dream-like pilgrimage through a Bucharest childhood. Review of: Blinding: The left wing / Mircea Cărtărescu; translated by Sean Cotter.
M.C. NB: Demolition jobs: More British Library blues, Proliferating prizes, Cover art.
In Brief Review of: Paradise Lost: A biography / Alan Jacobs.
In Brief Review of: Modernism: A literature in crisis / Terry Eagleton.
In Brief Review of: Anthony Trollope: A very short introduction / Dinah Birch.
In Brief Review of: Yankees in Petrograd / Marietta S. Shaginyan; translated by Jill Roese.
In Brief Review of: Sister Europe / Nell Zink.
Arts
Barnaby Phillips. Bursting with genius: Radical visions of what modern art can be. Review of the exhibition Nigerian Modernism, Tate Modern, until May 10.
Boyd Tonkin. Methods and materials: Inside a writer’s workshop. Review of the exhibition Tradecraft / John le Carré, Treasury, Weston Library, Oxford, until April 6 & the catalog Tradecraft: Writers on John le Carré / Federico Varese, editor.
Matthew Bown. Nostalgia for nostalgia: War-baby artists in the digital age. Review of the exhibition Gilbert and George: Twenty-first century pictures, Hayward Gallery, until January 11.
Toby Lichtig. Seeing right through us: Alan Hollinghurst’s Booker-winning novel adapted for the stage. Review of: The Line of Beauty / Jack Holden; based on the novel by Alan Hollinghurst, Almeida Theatre, London, until November 29.
J.E. Smyth. Who controls the past: The BBC is restricting access to its archives. (Essay)
Science & Technology
Emily Jones. The end of the world or the end of the month: The tension between economic and environmental policy. Review of: Climate Injustice: Why we need to fight global inequality to combat climate change / Friederike Otto; translated by Sarah Pybus -- Just Earth: How a fairer world will save the planet / Tony Juniper.
In Brief Review of: Vanished: An unnatural history of extinction / Sadiah Qureshi.
In Brief Review of: The Cuckoo’s Lea: The forgotten history of birds and place / Michael J. Warren.
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Edward Platt. Maps that rule the world: Geopolitics past and present. Review of:Prisoners of Geography: Ten maps that tell you everything you need to know about global politics / Tim Marshall -- Earth Shapers: How humans mastered geography and remade the world / Maxim Samson.
Guy Stagg. Graveyard elegies: A literary guide to cemeteries around the world. Review of: Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave: My cemetery journeys / Mariana Enriquez; translated by Megan McDowell.
Sarah Baxter. Everybody’s fault but their own: Why the Democrats lost to Donald Trump in 2024. Review of: 107 Days / Kamala Harris -- Independent: A look inside a broken White House, outside the party lines / Karine Jean-Pierre.
Lawrence Douglas. Witness for the prosecution: The case against Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Review of: Without Precedent: How Chief Justice Roberts and his accomplices rewrote the Constitution and dismantled our rights / Lisa Graves.
Ian Sansom. Out of the loop: On failing to keep up.
In Brief Review of: No Place Like Nome: The Bering Strait seen through its most storied city / Michael Engelhard.
In Brief Review of: Shameless: Exploiting the Holocaust / Tanya Gold.
92featherbear
Jonathan Agin. Jacobin, 11/09/2025: William Blake Was a Prescient Critic of Capitalist Alienation.
93featherbear
Marina Lewycka, 1946-2025
Emma Loffhagen. Guardian, 11/13/2025: Marina Lewycka, British-Ukrainian author, dies aged 79.
Her A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian "published in 2005 when she was 58, became an unexpected international bestseller and was translated into 35 languages. It won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic writing, was longlisted for the Man Booker and shortlisted for the Orange prize for fiction."
Emma Loffhagen LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/lewyckamarina
Emma Loffhagen. Guardian, 11/13/2025: Marina Lewycka, British-Ukrainian author, dies aged 79.
Her A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian "published in 2005 when she was 58, became an unexpected international bestseller and was translated into 35 languages. It won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic writing, was longlisted for the Man Booker and shortlisted for the Orange prize for fiction."
Emma Loffhagen LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/lewyckamarina
94featherbear
Washington Monthly November 2025
Chris Matthews. 11/11/2025: What Senator Robert F. Kennedy Could Teach Donald Trump: The slain U.S. senator, like his martyred brother, knew how important it was to concede defeat—a lesson Trump still hasn’t learned. Regarding Matthews's Lessons from Bobby: Ten Reasons Robert F. Kennedy Still Matters.
Paul Starr, interviewer Jonathan Alter. 11/10/2025: What Is the “American Contradiction”?: Paul Starr on the deeper historical roots of what will be called the Trump Era—whether we like it or not. Regarding American Contradiction: Revolution and Revenge from the 1950s to Now / Paul Starr.
Chris Matthews. 11/11/2025: What Senator Robert F. Kennedy Could Teach Donald Trump: The slain U.S. senator, like his martyred brother, knew how important it was to concede defeat—a lesson Trump still hasn’t learned. Regarding Matthews's Lessons from Bobby: Ten Reasons Robert F. Kennedy Still Matters.
Paul Starr, interviewer Jonathan Alter. 11/10/2025: What Is the “American Contradiction”?: Paul Starr on the deeper historical roots of what will be called the Trump Era—whether we like it or not. Regarding American Contradiction: Revolution and Revenge from the 1950s to Now / Paul Starr.
95featherbear
Literary Review November 2025 (UK)
Jeremy Noel-Tod. The Pen & the Spade. Review of: The Poems of Seamus Heaney / Rosie Lavan, Bernard O’Donoghue and Matthew Hollis (edd.)
Jeremy Noel-Tod. The Pen & the Spade. Review of: The Poems of Seamus Heaney / Rosie Lavan, Bernard O’Donoghue and Matthew Hollis (edd.)
96featherbear
Paris Review November 2025
Lance Richardson, interviewer Dan Piepenbring. 11/11/2025: What Really Happened with the CIA and The Paris Review?: A Conversation with Lance Richardson.
"When Peter Matthiessen’s name comes up in conjunction with The Paris Review, two facts are sure to emerge. The first is that Matthiessen was one of the magazine’s founders, and that his enchantingly shabby Paris apartment provided a bumptious gathering place in its earliest days. The second is that he was, at the time, an undercover CIA operative, and that the creation of the magazine was somehow wrapped up in his spycraft. The New York Times revealed Matthiessen’s CIA affiliation in a bombshell 1977 story with the headline “Worldwide Propaganda Network Built by the C.I.A,” which examined dozens of publications and cultural organizations that had been secretly “owned, subsidized or influenced in some way by the C.I.A. over the past three decades.” Matthiessen’s connection rated only three brief sentences buried at the center of what he called a “long gray article”; the reporter, John Crewdson, noted that there was no evidence the CIA had used the writer “to influence the Paris Review.” Even so, Matthiessen spent the rest of his life facing questions about his role. He had left the agency in 1953, after about two years, but he never divulged the details of his work for the organization, which remain unclear even now, eleven years after his death.
"Some have speculated that the Review itself received CIA support as part of the agency’s broader effort to prop up pro-Western art and literature. At the peak of its influence, in the fifties and sixties, the CIA fronted money to support a broad array of cultural production, from the seemingly innocuous to the expressly anti-communist. Among many other ventures, it had its hand in abstract-expressionist painting, jazz, Radio Free Asia, literary magazines, academic books on Finland and East Germany, a Roman newspaper, and an animated film adaptation of Animal Farm. While some artists were aware of the source of their funding, many were not. Given that The Paris Review portrayed itself as studiously apolitical—recall William Styron’s famous anti-manifesto in the first issue, fashioning it as a home for “the non-drumbeaters and non-axe-grinders”—Matthiessen’s CIA involvement has raised questions and eyebrows since its revelation in the seventies."
Lance Richardson, interviewer Dan Piepenbring. 11/11/2025: What Really Happened with the CIA and The Paris Review?: A Conversation with Lance Richardson.
"When Peter Matthiessen’s name comes up in conjunction with The Paris Review, two facts are sure to emerge. The first is that Matthiessen was one of the magazine’s founders, and that his enchantingly shabby Paris apartment provided a bumptious gathering place in its earliest days. The second is that he was, at the time, an undercover CIA operative, and that the creation of the magazine was somehow wrapped up in his spycraft. The New York Times revealed Matthiessen’s CIA affiliation in a bombshell 1977 story with the headline “Worldwide Propaganda Network Built by the C.I.A,” which examined dozens of publications and cultural organizations that had been secretly “owned, subsidized or influenced in some way by the C.I.A. over the past three decades.” Matthiessen’s connection rated only three brief sentences buried at the center of what he called a “long gray article”; the reporter, John Crewdson, noted that there was no evidence the CIA had used the writer “to influence the Paris Review.” Even so, Matthiessen spent the rest of his life facing questions about his role. He had left the agency in 1953, after about two years, but he never divulged the details of his work for the organization, which remain unclear even now, eleven years after his death.
"Some have speculated that the Review itself received CIA support as part of the agency’s broader effort to prop up pro-Western art and literature. At the peak of its influence, in the fifties and sixties, the CIA fronted money to support a broad array of cultural production, from the seemingly innocuous to the expressly anti-communist. Among many other ventures, it had its hand in abstract-expressionist painting, jazz, Radio Free Asia, literary magazines, academic books on Finland and East Germany, a Roman newspaper, and an animated film adaptation of Animal Farm. While some artists were aware of the source of their funding, many were not. Given that The Paris Review portrayed itself as studiously apolitical—recall William Styron’s famous anti-manifesto in the first issue, fashioning it as a home for “the non-drumbeaters and non-axe-grinders”—Matthiessen’s CIA involvement has raised questions and eyebrows since its revelation in the seventies."
97featherbear
Kind of borderline for a bibliographic thread, but I read it as a quick survey of the literature, so I included it:
Ana Lucia Araujo. Aeon, 11/13/2025: The deepest South: Slavery in Latin America, on a huge scale, was different from that in the United States. Why don’t we know this history?
Ana Lucia Araujo. Aeon, 11/13/2025: The deepest South: Slavery in Latin America, on a huge scale, was different from that in the United States. Why don’t we know this history?
98featherbear
Hal Sirowitz, 1949-2025
Alex Williams. NYT, 11/12/2025: Hal Sirowitz, Poet Who Mined His Mother’s Worry With Wit, Dies at 76. "He wrote of his suffocating relationship with his mother to create mordant reminiscences and became a standout at poetry slams in New York."
"By day, Mr. Sirowitz was a special-education teacher at a public elementary school in Queens. By night, he performed at venues like the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in Manhattan’s East Village, an epicenter of New York’s spoken-word movement in the 1990s. He also appeared on MTV and on the PBS series “The United States of Poetry.” Garrison Keillor often read Mr. Sirowitz’s poems on his NPR show, “The Writer’s Almanac.”
"He was poet laureate of Queens in the early 2000s, a title bestowed by the borough president.
"Along the way, he published five books of poetry: “Mother Said” (1996); “My Therapist Said” (1998); “Father Said” (2000); “Before, During, and After” (2003); and “Stray Cat Blues” (2012).”
"However personal his work, audiences could relate. “The highest compliment I get,” Mr. Sirowitz told The Times, “is when people say to me, ‘We must’ve had the same mother.’”
"While no one was off limits to his wry introspection — including his father, psychotherapists and old girlfriends — his mother was the subject to which he kept returning.
"She never knew. She died in 1992 — before he shared his poems with the world."
With his “sardonic, sad, self-deprecating humor,” Bruce Weber wrote in a 1996 profile in The New York Times, “Mr. Sirowitz has a style, on the page, that recalls the twisty, ‘bad for the Jews’ self-mirroring of the young Philip Roth, and in performance it makes him seem like a Catskills’ Charlie Brown.”
He's new to me but the poem excerpts were pretty funny.
Hal Sirowitz's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/sirowitzhal
Alex Williams. NYT, 11/12/2025: Hal Sirowitz, Poet Who Mined His Mother’s Worry With Wit, Dies at 76. "He wrote of his suffocating relationship with his mother to create mordant reminiscences and became a standout at poetry slams in New York."
"By day, Mr. Sirowitz was a special-education teacher at a public elementary school in Queens. By night, he performed at venues like the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in Manhattan’s East Village, an epicenter of New York’s spoken-word movement in the 1990s. He also appeared on MTV and on the PBS series “The United States of Poetry.” Garrison Keillor often read Mr. Sirowitz’s poems on his NPR show, “The Writer’s Almanac.”
"He was poet laureate of Queens in the early 2000s, a title bestowed by the borough president.
"Along the way, he published five books of poetry: “Mother Said” (1996); “My Therapist Said” (1998); “Father Said” (2000); “Before, During, and After” (2003); and “Stray Cat Blues” (2012).”
"However personal his work, audiences could relate. “The highest compliment I get,” Mr. Sirowitz told The Times, “is when people say to me, ‘We must’ve had the same mother.’”
"While no one was off limits to his wry introspection — including his father, psychotherapists and old girlfriends — his mother was the subject to which he kept returning.
"She never knew. She died in 1992 — before he shared his poems with the world."
With his “sardonic, sad, self-deprecating humor,” Bruce Weber wrote in a 1996 profile in The New York Times, “Mr. Sirowitz has a style, on the page, that recalls the twisty, ‘bad for the Jews’ self-mirroring of the young Philip Roth, and in performance it makes him seem like a Catskills’ Charlie Brown.”
He's new to me but the poem excerpts were pretty funny.
Hal Sirowitz's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/sirowitzhal
100AntonioGallo
A conservative argues we need to value ‘women as women.’ But what does that mean?
In “The Dignity of Dependence,” Leah Libresco Sargeant argues for her brand of feminism. https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/11/13/dignity-dependence-leah-libresco...
The Dignity of Dependence: A Feminist Manifesto
In “The Dignity of Dependence,” Leah Libresco Sargeant argues for her brand of feminism. https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/11/13/dignity-dependence-leah-libresco...
The Dignity of Dependence: A Feminist Manifesto
101featherbear
November 9-15 updates
Asian Review of Books Nov 14: Totto-chan -- Nov 12: Battle of Manila -- Nov 11: Mahesh Rao's Half Light -- Nov 9: Uzbekistan >72 featherbear:
Atlantic Nov 13: An 1850 antidote to doomscrolling -- Nov 12: Chernobyl children -- Nov 11: Wikipedia & right wing hostility; Paul Kingsnorth on progress -- Nov 10: translate it yourself >75 featherbear:
The Critic (UK) Nov 15: Clint Eastwood bio; 2 books on victimology -- Nov 14: John Self's fiction round-up -- Nov 13: decline of English lit; decline of reading in Great Britain -- Nov 12: historically significant churches -- Nov 11: Goethe bio -- Nov 10: pronouns; Samuel Pepys sexual predator -- Nov 9: history of England in 25 poems >70 featherbear:
fivebooks.com Nov 14: best books on Hinduism -- Nov 12/upd 13: best books on Aztecs >80 featherbear:
Guardian Nov 15: editorial on the Booker Prize winner -- Nov 14: Back to the Future book; crime thriller round-up -- Nov 13: Joe Hill's King Sorrow; novel about the Italian film world in the 70s; final book in Australian crime fiction series -- Nov 12: Wyatt Earp & Doc Holliday bio; Anthony Hopkins memoir; Loren Ipsum -- Nov 11: David Szalay on the genesis of Flesh; Jon Fosse's Vaim; Jeanette Winterson's Arabian nights novel -- Nov 10: David Szalay wins Booker prize; Patti Smith memoir -- Nov 9: Maggie Nelson on Taylor Swift & Sylvia Plath >71 featherbear:
LARB Nov 14: MAGA & the new Right -- Nov 13: working & homeless -- Nov 12: Signs from the Future -- Nov 11: A Story of Alabama -- Nov 10: Hello Kitty stories >69 featherbear:
LitHub Nov 13: Robert Louis Stevenson living w/chronic illness -- Nov 11: Alexandre Kojève bio -- Nov. 10: 17 books in translation from university presses >77 featherbear:
New Yorker Nov 15: Eleanor Coppola's notes -- Nov 14: legal issues of birthright citizenship; is 6/7 brain rot? -- Nov 12: memoirs of Supreme Court Justices Amy Coney Barrett & Anthony Kennedy -- Nov 11: orphanage in Florence -- Nov 10: Sid Caesar bio; Solvej Balle's On the Calculation of Volume -- Nov 9: masculinity >76 featherbear:
NYT Nov 15: youth in revolt non-fic; baroque nuns book a hit -- Nov 14: Francis Crick bio -- Nov 13: John McWhorter on The Zorg; Helm, a novel about wind; 4 new seasonal crime fiction novels -- Nov 12: Michelle Obama's The Look; Lucas Schaefer's The Slip; Terry Dactyl -- Nov 11: novel of maternal rage & regret; collapse of the Weimar Republic; George Packer's dystopian novel; spousal rape trial; John Fetterman memoir -- Nov 10: Flesh wins Booker; The Ha-Ha; Geoffrey Ward's American Revolution (the book of the Ken Burns series); Malcolm Cowley influence; Padma Lakshmi's cookbook celebrates immigrants; A Good Death but take my husband -- Nov 9: history of money; Booker nominated novel about rural England 1962-63 >68 featherbear:
Public Books Nov 13: A Month in the Country >78 featherbear:
TLS Nov 14 >91 featherbear:
WaPo Nov 21: 10 best books of 2025 -- Nov 15: Joy Williams's story collection; a tour of Louise Penny's bookshelves -- Nov 13: new translation of Thucydides -- Nov 12: Rep. Jim Clyburn writes about his predecessors; conservative feminism; novel about the wind -- Nov 11: John Fetterman memoir -- Nov 10: is there an Antimemetics Division? >74 featherbear:
Nov index >67 featherbear:
New sites this week:
Aeon >97 featherbear:
Boston Review >89 featherbear:
Granta >99 featherbear:
Jacobin >92 featherbear:
Literary Review >95 featherbear:
Metropolitan Review >91 featherbear:
Paris Review >96 featherbear:
Washington Monthly >94 featherbear:
Asian Review of Books Nov 14: Totto-chan -- Nov 12: Battle of Manila -- Nov 11: Mahesh Rao's Half Light -- Nov 9: Uzbekistan >72 featherbear:
Atlantic Nov 13: An 1850 antidote to doomscrolling -- Nov 12: Chernobyl children -- Nov 11: Wikipedia & right wing hostility; Paul Kingsnorth on progress -- Nov 10: translate it yourself >75 featherbear:
The Critic (UK) Nov 15: Clint Eastwood bio; 2 books on victimology -- Nov 14: John Self's fiction round-up -- Nov 13: decline of English lit; decline of reading in Great Britain -- Nov 12: historically significant churches -- Nov 11: Goethe bio -- Nov 10: pronouns; Samuel Pepys sexual predator -- Nov 9: history of England in 25 poems >70 featherbear:
fivebooks.com Nov 14: best books on Hinduism -- Nov 12/upd 13: best books on Aztecs >80 featherbear:
Guardian Nov 15: editorial on the Booker Prize winner -- Nov 14: Back to the Future book; crime thriller round-up -- Nov 13: Joe Hill's King Sorrow; novel about the Italian film world in the 70s; final book in Australian crime fiction series -- Nov 12: Wyatt Earp & Doc Holliday bio; Anthony Hopkins memoir; Loren Ipsum -- Nov 11: David Szalay on the genesis of Flesh; Jon Fosse's Vaim; Jeanette Winterson's Arabian nights novel -- Nov 10: David Szalay wins Booker prize; Patti Smith memoir -- Nov 9: Maggie Nelson on Taylor Swift & Sylvia Plath >71 featherbear:
LARB Nov 14: MAGA & the new Right -- Nov 13: working & homeless -- Nov 12: Signs from the Future -- Nov 11: A Story of Alabama -- Nov 10: Hello Kitty stories >69 featherbear:
LitHub Nov 13: Robert Louis Stevenson living w/chronic illness -- Nov 11: Alexandre Kojève bio -- Nov. 10: 17 books in translation from university presses >77 featherbear:
New Yorker Nov 15: Eleanor Coppola's notes -- Nov 14: legal issues of birthright citizenship; is 6/7 brain rot? -- Nov 12: memoirs of Supreme Court Justices Amy Coney Barrett & Anthony Kennedy -- Nov 11: orphanage in Florence -- Nov 10: Sid Caesar bio; Solvej Balle's On the Calculation of Volume -- Nov 9: masculinity >76 featherbear:
NYT Nov 15: youth in revolt non-fic; baroque nuns book a hit -- Nov 14: Francis Crick bio -- Nov 13: John McWhorter on The Zorg; Helm, a novel about wind; 4 new seasonal crime fiction novels -- Nov 12: Michelle Obama's The Look; Lucas Schaefer's The Slip; Terry Dactyl -- Nov 11: novel of maternal rage & regret; collapse of the Weimar Republic; George Packer's dystopian novel; spousal rape trial; John Fetterman memoir -- Nov 10: Flesh wins Booker; The Ha-Ha; Geoffrey Ward's American Revolution (the book of the Ken Burns series); Malcolm Cowley influence; Padma Lakshmi's cookbook celebrates immigrants; A Good Death but take my husband -- Nov 9: history of money; Booker nominated novel about rural England 1962-63 >68 featherbear:
Public Books Nov 13: A Month in the Country >78 featherbear:
TLS Nov 14 >91 featherbear:
WaPo Nov 21: 10 best books of 2025 -- Nov 15: Joy Williams's story collection; a tour of Louise Penny's bookshelves -- Nov 13: new translation of Thucydides -- Nov 12: Rep. Jim Clyburn writes about his predecessors; conservative feminism; novel about the wind -- Nov 11: John Fetterman memoir -- Nov 10: is there an Antimemetics Division? >74 featherbear:
Nov index >67 featherbear:
New sites this week:
Aeon >97 featherbear:
Boston Review >89 featherbear:
Granta >99 featherbear:
Jacobin >92 featherbear:
Literary Review >95 featherbear:
Metropolitan Review >91 featherbear:
Paris Review >96 featherbear:
Washington Monthly >94 featherbear:
102featherbear
Carl Rollyson. Hedgehog Review, 11/13/2025: Making Sense of Sylvia Plath’s Final Act: The fine line between creation and destruction.
103featherbear
Boston Review November updates
Johanna Winant. 11/26/2025: The Claims of Close Reading. "Literary studies have been starved by austerity, but their core methodology remains radical."
Emily Baughan. 11/20/2025: The Care Factory. Review of: Wages for Housework: The Feminist Fight Against Unpaid Labor / Emily Callaci -- The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America / Gabriel Winant -- Care: The Highest Stage of Capitalism / Premilla Nadasen.
Johanna Winant. 11/26/2025: The Claims of Close Reading. "Literary studies have been starved by austerity, but their core methodology remains radical."
Emily Baughan. 11/20/2025: The Care Factory. Review of: Wages for Housework: The Feminist Fight Against Unpaid Labor / Emily Callaci -- The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America / Gabriel Winant -- Care: The Highest Stage of Capitalism / Premilla Nadasen.
104featherbear
David Bellos, 1945-2025
Clay Risen. NYT, 11/20/2025: David Bellos, 80, Dies; Wrestled French Wordplay Into English. "He translated nearly 30 books, including novels by Georges Perec, a master of linguistic games, and Ismail Kadare."
"Mr. Bellos was impressively prolific, especially considering that he did his translation work in addition to holding a day job as a professor of comparative literature at Princeton University.
"Since publishing his first translation in 1987 — of Mr. Perec’s novel “Life: A User’s Manual,” originally issued in French in 1978 — Mr. Bellos translated 27 additional books, a little more than one every 18 months, including a forthcoming English version of Victor Hugo’s last novel, “Quatrevingt-Treize” (“Ninety-Three”), about the French Revolution.
"Mr. Bellos did not know Albanian, but nevertheless translated seven novels by the acclaimed Albanian writer Ismail Kadare. The books had already been translated into French, and Mr. Bellos worked from those, consulting with Mr. Kadare to make sure his twice-removed versions were true to the originals. When Mr. Kadare won the first Man Booker International Prize, in 2005, he was able to select a translator to receive a companion award, and chose Mr. Bellos.
"But Mr. Bellos also loved crime novels; he translated two thrillers by the Belgian writer Georges Simenon, as well as a pair by Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau, the archaeologist and historian who wrote as Fred Vargas.
"It was his work on Mr. Perec’s oeuvre that occupied Mr. Bellos the longest and brought him the most joy — and attention. He translated eight Perec books, and in 1993 wrote a biography, “Georges Perec: A Life in Words,” which won the Prix Goncourt, one of France’s highest literary honors.
"Mr. Perec was part of Oulipo, a group of postwar French writers known for imposing linguistic constraints on their work; his inventive use of word games, hidden allusions and language puzzles makes translating him a monumental task. (Among his works that Mr. Bellos did not translate are “La Disparition,” a novel without a single use of the letter “e,” and “Les Revenentes,” in which “e” is the only vowel.)
"Mr. Bellos wrote two other biographies, “Jacques Tati: His Life and Art” (1999), about the French actor and director, and “Romain Gary: A Tall Story” (2010), about the French diplomat and novelist. He also wrote a book about Victor Hugo’s masterpiece, “The Novel of the Century: The Extraordinary Adventure of ‘Les Misérables’” (2017).
"He wrote extensively about the art of translation, and wordsmithery in general, most notably in two books, “Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything” (2011), and “Who Owns This Sentence? A History of Copyrights and Wrongs” (2024), with Alexandre Montagu.
"In recent years, Mr. Bellos was often asked whether artificial intelligence might make human translation obsolete. He wasn’t worried, he said: Machines may produce an accurate translation of words, but they could never make the subtle choices among hundreds of possibilities that go into rendering an accurate, nuanced meaning."
David Bellos's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/bellosdavid
Clay Risen. NYT, 11/20/2025: David Bellos, 80, Dies; Wrestled French Wordplay Into English. "He translated nearly 30 books, including novels by Georges Perec, a master of linguistic games, and Ismail Kadare."
"Mr. Bellos was impressively prolific, especially considering that he did his translation work in addition to holding a day job as a professor of comparative literature at Princeton University.
"Since publishing his first translation in 1987 — of Mr. Perec’s novel “Life: A User’s Manual,” originally issued in French in 1978 — Mr. Bellos translated 27 additional books, a little more than one every 18 months, including a forthcoming English version of Victor Hugo’s last novel, “Quatrevingt-Treize” (“Ninety-Three”), about the French Revolution.
"Mr. Bellos did not know Albanian, but nevertheless translated seven novels by the acclaimed Albanian writer Ismail Kadare. The books had already been translated into French, and Mr. Bellos worked from those, consulting with Mr. Kadare to make sure his twice-removed versions were true to the originals. When Mr. Kadare won the first Man Booker International Prize, in 2005, he was able to select a translator to receive a companion award, and chose Mr. Bellos.
"But Mr. Bellos also loved crime novels; he translated two thrillers by the Belgian writer Georges Simenon, as well as a pair by Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau, the archaeologist and historian who wrote as Fred Vargas.
"It was his work on Mr. Perec’s oeuvre that occupied Mr. Bellos the longest and brought him the most joy — and attention. He translated eight Perec books, and in 1993 wrote a biography, “Georges Perec: A Life in Words,” which won the Prix Goncourt, one of France’s highest literary honors.
"Mr. Perec was part of Oulipo, a group of postwar French writers known for imposing linguistic constraints on their work; his inventive use of word games, hidden allusions and language puzzles makes translating him a monumental task. (Among his works that Mr. Bellos did not translate are “La Disparition,” a novel without a single use of the letter “e,” and “Les Revenentes,” in which “e” is the only vowel.)
"Mr. Bellos wrote two other biographies, “Jacques Tati: His Life and Art” (1999), about the French actor and director, and “Romain Gary: A Tall Story” (2010), about the French diplomat and novelist. He also wrote a book about Victor Hugo’s masterpiece, “The Novel of the Century: The Extraordinary Adventure of ‘Les Misérables’” (2017).
"He wrote extensively about the art of translation, and wordsmithery in general, most notably in two books, “Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything” (2011), and “Who Owns This Sentence? A History of Copyrights and Wrongs” (2024), with Alexandre Montagu.
"In recent years, Mr. Bellos was often asked whether artificial intelligence might make human translation obsolete. He wasn’t worried, he said: Machines may produce an accurate translation of words, but they could never make the subtle choices among hundreds of possibilities that go into rendering an accurate, nuanced meaning."
David Bellos's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/bellosdavid
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Richard Lamparski, 1932-2025
Trip Gabriel. NYT, 11/20/2025: Richard Lamparski, Author of ‘Whatever Became Of …?’ Books, Dies at 93.
"Richard Lamparski, who, long before “Where Are They Now?” columns became ubiquitous in celebrity magazines and online, turned his obsession with forgotten stars into the “Whatever Became Of …?” series, 11 volumes of pop-culture nostalgia, movie trivia and, let’s be honest, schadenfreude, died on Nov. 8 in Santa Barbara, Calif.
"Each edition of the “Whatever Became Of …?” series, published from 1967 to 1989, included about 100 profiles of once-upon-a-time celebrities, mainly from film but also from sports, politics and other arts, accompanied by then-and-now photographs that revealed the sometimes cruel toll of time.
"Beyond appealing to readers nostalgic for the America of newsreels and old movies, the books tapped into an emerging subculture of celebrity fans, including autograph hounds and memorabilia collectors. Mr. Lamparski counted himself among them; he was more motivated to meet celebrities than to make his mark as a film historian.
"“I got to meet people I would not have dreamed I could ever meet,” he said in a 2010 interview with the blog The Showbiz Wizard. “I met Ish Kabibble!” he added, referring to the 1940s comedian and cornet player.
"“I met Tokyo Rose! Brenda Frazier!” he continued, referring to a woman who broadcast Japanese propaganda during World War II and to an American debutante proclaimed Girl of the Year in 1938.
"The first outlet for Mr. Lamparski’s interviews was WBAI-FM in New York, which began broadcasting “Whatever Happened To …?” as a radio series in April 1965. Crown Publishers offered him a contract, but neither the publisher nor his editor showed much enthusiasm about the first installment. Then the “Today” show called, and he was interviewed by Barbara Walters and Hugh Downs.
"“It just took off from there,” Mr. Lamparski said."
"The 11th and final edition of “Whatever Became Of …?” was published in 1989. By then, readers had either moved on or were sating their appetites for then-and-now celebrity news in the pages of magazines like People and Us Weekly.
“Interest evaporated overnight,” Mr. Lamparski said. That year, he moved to Santa Barbara, where he withdrew from most professional and social engagements. He has no survivors.
"In 2012, he said, “I haven’t seen another human being in about 14 years.”
So now we know what became of Richard Lamparski.
Richard Lamparski's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/lamparskirichard
Trip Gabriel. NYT, 11/20/2025: Richard Lamparski, Author of ‘Whatever Became Of …?’ Books, Dies at 93.
"Richard Lamparski, who, long before “Where Are They Now?” columns became ubiquitous in celebrity magazines and online, turned his obsession with forgotten stars into the “Whatever Became Of …?” series, 11 volumes of pop-culture nostalgia, movie trivia and, let’s be honest, schadenfreude, died on Nov. 8 in Santa Barbara, Calif.
"Each edition of the “Whatever Became Of …?” series, published from 1967 to 1989, included about 100 profiles of once-upon-a-time celebrities, mainly from film but also from sports, politics and other arts, accompanied by then-and-now photographs that revealed the sometimes cruel toll of time.
"Beyond appealing to readers nostalgic for the America of newsreels and old movies, the books tapped into an emerging subculture of celebrity fans, including autograph hounds and memorabilia collectors. Mr. Lamparski counted himself among them; he was more motivated to meet celebrities than to make his mark as a film historian.
"“I got to meet people I would not have dreamed I could ever meet,” he said in a 2010 interview with the blog The Showbiz Wizard. “I met Ish Kabibble!” he added, referring to the 1940s comedian and cornet player.
"“I met Tokyo Rose! Brenda Frazier!” he continued, referring to a woman who broadcast Japanese propaganda during World War II and to an American debutante proclaimed Girl of the Year in 1938.
"The first outlet for Mr. Lamparski’s interviews was WBAI-FM in New York, which began broadcasting “Whatever Happened To …?” as a radio series in April 1965. Crown Publishers offered him a contract, but neither the publisher nor his editor showed much enthusiasm about the first installment. Then the “Today” show called, and he was interviewed by Barbara Walters and Hugh Downs.
"“It just took off from there,” Mr. Lamparski said."
"The 11th and final edition of “Whatever Became Of …?” was published in 1989. By then, readers had either moved on or were sating their appetites for then-and-now celebrity news in the pages of magazines like People and Us Weekly.
“Interest evaporated overnight,” Mr. Lamparski said. That year, he moved to Santa Barbara, where he withdrew from most professional and social engagements. He has no survivors.
"In 2012, he said, “I haven’t seen another human being in about 14 years.”
So now we know what became of Richard Lamparski.
Richard Lamparski's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/lamparskirichard
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November 16-22 updates
Asian Review of Books Nov 22: The Woman Dies by Aoko Masuda: short fiction -- Nov 21: Thai tales -- Nov 19: Swallows novel by Natsuo Kirino -- Nov 18: life of a rajah -- Nov 17: Samurai Detectives -- Nov 16: Xie Lingyun >72 featherbear:
Atlantic Nov 17: Anika Jade Levy's Flat Earth >75 featherbear:
The Critic (UK) Nov 16: Drink Your Way Sober >70 featherbear:
fivebooks.com Nov 20/21: best 20th century American detective novels -- Nov 18: 8 funniest books on the Bollingen shortlist -- Nov 16: best South African novels >80 featherbear:
Guardian Nov 21: Jenny Erpenbeck essays; pro-Kremlin English language websites -- Nov 20: launch of Nuremberg Trials digital archive -- Nov 19: Joe Sacco's graphic novel doc about sectarian Uttar Pradesh riots of 2013; Viola Van de Sandt's Dinner Party novel; Sarah Ferguson's children's book pulped due to Epstein ties -- Nov 18: Olga Ravn's historical witchcraft novel; Terry Jones bio; Irish writers picture gallery -- Nov 17: Grokipedia not so good; David Szalay's Flesh & masculinity; John Updike's letters; Derek Owusu's That Reminds Me; Salman Rushdie's top ten rated by John Self -- Nov 16: novel about the ‘father of neurodiversity’ >71 featherbear:
LARB Nov 22: Amy Coney Barrett memoir -- Nov 21: Joy Williams stories -- Nov 19: architect Hannes Meyer -- Nov 18: v3 of Solvej Balle's Calculation of Volume; orgasm -- Nov 17: transnational intellectual history -- Nov 16: Olivia Laing's novel about 70s Italian cinema >69 featherbear:
LitHub Nov 20: Amid the MAHA Anti-Vaxxers at the Texas Book Festival -- Nov 19: walking the streets of Lahore -- Nov 17: Barbara Pym stalker >77 featherbear:
New Yorker Nov 19: Malcolm Cowley bio -- Nov 18: Joan Crawford bio -- Nov 17: 2 Trump books >76 featherbear:
NYT Nov 22: Ed Simon on Shakespeare's Dream Factory -- Nov 21: Jennifer Szalai considers right wing pop culture w/some background reading -- Nov 19: 500 yrs of Mexico history; "human narratives" replace English dept in NJ; AI book covers disqualify New Zealand publishers; museum heist in Australia non-fic -- Nov 18: Solvej Balle profile; Simon Winchester on wind; Julio Cortázar stories reissued; how to get through "dense, difficult books;" recommended cyberpunk fiction -- Nov 17: a new Love & Rockets graphic novel; reissue of Jan Kerouac's Baby Driver -- Nov 16: Seamus Heaney's poems; computer screen time & education; Joy Williams stories; a trio of "pulse-pounding" thrillers including one by Reese Witherspoon; >68 featherbear:
WaPo Nov 22: interview with Lance Richardson, biographer of Peter Matthiessen; best graphic novels of 2025 -- Nov 21: 10 best books of 2025 -- Nov 19: On the Calculation of Volume III; Mexico: a 500 Year History -- Nov 18: 10 best thrillers of 2025 >74 featherbear:
November index >67 featherbear:
New November websites:
Boston Review >103 featherbear:
Hedgehog Review >102 featherbear:
Asian Review of Books Nov 22: The Woman Dies by Aoko Masuda: short fiction -- Nov 21: Thai tales -- Nov 19: Swallows novel by Natsuo Kirino -- Nov 18: life of a rajah -- Nov 17: Samurai Detectives -- Nov 16: Xie Lingyun >72 featherbear:
Atlantic Nov 17: Anika Jade Levy's Flat Earth >75 featherbear:
The Critic (UK) Nov 16: Drink Your Way Sober >70 featherbear:
fivebooks.com Nov 20/21: best 20th century American detective novels -- Nov 18: 8 funniest books on the Bollingen shortlist -- Nov 16: best South African novels >80 featherbear:
Guardian Nov 21: Jenny Erpenbeck essays; pro-Kremlin English language websites -- Nov 20: launch of Nuremberg Trials digital archive -- Nov 19: Joe Sacco's graphic novel doc about sectarian Uttar Pradesh riots of 2013; Viola Van de Sandt's Dinner Party novel; Sarah Ferguson's children's book pulped due to Epstein ties -- Nov 18: Olga Ravn's historical witchcraft novel; Terry Jones bio; Irish writers picture gallery -- Nov 17: Grokipedia not so good; David Szalay's Flesh & masculinity; John Updike's letters; Derek Owusu's That Reminds Me; Salman Rushdie's top ten rated by John Self -- Nov 16: novel about the ‘father of neurodiversity’ >71 featherbear:
LARB Nov 22: Amy Coney Barrett memoir -- Nov 21: Joy Williams stories -- Nov 19: architect Hannes Meyer -- Nov 18: v3 of Solvej Balle's Calculation of Volume; orgasm -- Nov 17: transnational intellectual history -- Nov 16: Olivia Laing's novel about 70s Italian cinema >69 featherbear:
LitHub Nov 20: Amid the MAHA Anti-Vaxxers at the Texas Book Festival -- Nov 19: walking the streets of Lahore -- Nov 17: Barbara Pym stalker >77 featherbear:
New Yorker Nov 19: Malcolm Cowley bio -- Nov 18: Joan Crawford bio -- Nov 17: 2 Trump books >76 featherbear:
NYT Nov 22: Ed Simon on Shakespeare's Dream Factory -- Nov 21: Jennifer Szalai considers right wing pop culture w/some background reading -- Nov 19: 500 yrs of Mexico history; "human narratives" replace English dept in NJ; AI book covers disqualify New Zealand publishers; museum heist in Australia non-fic -- Nov 18: Solvej Balle profile; Simon Winchester on wind; Julio Cortázar stories reissued; how to get through "dense, difficult books;" recommended cyberpunk fiction -- Nov 17: a new Love & Rockets graphic novel; reissue of Jan Kerouac's Baby Driver -- Nov 16: Seamus Heaney's poems; computer screen time & education; Joy Williams stories; a trio of "pulse-pounding" thrillers including one by Reese Witherspoon; >68 featherbear:
WaPo Nov 22: interview with Lance Richardson, biographer of Peter Matthiessen; best graphic novels of 2025 -- Nov 21: 10 best books of 2025 -- Nov 19: On the Calculation of Volume III; Mexico: a 500 Year History -- Nov 18: 10 best thrillers of 2025 >74 featherbear:
November index >67 featherbear:
New November websites:
Boston Review >103 featherbear:
Hedgehog Review >102 featherbear:
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Terry Martin Hekker, 1932-2025
Sam Roberts. 11/22/2025: Terry Martin Hekker, a Happy Housewife Scorned, Dies at 92. "She wrote two popular memoirs: the first about the joys of married life, the second about her husband serving her divorce papers on their 40th anniversary."
"In 1979, when feminism was thriving and the Equal Rights Amendment was only three states shy of ratification, Terry Martin Hekker published “Ever Since Adam and Eve.”
"Based on an essay she had written for The New York Times, the book was a witty but sincere testimonial — anachronistic in its moment — to how fulfilling Mrs. Hekker found housewifery and stay-at-home motherhood. She dedicated it to her role models for domesticity: her mother and grandmother.
“I considered dedicating this to my husband,” she added, “until I noticed how many women dedicated first books to their supportive and understanding husbands, who subsequently decided to support and understand a younger woman. Why tempt the fates?”
"More than 10 years later, after the couple had raised five children, Jack Hekker did indeed leave her for a younger woman. (A career woman, no less.) He served Mrs. Hekker with divorce papers in 1996 — on their 40th anniversary.
"In 2009, she published a vinegary but tongue-in-cheek reappraisal, “Disregard First Book,” that winkingly seethed with the fury of a devoted wife scorned. She dedicated the sequel memoir to her children and grandchildren — but this time she also included her ex-husband, who, she wrote, “turned my life around … twice!”
"She was all too aware of the irony of having gone on record — and toured around the country — celebrating her reliance on her husband when, nearing traditional retirement age, she was suddenly dependent on the paltry amount she was awarded from him: $18,000 annually for four years. She found herself eligible for food stamps and discomfited by a divorce court judge’s suggestion that she seek job training when her alimony ended.
"“He got to take his girlfriend to Cancun,” Mrs. Hekker wrote, “while I got to sell my engagement ring to pay the roofer.”
"In the end, though, she proved herself a quick study in survival skills, and transformed herself from a full-time parent and spouse into a public citizen in Nyack, a riverfront village in the Hudson Valley. Having served on village boards and the local Chamber of Commerce and as a village trustee, Mrs. Hekker was elected mayor of Nyack in 1994, becoming the first woman to hold that office.
"She was re-elected twice, serving six years in all, and was credited with building affordable housing, revitalizing the downtown business district and establishing a community center in a renovated historic church."
Her LT page, as Terry Hekker: https://www.librarything.com/author/hekkerterry
Sam Roberts. 11/22/2025: Terry Martin Hekker, a Happy Housewife Scorned, Dies at 92. "She wrote two popular memoirs: the first about the joys of married life, the second about her husband serving her divorce papers on their 40th anniversary."
"In 1979, when feminism was thriving and the Equal Rights Amendment was only three states shy of ratification, Terry Martin Hekker published “Ever Since Adam and Eve.”
"Based on an essay she had written for The New York Times, the book was a witty but sincere testimonial — anachronistic in its moment — to how fulfilling Mrs. Hekker found housewifery and stay-at-home motherhood. She dedicated it to her role models for domesticity: her mother and grandmother.
“I considered dedicating this to my husband,” she added, “until I noticed how many women dedicated first books to their supportive and understanding husbands, who subsequently decided to support and understand a younger woman. Why tempt the fates?”
"More than 10 years later, after the couple had raised five children, Jack Hekker did indeed leave her for a younger woman. (A career woman, no less.) He served Mrs. Hekker with divorce papers in 1996 — on their 40th anniversary.
"In 2009, she published a vinegary but tongue-in-cheek reappraisal, “Disregard First Book,” that winkingly seethed with the fury of a devoted wife scorned. She dedicated the sequel memoir to her children and grandchildren — but this time she also included her ex-husband, who, she wrote, “turned my life around … twice!”
"She was all too aware of the irony of having gone on record — and toured around the country — celebrating her reliance on her husband when, nearing traditional retirement age, she was suddenly dependent on the paltry amount she was awarded from him: $18,000 annually for four years. She found herself eligible for food stamps and discomfited by a divorce court judge’s suggestion that she seek job training when her alimony ended.
"“He got to take his girlfriend to Cancun,” Mrs. Hekker wrote, “while I got to sell my engagement ring to pay the roofer.”
"In the end, though, she proved herself a quick study in survival skills, and transformed herself from a full-time parent and spouse into a public citizen in Nyack, a riverfront village in the Hudson Valley. Having served on village boards and the local Chamber of Commerce and as a village trustee, Mrs. Hekker was elected mayor of Nyack in 1994, becoming the first woman to hold that office.
"She was re-elected twice, serving six years in all, and was credited with building affordable housing, revitalizing the downtown business district and establishing a community center in a renovated historic church."
Her LT page, as Terry Hekker: https://www.librarything.com/author/hekkerterry
108featherbear
A.D. Manns. The Public Domain Review, 11/12/2025: Roma Lister, Aradia, and the Speculative Origins of a Witchcraft Revival.
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Megan Gafford. Quillette, 11/23/2025: The Line Dividing Good and Evil: What we can learn from the moral and literary failings of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and James Baldwin.
111featherbear
Alice Gribbin. Notes of an Aesthete, 11/21/2025: Questions on the Beautiful: By Eugène Delacroix, the first and last painter, now in English. On Delacroix as a writer, regarding Gribbin's translation in progress.
112featherbear
David Vichnar. 3:am magazine, 11/21/2025: Necromodernist Architectures in Contemporary Writing.
113featherbear
Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin aka H. Rap Brown aka Hubert Gerold Brown , 1943-2025
Paul Vitello. NYT, 11/23/2025, upd 11/24: Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, Black Power Activist Known as H. Rap Brown, Dies at 82. "A charismatic orator in the 1960s, he called for armed resistance to white oppression. As a Muslim cleric, he was convicted of murder in 2000 and died in detention." Temporarily unlocked
His LT page, as Jamal Al-Amin: https://www.librarything.com/author/alaminjamil
Paul Vitello. NYT, 11/23/2025, upd 11/24: Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, Black Power Activist Known as H. Rap Brown, Dies at 82. "A charismatic orator in the 1960s, he called for armed resistance to white oppression. As a Muslim cleric, he was convicted of murder in 2000 and died in detention." Temporarily unlocked
His LT page, as Jamal Al-Amin: https://www.librarything.com/author/alaminjamil
114featherbear
Robert A.M. Stern, 1939-2025
Robert D. McFadden. NYT, 11/27/2025: Robert A.M. Stern, Architect Who Reinvented Prewar Splendor, Dies at 86. Another link, hopefully unlocked
Stern taught at the Yale School of Architecture for many years, & what little I know of the topic of modern architecture I picked up from his public lectures at the Yale Art & Architecture gallery. The lectures were nearing the end but were interrupted by the 9/11 event; I didn't have the heart to continue going after they resumed. If nothing else, he was an excellent lecturer and advocate for post-modern architecture; the obit shows he was a lot more.
Edward Helmore. Guardian, 11/27/2025: Robert AM Stern, architect dubbed ‘King of Central Park West’, dies aged 86.
Fred A. Bernstein. WaPo, 11/27/2025: Robert A.M. Stern, renowned architect and educator, dies at 86. "His traditionally styled buildings shaped the Manhattan skyline and conferred gravitas on individuals and institutions, including Georgetown University." Temporarily unlocked
Robert A.M. Stern LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/sternrobertam
Robert D. McFadden. NYT, 11/27/2025: Robert A.M. Stern, Architect Who Reinvented Prewar Splendor, Dies at 86. Another link, hopefully unlocked
Stern taught at the Yale School of Architecture for many years, & what little I know of the topic of modern architecture I picked up from his public lectures at the Yale Art & Architecture gallery. The lectures were nearing the end but were interrupted by the 9/11 event; I didn't have the heart to continue going after they resumed. If nothing else, he was an excellent lecturer and advocate for post-modern architecture; the obit shows he was a lot more.
Edward Helmore. Guardian, 11/27/2025: Robert AM Stern, architect dubbed ‘King of Central Park West’, dies aged 86.
Fred A. Bernstein. WaPo, 11/27/2025: Robert A.M. Stern, renowned architect and educator, dies at 86. "His traditionally styled buildings shaped the Manhattan skyline and conferred gravitas on individuals and institutions, including Georgetown University." Temporarily unlocked
Robert A.M. Stern LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/sternrobertam
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TLS November 28, 2025|No. 6393
Featured
Mary Beard (via the current TLS landing page). Struggling with Civilizations.
Damian Flanagan. Shining Prince: The Tale of Genji, the Japanese novel that dazzled the West. LT anchor link: The Tale of Genji / Murasaki Shikibu.
Miranda France. Tilting at Cervantes: The author of a Spanish literary masterpiece. Review of: El verano de Cervantes / Antonio Muñoz Molina -- El Cautivo, Alejandro Amenábar, director.
Ruth Scurr. Not real but here too: Late stories of a self-styled ‘arguer with the world.’ Review of: The Eleventh Hour: a quintet of stories / Salman Rushdie.
Peter Geoghegan. Stealing the state: How crime organizes the world. Review of: Homo Criminalis: How crime organizes the world / Mark Galeotti (Ebury Press; UK subtitle: How crime organises the world).
Literature & Bibliography
Tom Cook. Just their type: Modern fonts and their designers. Review of: Type Designers of the Twentieth Century / David Jury.
A.S.G. Edwards. The small print: A scholarly editor of medieval and early modern texts. Review of: A History of the Early English Text Society: Volume 1, the early years: Frederick James Furnivall, 1825–1864 / Helen Leith Spencer.
Lisa Hilton. Poor devils: French literature and fickle public opinion. Review of: The Writer’s Lot: Culture and revolution in eighteenth-century France / Robert Darnton.
David E. Wellbery. A lone inquirer: Goethe’s achievement as artist, scientist and statesman. Review of: Goethe: A life in ideas / Matthew Bell.
Bryan Cheyette. Joys of Yiddish: A writer’s struggle to breathe new life into a dying language. Review of: Writings on Yiddish and Yiddishkayt: A spiritual reappraisal, 1946–1955 / Isaac Bashevis Singer; translated by David Stromberg (White Goat Press).
Larry Wolff. Pole position: Short stories from a rich literary culture. Review of: The Penguin Book of Polish Short Stories / Antonia Lloyd-Jones, editor.
Muireann Maguire. Underground Man: An unofficial Soviet writer. Review of: Summer in Baden-Baden / Leonid Tsypkin; translated by Roger and Angela Keys -- The Bridge over the Neroch and Other Works / Leonid Tsypkin; translated by Jamey Gambrell -- Written for the Drawer: Leonid Tsypkin, uncensored literature and Soviet Jewishness / Brett Winestock (University of Wisconsin Press).
James Cahill. Knausgaard in Deptford: Art, myth and the occult in 1980s London. Review of: The School of Night / Karl Ove Knausgaard; translated by Martin Aitken.
Randy Boyagoda. No will of his own?: Agency and fate collide in coastal Norway. Review of: Vaim / Jon Fosse; translated by Damion Searls.
Rhoda Kwan. Forged truths: A daughter comes to terms with a mother’s lack of love. Review of: Bad Bad Girl / Gish Jen.
Christopher Shrimpton. Pioneer or murderer?: A young girl finds herself in the care of Dr Asperger. Review of: The Matchbox Girl / Alice Jolly.
Lorna Scott Fox. Life no longer infinite: Politics, art and authenticity in Pinochet-era Chile. Review of: Telenovela / Gonzalo C. Garcia.
M.C. NB column: Serial Hero: John Buchan at 150, Biblio-magic, W. H. Auden and beauty, Correspondence.
In Brief Review of: Pick a Color: A Novel / Souvankham Thammavongsa. UK title: Pick a Colour. (US publisher: Little, Brown; UK: Bloomsbury) novel about a nail salon
In Brief Review of: Conversations with Rilke / Maurice Betz; translated by Will Stone.
In Brief Review of: My Name Is Stramer / Mikołaj Łoziński; translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (no English language edition found on Amazon -- per TLS publisher is Pushkin Press; the German ed indicates it's a novel).
In Brief Review of: I Am Clarence / Elaine Kraf.
In Brief Review of: This Room Is Impossible to Eat / Nicol Hochholczerová; translated by Julia and Peter Sherwood.
In Brief Review of: Malaparte: A biography / Maurizio Serra; translated by Stephen Twilley.
Arts
Paul Griffiths. The moment is now: A bold new interpretation of Janáček’s passionate, relentless opera. Review of: Leoš Janáček's opera The Makropulos Case, Royal Opera House, London.
Sophie Oliver. Vibrations of strange new life: Lee Miller’s artistic and historical sensibility. Review of the exhibition of her photographs Lee Miller, Tate Britain, London, until February 15.
Keith Miller. Celebrating and withholding: Kerry James Marshall, ‘poised between narrative and allegory.’ Review of the exhibition Kerry James Marshall: The Histories, Royal Academy, London, until January 18.
James Romm. A plague on all their houses: From ancient court to campaign HQ: Robert Icke’s Sophocles. Review of Oedipus / Robert Icke, after Sophocles, Studio 54, New York, until February 8, 2026.
Susan Owens. Craftwork: Britain’s lost arts and vanishing folk traditions. Review of: Craftland: A journey through Britain’s lost arts and vanishing trades / James Fox (Bodley Head) -- The Lost Folk: From the forgotten past to the emerging future of folk / Lally MacBeth.
James Hall. Confusion and astonishment: The gargantuan, bewildering Louvre. Review of: Adventures in the Louvre: How to fall in love with the world’s greatest museum / Elaine Sciolino.
Aaron Peck. Nights at the museum: The power and glory of Parisian art. Review of: La Nuit sur commande / Christine Angot -- Après Dieu / Richard Malka.
Philosophy
Jonathan Egid. Sympathy for the devil: Bernard Mandeville’s defence of private vices with public benefits. Review of: Man-Devil: The mind and times of Bernard Mandeville, the wickedest man in Europe / John Callanan.
Sarah Richmond. What they mean: A Marxist polemic against analytic philosophy. Review of: A Social History of Analytic Philosophy: How politics has shaped an apolitical philosophy / Christoph Schuringa.
In Brief Review of: In Praise of the Earth: A journey into the garden / Byung-Chul Han; translated by Daniel Steuer ("A philosophy of being close to the earth").
Science & Technology
Regina Rini. The fear of liberation: Marshall McLuhan’s poetic prescience. (Essay)
Tony Juniper. Taken at the flood: An alternative to the current system of failing water companies. Review of: Murky Water: Challenging an unsustainable system / Luca Calafati, Julie Froud, Colin Haslam, Sukhdev Johal and Karel Williams (Manchester University Press).
Isaac Nowell. Filleted accounts: The devastation caused by deep-sea commercial fishing. Review of: Every Last Fish: What fish do for us and what we do to them / Rose George.
Alice Wadsworth. Minds over matter: Delusions in every shape and form. Review of: The Man Who Lost His Head: On illusions and delusions / Douwe Draaisma; translated by Jane Hedley-Prôle.
Russell Foster. While you were sleeping: Dreams defy exact scientific analysis. Review of: Into the Dream Lab: The new science of dreams and nightmares / Michelle Carr.
Fay Bound Alberti. Suitable case for treatment: Suitable case for treatment. Review of: Wound Man: The many lives of a surgical image / Jack Hartnell.
In Brief Review of: All of Us Atoms: A Memoir / Holly Dawson. (medical memoir)
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Robert Bartlett. Dennis’s dating application: The invention of the modern calendar. (Essay)
David Gelber. Past masters: A revealing series of interviews with historians. (Essay)
Michael Bentley. Life’s work: The compulsive energy of a unique historian. Review of: The Indefatigable Asa Briggs / Adam Sisman.
Richard English. Signifying nothing: Terrorism’s record of failure. Review of: The Revolutionists: The story of the extremists who hijacked the 1970s / Jason Burke.
Abigail Green. The longest hatred?: The changing meaning of antisemitism. Review of: On Antisemitism: A word in history / Mark Mazower.
Su Lin Lewis. Burmese days: How U Thant rescued the UN. Review of: Peacemaker: U Thant, the United Nations and the untold story of the 1960s / Thant Myint-U.
Sam Freedman. Elite wars: Global markets and the new illiberalism. Review of: The Great Global Transformation: National market liberalism in a multipolar world / Branko Milanovic.
Tom Lathan. Gone to look for America: A meditation on a continent from a Greyhound bus. Review of: Greyhound: a memoir / Joanna Pocock.
Alev Adil. Night moves: Train travel in the dark and trips to the British seaside. Review of: Moonlight Express: Around the world by night train / Monisha Rajesh -- To the Sea by Train: The golden age of railway travel / Andrew Martin.
Abigail Parry. The Arctic: A place of ice and awe. (Essay)
Kathryn Hughes. A shade never seen in nature: The platinum blonde in British history. Review of: British Blonde: Women, desire and the image in post-war Britain / Lynda Nead (Yale University Press).
Frances Wilson. Love addict: Elizabeth Gilbert’s emotional recovery programme. Review of: All the Way to the River: Love, loss and liberation / Elizabeth Gilbert.
In Brief Review of: Queen Elizabeth II: A concise biography of an exceptional sovereign / David Cannadine (Oxford University Press).
Featured
Mary Beard (via the current TLS landing page). Struggling with Civilizations.
Damian Flanagan. Shining Prince: The Tale of Genji, the Japanese novel that dazzled the West. LT anchor link: The Tale of Genji / Murasaki Shikibu.
Miranda France. Tilting at Cervantes: The author of a Spanish literary masterpiece. Review of: El verano de Cervantes / Antonio Muñoz Molina -- El Cautivo, Alejandro Amenábar, director.
Ruth Scurr. Not real but here too: Late stories of a self-styled ‘arguer with the world.’ Review of: The Eleventh Hour: a quintet of stories / Salman Rushdie.
Peter Geoghegan. Stealing the state: How crime organizes the world. Review of: Homo Criminalis: How crime organizes the world / Mark Galeotti (Ebury Press; UK subtitle: How crime organises the world).
Literature & Bibliography
Tom Cook. Just their type: Modern fonts and their designers. Review of: Type Designers of the Twentieth Century / David Jury.
A.S.G. Edwards. The small print: A scholarly editor of medieval and early modern texts. Review of: A History of the Early English Text Society: Volume 1, the early years: Frederick James Furnivall, 1825–1864 / Helen Leith Spencer.
Lisa Hilton. Poor devils: French literature and fickle public opinion. Review of: The Writer’s Lot: Culture and revolution in eighteenth-century France / Robert Darnton.
David E. Wellbery. A lone inquirer: Goethe’s achievement as artist, scientist and statesman. Review of: Goethe: A life in ideas / Matthew Bell.
Bryan Cheyette. Joys of Yiddish: A writer’s struggle to breathe new life into a dying language. Review of: Writings on Yiddish and Yiddishkayt: A spiritual reappraisal, 1946–1955 / Isaac Bashevis Singer; translated by David Stromberg (White Goat Press).
Larry Wolff. Pole position: Short stories from a rich literary culture. Review of: The Penguin Book of Polish Short Stories / Antonia Lloyd-Jones, editor.
Muireann Maguire. Underground Man: An unofficial Soviet writer. Review of: Summer in Baden-Baden / Leonid Tsypkin; translated by Roger and Angela Keys -- The Bridge over the Neroch and Other Works / Leonid Tsypkin; translated by Jamey Gambrell -- Written for the Drawer: Leonid Tsypkin, uncensored literature and Soviet Jewishness / Brett Winestock (University of Wisconsin Press).
James Cahill. Knausgaard in Deptford: Art, myth and the occult in 1980s London. Review of: The School of Night / Karl Ove Knausgaard; translated by Martin Aitken.
Randy Boyagoda. No will of his own?: Agency and fate collide in coastal Norway. Review of: Vaim / Jon Fosse; translated by Damion Searls.
Rhoda Kwan. Forged truths: A daughter comes to terms with a mother’s lack of love. Review of: Bad Bad Girl / Gish Jen.
Christopher Shrimpton. Pioneer or murderer?: A young girl finds herself in the care of Dr Asperger. Review of: The Matchbox Girl / Alice Jolly.
Lorna Scott Fox. Life no longer infinite: Politics, art and authenticity in Pinochet-era Chile. Review of: Telenovela / Gonzalo C. Garcia.
M.C. NB column: Serial Hero: John Buchan at 150, Biblio-magic, W. H. Auden and beauty, Correspondence.
In Brief Review of: Pick a Color: A Novel / Souvankham Thammavongsa. UK title: Pick a Colour. (US publisher: Little, Brown; UK: Bloomsbury) novel about a nail salon
In Brief Review of: Conversations with Rilke / Maurice Betz; translated by Will Stone.
In Brief Review of: My Name Is Stramer / Mikołaj Łoziński; translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (no English language edition found on Amazon -- per TLS publisher is Pushkin Press; the German ed indicates it's a novel).
In Brief Review of: I Am Clarence / Elaine Kraf.
In Brief Review of: This Room Is Impossible to Eat / Nicol Hochholczerová; translated by Julia and Peter Sherwood.
In Brief Review of: Malaparte: A biography / Maurizio Serra; translated by Stephen Twilley.
Arts
Paul Griffiths. The moment is now: A bold new interpretation of Janáček’s passionate, relentless opera. Review of: Leoš Janáček's opera The Makropulos Case, Royal Opera House, London.
Sophie Oliver. Vibrations of strange new life: Lee Miller’s artistic and historical sensibility. Review of the exhibition of her photographs Lee Miller, Tate Britain, London, until February 15.
Keith Miller. Celebrating and withholding: Kerry James Marshall, ‘poised between narrative and allegory.’ Review of the exhibition Kerry James Marshall: The Histories, Royal Academy, London, until January 18.
James Romm. A plague on all their houses: From ancient court to campaign HQ: Robert Icke’s Sophocles. Review of Oedipus / Robert Icke, after Sophocles, Studio 54, New York, until February 8, 2026.
Susan Owens. Craftwork: Britain’s lost arts and vanishing folk traditions. Review of: Craftland: A journey through Britain’s lost arts and vanishing trades / James Fox (Bodley Head) -- The Lost Folk: From the forgotten past to the emerging future of folk / Lally MacBeth.
James Hall. Confusion and astonishment: The gargantuan, bewildering Louvre. Review of: Adventures in the Louvre: How to fall in love with the world’s greatest museum / Elaine Sciolino.
Aaron Peck. Nights at the museum: The power and glory of Parisian art. Review of: La Nuit sur commande / Christine Angot -- Après Dieu / Richard Malka.
Philosophy
Jonathan Egid. Sympathy for the devil: Bernard Mandeville’s defence of private vices with public benefits. Review of: Man-Devil: The mind and times of Bernard Mandeville, the wickedest man in Europe / John Callanan.
Sarah Richmond. What they mean: A Marxist polemic against analytic philosophy. Review of: A Social History of Analytic Philosophy: How politics has shaped an apolitical philosophy / Christoph Schuringa.
In Brief Review of: In Praise of the Earth: A journey into the garden / Byung-Chul Han; translated by Daniel Steuer ("A philosophy of being close to the earth").
Science & Technology
Regina Rini. The fear of liberation: Marshall McLuhan’s poetic prescience. (Essay)
Tony Juniper. Taken at the flood: An alternative to the current system of failing water companies. Review of: Murky Water: Challenging an unsustainable system / Luca Calafati, Julie Froud, Colin Haslam, Sukhdev Johal and Karel Williams (Manchester University Press).
Isaac Nowell. Filleted accounts: The devastation caused by deep-sea commercial fishing. Review of: Every Last Fish: What fish do for us and what we do to them / Rose George.
Alice Wadsworth. Minds over matter: Delusions in every shape and form. Review of: The Man Who Lost His Head: On illusions and delusions / Douwe Draaisma; translated by Jane Hedley-Prôle.
Russell Foster. While you were sleeping: Dreams defy exact scientific analysis. Review of: Into the Dream Lab: The new science of dreams and nightmares / Michelle Carr.
Fay Bound Alberti. Suitable case for treatment: Suitable case for treatment. Review of: Wound Man: The many lives of a surgical image / Jack Hartnell.
In Brief Review of: All of Us Atoms: A Memoir / Holly Dawson. (medical memoir)
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Robert Bartlett. Dennis’s dating application: The invention of the modern calendar. (Essay)
David Gelber. Past masters: A revealing series of interviews with historians. (Essay)
Michael Bentley. Life’s work: The compulsive energy of a unique historian. Review of: The Indefatigable Asa Briggs / Adam Sisman.
Richard English. Signifying nothing: Terrorism’s record of failure. Review of: The Revolutionists: The story of the extremists who hijacked the 1970s / Jason Burke.
Abigail Green. The longest hatred?: The changing meaning of antisemitism. Review of: On Antisemitism: A word in history / Mark Mazower.
Su Lin Lewis. Burmese days: How U Thant rescued the UN. Review of: Peacemaker: U Thant, the United Nations and the untold story of the 1960s / Thant Myint-U.
Sam Freedman. Elite wars: Global markets and the new illiberalism. Review of: The Great Global Transformation: National market liberalism in a multipolar world / Branko Milanovic.
Tom Lathan. Gone to look for America: A meditation on a continent from a Greyhound bus. Review of: Greyhound: a memoir / Joanna Pocock.
Alev Adil. Night moves: Train travel in the dark and trips to the British seaside. Review of: Moonlight Express: Around the world by night train / Monisha Rajesh -- To the Sea by Train: The golden age of railway travel / Andrew Martin.
Abigail Parry. The Arctic: A place of ice and awe. (Essay)
Kathryn Hughes. A shade never seen in nature: The platinum blonde in British history. Review of: British Blonde: Women, desire and the image in post-war Britain / Lynda Nead (Yale University Press).
Frances Wilson. Love addict: Elizabeth Gilbert’s emotional recovery programme. Review of: All the Way to the River: Love, loss and liberation / Elizabeth Gilbert.
In Brief Review of: Queen Elizabeth II: A concise biography of an exceptional sovereign / David Cannadine (Oxford University Press).
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November 23-30 updates
Asian Review of Books Nov 30: economic development of independent India -- Nov 29: a Chinese nanny's story by Zhang Yueran -- Nov 28: Mt Fuji -- Nov 26: South Asian river travel -- Nov 25: Bombay in 18 stories -- Nov 24: destruction of the Indonesian left >72 featherbear:
Atlantic Nov 29: Every Man Dies Alone (1947) -- Nov 26: history of rock & roll in 15 drummers -- Nov 25: Sam Shepherd bio; books to change what America eats -- Nov 24: George Packer reviews Laura Fields's The Making of the Maga New Right >75 featherbear:
Boston Review Nov 26: close reading >103 featherbear:
The Critic (UK) Nov 28: Daniel Johnson reviews an awful lot of books -- Nov 24: Laurence Freedman's essays on strategy >70 featherbear:
fivebooks.com Nov 28: best history books of 2025: the Wolfson prize shortlist -- Nov 27: list of best non-fiction books lists for 2025 -- Nov 26: best business books of the year nominees -- Nov 25: best science books for children >80 featherbear:
Guardian Nov 30: interview of Mircea Cărtărescu, author of Blinding: the Left Wing -- Nov 29: 10 chaotic questions for Fran Lebowitz -- Nov 28: author archives; the books in Tessa Hadley's life -- Nov 27: Luigi bio -- Nov 26: John Tottenham's Service -- Nov 25: Knausgård's School of Night; Francis Crick bio -- Nov 24: Holbein bio -- Nov 23: Chekov's early stories; Karl Ove Knausgård interview >71 featherbear:
LARB Nov 30: racial economic exploitation -- Nov 29: Alison Bechdel's Spent -- Nov 26: Eye of the monkey -- Nov 25: new book on the Iranian revolution -- Nov 24: Werner Herzog's The Future of Truth -- Nov 23: disappeared Americans in Chile >69 featherbear:
LitHub Nov 24: bibliomania; close reading a poem of Edna St Vincent Millay >77 featherbear:
New Yorker Nov 26: Sam Shepherd bio -- Nov 24: Claudia Roth Pierpont on The Divine Comedy; global history of capitalism; another review of Making of the Maga New Right >76 featherbear:
NYT Nov 30: Girls Play Dead; language of Tom Stoppard -- Nov 29: New Olga Tokarczuk novel; what is a "broken reader" & can he be fixed? -- Nov 28: Hamnet & the Shakespeare each generation deserves -- Nov 26: world history of capitalism; Jane Austen's 250th -- Nov 24: family of spies; real estate novel -- Nov 23: Jessica Mitford bio -- Do audiobooks count as reading? >68 featherbear:
Public Books Nov 26: historical novel about filmmaker Sergio Cabrera Cárdenas >78 featherbear:
TLS Nov 28 >115 featherbear:
WaPo Nov 27: Stewart O'Nan's Evensong -- Nov 26: interview with Virginia Evans (author of The Correspondent) -- Nov 24: 100 notable books of 2025 (shared link); a novel about physics, time, & love >74 featherbear:
November index >67 featherbear:
New websites this week:
3am magazine >112 featherbear:
Aeon >109 featherbear:
Commonweal >138 featherbear:
Notes of an Aesthete >111 featherbear:
Quillette >110 featherbear:
Public Domain Review >108 featherbear:
Asian Review of Books Nov 30: economic development of independent India -- Nov 29: a Chinese nanny's story by Zhang Yueran -- Nov 28: Mt Fuji -- Nov 26: South Asian river travel -- Nov 25: Bombay in 18 stories -- Nov 24: destruction of the Indonesian left >72 featherbear:
Atlantic Nov 29: Every Man Dies Alone (1947) -- Nov 26: history of rock & roll in 15 drummers -- Nov 25: Sam Shepherd bio; books to change what America eats -- Nov 24: George Packer reviews Laura Fields's The Making of the Maga New Right >75 featherbear:
Boston Review Nov 26: close reading >103 featherbear:
The Critic (UK) Nov 28: Daniel Johnson reviews an awful lot of books -- Nov 24: Laurence Freedman's essays on strategy >70 featherbear:
fivebooks.com Nov 28: best history books of 2025: the Wolfson prize shortlist -- Nov 27: list of best non-fiction books lists for 2025 -- Nov 26: best business books of the year nominees -- Nov 25: best science books for children >80 featherbear:
Guardian Nov 30: interview of Mircea Cărtărescu, author of Blinding: the Left Wing -- Nov 29: 10 chaotic questions for Fran Lebowitz -- Nov 28: author archives; the books in Tessa Hadley's life -- Nov 27: Luigi bio -- Nov 26: John Tottenham's Service -- Nov 25: Knausgård's School of Night; Francis Crick bio -- Nov 24: Holbein bio -- Nov 23: Chekov's early stories; Karl Ove Knausgård interview >71 featherbear:
LARB Nov 30: racial economic exploitation -- Nov 29: Alison Bechdel's Spent -- Nov 26: Eye of the monkey -- Nov 25: new book on the Iranian revolution -- Nov 24: Werner Herzog's The Future of Truth -- Nov 23: disappeared Americans in Chile >69 featherbear:
LitHub Nov 24: bibliomania; close reading a poem of Edna St Vincent Millay >77 featherbear:
New Yorker Nov 26: Sam Shepherd bio -- Nov 24: Claudia Roth Pierpont on The Divine Comedy; global history of capitalism; another review of Making of the Maga New Right >76 featherbear:
NYT Nov 30: Girls Play Dead; language of Tom Stoppard -- Nov 29: New Olga Tokarczuk novel; what is a "broken reader" & can he be fixed? -- Nov 28: Hamnet & the Shakespeare each generation deserves -- Nov 26: world history of capitalism; Jane Austen's 250th -- Nov 24: family of spies; real estate novel -- Nov 23: Jessica Mitford bio -- Do audiobooks count as reading? >68 featherbear:
Public Books Nov 26: historical novel about filmmaker Sergio Cabrera Cárdenas >78 featherbear:
TLS Nov 28 >115 featherbear:
WaPo Nov 27: Stewart O'Nan's Evensong -- Nov 26: interview with Virginia Evans (author of The Correspondent) -- Nov 24: 100 notable books of 2025 (shared link); a novel about physics, time, & love >74 featherbear:
November index >67 featherbear:
New websites this week:
3am magazine >112 featherbear:
Aeon >109 featherbear:
Commonweal >138 featherbear:
Notes of an Aesthete >111 featherbear:
Quillette >110 featherbear:
Public Domain Review >108 featherbear:
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Tom Stoppard, 1937-2025
Bruce Weber. NYT, 11/29/2025: Tom Stoppard, Award-Winning Playwright of Witty Drama, Dies at 88. Temporarily unlocked
Claire Armitstead and Chris Wiegand. Guardian, 11/29/2025: Guardian, 11/29/2025: Tom Stoppard – a life in pictures.
David Jays. Guardian, 11/29/2025: With his restless imagination, Tom Stoppard showed us a mind on the move. "The questing Czech-born playwright gave us plays that explored arcadias, utopias and affecting notions of home."
Mark Lawson. Guardian, 11/29/2025: Where to start with Tom Stoppard: from Brazil to Leopoldstadt. "The great playwright had a 60-year career in the theatre and also wrote scripts for radio and the screen – here are some of his very best."
Michael Billington. Guardian, 11/29/2025: Tom Stoppard: a brilliant dramatist who always raised the temperature of the room. "The self-described ‘bounced Czech’ created cerebral works centred by a core of genuine emotion – and always understood the ways of our world."
Fred A. Bernstein. WaPo, 11/29/2025: Tom Stoppard, playwright of electric verve, dies at 88. Temporarily unlocked
Ben Brantley. NYT, 11/29/2025: The Language of Tom Stoppard, Ablaze With Energy and Urgency. "In works like “Travesties” and “Arcadia,” the playwright embraced the really big questions and wrestled words into coherent, exhilarating shape."
Marc Tracy. NYT, 11/30/2025: When Tom Stoppard Confronted His Background in His Final Play. "The playwright, who learned about his Jewish heritage late in life, addressed it in the Tony Award-winning drama “Leopoldstadt.”"
Jesse Green, Michael Paulson, and Laura Collins-Hughes. NYT, 11/30/2025: Glenn Close, Ethan Hawke and Others Mourn Tom Stoppard. "Nobody advanced or cherished the English language more than Stoppard, Tim Curry noted. Colleagues and fans agreed."
Helen Shaw. New Yorker, 11/30/2025: Tom Stoppard’s Radical Invitation: The playwright offered a kind of on-ramp to the literary canon, a way into a life of unabashed, unstoppable thinking.
Wendy Smith. WaPo, 03/03/2021: ‘Tom Stoppard: A Life’ documents the professional successes and glamorous social life of a storied playwright. Review of: Tom Stoppard: A Life / Hermione Lee.
Kenneth Tynan. New Yorker, 12/12/1977: Withdrawing with Style from the Chaos. "For the playwright Tom Stoppard, art is a game within a game—the larger game being life itself, an absurd mosaic of incidents and accidents."
Tom Stoppard LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/stoppardtom
Bruce Weber. NYT, 11/29/2025: Tom Stoppard, Award-Winning Playwright of Witty Drama, Dies at 88. Temporarily unlocked
Claire Armitstead and Chris Wiegand. Guardian, 11/29/2025: Guardian, 11/29/2025: Tom Stoppard – a life in pictures.
David Jays. Guardian, 11/29/2025: With his restless imagination, Tom Stoppard showed us a mind on the move. "The questing Czech-born playwright gave us plays that explored arcadias, utopias and affecting notions of home."
Mark Lawson. Guardian, 11/29/2025: Where to start with Tom Stoppard: from Brazil to Leopoldstadt. "The great playwright had a 60-year career in the theatre and also wrote scripts for radio and the screen – here are some of his very best."
Michael Billington. Guardian, 11/29/2025: Tom Stoppard: a brilliant dramatist who always raised the temperature of the room. "The self-described ‘bounced Czech’ created cerebral works centred by a core of genuine emotion – and always understood the ways of our world."
Fred A. Bernstein. WaPo, 11/29/2025: Tom Stoppard, playwright of electric verve, dies at 88. Temporarily unlocked
Ben Brantley. NYT, 11/29/2025: The Language of Tom Stoppard, Ablaze With Energy and Urgency. "In works like “Travesties” and “Arcadia,” the playwright embraced the really big questions and wrestled words into coherent, exhilarating shape."
Marc Tracy. NYT, 11/30/2025: When Tom Stoppard Confronted His Background in His Final Play. "The playwright, who learned about his Jewish heritage late in life, addressed it in the Tony Award-winning drama “Leopoldstadt.”"
Jesse Green, Michael Paulson, and Laura Collins-Hughes. NYT, 11/30/2025: Glenn Close, Ethan Hawke and Others Mourn Tom Stoppard. "Nobody advanced or cherished the English language more than Stoppard, Tim Curry noted. Colleagues and fans agreed."
Helen Shaw. New Yorker, 11/30/2025: Tom Stoppard’s Radical Invitation: The playwright offered a kind of on-ramp to the literary canon, a way into a life of unabashed, unstoppable thinking.
Wendy Smith. WaPo, 03/03/2021: ‘Tom Stoppard: A Life’ documents the professional successes and glamorous social life of a storied playwright. Review of: Tom Stoppard: A Life / Hermione Lee.
Kenneth Tynan. New Yorker, 12/12/1977: Withdrawing with Style from the Chaos. "For the playwright Tom Stoppard, art is a game within a game—the larger game being life itself, an absurd mosaic of incidents and accidents."
Tom Stoppard LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/stoppardtom
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Ellen Bryant Voigt, 1943-2025
Richard Sandomir. NYT, 11/28/2025: Ellen Bryant Voigt, Poet With a Musical Ear, Dies at 82. "Her nine volumes included “Kyrie,” a suite of sonnets about the 1918 influenza epidemic. She was also Pulitzer Prize finalist and a poet laureate of Vermont."
Catherine Barnett et al. Yale Review, 10/28/2025: Ellen Bryant Voigt: Four poets remember a singular mentor.
Ellen Bryant Voigt LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/voigtellenbryant
Richard Sandomir. NYT, 11/28/2025: Ellen Bryant Voigt, Poet With a Musical Ear, Dies at 82. "Her nine volumes included “Kyrie,” a suite of sonnets about the 1918 influenza epidemic. She was also Pulitzer Prize finalist and a poet laureate of Vermont."
Catherine Barnett et al. Yale Review, 10/28/2025: Ellen Bryant Voigt: Four poets remember a singular mentor.
Ellen Bryant Voigt LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/voigtellenbryant
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Dec 2025 index
Aeon >155 featherbear:
American Scholar >129 featherbear:
Asian Review of Books >131 featherbear:
asterisk >158 featherbear:
Atlantic >123 featherbear:
bbc culture >161 featherbear:
Boston Review >137 featherbear:
crimereads.com >164 featherbear:
The Critic (UK) >136 featherbear:
fivebooks.com >120 featherbear:
Guardian >122 featherbear:
LARB >130 featherbear:
Literary Review (UK) >144 featherbear:
LitHub >135 featherbear:
New Yorker >132 featherbear:
NYRB Dec 04 >125 featherbear: Dec 18: >126 featherbear:
NYT >121 featherbear:
Pittsburgh Review of Books (PRoB) >160 featherbear:
Public Books >134 featherbear:
Quillette >164 featherbear:
The Scoop >159 featherbear:
TLS Dec 12 >146 featherbear: -- Dec 26 >163 featherbear:
UnHerd >153 featherbear:
Vulture >148 featherbear:
The Walrus >142 featherbear:
WaPo >127 featherbear:
November index >67 featherbear:
Aeon >155 featherbear:
American Scholar >129 featherbear:
Asian Review of Books >131 featherbear:
asterisk >158 featherbear:
Atlantic >123 featherbear:
bbc culture >161 featherbear:
Boston Review >137 featherbear:
crimereads.com >164 featherbear:
The Critic (UK) >136 featherbear:
fivebooks.com >120 featherbear:
Guardian >122 featherbear:
LARB >130 featherbear:
Literary Review (UK) >144 featherbear:
LitHub >135 featherbear:
New Yorker >132 featherbear:
NYRB Dec 04 >125 featherbear: Dec 18: >126 featherbear:
NYT >121 featherbear:
Pittsburgh Review of Books (PRoB) >160 featherbear:
Public Books >134 featherbear:
Quillette >164 featherbear:
The Scoop >159 featherbear:
TLS Dec 12 >146 featherbear: -- Dec 26 >163 featherbear:
UnHerd >153 featherbear:
Vulture >148 featherbear:
The Walrus >142 featherbear:
WaPo >127 featherbear:
November index >67 featherbear:
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fivebooks.com Dec 2025
Cal Flynn. 12/28/2025: Booker Prize-Winning Historical Novels.
Sophie Roell. 12/27/2025; upd 12/28/2025: Award-Winning Nonfiction Books of 2025:
Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction (formerly Samuel Johnson Prize): How to End a Story: Collected Diaries, 1978-1998 / Helen Garner -- British Academy Prize: The Burning Earth: An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years / Sunil Amrith -- Duff Cooper Prize: Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin / Sue Prideaux -- Women's Prize for Non-Fiction: The Story of a Heart: Two Families, One Heart, and the Medical Miracle that Saved a Child's Life / Rachel Clarke -- Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction: To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement / Benjamin Nathans.
Some overlap w/other fivebooks postings, though the first section features Roell's comments. The next section, refers back to earlier fivebooks postings, w/links to the original commentaries.
More specialized prizes listed by Sophie Roell:
Financial Times Business Book of the Year: The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World's Most Coveted Microchip Stephen Witt -- Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize: Our Brains, Our Selves: What a Neurologist’s Patients Taught Him About the Brain / Masud Husain -- Royal Institute of Philosophy Book Prize: The Edge of Sentience: Risk and Precaution in Humans, Other Animals, and AI / Jonathan Birch -- William Hill Sports Book of the Year: The Escape: The Tour, the Cyclist and Me / David Walsh & Pippa York -- Arthur Ross Award: The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq / Steve Coll -- Orwell Prize for Political Writing: Looking at Women Looking at War: A War and Justice Diary / Victoria Amelina -- Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award: Black Ghosts: Encounters with the Africans Changing China / Noo Saro-Wiwa
ran across this interesting old interview via X/Twitter & decided to boomark it: Steven Kaplan, interviewer Emma Mustich. 06/30/2011; updated 04/06/2021: The best books on The History of Food.
Shane Walley, interviewer Sophie Roell. 12/25/2025: The Best Spy Books of 2025.
Cal Flynn. 12/22/2025: Award-Winning Memoirs of 2025:
Pulitzer Prize for Autobiography: Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir / Tessa Hulls -- The Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction: How to End a Story / Helen Garner -- The National Book Award for Nonfiction: One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This / Omar El Akkad -- The National Book Critics Circle Award for Memoir & Autobiography: Patriot: a memoir / Alexei Navalny -- The TLS Ackerley Prize: Wild Twin / Jeff Young.
Jason Furman, interviewer Eve Gerber. 12/21/2025: The Best Economics Books of 2025. Including The Wealth of Nations?
Cal Flynn. 12/20/2025: Award-Winning Biographies of 2025:
Pulitzer Prize for Biography: Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life / Jason Roberts ("a dual biography of the 18th-century naturalists Carl Linnaeus and Georges-Louis de Buffon") -- National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography: Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar / Cindy Carr -- Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography: Augustus The Strong: A Study in Artistic Greatness and Political Fiasco / Tim Blanning -- The Plutarch Award: The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham / Lucy Hallett (note: shared prize w/the Candy Darling bio) -- The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Award: Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin / Sue Prideaux.
Sophie Roell. 12/20/2025: The Best Crime Novels of 2025.
Cal Flynn. 12/16/2025: Award-Winning Novels of 2025. "A summary of award-winning fiction of 2025—novels that won major literary prizes in the English-speaking world":
Booker Prize: Flesh: A Novel / David Szalay -- International Booker Prize: Heart Lamp / Banu Mushtaq, translator Deep Bhasthi -- Women's Prize for Fiction: The Safekeep / Yael van der Wouden -- Dublin Literary Award: The Adversary: A Novel / Michael Crummey -- Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction: The Land in Winter / Andrew Miller -- Pulitzer Prize for fiction: James: a novel / Percival Everett -- National Book Award for Fiction & Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction: The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) / Rabih Alameddine -- National Book Critics Award for Fiction: My Friends: a novel / Hisham Matar -- Giller Prize (Canada): Pick a Color: A Novel / Souvankham Thammavongsa -- Miles Franklin Award (Australia): Ghost Cities: a novel / Siang Lu ( S&S/Summit Books) -- Ockham New Zealand Book Awards: Delirious / Damien Wilkins -- Nobel Prize for Literature: László Krasznahorkai.
John Langan, interviewer Sylvia Bishop. 12/15/2025: The Best Cosmic Horror Books. 'Tis the season?
Tatty Macleod. 12/12/2025: The Funniest Books of the 21st Century.
Sylvia Bishop. 12/09/2025; upd 12/10/2025: Award-Winning Fantasy Novels of 2025.
Romas Viesulas. 12/06/2025: Beautiful Books of 2025. "The art of bookmaking is alive and well. Which art, architecture, design and photography books have we added to our library in 2025? Romas Viesulas, art & architecture editor at Five Books, takes us through his personal choice of beautiful reference books to add visual and conceptual interest to any well-appointed bookshelf."
Nigel Warburton, interviewer Cal Flynn. 12/05/2025: The Best Philosophy Books of 2025:
Why Plato Matters Now (Interfaces) / Angie Hobbs -- Arthur Schopenhauer: The Life and Thought of Philosophy’s Greatest Pessimist / David Bather Woods (University of Chicago Press) -- The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy / ed Jonathan Webber -- Death in a Shallow Pond: A Philosopher, a Drowning Child, and Strangers in Need / David Edmunds -- Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophy in the Age of Airplanes (Jewish Lives) / Anthony Gottlieb.
Sylvia Bishop. 12/03/2025: Award-Winning Sci Fi Novels of 2025.
Alyson Rudd; interviewer Cal Flynn. 12/02/2025: The Best Sports Books of 2025. William Hill Sports Book of the Year award short list, including the winner: The Escape: The Tour, the Cyclist and Me / David Walsh & Pippa York.
fivebooks editors. 12/01/2025: The Best Books of 2025. List of lists!
Cal Flynn. 12/28/2025: Booker Prize-Winning Historical Novels.
Sophie Roell. 12/27/2025; upd 12/28/2025: Award-Winning Nonfiction Books of 2025:
Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction (formerly Samuel Johnson Prize): How to End a Story: Collected Diaries, 1978-1998 / Helen Garner -- British Academy Prize: The Burning Earth: An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years / Sunil Amrith -- Duff Cooper Prize: Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin / Sue Prideaux -- Women's Prize for Non-Fiction: The Story of a Heart: Two Families, One Heart, and the Medical Miracle that Saved a Child's Life / Rachel Clarke -- Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction: To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement / Benjamin Nathans.
Some overlap w/other fivebooks postings, though the first section features Roell's comments. The next section, refers back to earlier fivebooks postings, w/links to the original commentaries.
More specialized prizes listed by Sophie Roell:
Financial Times Business Book of the Year: The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World's Most Coveted Microchip Stephen Witt -- Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize: Our Brains, Our Selves: What a Neurologist’s Patients Taught Him About the Brain / Masud Husain -- Royal Institute of Philosophy Book Prize: The Edge of Sentience: Risk and Precaution in Humans, Other Animals, and AI / Jonathan Birch -- William Hill Sports Book of the Year: The Escape: The Tour, the Cyclist and Me / David Walsh & Pippa York -- Arthur Ross Award: The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq / Steve Coll -- Orwell Prize for Political Writing: Looking at Women Looking at War: A War and Justice Diary / Victoria Amelina -- Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award: Black Ghosts: Encounters with the Africans Changing China / Noo Saro-Wiwa
ran across this interesting old interview via X/Twitter & decided to boomark it: Steven Kaplan, interviewer Emma Mustich. 06/30/2011; updated 04/06/2021: The best books on The History of Food.
Shane Walley, interviewer Sophie Roell. 12/25/2025: The Best Spy Books of 2025.
Cal Flynn. 12/22/2025: Award-Winning Memoirs of 2025:
Pulitzer Prize for Autobiography: Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir / Tessa Hulls -- The Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction: How to End a Story / Helen Garner -- The National Book Award for Nonfiction: One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This / Omar El Akkad -- The National Book Critics Circle Award for Memoir & Autobiography: Patriot: a memoir / Alexei Navalny -- The TLS Ackerley Prize: Wild Twin / Jeff Young.
Jason Furman, interviewer Eve Gerber. 12/21/2025: The Best Economics Books of 2025. Including The Wealth of Nations?
Cal Flynn. 12/20/2025: Award-Winning Biographies of 2025:
Pulitzer Prize for Biography: Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life / Jason Roberts ("a dual biography of the 18th-century naturalists Carl Linnaeus and Georges-Louis de Buffon") -- National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography: Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar / Cindy Carr -- Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography: Augustus The Strong: A Study in Artistic Greatness and Political Fiasco / Tim Blanning -- The Plutarch Award: The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham / Lucy Hallett (note: shared prize w/the Candy Darling bio) -- The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Award: Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin / Sue Prideaux.
Sophie Roell. 12/20/2025: The Best Crime Novels of 2025.
Cal Flynn. 12/16/2025: Award-Winning Novels of 2025. "A summary of award-winning fiction of 2025—novels that won major literary prizes in the English-speaking world":
Booker Prize: Flesh: A Novel / David Szalay -- International Booker Prize: Heart Lamp / Banu Mushtaq, translator Deep Bhasthi -- Women's Prize for Fiction: The Safekeep / Yael van der Wouden -- Dublin Literary Award: The Adversary: A Novel / Michael Crummey -- Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction: The Land in Winter / Andrew Miller -- Pulitzer Prize for fiction: James: a novel / Percival Everett -- National Book Award for Fiction & Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction: The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) / Rabih Alameddine -- National Book Critics Award for Fiction: My Friends: a novel / Hisham Matar -- Giller Prize (Canada): Pick a Color: A Novel / Souvankham Thammavongsa -- Miles Franklin Award (Australia): Ghost Cities: a novel / Siang Lu ( S&S/Summit Books) -- Ockham New Zealand Book Awards: Delirious / Damien Wilkins -- Nobel Prize for Literature: László Krasznahorkai.
John Langan, interviewer Sylvia Bishop. 12/15/2025: The Best Cosmic Horror Books. 'Tis the season?
Tatty Macleod. 12/12/2025: The Funniest Books of the 21st Century.
Sylvia Bishop. 12/09/2025; upd 12/10/2025: Award-Winning Fantasy Novels of 2025.
Romas Viesulas. 12/06/2025: Beautiful Books of 2025. "The art of bookmaking is alive and well. Which art, architecture, design and photography books have we added to our library in 2025? Romas Viesulas, art & architecture editor at Five Books, takes us through his personal choice of beautiful reference books to add visual and conceptual interest to any well-appointed bookshelf."
Nigel Warburton, interviewer Cal Flynn. 12/05/2025: The Best Philosophy Books of 2025:
Why Plato Matters Now (Interfaces) / Angie Hobbs -- Arthur Schopenhauer: The Life and Thought of Philosophy’s Greatest Pessimist / David Bather Woods (University of Chicago Press) -- The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy / ed Jonathan Webber -- Death in a Shallow Pond: A Philosopher, a Drowning Child, and Strangers in Need / David Edmunds -- Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophy in the Age of Airplanes (Jewish Lives) / Anthony Gottlieb.
Sylvia Bishop. 12/03/2025: Award-Winning Sci Fi Novels of 2025.
Alyson Rudd; interviewer Cal Flynn. 12/02/2025: The Best Sports Books of 2025. William Hill Sports Book of the Year award short list, including the winner: The Escape: The Tour, the Cyclist and Me / David Walsh & Pippa York.
fivebooks editors. 12/01/2025: The Best Books of 2025. List of lists!
121featherbear
New York Times Dec 2025
Alida Becker. 12/31/2025: Sumptuous New Historical Fiction. Review of: Beasts of the Sea: A Novel / Iida Turpeinen; translation from the Finnish by David Hackston -- I Am You / Victoria Redel -- The Jaguar's Roar: A Novel / Micheliny Verunschk; translation from the Portuguese by Juliana Barbassa -- The Burning Grounds: A Novel (Wyndham & Banerjee Mysteries) / Abir Mukherjee.
Sadie Stein. 12/31/2025: She Spent a Night in the Anne Frank House. And Met Ghosts. "Lola Lafon’s book “When You Listen to This Song” is a hit in its native France. Now in English, it explores identity, loss and memory in wholly new ways."
Jennifer Szalai. 12/30/2025: A Philosopher Gives the Old Idea of Universalism a Radical New Spin. Review of: RADICAL UNIVERSALISM: Beyond Identity / Omri Boehm.
Meghan O'Gieblyn. 12/30/2025: A Coming-of-Age Novel That Cuts Deep, and Against the Grain. Review of: GRAND RAPIDS / Natasha Stagg.
Elizabeth A. Harris & Alexandra Alter. 12/30/2025: Dragons, Sex and the Bible: What Drove the Book Business This Year. "Nonfiction and Y.A. are hurting, but genre fiction and the Good Book are booming. Here’s how book sales looked in 2025."
Roger Rosenblatt. 12/28/2025: Before You Toss That Book …
Alexandra Jacobs. 12/28/2025: On the Road, With Baggage. Review of: The Rest of Our Lives: a novel / Benjamin Markovits.
Scott Heller. 12/25/2025: Jeff Kinney, Patricia Lockwood and More on What They Learned From a Book in 2025.
Sarah Weinman. 12/24/2025: Classic Crime Novels, Newly Reissued and as Thrilling as Ever. 2 of these were made into Hitchcock movies.
Thomas Meaney. 12/23/2025: How Should We View the Middle East’s Legacy of Slavery? Review of: CAPTIVES AND COMPANIONS: A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World / Justin Marozzi.
Parul Sehgal. New York Times Magazine, 12/23/2025: The ‘Masculinity Crisis’ Is Real. This Forgotten Book Explains Why. Regarding: Self-Made Man: One Woman's Year Disguised as a Man / Norah Vincent.
Alexandra Alter & Elizabeth A. Harris. 12/23/2025: From ‘Mona’s Eyes’ to ‘Theo of Golden’: This Year’s Surprise Hit Novels. "These days, most best sellers are written by authors with household names. Not these five breakout books."
Dwight Garner. 12/22/2025: A Last Meal With One of the Finest Food Writers in America. Review of: HOW TO COOK A COYOTE: The Joy of Old Age / Betty Fussell.
Elisabeth Egan. 12/21/2025: shared link: Why I Stopped Reading and Embraced Audiobooks. I don't consider listening to audiobooks to fall under the "reading" rubric, but the author's compulsive knitting & decoupage while audio "reading" -- i.e. listening -- suggests a touch of self-satire. The NYT comments section had some curmudgeonly notes. If you can "read" & drive at the same time it doesn't seem like reading to me. There's also an element of infantile regression, calling back mom & dad to tell you stories while you listen passively. I don't discount audiobooks for those who are visually disabled, but for those visual normies -- I may be a bit harsh -- reading: audiobooks :: adult sex:pedophilia. Bah, humbug.
Ben Markovits. 12/21/2025: When I Got Sick, My Novel Got Better. Essay: "After this Booker Prize finalist became seriously ill, everything seemed very real, and everything seemed to matter."
Michael D.C. Drout. 12/19/2025: Why I Keep Returning to Middle-Earth.
David Kirby. 12/18/2025: Can Poetry Heal the Divided Nation? Review of: FEAR LESS: Poetry in Perilous Times / Tracy K. Smith.
Jennifer Szalai. 12/17/2025: The Intellectuals Fueling the MAGA Movement. Review of: FURIOUS MINDS: The Making of the MAGA New Right / Laura K. Field.
Joseph Rezek. 12/17/2025: The Pamphlet That Has Roused Americans to Action for 250 Years. "Thomas Paine published “Common Sense” in 1776 as an argument for independence. Americans across the political spectrum have been citing it ever since."
Alexis Coe. 12/15/2025: What Happened to the American Dream? Will It Ever Come Back? Omnibus survey of: The Price of Democracy: The Revolutionary Power of Taxation in American History / Vanessa S. Williamson -- One Man’s Freedom: Goldwater, King, and the Struggle over an American Ideal / Nicolas Buccola (Princeton University Press) -- Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World / Liaquat Ahamed -- The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America / John Fabian Witt -- Babbitt / Sinclair Lewis.
Laura Field. 12/13/2025: The Closing of the MAGA Mind. Regarding: Ideas Have Consequences / Richard M. Weaver.
Dana Goldstein. 12/12/2025: Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class.
NYT daily book reviewers. 12/12/2025: Our Book Critics on Their Year in Reading. "Alexandra Jacobs, Jennifer Szalai and Dwight Garner look back at the books that, as Jacobs writes, “bonked me on the head this year.”"
Elisa Gabbert. 12/12/2025: The Best Poetry of 2025.
Sam Thielman. 12/12/2025: The Best Graphic Novels of 2025.
Sarah Weinman. 12/11/2025: The Best Mystery Novels of 2025.
A.O. Scott. 12/11/2025: I Think This Poem Is Kind of Into You. "Our critic A.O. Scott feels the heat of a wintry lyric by the Nobel laureate Louise Glück."
New York Times Books staff. 12/11/2025: temporarily unlocked Our Favorite Hidden Gem Books of 2025. Including Mike Wallace's Gotham at War: a history of New York City from 1933 to 1945.
Elisabeth Egan. 12/10/2025: The End of an Era at One of America’s Most Famous Artist Retreats. "After a quarter century, the Yaddo president Elaina Richardson will step down, having made her mark on the storied arts residency."
Sarah Lyall. 12/10/2025: The Best Thrillers of 2025.
Joumana Khatib. 12/09/2025: A Gothic Novel Haunted by South African History. Review of: Cape Fever: A Novel / Nadia Davids.
Jennifer Wright. 12/09/2025: Triumph, Tragedy and a Heroine of the High Seas. Review of: THE SEA CAPTAIN’S WIFE: A True Story of Mutiny, Love, and Adventure at the Bottom of the World / Tilar J. Mazzeo.
Hannah Kingsley-Ma. 12/09/2025: The Illustrated Children’s Book I’ll Never Stop Recommending to Adults. "James Marshall’s “George and Martha” books are witty and complex in their depictions of transformative friendship."
Dwight Garner. 12/08/2025: A Peek Into the Mind of One of History’s Great Thinkers. Review of: THE COMPLETE NOTEBOOKS / Albert Camus; translated by Ryan Bloom.
Alida Becker. 12/08/2025: The Best Historical Fiction of 2025.
Alexandra Jacobs. 12/07/2025: Is There Life in Hollywood? A Smart New Novel Talks It Over. Review of: Television: A Novel of Luck / Lauren Rothery.
Robert Ito. 12/06/2025: Liverwort or Moss? Horny Toad or Fence Lizard? Niche Field Guides Can Tell You. "What birders well know, fans of “composite organisms” and other creatures can now learn: how to identify obscure species in the wild."
Jennifer Szalai. 12/05/2025: Hannah Arendt Is Not Your Icon: Fifty years after her death, the German-born political thinker has been enshrined as a prophet for our times. What did she actually say? Temporarily unlocked: article has 216 comments when last checked.
Amanda Hess. 12/05/2025: From Dreamhouse to Nightmare? The Real Barbie Story Is Dark. Review of: BARBIELAND: The Unauthorized History / Tarpley Hitt. "Tarpley Hitt’s exposé is less an account of how Mattel made Barbie than an investigation of how Mattel wants us to believe it made Barbie, and the lengths to which it has gone to enforce this version of events."
Mary Pols. 12/03/2025: A Colorful Massachusetts Memoir, With a Cross-Cultural Twist. Review of: YEAR OF THE WATER HORSE: A Memoir / Janice Page (Pegasus Books).
Ryan Chapman. 12/02/2025: A New Spin on the Pandemic Novel. Review of: CASANOVA 20: Or, Hot World: A Heterosexual Novel / Davey Davis (Catalpult).
New York Times Book Review. 12/02/2025: The 10 Best Books of 2025.
A.O. Scott. 12/02/2025: This Book Is One of Our 10 Best of 2025. Let Us Show You Why. Focus on: The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny / Kiran Desai.
Alexandra Jacobs. 12/02/2025: Olivia Nuzzi’s Memoir Is Self-Serious and Altogether Disappointing. Review of: AMERICAN CANTO / Olivia Nuzzi.
Dwight Garner. 12/01/2025: A Writer Who Dazzled on the Page but Lived for the Margins. Review of: FLAGRANT, SELF-DESTRUCTIVE GESTURES: A Biography of Denis Johnson / Ted Geltner.
Alida Becker. 12/31/2025: Sumptuous New Historical Fiction. Review of: Beasts of the Sea: A Novel / Iida Turpeinen; translation from the Finnish by David Hackston -- I Am You / Victoria Redel -- The Jaguar's Roar: A Novel / Micheliny Verunschk; translation from the Portuguese by Juliana Barbassa -- The Burning Grounds: A Novel (Wyndham & Banerjee Mysteries) / Abir Mukherjee.
Sadie Stein. 12/31/2025: She Spent a Night in the Anne Frank House. And Met Ghosts. "Lola Lafon’s book “When You Listen to This Song” is a hit in its native France. Now in English, it explores identity, loss and memory in wholly new ways."
Jennifer Szalai. 12/30/2025: A Philosopher Gives the Old Idea of Universalism a Radical New Spin. Review of: RADICAL UNIVERSALISM: Beyond Identity / Omri Boehm.
Meghan O'Gieblyn. 12/30/2025: A Coming-of-Age Novel That Cuts Deep, and Against the Grain. Review of: GRAND RAPIDS / Natasha Stagg.
Elizabeth A. Harris & Alexandra Alter. 12/30/2025: Dragons, Sex and the Bible: What Drove the Book Business This Year. "Nonfiction and Y.A. are hurting, but genre fiction and the Good Book are booming. Here’s how book sales looked in 2025."
Roger Rosenblatt. 12/28/2025: Before You Toss That Book …
Alexandra Jacobs. 12/28/2025: On the Road, With Baggage. Review of: The Rest of Our Lives: a novel / Benjamin Markovits.
Scott Heller. 12/25/2025: Jeff Kinney, Patricia Lockwood and More on What They Learned From a Book in 2025.
Sarah Weinman. 12/24/2025: Classic Crime Novels, Newly Reissued and as Thrilling as Ever. 2 of these were made into Hitchcock movies.
Thomas Meaney. 12/23/2025: How Should We View the Middle East’s Legacy of Slavery? Review of: CAPTIVES AND COMPANIONS: A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World / Justin Marozzi.
Parul Sehgal. New York Times Magazine, 12/23/2025: The ‘Masculinity Crisis’ Is Real. This Forgotten Book Explains Why. Regarding: Self-Made Man: One Woman's Year Disguised as a Man / Norah Vincent.
Alexandra Alter & Elizabeth A. Harris. 12/23/2025: From ‘Mona’s Eyes’ to ‘Theo of Golden’: This Year’s Surprise Hit Novels. "These days, most best sellers are written by authors with household names. Not these five breakout books."
Dwight Garner. 12/22/2025: A Last Meal With One of the Finest Food Writers in America. Review of: HOW TO COOK A COYOTE: The Joy of Old Age / Betty Fussell.
Elisabeth Egan. 12/21/2025: shared link: Why I Stopped Reading and Embraced Audiobooks. I don't consider listening to audiobooks to fall under the "reading" rubric, but the author's compulsive knitting & decoupage while audio "reading" -- i.e. listening -- suggests a touch of self-satire. The NYT comments section had some curmudgeonly notes. If you can "read" & drive at the same time it doesn't seem like reading to me. There's also an element of infantile regression, calling back mom & dad to tell you stories while you listen passively. I don't discount audiobooks for those who are visually disabled, but for those visual normies -- I may be a bit harsh -- reading: audiobooks :: adult sex:pedophilia. Bah, humbug.
Ben Markovits. 12/21/2025: When I Got Sick, My Novel Got Better. Essay: "After this Booker Prize finalist became seriously ill, everything seemed very real, and everything seemed to matter."
Michael D.C. Drout. 12/19/2025: Why I Keep Returning to Middle-Earth.
David Kirby. 12/18/2025: Can Poetry Heal the Divided Nation? Review of: FEAR LESS: Poetry in Perilous Times / Tracy K. Smith.
Jennifer Szalai. 12/17/2025: The Intellectuals Fueling the MAGA Movement. Review of: FURIOUS MINDS: The Making of the MAGA New Right / Laura K. Field.
Joseph Rezek. 12/17/2025: The Pamphlet That Has Roused Americans to Action for 250 Years. "Thomas Paine published “Common Sense” in 1776 as an argument for independence. Americans across the political spectrum have been citing it ever since."
Alexis Coe. 12/15/2025: What Happened to the American Dream? Will It Ever Come Back? Omnibus survey of: The Price of Democracy: The Revolutionary Power of Taxation in American History / Vanessa S. Williamson -- One Man’s Freedom: Goldwater, King, and the Struggle over an American Ideal / Nicolas Buccola (Princeton University Press) -- Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World / Liaquat Ahamed -- The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America / John Fabian Witt -- Babbitt / Sinclair Lewis.
Laura Field. 12/13/2025: The Closing of the MAGA Mind. Regarding: Ideas Have Consequences / Richard M. Weaver.
Dana Goldstein. 12/12/2025: Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class.
NYT daily book reviewers. 12/12/2025: Our Book Critics on Their Year in Reading. "Alexandra Jacobs, Jennifer Szalai and Dwight Garner look back at the books that, as Jacobs writes, “bonked me on the head this year.”"
Elisa Gabbert. 12/12/2025: The Best Poetry of 2025.
Sam Thielman. 12/12/2025: The Best Graphic Novels of 2025.
Sarah Weinman. 12/11/2025: The Best Mystery Novels of 2025.
A.O. Scott. 12/11/2025: I Think This Poem Is Kind of Into You. "Our critic A.O. Scott feels the heat of a wintry lyric by the Nobel laureate Louise Glück."
New York Times Books staff. 12/11/2025: temporarily unlocked Our Favorite Hidden Gem Books of 2025. Including Mike Wallace's Gotham at War: a history of New York City from 1933 to 1945.
Elisabeth Egan. 12/10/2025: The End of an Era at One of America’s Most Famous Artist Retreats. "After a quarter century, the Yaddo president Elaina Richardson will step down, having made her mark on the storied arts residency."
Sarah Lyall. 12/10/2025: The Best Thrillers of 2025.
Joumana Khatib. 12/09/2025: A Gothic Novel Haunted by South African History. Review of: Cape Fever: A Novel / Nadia Davids.
Jennifer Wright. 12/09/2025: Triumph, Tragedy and a Heroine of the High Seas. Review of: THE SEA CAPTAIN’S WIFE: A True Story of Mutiny, Love, and Adventure at the Bottom of the World / Tilar J. Mazzeo.
Hannah Kingsley-Ma. 12/09/2025: The Illustrated Children’s Book I’ll Never Stop Recommending to Adults. "James Marshall’s “George and Martha” books are witty and complex in their depictions of transformative friendship."
Dwight Garner. 12/08/2025: A Peek Into the Mind of One of History’s Great Thinkers. Review of: THE COMPLETE NOTEBOOKS / Albert Camus; translated by Ryan Bloom.
Alida Becker. 12/08/2025: The Best Historical Fiction of 2025.
Alexandra Jacobs. 12/07/2025: Is There Life in Hollywood? A Smart New Novel Talks It Over. Review of: Television: A Novel of Luck / Lauren Rothery.
Robert Ito. 12/06/2025: Liverwort or Moss? Horny Toad or Fence Lizard? Niche Field Guides Can Tell You. "What birders well know, fans of “composite organisms” and other creatures can now learn: how to identify obscure species in the wild."
Jennifer Szalai. 12/05/2025: Hannah Arendt Is Not Your Icon: Fifty years after her death, the German-born political thinker has been enshrined as a prophet for our times. What did she actually say? Temporarily unlocked: article has 216 comments when last checked.
Amanda Hess. 12/05/2025: From Dreamhouse to Nightmare? The Real Barbie Story Is Dark. Review of: BARBIELAND: The Unauthorized History / Tarpley Hitt. "Tarpley Hitt’s exposé is less an account of how Mattel made Barbie than an investigation of how Mattel wants us to believe it made Barbie, and the lengths to which it has gone to enforce this version of events."
Mary Pols. 12/03/2025: A Colorful Massachusetts Memoir, With a Cross-Cultural Twist. Review of: YEAR OF THE WATER HORSE: A Memoir / Janice Page (Pegasus Books).
Ryan Chapman. 12/02/2025: A New Spin on the Pandemic Novel. Review of: CASANOVA 20: Or, Hot World: A Heterosexual Novel / Davey Davis (Catalpult).
New York Times Book Review. 12/02/2025: The 10 Best Books of 2025.
A.O. Scott. 12/02/2025: This Book Is One of Our 10 Best of 2025. Let Us Show You Why. Focus on: The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny / Kiran Desai.
Alexandra Jacobs. 12/02/2025: Olivia Nuzzi’s Memoir Is Self-Serious and Altogether Disappointing. Review of: AMERICAN CANTO / Olivia Nuzzi.
Dwight Garner. 12/01/2025: A Writer Who Dazzled on the Page but Lived for the Margins. Review of: FLAGRANT, SELF-DESTRUCTIVE GESTURES: A Biography of Denis Johnson / Ted Geltner.
122featherbear
Guardian Dec 2025
Jonathan Lee. 12/31/2025: A gripping tale of family and forbidden love. Review of: The Dead Don't Bleed / Neil Rollinson (Jonathan Cape).
Farrah Jarral. 12/30/2025: Scarcely imaginable horrors at sea: A vivid and chilling account of the deadly voyage that triggered the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade. Review of: The Zorg: A Tale of Greed, Murder and the Abolition of Slavery / Siddharth Kara.
Patrick Gale. 12/29/2025: Set to be a standout novel of 2026: From an acclaimed short-story writer, this epic of power and class across generations in Pakistan is brutal, funny and brilliantly told. Review of: This Is Where the Serpent Lives / Daniyal Mueenuddin.
Stephen Smith. 12/29/2025: If walls could talk: A deep dive into the creation of eight buildings from the 1700s to the 1900s tells some very human stories. Review of: The English House: A History in Eight Buildings / Dan Cruickshank.
Michael Savage. 12/26/2025: Unpublished ‘Tupperware erotica’ novel prompts fierce contest for TV rights.
Laura Wilson. 12/26/2025: The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup.
Stuart Kelly. 12/25/2025: A dazzling journey to an alternate Siberia. Review of: Ice / Jacek Dukaj, translated by Ursula Phillips
Matthew Cantor. 12/24/2025: Truth in fantasy: what Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials taught us over its 30-year run.
Steven Poole. 12/24/2025: A gloriously gruesome history of vampires. Review of: Killing the Dead: Vampire Epidemics from Mesopotamia to the New World / John Blair.
Kathryn Hughes. 12/24/2025: Roads to Rome: A thought-provoking examination of the literary stars who became Catholic – from Evelyn Waugh to Muriel Spark. Review of: Converts: From Oscar Wilde to Muriel Spark, Why So Many Became Catholic in the 20th Century / Melanie McDonagh.
John Keenan. 12/22/2025: John Updike’s best books – Ranked! "Following the publication of the novelist’s letters, we count down the best of his books, from the dark magic of The Witches of Eastwick to the misadventures of Rabbit Angstrom."
Jeevan Vasagar. 12/22/2025: Ground Down. Review of: The Land Trap: A New History of the World’s Oldest Asset / Mike Bird. "A masterful introduction to the economics of our most basic asset."
Michael Donkor. 12/22/2025: A remix of the author’s greatest hits. Review of: Palaver / Bryan Washington.
Ruth Minah Buchwald. 12/21/2025: A mildly subversive gift guide: 10 banned books for curious and rebellious US readers. "Gift a banned book to the defiant reader in your life this holiday season. Our picks by Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and others have all faced US challenges or bans."
Ella Risbridger. 12/21/2025: Not just love, actually: why romance fiction is booming. "From Emily Henry to Rebecca Yarros and Alison Espach’s The Wedding People – romance has dominated the book charts this year. So why is it still dismissed by critics?"
Paul Daley. 12/20/2025: From Dr Seuss to All Quiet on the Western Front: 19 books to help you find hope, sense and resistance in difficult times. "Writers, activists and politicians on the books they turn to for wisdom and perspective – and to restore their faith in human nature."
Larushka Ivan-Zadeh. 12/19/2025: The musical brothers behind the movie magic: Bob and Dick Sherman take centre stage in this well-researched account of how Walt Disney created a classic. Review of: Making Mary Poppins: The Sherman Brothers, Walt Disney, and the Creation of a Classic Film / Todd James Pierce.
Yael van der Wouden. 12/19/2025: The Books of My Life: ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy cured my fear of aliens.’ "The Safekeep author on her secret childhood reading, falling in love with Elizabeth Strout and why she keeps coming back to Zadie Smith."
Aditya Chakrabortty. 12/18/2025: Want to understand the sickness of Britain today? Look no further – a novel explained it all 20 years ago. Regarding: Kingdom Come: A Novel / J.G. Ballard. "The racism, the predatory politics, the banality and cruelty: we struggle to make sense of it, but JG Ballard foretold everything we are living through now."
Nina Allan. 12/18/2025: A prescient classic of cryogenics. Review of: Freezing Point / Anders Bodelsen, translated by Joan Tate (Faber; 1st published 1969 as Freezing Down by Harper & Row; also Berkley pbk).
Emma Loffhagen. 12/17/2025: Are we falling out of love with nonfiction? "In the early 2020s, readers flocked to books to explain political turbulence. But is the world now too grim to read about – and are podcasters taking the place of authors?"
Sarah Moss. 12/17/2025: A tale that could dig deeper. Review of: Bog Queen: A Novel / Anna North.
Associated Press. 12/16/2025: Virginia Roberts Giuffre: Epstein accuser’s memoir sells 1m copies in two months. Regarding: Nobody's Girl / Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
Joe Moran. 12/16/2025: How abandoned babies spurred a flowering of Renaissance art. Review of: The Innocents of Florence: The Renaissance Discovery of Childhood / Joseph Luzzi.
Maya Jaggi. 12/16/2025: Indigenous Canadian author brilliantly captures the interdependence of humans and the natural world, in a darkly satirical critique of colonialism. Review of: Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies / Leanne Betasamosake Simpson.
David Hayden. 12/15/2025: Short stories that show the vitality of the form. Review of: Pulse / Cynan Jones.
Claire Wang. 12/15/2025: US librarians tackle ‘manufactured crisis’ of book bans to protect LGBTQ+ rights. "In at least half a dozen states, librarians have joined forces with civil rights groups to oppose book bans, often facing personal and professional repercussions."
Emma Loffhagen. 12/14/2025: ‘Suddenly, it was everywhere’: why some books become blockbusters overnight. "Whether it’s through TikTok buzz, celebrity endorsements or good old-fashioned word of mouth, some titles enjoy a second, more powerful, life. But what unites them – and is there a formula for this type of success?"
Robert MacFarlane et al. 12/13/2025: ‘This extraordinary story never goes out of fashion’: 30 authors on the books they give to everyone.
Mythili Rao. 12/12/2025: An extraordinary, curious life. Review of: Joyride: A Memoir / Susan Orlean.
Lisa Tuttle. 12/12/2025: The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – review roundup.
Selma Dabbagh. 12/11/2025: This Trinidadian family saga blurs the line between real and imagined to create a multilayered history of an island and its people. Review of: Ever Since We Small / Celeste Mohammed.
Priya Ghardia. 12/11/2025: Where to start with: Arundhati Roy.
Jonathan Wilson. 12/10/2025: ‘Hating soccer is more American than apple pie’: the World Cup nobody wanted the US to host. Excerpt from: The Power and the Glory: The History of the World Cup / Jonathan Wilson.
Gabrielle Schwarz. 12/10/2025: Fear and loathing in New York. Review of: Flat Earth: A Novel / Anika Jade Levy.
Arwa Mahdawi. 12/09/2025: Insufferable filler that sidesteps the real issues. Review of: American Canto / Olivia Nuzzi.
Kathryn Hughes. 12/09/2025: How Jane Birkin became an icon. Review of: It Girl: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin / Marisa Meltzer.
Clare Clark. 12/09/2025: How to make a timeloop endlessly interesting. Review of: On the Calculation of Volume III / Solvej Balle.
Charlie English. 12/08/2025: The extraordinary story behind the Bayesian tragedy. Review of: The Curious Case of Mike Lynch: The Improbable Life & Death of a Tech Billionaire / Katie Prescott.
Alexander Wells. 12/08/2025: A vivid portrait of Berlin before the Nazis. Review of: The Effingers: A Berlin Saga / Gabriele Tergit, translated by Sophie Duvernoy. "Written in 1951 and now translated into English for the first time, this family saga by the acclaimed German author recaptures a golden age for Jewish life."
Steven Morris. 12/08/2025: Linguists start compiling first ever complete dictionary of ancient Celtic. "More than 1,000 words used as far back as 325BC to be collected for insight into past linguistic landscape."
Neha Gohil. 12/07/2025: Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid’s Tale has become ‘more and more plausible.’ "Canadian author discusses US under Donald Trump and says setting of dystopian novel has ‘become much closer.’"
Justine Jordan. 12/06/2025: The best fiction of 2025.
Rishi Dastidar. 12/05/2025: The best poetry books of 2025. "The best poetry books of 2025."
Alexis Petridis. 12/05/2025: The best music books of 2025. "From an enraging indictment of Spotify to Del Amitri frontman Justin Currie’s account of Parkinson’s and a compelling biography of Tupac Shakur, here are five titles that strike a chord."
Fiona Sturges. 12/04/2025: The best memoirs and biographies of 2025. "Anthony Hopkins and Kathy Burke on acting, Jacinda Ardern and Nicola Sturgeon on politics, plus Margaret Atwood on a life well lived."
Eleanor Gordon-Smith. 12/04/2025: My son is a voracious reader, but he judges books by their covers. How can I help him see past them?
Anjan Ahuja. 12/03/2025: The best science and nature books of 2025. "From the threat of superintelligent AI to the secrets of a longer life; plus the evolution of language and the restless genius of Francis Crick."
Jonathan Liew. 12/03/2025: Five of the best sports books of 2025. "From the trauma and triumphs of Olympic cyclist Bradley Wiggins to the secret life of a match fixer."
Pratinav Anil. 12/02/2025: The best history and politics books of 2025.
Laura Wilson. 12/02/2025: The best crime and thrillers of 2025.
James Smart. 12/02/2025: The best graphic novels of 2025.
Bee Wilson. 12/01/2025: Five of the best food books of 2025. "Sami Tamimi celebrates Palestine’s culinary heritage, Helen Goh uncovers the psychological benefits of baking and Roopa Gulati reveals tricks used in the best Indian kitchens."
Jonathan Lee. 12/31/2025: A gripping tale of family and forbidden love. Review of: The Dead Don't Bleed / Neil Rollinson (Jonathan Cape).
Farrah Jarral. 12/30/2025: Scarcely imaginable horrors at sea: A vivid and chilling account of the deadly voyage that triggered the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade. Review of: The Zorg: A Tale of Greed, Murder and the Abolition of Slavery / Siddharth Kara.
Patrick Gale. 12/29/2025: Set to be a standout novel of 2026: From an acclaimed short-story writer, this epic of power and class across generations in Pakistan is brutal, funny and brilliantly told. Review of: This Is Where the Serpent Lives / Daniyal Mueenuddin.
Stephen Smith. 12/29/2025: If walls could talk: A deep dive into the creation of eight buildings from the 1700s to the 1900s tells some very human stories. Review of: The English House: A History in Eight Buildings / Dan Cruickshank.
Michael Savage. 12/26/2025: Unpublished ‘Tupperware erotica’ novel prompts fierce contest for TV rights.
Laura Wilson. 12/26/2025: The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup.
Stuart Kelly. 12/25/2025: A dazzling journey to an alternate Siberia. Review of: Ice / Jacek Dukaj, translated by Ursula Phillips
Matthew Cantor. 12/24/2025: Truth in fantasy: what Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials taught us over its 30-year run.
Steven Poole. 12/24/2025: A gloriously gruesome history of vampires. Review of: Killing the Dead: Vampire Epidemics from Mesopotamia to the New World / John Blair.
Kathryn Hughes. 12/24/2025: Roads to Rome: A thought-provoking examination of the literary stars who became Catholic – from Evelyn Waugh to Muriel Spark. Review of: Converts: From Oscar Wilde to Muriel Spark, Why So Many Became Catholic in the 20th Century / Melanie McDonagh.
John Keenan. 12/22/2025: John Updike’s best books – Ranked! "Following the publication of the novelist’s letters, we count down the best of his books, from the dark magic of The Witches of Eastwick to the misadventures of Rabbit Angstrom."
Jeevan Vasagar. 12/22/2025: Ground Down. Review of: The Land Trap: A New History of the World’s Oldest Asset / Mike Bird. "A masterful introduction to the economics of our most basic asset."
Michael Donkor. 12/22/2025: A remix of the author’s greatest hits. Review of: Palaver / Bryan Washington.
Ruth Minah Buchwald. 12/21/2025: A mildly subversive gift guide: 10 banned books for curious and rebellious US readers. "Gift a banned book to the defiant reader in your life this holiday season. Our picks by Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and others have all faced US challenges or bans."
Ella Risbridger. 12/21/2025: Not just love, actually: why romance fiction is booming. "From Emily Henry to Rebecca Yarros and Alison Espach’s The Wedding People – romance has dominated the book charts this year. So why is it still dismissed by critics?"
Paul Daley. 12/20/2025: From Dr Seuss to All Quiet on the Western Front: 19 books to help you find hope, sense and resistance in difficult times. "Writers, activists and politicians on the books they turn to for wisdom and perspective – and to restore their faith in human nature."
Larushka Ivan-Zadeh. 12/19/2025: The musical brothers behind the movie magic: Bob and Dick Sherman take centre stage in this well-researched account of how Walt Disney created a classic. Review of: Making Mary Poppins: The Sherman Brothers, Walt Disney, and the Creation of a Classic Film / Todd James Pierce.
Yael van der Wouden. 12/19/2025: The Books of My Life: ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy cured my fear of aliens.’ "The Safekeep author on her secret childhood reading, falling in love with Elizabeth Strout and why she keeps coming back to Zadie Smith."
Aditya Chakrabortty. 12/18/2025: Want to understand the sickness of Britain today? Look no further – a novel explained it all 20 years ago. Regarding: Kingdom Come: A Novel / J.G. Ballard. "The racism, the predatory politics, the banality and cruelty: we struggle to make sense of it, but JG Ballard foretold everything we are living through now."
Nina Allan. 12/18/2025: A prescient classic of cryogenics. Review of: Freezing Point / Anders Bodelsen, translated by Joan Tate (Faber; 1st published 1969 as Freezing Down by Harper & Row; also Berkley pbk).
Emma Loffhagen. 12/17/2025: Are we falling out of love with nonfiction? "In the early 2020s, readers flocked to books to explain political turbulence. But is the world now too grim to read about – and are podcasters taking the place of authors?"
Sarah Moss. 12/17/2025: A tale that could dig deeper. Review of: Bog Queen: A Novel / Anna North.
Associated Press. 12/16/2025: Virginia Roberts Giuffre: Epstein accuser’s memoir sells 1m copies in two months. Regarding: Nobody's Girl / Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
Joe Moran. 12/16/2025: How abandoned babies spurred a flowering of Renaissance art. Review of: The Innocents of Florence: The Renaissance Discovery of Childhood / Joseph Luzzi.
Maya Jaggi. 12/16/2025: Indigenous Canadian author brilliantly captures the interdependence of humans and the natural world, in a darkly satirical critique of colonialism. Review of: Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies / Leanne Betasamosake Simpson.
David Hayden. 12/15/2025: Short stories that show the vitality of the form. Review of: Pulse / Cynan Jones.
Claire Wang. 12/15/2025: US librarians tackle ‘manufactured crisis’ of book bans to protect LGBTQ+ rights. "In at least half a dozen states, librarians have joined forces with civil rights groups to oppose book bans, often facing personal and professional repercussions."
Emma Loffhagen. 12/14/2025: ‘Suddenly, it was everywhere’: why some books become blockbusters overnight. "Whether it’s through TikTok buzz, celebrity endorsements or good old-fashioned word of mouth, some titles enjoy a second, more powerful, life. But what unites them – and is there a formula for this type of success?"
Robert MacFarlane et al. 12/13/2025: ‘This extraordinary story never goes out of fashion’: 30 authors on the books they give to everyone.
Mythili Rao. 12/12/2025: An extraordinary, curious life. Review of: Joyride: A Memoir / Susan Orlean.
Lisa Tuttle. 12/12/2025: The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – review roundup.
Selma Dabbagh. 12/11/2025: This Trinidadian family saga blurs the line between real and imagined to create a multilayered history of an island and its people. Review of: Ever Since We Small / Celeste Mohammed.
Priya Ghardia. 12/11/2025: Where to start with: Arundhati Roy.
Jonathan Wilson. 12/10/2025: ‘Hating soccer is more American than apple pie’: the World Cup nobody wanted the US to host. Excerpt from: The Power and the Glory: The History of the World Cup / Jonathan Wilson.
Gabrielle Schwarz. 12/10/2025: Fear and loathing in New York. Review of: Flat Earth: A Novel / Anika Jade Levy.
Arwa Mahdawi. 12/09/2025: Insufferable filler that sidesteps the real issues. Review of: American Canto / Olivia Nuzzi.
Kathryn Hughes. 12/09/2025: How Jane Birkin became an icon. Review of: It Girl: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin / Marisa Meltzer.
Clare Clark. 12/09/2025: How to make a timeloop endlessly interesting. Review of: On the Calculation of Volume III / Solvej Balle.
Charlie English. 12/08/2025: The extraordinary story behind the Bayesian tragedy. Review of: The Curious Case of Mike Lynch: The Improbable Life & Death of a Tech Billionaire / Katie Prescott.
Alexander Wells. 12/08/2025: A vivid portrait of Berlin before the Nazis. Review of: The Effingers: A Berlin Saga / Gabriele Tergit, translated by Sophie Duvernoy. "Written in 1951 and now translated into English for the first time, this family saga by the acclaimed German author recaptures a golden age for Jewish life."
Steven Morris. 12/08/2025: Linguists start compiling first ever complete dictionary of ancient Celtic. "More than 1,000 words used as far back as 325BC to be collected for insight into past linguistic landscape."
Neha Gohil. 12/07/2025: Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid’s Tale has become ‘more and more plausible.’ "Canadian author discusses US under Donald Trump and says setting of dystopian novel has ‘become much closer.’"
Justine Jordan. 12/06/2025: The best fiction of 2025.
Rishi Dastidar. 12/05/2025: The best poetry books of 2025. "The best poetry books of 2025."
Alexis Petridis. 12/05/2025: The best music books of 2025. "From an enraging indictment of Spotify to Del Amitri frontman Justin Currie’s account of Parkinson’s and a compelling biography of Tupac Shakur, here are five titles that strike a chord."
Fiona Sturges. 12/04/2025: The best memoirs and biographies of 2025. "Anthony Hopkins and Kathy Burke on acting, Jacinda Ardern and Nicola Sturgeon on politics, plus Margaret Atwood on a life well lived."
Eleanor Gordon-Smith. 12/04/2025: My son is a voracious reader, but he judges books by their covers. How can I help him see past them?
Anjan Ahuja. 12/03/2025: The best science and nature books of 2025. "From the threat of superintelligent AI to the secrets of a longer life; plus the evolution of language and the restless genius of Francis Crick."
Jonathan Liew. 12/03/2025: Five of the best sports books of 2025. "From the trauma and triumphs of Olympic cyclist Bradley Wiggins to the secret life of a match fixer."
Pratinav Anil. 12/02/2025: The best history and politics books of 2025.
Laura Wilson. 12/02/2025: The best crime and thrillers of 2025.
James Smart. 12/02/2025: The best graphic novels of 2025.
Bee Wilson. 12/01/2025: Five of the best food books of 2025. "Sami Tamimi celebrates Palestine’s culinary heritage, Helen Goh uncovers the psychological benefits of baking and Roopa Gulati reveals tricks used in the best Indian kitchens."
123featherbear
Atlantic Dec 2025
Andrew Holter. 12/31/2025: Five Books About Going Out That Are Worth Staying In For.
Lily Meyer. 12/24/2025: The Writer Fueled by Life’s Randomness. Review of: The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) / Rabih Alameddine.
Jonathan Zimmerman. 12/23/2025: America’s Schools Are Less Divided Than You Think. Review of: Willing Warriors: A New History of the Education Culture Wars / Mark Hlavacik (University of Chicago Press).
Sophie Gilbert. 12/22/2025: Everything We Know About Rape Is Wrong. Review of: Girls Play Dead: Acts of Self-Preservation / Jen Percy.
Judith Shulevitz. 12/22/2025: shared link: The Unifying Potential of Charlie Kirk’s Last Words. Review of: Stop, In The Name Of God - Why Honoring The Sabbath Will Transform Your Life / Charlie Kirk.
Graeme Wood. 12/19/2025: What Jeffrey Epstein Didn’t Understand About Lolita. Regarding Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita.
Robert Rubsam. 12/18/2025: The Riot That Foretold an Unstable Future. Review of: The Once and Future Riot / Joe Sacco.
Anne Applebaum. 12/17/2025: Henry James’s Venice Is Still Here. Aspern Papers anyone?
Dara T. Mathis. 12/16/2025: What People Don’t Understand About Black Nationalism. Regarding: Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore / Ashley D. Farmer.
Idrees Kahloon. 12/11/2025: . Regarding The Camp of the Saints / Jean Raspail; translator Ethan Rundell.
Arthur C. Brooks. 12/11/2025: How to Be Happy Like Thomas Aquina.
Lily Meyer. 12/11/2025: A Different Kind of Materialism. Regarding An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace / Tamar Adler -- Feast on Your Life: Kitchen Meditations for Every Day / Tamar Adler -- The Everlasting Meal Cookbook: Leftovers A-Z / Tamar Adler.
Arash Azizi. 12/10/2025: The Star Who Represents Iran’s Golden Age—And Its Future. Review of: Googoosh: A Sinful Voice / Googoosh, with Tara Dehlavi.
Emma Sarappo. 12/05/2025: Debate Your Favorite Books of the Year. "No list can match everyone’s tastes. That’s a good thing." temporarily unlocked
Gal Beckermann. 12/05/2025: A Radical New Approach to Human History. "The historians who want to know how our ancestors experienced love, anger, fear, and sorrow."
Atlantic editors (?). 12/04/2025: The Atlantic 10: The books that made us think the most this year. (shared link -- They are : Baldwin: A Love Story / Nicholas Boggs -- The Director: a novel / Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin -- A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children / Haley Cohen Gilliland -- A Guardian and a Thief: a novel / Megha Majumdar -- King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation / Scott Anderson -- Moderation: a novel / Elaine Castillo -- Night Watch: poems / Kevin Young -- There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America / Brian Goldstone -- We Do Not Part: a novel / Han Kang; translated by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris -- What We Can Know: A Novel / Ian McEwan.
Rafaela Bassili. 12/03/2025: The Underrated Part of Jane Birkin’s Legacy. Review of: It Girl: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin / Marisa Meltzer.
Helen Lewis. 12/02/2025: Olivia Nuzzi’s Tell-Nothing Memoir: Can American Canto turn scandal into literature? Review of: American Canto / Olivia Nuzzi.
Adam Begley. 12/01/2025: Tom Stoppard Made a Spectacle of History. "In a career of magnificent plays, The Coast of Utopia stands out for its humor, its characters, and its warnings about ideological fervor."
Linda Kinstler. 12/01/2025: Lessons From 5,000 Years of Civilizational Collapse. Review of: Goliath's Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse / Luke Kemp.
Andrew Holter. 12/31/2025: Five Books About Going Out That Are Worth Staying In For.
Lily Meyer. 12/24/2025: The Writer Fueled by Life’s Randomness. Review of: The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) / Rabih Alameddine.
Jonathan Zimmerman. 12/23/2025: America’s Schools Are Less Divided Than You Think. Review of: Willing Warriors: A New History of the Education Culture Wars / Mark Hlavacik (University of Chicago Press).
Sophie Gilbert. 12/22/2025: Everything We Know About Rape Is Wrong. Review of: Girls Play Dead: Acts of Self-Preservation / Jen Percy.
Judith Shulevitz. 12/22/2025: shared link: The Unifying Potential of Charlie Kirk’s Last Words. Review of: Stop, In The Name Of God - Why Honoring The Sabbath Will Transform Your Life / Charlie Kirk.
Graeme Wood. 12/19/2025: What Jeffrey Epstein Didn’t Understand About Lolita. Regarding Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita.
Robert Rubsam. 12/18/2025: The Riot That Foretold an Unstable Future. Review of: The Once and Future Riot / Joe Sacco.
Anne Applebaum. 12/17/2025: Henry James’s Venice Is Still Here. Aspern Papers anyone?
Dara T. Mathis. 12/16/2025: What People Don’t Understand About Black Nationalism. Regarding: Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore / Ashley D. Farmer.
Idrees Kahloon. 12/11/2025: . Regarding The Camp of the Saints / Jean Raspail; translator Ethan Rundell.
Arthur C. Brooks. 12/11/2025: How to Be Happy Like Thomas Aquina.
Lily Meyer. 12/11/2025: A Different Kind of Materialism. Regarding An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace / Tamar Adler -- Feast on Your Life: Kitchen Meditations for Every Day / Tamar Adler -- The Everlasting Meal Cookbook: Leftovers A-Z / Tamar Adler.
Arash Azizi. 12/10/2025: The Star Who Represents Iran’s Golden Age—And Its Future. Review of: Googoosh: A Sinful Voice / Googoosh, with Tara Dehlavi.
Emma Sarappo. 12/05/2025: Debate Your Favorite Books of the Year. "No list can match everyone’s tastes. That’s a good thing." temporarily unlocked
Gal Beckermann. 12/05/2025: A Radical New Approach to Human History. "The historians who want to know how our ancestors experienced love, anger, fear, and sorrow."
Atlantic editors (?). 12/04/2025: The Atlantic 10: The books that made us think the most this year. (shared link -- They are : Baldwin: A Love Story / Nicholas Boggs -- The Director: a novel / Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin -- A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children / Haley Cohen Gilliland -- A Guardian and a Thief: a novel / Megha Majumdar -- King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation / Scott Anderson -- Moderation: a novel / Elaine Castillo -- Night Watch: poems / Kevin Young -- There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America / Brian Goldstone -- We Do Not Part: a novel / Han Kang; translated by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris -- What We Can Know: A Novel / Ian McEwan.
Rafaela Bassili. 12/03/2025: The Underrated Part of Jane Birkin’s Legacy. Review of: It Girl: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin / Marisa Meltzer.
Helen Lewis. 12/02/2025: Olivia Nuzzi’s Tell-Nothing Memoir: Can American Canto turn scandal into literature? Review of: American Canto / Olivia Nuzzi.
Adam Begley. 12/01/2025: Tom Stoppard Made a Spectacle of History. "In a career of magnificent plays, The Coast of Utopia stands out for its humor, its characters, and its warnings about ideological fervor."
Linda Kinstler. 12/01/2025: Lessons From 5,000 Years of Civilizational Collapse. Review of: Goliath's Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse / Luke Kemp.
124featherbear
Daniel Woodrell, 1953-2025
Alex Traub. 11/30/2025: Daniel Woodrell, ‘Country Noir’ Novelist of ‘Winter’s Bone,’ Dies at 72.
"Mr. Woodrell was best known for his 2006 novel, “Winter’s Bone,” which became an acclaimed, Oscar-nominated movie four years later. A teenage Jennifer Lawrence starred as Ree Dolly, a girl in rural Missouri whose family home will be seized unless she finds her father, a meth cook on the lam.
"Two more of Mr. Woodrell’s novels were adapted as films: “Woe to Live On” (1987), which became “Ride With the Devil” (1999), directed by Ang Lee, and “Tomato Red” (1998), which in 2017 became a movie of the same title starring Julia Garner.
"Despite the attention from Hollywood, Mr. Woodrell did not become a public figure himself. Instead, he was an artist admired by close observers of contemporary fiction as a master storyteller of rural America.
"“He writes high Greek tragedy about low people, and he never panders or looks down on the people he writes about,” the writer Dennis Lehane told Esquire. “As a prose stylist, he’s done what all the best do: taken the regional voice of the world he writes about and turned it into poetry.”
"In addition to “Winter’s Bone,” whose plot as a novel resembled its movie adaptation, his other books included “Give Us a Kiss" (1996), which also concerned a search for a missing relative; “The Death of Sweet Mister” (2001), another family tale, told from the point of view of a friendless little boy and focused largely on his poor and abused but alluring mother; and “The Maid’s Version” (2013), inspired by a catastrophic fire in the rural Ozarks of 1929.
"Frustrated with labels used to characterize his style, Mr. Woodrell coined one of his own: “country noir.” In a 1994 Times article, he defined this fictional strategy: “To portray the allegedly folksy and bucolic heartland as the frequently rude and savage and dark world those of us who’ve done our time there know it can be is to explode a happy myth of fantasy-America.”
"Mr. Woodrell’s inspiration for “Winter’s Bone” arose from visiting his local grocery store. He saw a young woman shopping with children who were clearly not her own, though she exhibited the manner of an impoverished caretaker, scrutinizing each item she picked off the shelves. A tale of a teenage girl forced to protect her family started to bloom in his imagination."
Discovering his vocation. After discharge from military service,
"He took to hitchhiking with his military duffel and landed in Tijuana. As Mr. Woodrell was munching street tacos, a scruffy young man wandered over and offered a deal: His last two tacos in exchange for a copy of Ernest Hemingway’s “A Moveable Feast.” Mr. Woodrell, feeling full anyway, agreed.
"He read the book feverishly, not sleeping. In Hemingway’s descriptions of becoming a writer, Mr. Woodrell discovered, as he later recalled in an essay in The Atlantic, “a sense of vocation.”"
Nihah Masih. WaPo, 12/01/2025: Daniel Woodrell, gritty novelist of ‘Winter’s Bone,’ dies at 72.
Daniel Woodrell LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/woodrelldaniel
Alex Traub. 11/30/2025: Daniel Woodrell, ‘Country Noir’ Novelist of ‘Winter’s Bone,’ Dies at 72.
"Mr. Woodrell was best known for his 2006 novel, “Winter’s Bone,” which became an acclaimed, Oscar-nominated movie four years later. A teenage Jennifer Lawrence starred as Ree Dolly, a girl in rural Missouri whose family home will be seized unless she finds her father, a meth cook on the lam.
"Two more of Mr. Woodrell’s novels were adapted as films: “Woe to Live On” (1987), which became “Ride With the Devil” (1999), directed by Ang Lee, and “Tomato Red” (1998), which in 2017 became a movie of the same title starring Julia Garner.
"Despite the attention from Hollywood, Mr. Woodrell did not become a public figure himself. Instead, he was an artist admired by close observers of contemporary fiction as a master storyteller of rural America.
"“He writes high Greek tragedy about low people, and he never panders or looks down on the people he writes about,” the writer Dennis Lehane told Esquire. “As a prose stylist, he’s done what all the best do: taken the regional voice of the world he writes about and turned it into poetry.”
"In addition to “Winter’s Bone,” whose plot as a novel resembled its movie adaptation, his other books included “Give Us a Kiss" (1996), which also concerned a search for a missing relative; “The Death of Sweet Mister” (2001), another family tale, told from the point of view of a friendless little boy and focused largely on his poor and abused but alluring mother; and “The Maid’s Version” (2013), inspired by a catastrophic fire in the rural Ozarks of 1929.
"Frustrated with labels used to characterize his style, Mr. Woodrell coined one of his own: “country noir.” In a 1994 Times article, he defined this fictional strategy: “To portray the allegedly folksy and bucolic heartland as the frequently rude and savage and dark world those of us who’ve done our time there know it can be is to explode a happy myth of fantasy-America.”
"Mr. Woodrell’s inspiration for “Winter’s Bone” arose from visiting his local grocery store. He saw a young woman shopping with children who were clearly not her own, though she exhibited the manner of an impoverished caretaker, scrutinizing each item she picked off the shelves. A tale of a teenage girl forced to protect her family started to bloom in his imagination."
Discovering his vocation. After discharge from military service,
"He took to hitchhiking with his military duffel and landed in Tijuana. As Mr. Woodrell was munching street tacos, a scruffy young man wandered over and offered a deal: His last two tacos in exchange for a copy of Ernest Hemingway’s “A Moveable Feast.” Mr. Woodrell, feeling full anyway, agreed.
"He read the book feverishly, not sleeping. In Hemingway’s descriptions of becoming a writer, Mr. Woodrell discovered, as he later recalled in an essay in The Atlantic, “a sense of vocation.”"
Nihah Masih. WaPo, 12/01/2025: Daniel Woodrell, gritty novelist of ‘Winter’s Bone,’ dies at 72.
Daniel Woodrell LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/woodrelldaniel
125featherbear
NYRB Online Dec 04 2025
Literature
Natasha Wimmer. The Bureaucrat in His Labyrinth. Review of: Miaow / Benito Pérez Galdós, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa.
Anthony Domestico. Ever Inward. Review of: Nothing Stays Put: The Life and Poetry of Amy Clampitt / Willard Spiegelman.
Ursula Lindsey. Clarity and Delusion. Review of: If Only / Vigdis Hjorth, translated from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund -- Will and Testament / Vigdis Hjorth, translated from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund -- Is Mother Dead / Vigdis Hjorth, translated from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund.
Michael Gorra. Fathers and Daughters. Review of: When All the Men Wore Hats: Susan Cheever on the Stories of John Cheever / Susan Cheever.
Arts
Sophie Pinkham. Mixed Blessings. Review of: Ural Tansykbayev: 1904–1974, an exhibition at the Abylkhan Kasteyev National Museum of Arts of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Almaty, March 18–June 1, 2025, and the Art Gallery of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, September 3–November 1, 2025; catalog of the exhibition edited by Zelfira Tregulova. (Tashkent: Uzbekistan Art and Culture/Electa) -- Tashkent Modernism XX/XXI / edited by Boris Chukhovich, Davide Del Curto, and Ekaterina Golovatyuk -- Recipes for Broken Hearts: Guidebook / Diana Campbell and Timur Zolotoev, with Qamoos Bukhari (Tashkent: Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation/Paris: Cassi Edition).
Philosophy
Adam Kirsch. The Apolitical Life. Review of: Self-Portrait in the Studio / Giorgio Agamben, translated from the Italian by Kevin Attell (Seagull).
Science & Technology
James Gleick. How the Web Was Lost. Review of: This Is for Everyone: The Unfinished Story of the World Wide Web / Tim Berners-Lee with Stephen Witt -- Amateurs! How We Built Internet Culture, and Why It Matters / Joanna Walsh -- Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It / Cory Doctorow.
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Susan Neiman. Where Wokeness Went Wrong. Review of: Desire and Fate / David Rieff, with a foreword by John Banville.
Robert Sullivan. The Third Sovereign. Review of: Treaty Justice: The Northwest Tribes, the Boldt Decision, and the Recognition of Fishing Rights / Charles Wilkinson -- On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice / Ryan E. Emanuel.
Dan Kaufman. ‘We’ve Got to Kill and Kill and Kill.’ Review of: Architects of Terror: Paranoia, Conspiracy and Anti-Semitism in Franco’s Spain / Paul Preston.
Ferdinand Mount. Flipping Britain’s Postwar Script. Review of: Blue Jerusalem: British Conservatism, Winston Churchill, and the Second World War / Kit Kowol.
Zephyr Teachout. Selling a Defective Dream. Review of: Little Bosses Everywhere: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America / Bridget Read -- Attention, Shoppers! American Retail Capitalism and the Origins of the Amazon Economy / Kathleen Thelen.
Gordon F. Sander. Not for Sale. "President Trump’s threats to seize Greenland have caused consternation and fear among Danes and Greenlanders alike." (Article)
Literature
Natasha Wimmer. The Bureaucrat in His Labyrinth. Review of: Miaow / Benito Pérez Galdós, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa.
Anthony Domestico. Ever Inward. Review of: Nothing Stays Put: The Life and Poetry of Amy Clampitt / Willard Spiegelman.
Ursula Lindsey. Clarity and Delusion. Review of: If Only / Vigdis Hjorth, translated from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund -- Will and Testament / Vigdis Hjorth, translated from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund -- Is Mother Dead / Vigdis Hjorth, translated from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund.
Michael Gorra. Fathers and Daughters. Review of: When All the Men Wore Hats: Susan Cheever on the Stories of John Cheever / Susan Cheever.
Arts
Sophie Pinkham. Mixed Blessings. Review of: Ural Tansykbayev: 1904–1974, an exhibition at the Abylkhan Kasteyev National Museum of Arts of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Almaty, March 18–June 1, 2025, and the Art Gallery of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, September 3–November 1, 2025; catalog of the exhibition edited by Zelfira Tregulova. (Tashkent: Uzbekistan Art and Culture/Electa) -- Tashkent Modernism XX/XXI / edited by Boris Chukhovich, Davide Del Curto, and Ekaterina Golovatyuk -- Recipes for Broken Hearts: Guidebook / Diana Campbell and Timur Zolotoev, with Qamoos Bukhari (Tashkent: Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation/Paris: Cassi Edition).
Philosophy
Adam Kirsch. The Apolitical Life. Review of: Self-Portrait in the Studio / Giorgio Agamben, translated from the Italian by Kevin Attell (Seagull).
Science & Technology
James Gleick. How the Web Was Lost. Review of: This Is for Everyone: The Unfinished Story of the World Wide Web / Tim Berners-Lee with Stephen Witt -- Amateurs! How We Built Internet Culture, and Why It Matters / Joanna Walsh -- Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It / Cory Doctorow.
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Susan Neiman. Where Wokeness Went Wrong. Review of: Desire and Fate / David Rieff, with a foreword by John Banville.
Robert Sullivan. The Third Sovereign. Review of: Treaty Justice: The Northwest Tribes, the Boldt Decision, and the Recognition of Fishing Rights / Charles Wilkinson -- On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice / Ryan E. Emanuel.
Dan Kaufman. ‘We’ve Got to Kill and Kill and Kill.’ Review of: Architects of Terror: Paranoia, Conspiracy and Anti-Semitism in Franco’s Spain / Paul Preston.
Ferdinand Mount. Flipping Britain’s Postwar Script. Review of: Blue Jerusalem: British Conservatism, Winston Churchill, and the Second World War / Kit Kowol.
Zephyr Teachout. Selling a Defective Dream. Review of: Little Bosses Everywhere: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America / Bridget Read -- Attention, Shoppers! American Retail Capitalism and the Origins of the Amazon Economy / Kathleen Thelen.
Gordon F. Sander. Not for Sale. "President Trump’s threats to seize Greenland have caused consternation and fear among Danes and Greenlanders alike." (Article)
126featherbear
NYRB Online December 18 2025
Literature
John Banville. Henry James’s ‘Dear Native Land.’ Review of: Henry James Comes Home: Rediscovering America in the Gilded Age / Peter Brooks -- The Correction of Taste: On the Late Novels of Henry James / Denis Donoghue, with a foreword by Colm Tóibín (Lilliput).
Frances Wilson. Hearing Your Ears Pop. Review of: Will There Ever Be Another You / Patricia Lockwood. "In Patricia Lockwood’s latest novel, catching Covid intensifies a woman’s relationship to language."
Colin Grant. It Takes a Village. Review of: Yesterdays / Harold Sonny Ladoo, with a foreword by Kevin Jared Hosein.
Francine Prose. ‘Botany of Sorrow.’ Review of: Death and the Gardener / Georgi Gospodinov, translated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel.
Arts
Geoffrey O'Brien. Magic from Elsewhere. Review of: Great Expectations: British Postwar Cinema, 1945–1960 / a retrospective at the Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland, August 6–16, 2025. Catalog of the retrospective edited by Ehsan Khoshbakht (Montreuil: Éditions de l’Œil).
Martin Filler. The Calders of Philadelphia. "At Calder Gardens, art, architecture, and horticulture achieve a well-nigh perfect equilibrium." (Essay)
Lucy Sante. ‘A Cartoon Revival.’ Review of: The Complete C Comics / Joe Brainard, with a foreword by Ron Padgett and an essay by Bill Kartalopoulos (New York Review Books).
Andrew O'Hagan. The Soundtrack of a Generation. Review of: Oasis: Live ’25, a concert at Wembley Stadium, London, July 25, 2025, and at other venues in Europe, North America, Asia, Australia, and South America -- Live Forever: The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Oasis / John Robb -- And After All: A Fan History of Oasis / Melissa Locker.
Religion
Diarmaid McCulloch. An Outsider from the Beginning. Review of: Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus / Elaine Pagels -- The Lost Mary: rediscovering the Mother of Jesus / James D. Tabor.
Science & Technology
Pria Anand. The Plague That Won’t Die. Review of: Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection / John Green -- Phantom Plague: How Tuberculosis Shaped History / Vidya Krishnan.
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Yuri Slezkine. Why ‘The West’? Review of: The West: The History of an Idea / Georgios Varouxakis.
Susan Tallman. The Plunderers’ Dilemma. "Museums have been apologizing for the overlap of their ethnology collections with the subjects of colonial occupation, yet many still struggle to articulate a clear mission." (Article)
Annette Gordon-Reed. Jefferson Divided. "The progressive ideals that Thomas Jefferson aspired to in his writings were often at odds with the values of early America—and with the way he himself lived. ... This essay will appear, in somewhat different form, in Jefferson on Race: A Reader edited by Annette Gordon-Reed, to be published by Princeton University Press in March.
Jed S. Rakoff. It’s a Racket! "Cryptocurrency has largely managed to remain free of government regulation, and as a result has often become a vehicle for fraud and criminality." (Article)
Alexander Stille. Democracy Italian Style. Review of: Italy Reborn: From Fascism to Democracy / Mark Gilbert.
Paisley Currah. The Anti-Trans Playbook. (Essay)
Jé Wilson. That Sinking Feeling. Review of: A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck / Sophie Elmhirst -- 76 Days Adrift, a documentary film directed by Joe Wein.
Literature
John Banville. Henry James’s ‘Dear Native Land.’ Review of: Henry James Comes Home: Rediscovering America in the Gilded Age / Peter Brooks -- The Correction of Taste: On the Late Novels of Henry James / Denis Donoghue, with a foreword by Colm Tóibín (Lilliput).
Frances Wilson. Hearing Your Ears Pop. Review of: Will There Ever Be Another You / Patricia Lockwood. "In Patricia Lockwood’s latest novel, catching Covid intensifies a woman’s relationship to language."
Colin Grant. It Takes a Village. Review of: Yesterdays / Harold Sonny Ladoo, with a foreword by Kevin Jared Hosein.
Francine Prose. ‘Botany of Sorrow.’ Review of: Death and the Gardener / Georgi Gospodinov, translated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel.
Arts
Geoffrey O'Brien. Magic from Elsewhere. Review of: Great Expectations: British Postwar Cinema, 1945–1960 / a retrospective at the Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland, August 6–16, 2025. Catalog of the retrospective edited by Ehsan Khoshbakht (Montreuil: Éditions de l’Œil).
Martin Filler. The Calders of Philadelphia. "At Calder Gardens, art, architecture, and horticulture achieve a well-nigh perfect equilibrium." (Essay)
Lucy Sante. ‘A Cartoon Revival.’ Review of: The Complete C Comics / Joe Brainard, with a foreword by Ron Padgett and an essay by Bill Kartalopoulos (New York Review Books).
Andrew O'Hagan. The Soundtrack of a Generation. Review of: Oasis: Live ’25, a concert at Wembley Stadium, London, July 25, 2025, and at other venues in Europe, North America, Asia, Australia, and South America -- Live Forever: The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Oasis / John Robb -- And After All: A Fan History of Oasis / Melissa Locker.
Religion
Diarmaid McCulloch. An Outsider from the Beginning. Review of: Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus / Elaine Pagels -- The Lost Mary: rediscovering the Mother of Jesus / James D. Tabor.
Science & Technology
Pria Anand. The Plague That Won’t Die. Review of: Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection / John Green -- Phantom Plague: How Tuberculosis Shaped History / Vidya Krishnan.
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Yuri Slezkine. Why ‘The West’? Review of: The West: The History of an Idea / Georgios Varouxakis.
Susan Tallman. The Plunderers’ Dilemma. "Museums have been apologizing for the overlap of their ethnology collections with the subjects of colonial occupation, yet many still struggle to articulate a clear mission." (Article)
Annette Gordon-Reed. Jefferson Divided. "The progressive ideals that Thomas Jefferson aspired to in his writings were often at odds with the values of early America—and with the way he himself lived. ... This essay will appear, in somewhat different form, in Jefferson on Race: A Reader edited by Annette Gordon-Reed, to be published by Princeton University Press in March.
Jed S. Rakoff. It’s a Racket! "Cryptocurrency has largely managed to remain free of government regulation, and as a result has often become a vehicle for fraud and criminality." (Article)
Alexander Stille. Democracy Italian Style. Review of: Italy Reborn: From Fascism to Democracy / Mark Gilbert.
Paisley Currah. The Anti-Trans Playbook. (Essay)
Jé Wilson. That Sinking Feeling. Review of: A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck / Sophie Elmhirst -- 76 Days Adrift, a documentary film directed by Joe Wein.
127featherbear
Washington Post December 2025
Sarah Fletcher. 12/31/2025: The magic has gone out of flirting. Maybe this infamous book had a point. "Revisiting Neil Strauss’s “The Game” at 20."
Sophia Nguyen. 12/31/2025: 3 utterly brilliant science fiction novels. Review of: Sunward: a novel / William Alexander -- Slow Gods / Claire North -- There Is No Antimemetics Division / qntm.
Ron Charles. 12/30/2025: In ‘The Rest of Our Lives,’ a man flees his middling marriage. Review of: The Rest of Our Lives: a novel / Ben Markovits.
Kristen Martin. 12/30/2025: A novel inspired by a real-life treasure hunt illuminates the American West. Review of: Scavengers: a novel / Kathleen Boland
Sophia Nguyen. 12/24/2025: How a nearly 70-year-old debut novelist published 2025’s breakout hit. Regarding: Theo of Golden / Allen Levi.
Katherine J. Chen. 12/21/2025: From Dickens to Dahl, authors have used weight as lazy shorthand for character. "Less conspicuously perhaps than movies or magazine covers, books can still feel reductive when it comes to weight, with some notable exceptions."
W. David Marx, editor Jacob Brogan. 12/20/2025: A pop culture skeptic on the 21st-century works that really matter. Excerpt (edited) from: Blank Space: a cultural history of the twenty-first century / W. David Marx.
Jacob Brogan. 12/20/2025: interactive: Geraldine Brooks takes us on a tour of her home library.
Sibbie O'Sullivan. 12/18/2025: Please don’t call fangirls silly. They have more power than you think. Review of: Swoon
Fangirls, Their Idols, and the Counterculture of Female Lust — From Byron to the Beatles / Bea Martinez-Gatell.
Ron Charles. 12/16/2025: ‘Canticle’ is a daring historical novel steeped in religious ecstasy. Review of: Canticle: A Novel / Janet Rich Edwards.
Mark Dery. 12/13/2025: A centennial look back at Edward Gorey’s macabre art and guarded life. Review of: E Is for Edward: A Centennial Celebration of the Mischievous Mind of Edward Gorey / Gregory Hischak and the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust.
Becca Rothfeld. 12/11/2025: This remarkable book about a ‘wild boy’ reveals what makes us human. Review of the reissue of: The Forbidden Experiment: The Story of the Wild Boy of Aveyron / Roger Shattuck.
Michael Dirda. 12/10/2025: temporarily unlocked A critic’s pick of unexpected mysteries, ghost tales and adventure novels.
Ron Charles. 12/10/2025: ‘Who Knows You by Heart’ captures the dark side of AI. Review of: Who Knows You By Heart / C.J. Farley.
Victor Lavalle. 12/06/2025: ‘Positive Obsession’ shows Octavia Butler as a very human icon. Review of: Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler / Susana M. Morris.
Shira Ovide. 12/05/2025: This new children’s book is a bedtime story for the AI age: With “Privacy, Please!” a longtime cybersecurity expert wants preschoolers to start learning about digital privacy. (temporarily unlocked) Regarding: Privacy, Please! / Faith Cranor; illustrator Alena Karabach.
Elliott Colla. 12/05/2025: This classic Palestinian novel unearths a largely ignored history. "In Soraya Antonius’s newly reissued novel “The Lord,” a mysterious magician puzzles and fascinates British residents of Palestine in the early 20th century."
Karen Heller. 12/05/2025: Hail Sid Caesar, the original king of TV comedy. Review of: When Caesar Was King: How Sid Caesar Reinvented American Comedy / David Margolick.
Leo Sands. 12/03/2025: U.S. reinstates all canceled library grants after court order. "A court ruled that Trump’s effort to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the only federal agency dedicated to funding libraries, was unlawful."
Rebecca Brenner Graham. 12/02/2025: Her family spied for Germany in WWII. She tried to learn the truth. Review of: Family of Spies
A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor / Christine Kuehn.
Ron Charles. 12/02/2025: In ‘Town & Country,’ the political novel gets a refreshing makeover. Review of: Town & Country: A Novel / Brian Schaefer.
Becca Rothfeld. 12/02/2025: Olivia Nuzzi tries and fails to save her reputation in ‘American Canto.’ Review of: American Canto / Olivia Nuzzi.
G. Daniela Galarza and Aaron Hutcherson. 12/01/2025: 14 of our favorite cookbooks of the year.
Sarah Fletcher. 12/31/2025: The magic has gone out of flirting. Maybe this infamous book had a point. "Revisiting Neil Strauss’s “The Game” at 20."
Sophia Nguyen. 12/31/2025: 3 utterly brilliant science fiction novels. Review of: Sunward: a novel / William Alexander -- Slow Gods / Claire North -- There Is No Antimemetics Division / qntm.
Ron Charles. 12/30/2025: In ‘The Rest of Our Lives,’ a man flees his middling marriage. Review of: The Rest of Our Lives: a novel / Ben Markovits.
Kristen Martin. 12/30/2025: A novel inspired by a real-life treasure hunt illuminates the American West. Review of: Scavengers: a novel / Kathleen Boland
Sophia Nguyen. 12/24/2025: How a nearly 70-year-old debut novelist published 2025’s breakout hit. Regarding: Theo of Golden / Allen Levi.
Katherine J. Chen. 12/21/2025: From Dickens to Dahl, authors have used weight as lazy shorthand for character. "Less conspicuously perhaps than movies or magazine covers, books can still feel reductive when it comes to weight, with some notable exceptions."
W. David Marx, editor Jacob Brogan. 12/20/2025: A pop culture skeptic on the 21st-century works that really matter. Excerpt (edited) from: Blank Space: a cultural history of the twenty-first century / W. David Marx.
Jacob Brogan. 12/20/2025: interactive: Geraldine Brooks takes us on a tour of her home library.
Sibbie O'Sullivan. 12/18/2025: Please don’t call fangirls silly. They have more power than you think. Review of: Swoon
Fangirls, Their Idols, and the Counterculture of Female Lust — From Byron to the Beatles / Bea Martinez-Gatell.
Ron Charles. 12/16/2025: ‘Canticle’ is a daring historical novel steeped in religious ecstasy. Review of: Canticle: A Novel / Janet Rich Edwards.
Mark Dery. 12/13/2025: A centennial look back at Edward Gorey’s macabre art and guarded life. Review of: E Is for Edward: A Centennial Celebration of the Mischievous Mind of Edward Gorey / Gregory Hischak and the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust.
Becca Rothfeld. 12/11/2025: This remarkable book about a ‘wild boy’ reveals what makes us human. Review of the reissue of: The Forbidden Experiment: The Story of the Wild Boy of Aveyron / Roger Shattuck.
Michael Dirda. 12/10/2025: temporarily unlocked A critic’s pick of unexpected mysteries, ghost tales and adventure novels.
Ron Charles. 12/10/2025: ‘Who Knows You by Heart’ captures the dark side of AI. Review of: Who Knows You By Heart / C.J. Farley.
Victor Lavalle. 12/06/2025: ‘Positive Obsession’ shows Octavia Butler as a very human icon. Review of: Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler / Susana M. Morris.
Shira Ovide. 12/05/2025: This new children’s book is a bedtime story for the AI age: With “Privacy, Please!” a longtime cybersecurity expert wants preschoolers to start learning about digital privacy. (temporarily unlocked) Regarding: Privacy, Please! / Faith Cranor; illustrator Alena Karabach.
Elliott Colla. 12/05/2025: This classic Palestinian novel unearths a largely ignored history. "In Soraya Antonius’s newly reissued novel “The Lord,” a mysterious magician puzzles and fascinates British residents of Palestine in the early 20th century."
Karen Heller. 12/05/2025: Hail Sid Caesar, the original king of TV comedy. Review of: When Caesar Was King: How Sid Caesar Reinvented American Comedy / David Margolick.
Leo Sands. 12/03/2025: U.S. reinstates all canceled library grants after court order. "A court ruled that Trump’s effort to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the only federal agency dedicated to funding libraries, was unlawful."
Rebecca Brenner Graham. 12/02/2025: Her family spied for Germany in WWII. She tried to learn the truth. Review of: Family of Spies
A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor / Christine Kuehn.
Ron Charles. 12/02/2025: In ‘Town & Country,’ the political novel gets a refreshing makeover. Review of: Town & Country: A Novel / Brian Schaefer.
Becca Rothfeld. 12/02/2025: Olivia Nuzzi tries and fails to save her reputation in ‘American Canto.’ Review of: American Canto / Olivia Nuzzi.
G. Daniela Galarza and Aaron Hutcherson. 12/01/2025: 14 of our favorite cookbooks of the year.
128featherbear
Kai Erikson, 1931-2025
Michael S. Rosenwald. NYT, 12/01/2025: Kai Erikson, Sociologist Who Probed Invisible Scars of Disasters, Dies at 94. "A professor at Yale, he immersed himself in communities after catastrophic events like Three Mile Island, the Exxon Valdez oil spill and Hurricane Katrina."
"Kai T. Erikson, a sociologist who examined the aftermaths of floods, nuclear accidents, hurricanes and chemical spills to illustrate how disasters damage what he called the “tissues of communal life,” inflicting collective trauma that can outlast physical wounds, died on Nov. 10 in Hamden, Conn. He was 94.
"His death, at a retirement home, was announced by Yale University, where he taught from 1966 to 2000.
"Professor Erikson worked in the academic shadow of his father, the renowned psychoanalyst Erik Erikson, a Sigmund Freud disciple whose psychosocial development theory described a series of internal psychological crises that individuals face throughout their lives.
"Aiming his own analytical lens outward, Professor Erikson probed the social and cultural trauma that is visually imperceptible after natural and man-made disasters, traveling so frequently to far-flung calamities that The Times of London called him “Professor Catastrophe From America.”
"“Collective trauma works its way slowly into the awareness of those who suffer from it, so it does not have the quality of suddenness usually associated with ‘trauma,’” he wrote in “The Sociologist’s Eye: Reflections on Social Life” (2017). “But it is a form of shock all the same, a gradual recognition that the community no longer exists as a source of support or solace.”
"Professor Erikson became interested in disasters by accident.
"In 1973, he received a call out of the blue from a lawyer representing residents of Buffalo Creek, W.Va., a coal mining community where a dam had failed, unleashing 132 million gallons of thick black liquid that gushed through a narrow mountain hollow in waves 20 feet high. More than 100 people died. Thousands were left homeless.
"Professor Erikson spent more than a year interviewing survivors, reviewing legal depositions, attending community meetings and observing daily life as residents struggled to rebuild their homes and their way of living.
"He detailed their struggles in “Everything in Its Path: Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek Flood” (1976), a mix of social science, narrative journalism and oral history. It was a finalist for the National Book Award in the contemporary thought category.
"In the book, Professor Erikson let Buffalo Creek residents speak in their own voices, rather than paraphrasing them in academic jargon.
"Over the next 40 years, Professor Erikson traveled the world to embed himself in the aftermath of catastrophic events — a mercury spill in Ontario, the nuclear reactor accident in Three Mile Island, Pa., the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska the flooded streets of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and other tragedies.
"Professor Erikson’s instinct to immerse himself in the places he wrote about was a throwback to the early days of sociology, when research was grounded in lived experience rather than the quantitative statistics and technical theory that pervades the field today."
Kai Erikson LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/eriksonkai
Michael S. Rosenwald. NYT, 12/01/2025: Kai Erikson, Sociologist Who Probed Invisible Scars of Disasters, Dies at 94. "A professor at Yale, he immersed himself in communities after catastrophic events like Three Mile Island, the Exxon Valdez oil spill and Hurricane Katrina."
"Kai T. Erikson, a sociologist who examined the aftermaths of floods, nuclear accidents, hurricanes and chemical spills to illustrate how disasters damage what he called the “tissues of communal life,” inflicting collective trauma that can outlast physical wounds, died on Nov. 10 in Hamden, Conn. He was 94.
"His death, at a retirement home, was announced by Yale University, where he taught from 1966 to 2000.
"Professor Erikson worked in the academic shadow of his father, the renowned psychoanalyst Erik Erikson, a Sigmund Freud disciple whose psychosocial development theory described a series of internal psychological crises that individuals face throughout their lives.
"Aiming his own analytical lens outward, Professor Erikson probed the social and cultural trauma that is visually imperceptible after natural and man-made disasters, traveling so frequently to far-flung calamities that The Times of London called him “Professor Catastrophe From America.”
"“Collective trauma works its way slowly into the awareness of those who suffer from it, so it does not have the quality of suddenness usually associated with ‘trauma,’” he wrote in “The Sociologist’s Eye: Reflections on Social Life” (2017). “But it is a form of shock all the same, a gradual recognition that the community no longer exists as a source of support or solace.”
"Professor Erikson became interested in disasters by accident.
"In 1973, he received a call out of the blue from a lawyer representing residents of Buffalo Creek, W.Va., a coal mining community where a dam had failed, unleashing 132 million gallons of thick black liquid that gushed through a narrow mountain hollow in waves 20 feet high. More than 100 people died. Thousands were left homeless.
"Professor Erikson spent more than a year interviewing survivors, reviewing legal depositions, attending community meetings and observing daily life as residents struggled to rebuild their homes and their way of living.
"He detailed their struggles in “Everything in Its Path: Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek Flood” (1976), a mix of social science, narrative journalism and oral history. It was a finalist for the National Book Award in the contemporary thought category.
"In the book, Professor Erikson let Buffalo Creek residents speak in their own voices, rather than paraphrasing them in academic jargon.
"Over the next 40 years, Professor Erikson traveled the world to embed himself in the aftermath of catastrophic events — a mercury spill in Ontario, the nuclear reactor accident in Three Mile Island, Pa., the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska the flooded streets of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and other tragedies.
"Professor Erikson’s instinct to immerse himself in the places he wrote about was a throwback to the early days of sociology, when research was grounded in lived experience rather than the quantitative statistics and technical theory that pervades the field today."
Kai Erikson LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/eriksonkai
129featherbear
Robert Zaretsky. American Scholar, 12/01/2025: Compassionate Curmudgeon: Why we must root ourselves in the real world. Review of: Arthur Schopenhauer: The Life and Thought of Philosophy’s Greatest Pessimist / David Bather Woods (University of Chicago Press).
130featherbear
Los Angeles Review of Books December 2025
Zachary Gillan. 12/30/2025: We Are Close, We Are Almost There. "Zachary Gillan reflects on Jeffrey Ford’s ‘Well-Built City Trilogy’ in the era of resurgent fascism."
Ruth Joffre. 12/28/2025: Fantastical Transcendence and the Magic of Resistance. Review of: We Will Rise Again: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance, and Hope / Karen Lord (editor), Annalee Newitz (editor), and Malka Older (editor).
Diba Mohtasham. 12/27/2025: Until My People Are Free. "Diba Mohtasham speaks with pop star Faegheh Atashin, a.k.a. Googoosh, about her new memoir." Regarding: Googoosh: A Sinful Voice / Faegheh Atashin.
Rowland Bagnall. 12/24/2025: Strange Woofs. Review of: Only Sing: 152 Uncollected Dream Songs / John Berryman.
Isabel Davis. 12/23/2025: The Womb and the Web. Review of: Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age / Amanda Hess.
Tierney Finster. 12/22/2025: Will I Ever Stop Wanting? Review of: Flat Earth / Anika Jade Levy.
Chloe Garcia Roberts. 12/19/2025: Has English Killed Global Literature? Review of: Speaking in Tongues / J. M. Coetzee and Mariana Dimópulos.
Annie Berke. 12/18/2025: There's No Telling. Review of: The Ten Year Affair / Erin Somers -- Wreck / Catherine Newman.
Stephanie Insley Hershinow. 12/16/2025: Happy Birthday, Jane! "To celebrate the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, Stephanie Insley Hershinow offers a survey of recent Austen-related books and artworks."
M. Keith Booker. 12/15/2025: Culture Never Recovered. Review of: Birds, Strangers and Psychos: New Stories Inspired by Alfred Hitchcock / Maxim Jakubowski (editor).
Zach Gibson. 12/14/2025: Still Got It. "Zach Gibson meditates on “late style” in the work of postmodernists like Thomas Pynchon who are still publishing well into their eighties."
Drew Basile. 12/11/2025: The Robinsonade in the Age of Reality TV. Review of the reissue of Friday, or, The Other Island / Michel Tournier. Translated by Norman Denny. NYRB Classics.
Emy Manini. 12/11/2025: Lifestyles of the Rich and Fiendish. Review of: Fiend / Alma Katsu.
Alma Katsu & Sadie Hartmann. 12/10/2025: Feral, Fearless, and Long Overdue. "Alma Katsu and Sadie Hartmann discuss women who write horror fiction."
Jon Repetti. 12/09/2025: Saints of the Middlebrow. Review of: Genre Bending: The Plasticity of Form in Contemporary Literary Fiction / Jeremy Rosen.
Alix Christie. 12/09/2025: A Fierce and Complicated Compassion. Review of: Sacrament: a novel / Susan Straight.
Hannah Tennant-Moore. 12/08/2025: Ha Ha. Sob Sob. Review of: sorry i keep crying during sex / Jesse James Rose.
Paul Finkelman. 12/07/2025: A Martyr for Free Speech. Review of: You Can’t Kill a Man Because of the Books He Reads: Angelo Herndon’s Fight for Free Speech / Brad Snyder.
Sumaiya Aftab Ahmed. 12/06/2025: The Law Is Never a Given. Review of: 38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England, and a Nazi in Patagonia / Philippe Sands.
Aaron Boehmer. 12/05/2025: Freeing the Library. "Aaron Boehmer writes about community libraries and the importance of accessible archival and literary resources in these times."
Jeffrey Wasserstrom. 12/05/2025: King Lear Goes to China."Jeffrey Wasserstrom speaks with Xue Yiwei and Nan Z. Da about Shakespeare’s legacy in China."
Karen E. Park. 12/04/2025: Ambivalence and Devotion. Review of: My Son, the Priest: A Mother’s Crisis of Faith / Kristin Grady Gilger (Monkfish).
Sebastian Langdell. 12/03/2025: What Fresh Heaven. "Sebastian Langdell interviews Mary Jo Bang about her recent translation of Dante’s “Paradiso.” Regarding: Paradiso by Dante Alighieri. Translated by Mary Jo Bang. Graywolf Press.
Heather Treseler. 12/02/2025: What the Laureate Left Out. Review of: The Poems of Seamus Heaney / Seamus Heaney; edd Rosie Lavan, Bernard O'Donoghue & Matthew Hollis.
Zachary Gillan. 12/30/2025: We Are Close, We Are Almost There. "Zachary Gillan reflects on Jeffrey Ford’s ‘Well-Built City Trilogy’ in the era of resurgent fascism."
Ruth Joffre. 12/28/2025: Fantastical Transcendence and the Magic of Resistance. Review of: We Will Rise Again: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance, and Hope / Karen Lord (editor), Annalee Newitz (editor), and Malka Older (editor).
Diba Mohtasham. 12/27/2025: Until My People Are Free. "Diba Mohtasham speaks with pop star Faegheh Atashin, a.k.a. Googoosh, about her new memoir." Regarding: Googoosh: A Sinful Voice / Faegheh Atashin.
Rowland Bagnall. 12/24/2025: Strange Woofs. Review of: Only Sing: 152 Uncollected Dream Songs / John Berryman.
Isabel Davis. 12/23/2025: The Womb and the Web. Review of: Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age / Amanda Hess.
Tierney Finster. 12/22/2025: Will I Ever Stop Wanting? Review of: Flat Earth / Anika Jade Levy.
Chloe Garcia Roberts. 12/19/2025: Has English Killed Global Literature? Review of: Speaking in Tongues / J. M. Coetzee and Mariana Dimópulos.
Annie Berke. 12/18/2025: There's No Telling. Review of: The Ten Year Affair / Erin Somers -- Wreck / Catherine Newman.
Stephanie Insley Hershinow. 12/16/2025: Happy Birthday, Jane! "To celebrate the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, Stephanie Insley Hershinow offers a survey of recent Austen-related books and artworks."
M. Keith Booker. 12/15/2025: Culture Never Recovered. Review of: Birds, Strangers and Psychos: New Stories Inspired by Alfred Hitchcock / Maxim Jakubowski (editor).
Zach Gibson. 12/14/2025: Still Got It. "Zach Gibson meditates on “late style” in the work of postmodernists like Thomas Pynchon who are still publishing well into their eighties."
Drew Basile. 12/11/2025: The Robinsonade in the Age of Reality TV. Review of the reissue of Friday, or, The Other Island / Michel Tournier. Translated by Norman Denny. NYRB Classics.
Emy Manini. 12/11/2025: Lifestyles of the Rich and Fiendish. Review of: Fiend / Alma Katsu.
Alma Katsu & Sadie Hartmann. 12/10/2025: Feral, Fearless, and Long Overdue. "Alma Katsu and Sadie Hartmann discuss women who write horror fiction."
Jon Repetti. 12/09/2025: Saints of the Middlebrow. Review of: Genre Bending: The Plasticity of Form in Contemporary Literary Fiction / Jeremy Rosen.
Alix Christie. 12/09/2025: A Fierce and Complicated Compassion. Review of: Sacrament: a novel / Susan Straight.
Hannah Tennant-Moore. 12/08/2025: Ha Ha. Sob Sob. Review of: sorry i keep crying during sex / Jesse James Rose.
Paul Finkelman. 12/07/2025: A Martyr for Free Speech. Review of: You Can’t Kill a Man Because of the Books He Reads: Angelo Herndon’s Fight for Free Speech / Brad Snyder.
Sumaiya Aftab Ahmed. 12/06/2025: The Law Is Never a Given. Review of: 38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England, and a Nazi in Patagonia / Philippe Sands.
Aaron Boehmer. 12/05/2025: Freeing the Library. "Aaron Boehmer writes about community libraries and the importance of accessible archival and literary resources in these times."
Jeffrey Wasserstrom. 12/05/2025: King Lear Goes to China."Jeffrey Wasserstrom speaks with Xue Yiwei and Nan Z. Da about Shakespeare’s legacy in China."
Karen E. Park. 12/04/2025: Ambivalence and Devotion. Review of: My Son, the Priest: A Mother’s Crisis of Faith / Kristin Grady Gilger (Monkfish).
Sebastian Langdell. 12/03/2025: What Fresh Heaven. "Sebastian Langdell interviews Mary Jo Bang about her recent translation of Dante’s “Paradiso.” Regarding: Paradiso by Dante Alighieri. Translated by Mary Jo Bang. Graywolf Press.
Heather Treseler. 12/02/2025: What the Laureate Left Out. Review of: The Poems of Seamus Heaney / Seamus Heaney; edd Rosie Lavan, Bernard O'Donoghue & Matthew Hollis.
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Asian Review of Books December 2025
Editor. 12/31/2025: 2025: The Year in Translation(s).
Susan Blumberg-Kason. 12/29/2025: “The Old Fire” by Elisa Shua Dusapin. Review of: The Old Fire: a novel / Elisa Shua Dusapin
Editor. 12/27/2025: The Year in Reviews: Highlights from 2025.
Editor. 12/24/2025: Asia in 2025: Round-up of “Best Books” lists.
Ben Woollard. 12/23/2025: “I Guess All We Have Is Freedom” by Genpei Akasegawa. Review of: I Guess All We Have Is Freedom / Genpei Akasegawa; translation Matt Fargo. Some difficulties w/the citation: the name of the author is Genpei Akasegawa per the review, but the book lists the short story collection under his pen name, Katsuhiko Otsuji, & the review also cites his "given name," Katsuhiko Akasegawa. Amazon lists this title under Genpei Akasegawa, but puts the translator's name ahead of the author's name. Publisher is Kaya Press.
Sankha Maji. 12/21/2025: “Andhar Bil” by Kalyani Thakur Charal. Review of: Andhar Bil / Kalyani Thakur Charal; translator Asit Biswas (Tilted Axis 2026).
Peter Gordon. 12/20/2025: “The New Byzantines: The Rise of Greece and Return of the Near East” by Sean Mathews. Review of: The New Byzantines: The Rise of Greece and Return of the Near East / Sean Mathews.
Susan Blumberg-Kason. 12/19/2025: “A Guardian and a Thief” by Megha Majumdar. Review of: A Guardian and a Thief / Megha Majumdar.
Soni Wadhwa. 12/17/2025: “The Gallery of Upside Down Women” by Arundhathi Subramaniam. Review of: The Gallery of Upside Down Women / Arundhathi Subramaniam.
James Herndon. 12/16/2025: “Running behind Lakshmi: The Search for Wealth in India’s Stock Market” by Adil Rustomjee. Review of: Running behind Lakshmi: The Search for Wealth in India’s Stock Market / Adil Rustomjee (Hachette India).
David Chaffetz. 12/14/2025: “Becoming Arab: the Formation of Arab Identity in the Medieval Middle East” by Yossef Rapoport. Review of: Becoming Arab: the Formation of Arab Identity in the Medieval Middle East / Yossef Rapoport (Princeton University Press).
Alison Fincher. 12/13/2025: “When the Museum Is Closed” by Emi Yagi. Review of: When the Museum Is Closed / Emi Yagi; translation Yuki Tejima.
David Chaffetz. 12/12/2025: “The Indian Caliphate, Exiled Ottomans and the Billionaire Prince” by Imran Mulla. Review of: The Indian Caliphate, Exiled Ottomans and the Billionaire Prince / Imran Mulla (Hurst).
Kabir Deb. 12/10/2025: “Called by the Hills: A Home in the Himalaya” by Anuradha Roy. Review of: Called by the Hills: A Home in the Himalaya / Anuradha Roy (Hachette India).
Mary Hillis. 12/09/2025: “The Summer House” by Masashi Matsuie. Review of: The Summer House aka Summer at Mount Asama / Masashi Matsuie.
Soni Wadhwa. 12/07/2025: “Bhima’s Wife” by Kavita Kané. Review of: Bhima’s Wife / Kavita Kané (Ebury Press India).
Alison Fincher. 12/06/2025: “Grave of the Fireflies” by Akiyuki Nosaka. Review of the first translation of the book on which the film was based: Grave of the Fireflies / Akiyuki Nosaka; translator Ginny Tapley Takemori (Penguin Classics).
Shakir Mir. 12/04/2025: “City of Kashmir: Srinagar, A Popular History” by Sameer Hamdani. Review of: City of Kashmir: Srinagar, A Popular History / Sameer Hamdani.
Stuart Lloyd. 12/03/2025: “Spring Castle” by Michiko Ishimure. Review of: Spring Castle / Michiko Ishimure.
David Chaffetz. 12/02/2025: “Ancient Civilizations of Afghanistan: From the Earliest Times to the Mongol Conquest” by Warwick Ball. Review of: Ancient Civilizations of Afghanistan: From the Earliest Times to the Mongol Conquest / Warwick Ball.
Editor. 12/31/2025: 2025: The Year in Translation(s).
Susan Blumberg-Kason. 12/29/2025: “The Old Fire” by Elisa Shua Dusapin. Review of: The Old Fire: a novel / Elisa Shua Dusapin
Editor. 12/27/2025: The Year in Reviews: Highlights from 2025.
Editor. 12/24/2025: Asia in 2025: Round-up of “Best Books” lists.
Ben Woollard. 12/23/2025: “I Guess All We Have Is Freedom” by Genpei Akasegawa. Review of: I Guess All We Have Is Freedom / Genpei Akasegawa; translation Matt Fargo. Some difficulties w/the citation: the name of the author is Genpei Akasegawa per the review, but the book lists the short story collection under his pen name, Katsuhiko Otsuji, & the review also cites his "given name," Katsuhiko Akasegawa. Amazon lists this title under Genpei Akasegawa, but puts the translator's name ahead of the author's name. Publisher is Kaya Press.
Sankha Maji. 12/21/2025: “Andhar Bil” by Kalyani Thakur Charal. Review of: Andhar Bil / Kalyani Thakur Charal; translator Asit Biswas (Tilted Axis 2026).
Peter Gordon. 12/20/2025: “The New Byzantines: The Rise of Greece and Return of the Near East” by Sean Mathews. Review of: The New Byzantines: The Rise of Greece and Return of the Near East / Sean Mathews.
Susan Blumberg-Kason. 12/19/2025: “A Guardian and a Thief” by Megha Majumdar. Review of: A Guardian and a Thief / Megha Majumdar.
Soni Wadhwa. 12/17/2025: “The Gallery of Upside Down Women” by Arundhathi Subramaniam. Review of: The Gallery of Upside Down Women / Arundhathi Subramaniam.
James Herndon. 12/16/2025: “Running behind Lakshmi: The Search for Wealth in India’s Stock Market” by Adil Rustomjee. Review of: Running behind Lakshmi: The Search for Wealth in India’s Stock Market / Adil Rustomjee (Hachette India).
David Chaffetz. 12/14/2025: “Becoming Arab: the Formation of Arab Identity in the Medieval Middle East” by Yossef Rapoport. Review of: Becoming Arab: the Formation of Arab Identity in the Medieval Middle East / Yossef Rapoport (Princeton University Press).
Alison Fincher. 12/13/2025: “When the Museum Is Closed” by Emi Yagi. Review of: When the Museum Is Closed / Emi Yagi; translation Yuki Tejima.
David Chaffetz. 12/12/2025: “The Indian Caliphate, Exiled Ottomans and the Billionaire Prince” by Imran Mulla. Review of: The Indian Caliphate, Exiled Ottomans and the Billionaire Prince / Imran Mulla (Hurst).
Kabir Deb. 12/10/2025: “Called by the Hills: A Home in the Himalaya” by Anuradha Roy. Review of: Called by the Hills: A Home in the Himalaya / Anuradha Roy (Hachette India).
Mary Hillis. 12/09/2025: “The Summer House” by Masashi Matsuie. Review of: The Summer House aka Summer at Mount Asama / Masashi Matsuie.
Soni Wadhwa. 12/07/2025: “Bhima’s Wife” by Kavita Kané. Review of: Bhima’s Wife / Kavita Kané (Ebury Press India).
Alison Fincher. 12/06/2025: “Grave of the Fireflies” by Akiyuki Nosaka. Review of the first translation of the book on which the film was based: Grave of the Fireflies / Akiyuki Nosaka; translator Ginny Tapley Takemori (Penguin Classics).
Shakir Mir. 12/04/2025: “City of Kashmir: Srinagar, A Popular History” by Sameer Hamdani. Review of: City of Kashmir: Srinagar, A Popular History / Sameer Hamdani.
Stuart Lloyd. 12/03/2025: “Spring Castle” by Michiko Ishimure. Review of: Spring Castle / Michiko Ishimure.
David Chaffetz. 12/02/2025: “Ancient Civilizations of Afghanistan: From the Earliest Times to the Mongol Conquest” by Warwick Ball. Review of: Ancient Civilizations of Afghanistan: From the Earliest Times to the Mongol Conquest / Warwick Ball.
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New Yorker December 2025
Lauren Boersma Harris. 12/24/2025: What Can Conversion Memoirs Tell Us? Review of: Godstruck: Seven Women's Unexpected Journeys to Religious Conversion / Kelsey Gosgood -- Don't Forget We're Here Forever: A New Generation's Search for Religion / Lamorna Ash.
Thelma Golden. 12/24/2025: Thelma Golden on the Literature of Harlem. "The director of the Studio Museum chooses some of her most beloved books about the neighborhood—both as a place and as an anchor for Black cultural consciousness."
Leslie Jamison. 12/22/2025: The Psychology of Fashion. Review of: Dress, Dreams, and Desire: A History of Fashion and Psychoanalysis / Valerie Steele.
Louis Menand. 12/22/2025: Is the Dictionary Done For? Review of: Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary / Stefan Fatsis -- but much much more.
David Owen. 12/22/2025: Dyslexia and the Reading Wars.
Michael Luo. 12/21/2025: The Top Twenty-five New Yorker Stories of 2025.
Vauhini Vara. 12/20/2025: What if Readers Like A.I.-Generated Fiction?
Hannah Goldfield. 12/20/2025: Ten of My Favorite Cookbooks of 2025.
Nicholas Henirquez. 12/18/2025: The Entire New Yorker Archive Is Now Fully Digitized. "For the first time, every cover, article, and issue in the magazine’s hundred-year history can be enjoyed on newyorker.com."
E. Tammy Kim. 12/17/2025: A Graphic Novel About Rage and Repression in Montreal. Review of: Cannon / Lee Lai.
Michael Schulman. 12/15/2025: Stephen Sondheim, Puzzle Maestro. Review of: Matching Minds with Sondheim: The Puzzles and Games of the Broadway Legend / Barry Joseph.
Lauren Collins. 12/13/2025: How Nicolas Sarkozy Survived Twenty Days Behind Bars. Regarding: Le journal d'un prisonnier Nicolas Sarkozy (Fayard).
Editors & critics of the New Yorker. 12/10/2025: The Best Books of 2025.
Han Zhang. 12/10/2025: A Student Chases the Shadows of Tiananmen. Review of: Looking for Tank Man / Ha Jin.
Jay Kaspian Kang. 12/09/2025: If You Quit Social Media, Will You Read More Books?
Adam Gopnick. 12/08/2025: The Ancient Roots of Doing Time. Review of: Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration / Matthew D. C. Larsen and Mark Letteney.
Rachel Aviv. 12/08/2025: Oliver Sacks Put Himself Into His Case Studies. What Was the Cost?
Olga Tokarczuk. 12/06/2025: Olga Tokarczuk Recommends Visionary Science Fiction.
Joshua Rothman. 12/05/2025: Are We Getting Stupider? In part with reference to A Short History of Stupidity / Stuart Jeffries, & Gustave Flaubert.
Nuar Alsadir. 12/03/2025: Samuel Beckett on the Couch. "When the young writer began analysis with Wilfred R. Bion, both men were at the beginning of their careers. Their work together would have a transformative impact."
Brady Brickner-Wood. 12/02/2025: Now Watch Me Read. "“Performative reading” has gained a curious notoriety online. Is it a new way of calling people pretentious, or does it reflect a deprioritization of the written word?"
Molly Fischer. 12/02/2025: Does Olivia Nuzzi Make Good Copy? Review of: American Canto / Olivia Nuzzi.
John Cassidy. 12/01/2025: What Can Economists Agree on These Days? Review of: The London Consensus: Economic Principles for the 21st Century / ed Tim Besley, Irene Bucelli, & Andres Velasco.
Simon Akam. 12/01/2025: A Very Big Fight Over a Very Small Language. "In the Swiss Alps, a plan to tidy up Romansh—spoken by less than one per cent of the country—set off a decades-long quarrel over identity, belonging, and the sound of authenticity."
Merve Emre. 12/01/2025: What Makes Goethe So Special? Review of: Goethe: a life in ideas / Matthew Bell (with reference to other significant biographies).
Rachel Syme. 12/01/2025: The High-Born Rebel Who Took Up the Cause of the Commoner. Review of: Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford / Carla Kaplan.
Lauren Boersma Harris. 12/24/2025: What Can Conversion Memoirs Tell Us? Review of: Godstruck: Seven Women's Unexpected Journeys to Religious Conversion / Kelsey Gosgood -- Don't Forget We're Here Forever: A New Generation's Search for Religion / Lamorna Ash.
Thelma Golden. 12/24/2025: Thelma Golden on the Literature of Harlem. "The director of the Studio Museum chooses some of her most beloved books about the neighborhood—both as a place and as an anchor for Black cultural consciousness."
Leslie Jamison. 12/22/2025: The Psychology of Fashion. Review of: Dress, Dreams, and Desire: A History of Fashion and Psychoanalysis / Valerie Steele.
Louis Menand. 12/22/2025: Is the Dictionary Done For? Review of: Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary / Stefan Fatsis -- but much much more.
David Owen. 12/22/2025: Dyslexia and the Reading Wars.
Michael Luo. 12/21/2025: The Top Twenty-five New Yorker Stories of 2025.
Vauhini Vara. 12/20/2025: What if Readers Like A.I.-Generated Fiction?
Hannah Goldfield. 12/20/2025: Ten of My Favorite Cookbooks of 2025.
Nicholas Henirquez. 12/18/2025: The Entire New Yorker Archive Is Now Fully Digitized. "For the first time, every cover, article, and issue in the magazine’s hundred-year history can be enjoyed on newyorker.com."
E. Tammy Kim. 12/17/2025: A Graphic Novel About Rage and Repression in Montreal. Review of: Cannon / Lee Lai.
Michael Schulman. 12/15/2025: Stephen Sondheim, Puzzle Maestro. Review of: Matching Minds with Sondheim: The Puzzles and Games of the Broadway Legend / Barry Joseph.
Lauren Collins. 12/13/2025: How Nicolas Sarkozy Survived Twenty Days Behind Bars. Regarding: Le journal d'un prisonnier Nicolas Sarkozy (Fayard).
Editors & critics of the New Yorker. 12/10/2025: The Best Books of 2025.
Han Zhang. 12/10/2025: A Student Chases the Shadows of Tiananmen. Review of: Looking for Tank Man / Ha Jin.
Jay Kaspian Kang. 12/09/2025: If You Quit Social Media, Will You Read More Books?
Adam Gopnick. 12/08/2025: The Ancient Roots of Doing Time. Review of: Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration / Matthew D. C. Larsen and Mark Letteney.
Rachel Aviv. 12/08/2025: Oliver Sacks Put Himself Into His Case Studies. What Was the Cost?
Olga Tokarczuk. 12/06/2025: Olga Tokarczuk Recommends Visionary Science Fiction.
Joshua Rothman. 12/05/2025: Are We Getting Stupider? In part with reference to A Short History of Stupidity / Stuart Jeffries, & Gustave Flaubert.
Nuar Alsadir. 12/03/2025: Samuel Beckett on the Couch. "When the young writer began analysis with Wilfred R. Bion, both men were at the beginning of their careers. Their work together would have a transformative impact."
Brady Brickner-Wood. 12/02/2025: Now Watch Me Read. "“Performative reading” has gained a curious notoriety online. Is it a new way of calling people pretentious, or does it reflect a deprioritization of the written word?"
Molly Fischer. 12/02/2025: Does Olivia Nuzzi Make Good Copy? Review of: American Canto / Olivia Nuzzi.
John Cassidy. 12/01/2025: What Can Economists Agree on These Days? Review of: The London Consensus: Economic Principles for the 21st Century / ed Tim Besley, Irene Bucelli, & Andres Velasco.
Simon Akam. 12/01/2025: A Very Big Fight Over a Very Small Language. "In the Swiss Alps, a plan to tidy up Romansh—spoken by less than one per cent of the country—set off a decades-long quarrel over identity, belonging, and the sound of authenticity."
Merve Emre. 12/01/2025: What Makes Goethe So Special? Review of: Goethe: a life in ideas / Matthew Bell (with reference to other significant biographies).
Rachel Syme. 12/01/2025: The High-Born Rebel Who Took Up the Cause of the Commoner. Review of: Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford / Carla Kaplan.
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David Pryce-Jones, 1936-2025
David Risen. NYT, 12/02/2025: David Pryce-Jones, Conservative Writer With Clout, Dies at 89.
"Mr. Pryce-Jones was first and foremost a political writer, and his essays and dispatches could frequently be found in right-leaning outlets in Britain like The Telegraph and The Spectator, and in American equivalents like The New Criterion and National Review.
"He was staunchly pro-Israel and anti-Communist, and he held great antipathy for those who he thought should know better; he was a constant critic of the British historian Eric Hobsbawm, among other leftists.
"Mr. Pryce-Jones was much more than a polemicist. The author of 10 novels and 18 works of nonfiction, including biographies, travelogues and histories, he was what was once known as a man of letters.
"Among Mr. Pryce-Jones’s nonfiction were a biography of Graham Greene; a travelogue about Israel; political analysis, particularly of the Arab world; and two memoirs, including “Signatures: Literary Encounters of a Lifetime” (2020), a series of character sketches of people who had inscribed books to him.
"After serving with the Coldstream Guards, the regiment charged with protecting the monarchy, Mr. Pryce-Jones was the literary editor of The Financial Times and then The Spectator."
David Pryce-Jones LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/prycejonesdavid
David Risen. NYT, 12/02/2025: David Pryce-Jones, Conservative Writer With Clout, Dies at 89.
"Mr. Pryce-Jones was first and foremost a political writer, and his essays and dispatches could frequently be found in right-leaning outlets in Britain like The Telegraph and The Spectator, and in American equivalents like The New Criterion and National Review.
"He was staunchly pro-Israel and anti-Communist, and he held great antipathy for those who he thought should know better; he was a constant critic of the British historian Eric Hobsbawm, among other leftists.
"Mr. Pryce-Jones was much more than a polemicist. The author of 10 novels and 18 works of nonfiction, including biographies, travelogues and histories, he was what was once known as a man of letters.
"Among Mr. Pryce-Jones’s nonfiction were a biography of Graham Greene; a travelogue about Israel; political analysis, particularly of the Arab world; and two memoirs, including “Signatures: Literary Encounters of a Lifetime” (2020), a series of character sketches of people who had inscribed books to him.
"After serving with the Coldstream Guards, the regiment charged with protecting the monarchy, Mr. Pryce-Jones was the literary editor of The Financial Times and then The Spectator."
David Pryce-Jones LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/prycejonesdavid
134featherbear
Public Books December 2025
Public Books Editorial Staff. 12/18/2025: Public Picks 2025. The picks: Disintegration Made Plain and Easy / Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi -- Henry James Comes Home / Peter Brooks -- On the Calculation of Volume III / Solvej Balle, trans. Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell -- Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century / Dan Sinykin and Johanna Winant -- Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman’s Bank / Justene Hill Edwards -- Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore / Ashley D. Farmer -- Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People / Imani Perry -- Baldwin: A Love Story / Nicholas Boggs -- Natural Connection Six Roots of Environmental Wisdom and Action / Joycelyn Longdon (Princeton University Press) -- The House Archives Built / Dorothy Berry --King of the North: Martin Luther King’s Life of Struggle Outside of the South / Jeanne Theoharis -- Sakina’s Kiss / Vivek Shanbhag translated from the Kannada by Srinath Perry -- The Holy Innocents / Miguel Delibes, translated from the Spanish by Peter Bush (Yale University Press) -- First Love / Rio Shimamato, translated from the Japanese by Louisa Heal Kawai -- Time of Silence / Luis Martín-Santos, translated from the Spanish by Peter Bush -- The Fight of His Life: Joe Louis’s Battle for Freedom During World War II / Johnny Smith and Randy Roberts (Basic Books) -- Bibliophobia: a memoir / Sarah Chihaya -- The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny / Kiran Desai -- Wanting: a novel / Claire Jia.
Christian Lewis. 12/17/2025: Victorian Materialisms, Crip Realities. Review of: Dysfluent in Fiction: Vocal Disability and Nineteenth-Century Literature / Riley McGuire -- By Touch Alone: Blindness and Reading in Nineteenth-Century Culture / Vanessa Warne.
John MacNeill Miller. 12/10/2025: The Empty Lab, in Science and in Fiction.
Shannon Draucker. 12/09/2025: Can Literary Fiction Save Classical Music?. Review of: Light from Uncommon Stars / Ryka Aoki -- A Very Nice Girl / Imogen Crimp -- Natural Beauty / Ling Ling Huang -- August Blue / Deborah Levy -- The Violin Conspiracy / Brendan Slocumb -- A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing / Jessie Tu.
Gustavus Stadler et al. 12/04/2025: American Music, American War. A Roundtable Discussion of: Instrument of War: Music and the Making of America’s Soldiers / David Suisman.
Lloyd Alimboyao Sy. 12/03/2025: What Future for Native Sovereignty? Review of: Big Chief / John Hickey.
Public Books Editorial Staff. 12/18/2025: Public Picks 2025. The picks: Disintegration Made Plain and Easy / Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi -- Henry James Comes Home / Peter Brooks -- On the Calculation of Volume III / Solvej Balle, trans. Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell -- Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century / Dan Sinykin and Johanna Winant -- Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman’s Bank / Justene Hill Edwards -- Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore / Ashley D. Farmer -- Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People / Imani Perry -- Baldwin: A Love Story / Nicholas Boggs -- Natural Connection Six Roots of Environmental Wisdom and Action / Joycelyn Longdon (Princeton University Press) -- The House Archives Built / Dorothy Berry --King of the North: Martin Luther King’s Life of Struggle Outside of the South / Jeanne Theoharis -- Sakina’s Kiss / Vivek Shanbhag translated from the Kannada by Srinath Perry -- The Holy Innocents / Miguel Delibes, translated from the Spanish by Peter Bush (Yale University Press) -- First Love / Rio Shimamato, translated from the Japanese by Louisa Heal Kawai -- Time of Silence / Luis Martín-Santos, translated from the Spanish by Peter Bush -- The Fight of His Life: Joe Louis’s Battle for Freedom During World War II / Johnny Smith and Randy Roberts (Basic Books) -- Bibliophobia: a memoir / Sarah Chihaya -- The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny / Kiran Desai -- Wanting: a novel / Claire Jia.
Christian Lewis. 12/17/2025: Victorian Materialisms, Crip Realities. Review of: Dysfluent in Fiction: Vocal Disability and Nineteenth-Century Literature / Riley McGuire -- By Touch Alone: Blindness and Reading in Nineteenth-Century Culture / Vanessa Warne.
John MacNeill Miller. 12/10/2025: The Empty Lab, in Science and in Fiction.
Shannon Draucker. 12/09/2025: Can Literary Fiction Save Classical Music?. Review of: Light from Uncommon Stars / Ryka Aoki -- A Very Nice Girl / Imogen Crimp -- Natural Beauty / Ling Ling Huang -- August Blue / Deborah Levy -- The Violin Conspiracy / Brendan Slocumb -- A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing / Jessie Tu.
Gustavus Stadler et al. 12/04/2025: American Music, American War. A Roundtable Discussion of: Instrument of War: Music and the Making of America’s Soldiers / David Suisman.
Lloyd Alimboyao Sy. 12/03/2025: What Future for Native Sovereignty? Review of: Big Chief / John Hickey.
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LitHub December 2025
Ed Simon. 12/23/2025: Making Meaning: Why Symbolic Interpretation Matters in Art and Literature. Regarding: Le Coeur du Monde / René Magritte.
Michael D.C. Drout. 12/23/2025: Making Sense of Middle Earth: Exploring the World of J.R.R. Tolkien. Excerpt from: The Tower and the Ruin: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Creation / Michael D.C. Drout. Compare Drout's essay in NYT Dec. 19: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/opinion/tolkien-grief-lord-rings.html
James Folta. 12/16/2025: These are the books New Yorkers checked out from the library the most this year.
Emily Temple. 12/15/2025: The 50 Biggest Literary Stories of the Year.
Samuel Miller McDonald. 12/12/2025: Can We Really Claim That Civilization is on the Steady Path of Progress? Excerpt from: Progress: How One Idea Built Civilization and Now Threatens to Destroy It / Samuel Miller McDonald.
Adrian McKinty. 12/10/2025: Studies in Unmeaning: On Thomas Pynchon’s Detective Fictions. Regarding Pynchon's Hardboiled Trilogy.
Rachel Dewoskin. 12/10/2025: What Happens When Gen Z Encounters Catullus’s Filthiest Poem?.
Sheldon Costa. 12/10/2025: One Man’s Trash: Reflections on a Failed Novel.
Colin Dickey. 12/09/2025: he Far Side of Disaster: On Virginia Woolf’s Unacknowledged Plague Novel To the Lighthouse
Steve Edwards. 12/04/2025: On the Infinite Lives of the Library. "Steve Edwards Loves Nothing More Than Library Hours."
Hwang Bo-Reum. 12/03/2025: 3 Ways to Become a Better Reader.
Ed Simon. 12/23/2025: Making Meaning: Why Symbolic Interpretation Matters in Art and Literature. Regarding: Le Coeur du Monde / René Magritte.
Michael D.C. Drout. 12/23/2025: Making Sense of Middle Earth: Exploring the World of J.R.R. Tolkien. Excerpt from: The Tower and the Ruin: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Creation / Michael D.C. Drout. Compare Drout's essay in NYT Dec. 19: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/opinion/tolkien-grief-lord-rings.html
James Folta. 12/16/2025: These are the books New Yorkers checked out from the library the most this year.
Emily Temple. 12/15/2025: The 50 Biggest Literary Stories of the Year.
Samuel Miller McDonald. 12/12/2025: Can We Really Claim That Civilization is on the Steady Path of Progress? Excerpt from: Progress: How One Idea Built Civilization and Now Threatens to Destroy It / Samuel Miller McDonald.
Adrian McKinty. 12/10/2025: Studies in Unmeaning: On Thomas Pynchon’s Detective Fictions. Regarding Pynchon's Hardboiled Trilogy.
Rachel Dewoskin. 12/10/2025: What Happens When Gen Z Encounters Catullus’s Filthiest Poem?.
Sheldon Costa. 12/10/2025: One Man’s Trash: Reflections on a Failed Novel.
Colin Dickey. 12/09/2025: he Far Side of Disaster: On Virginia Woolf’s Unacknowledged Plague Novel To the Lighthouse
Steve Edwards. 12/04/2025: On the Infinite Lives of the Library. "Steve Edwards Loves Nothing More Than Library Hours."
Hwang Bo-Reum. 12/03/2025: 3 Ways to Become a Better Reader.
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The Critic (UK) December 2025
Peter Caddick-Adams. 12/31/2025: A non-fictional feast!: The best of military history from 2025. And this is how the increasingly bellicose right-wing journal rings out 2025.
David James. 12/27/2025: Losing Truman. Review of: The Difficult Ghost: Searching for Truman Capote / Leila Guerriero, translated by Megan McDowell.
Jeremy Black. 12/26/2025: How did Britain get rich? Review of: Ruthless: A New History of Britain’s Rise to Wealth and Power / Edmond Smith.
John Marozzi. 12/25/2025: Alpine Lyricism. Review of: White / Sylvain Tesson; translator Christine Gutman.
The Secret Author. 12/23/2025: Spare me your “Books of the Year.” "Or, how to come across as a person of taste and refinement in the annual back-slapping fest."
Alexandra Wilson. 12/21/2025: The movies’ maestro. Review of: John Williams: A Composer’s Life / Tim Greiving/
Michael D. Hurley. 12/20/2025: More than merely a magician with words. Review of: The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science and the Crisis of Belief / Richard Holmes.
Richard Bratby. 12/20/2025: Puncturing the toxic myth of “elitism.” Review of: Someone Else’s Music: Opera and the British / Alexandra Wilson.
Sarah Moorhouse. 12/19/2025: A long shelf life. Review of: Books — A Manifesto: Or, How to Build a Library / Ian Patterson.
David Thomas. 12/17/2025: Such stuff as dreams are made on. Review of: Into the Dream Lab: The New Science of Dreams and Nightmares / Michelle Carr.
Jaspreet Singh Boparai. 12/15/2025: Misguided mission to explain. Review of: Great Art Explained: The Stories Behind the World's Greatest Masterpieces / James Payne.
Mark Glanville. 12/13/2025: States of uncertainty. Review of: Central Europe: The Death of a Civilization and the Life of an Idea / Luka Ivan Jukic.
Brendan Simms. 12/12/2025: How to halt the continental drift. Review of: Can Europe Survive? The Story of a Continent in a Fractured World / David Marsh.
Andrew Orlowski. 12/11/2025: Waste product. Review of: Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It / Cory Doctorow.
Tom Jones. 12/10/2025: Bogged down in intellectual foppery. Review of: Against Post-Liberalism: Why ‘Family, Faith and Flag’ is a Dead End for the Left / Paul Kelly.
Gabriel Glickman. 12/08/2025: The great divide. Review of: The Rage of Party: How Whig versus Tory Made Modern Britain / George Owers.
Samuel Rubenstein. 12/07/2025: The folly of self-flagellation. Review of: The Big Payback: The Case for Reparations for Slavery and How They Would Work / Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder.
Jarryd Bartle. 12/06/2025: A man adrift. Review of: Flesh / David Szalay.
Jeremy Black. 12/06/2025: Murders for December: Crime fiction to chill you this Christmas.
Niall Gooch. 12/06/2025: History hamstrung by anti-Christian agenda. Review of: Domination: The Fall of the Roman Empire and the Rise of Christianity / Alice Roberts.
Megan Dent. 12/05/2025: We need better Christians and better democracy. Review of: Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy / Jonathan Rauch.
John Self. 12/04/2025: Debuts, comebacks and suprises. Reviewed: The Boyhood of Cain / Michael Amherst -- The Bureau / Eoin McNamee -- Sololand / Hassan Blasim; translator Jonathan Wright -- Love Forms: a novel / Claire Adam -- Stories of Ireland / Brian Friel -- We Live Here Now / C.D. Rose.
Peter Caddick-Adams. 12/31/2025: A non-fictional feast!: The best of military history from 2025. And this is how the increasingly bellicose right-wing journal rings out 2025.
David James. 12/27/2025: Losing Truman. Review of: The Difficult Ghost: Searching for Truman Capote / Leila Guerriero, translated by Megan McDowell.
Jeremy Black. 12/26/2025: How did Britain get rich? Review of: Ruthless: A New History of Britain’s Rise to Wealth and Power / Edmond Smith.
John Marozzi. 12/25/2025: Alpine Lyricism. Review of: White / Sylvain Tesson; translator Christine Gutman.
The Secret Author. 12/23/2025: Spare me your “Books of the Year.” "Or, how to come across as a person of taste and refinement in the annual back-slapping fest."
Alexandra Wilson. 12/21/2025: The movies’ maestro. Review of: John Williams: A Composer’s Life / Tim Greiving/
Michael D. Hurley. 12/20/2025: More than merely a magician with words. Review of: The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science and the Crisis of Belief / Richard Holmes.
Richard Bratby. 12/20/2025: Puncturing the toxic myth of “elitism.” Review of: Someone Else’s Music: Opera and the British / Alexandra Wilson.
Sarah Moorhouse. 12/19/2025: A long shelf life. Review of: Books — A Manifesto: Or, How to Build a Library / Ian Patterson.
David Thomas. 12/17/2025: Such stuff as dreams are made on. Review of: Into the Dream Lab: The New Science of Dreams and Nightmares / Michelle Carr.
Jaspreet Singh Boparai. 12/15/2025: Misguided mission to explain. Review of: Great Art Explained: The Stories Behind the World's Greatest Masterpieces / James Payne.
Mark Glanville. 12/13/2025: States of uncertainty. Review of: Central Europe: The Death of a Civilization and the Life of an Idea / Luka Ivan Jukic.
Brendan Simms. 12/12/2025: How to halt the continental drift. Review of: Can Europe Survive? The Story of a Continent in a Fractured World / David Marsh.
Andrew Orlowski. 12/11/2025: Waste product. Review of: Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It / Cory Doctorow.
Tom Jones. 12/10/2025: Bogged down in intellectual foppery. Review of: Against Post-Liberalism: Why ‘Family, Faith and Flag’ is a Dead End for the Left / Paul Kelly.
Gabriel Glickman. 12/08/2025: The great divide. Review of: The Rage of Party: How Whig versus Tory Made Modern Britain / George Owers.
Samuel Rubenstein. 12/07/2025: The folly of self-flagellation. Review of: The Big Payback: The Case for Reparations for Slavery and How They Would Work / Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder.
Jarryd Bartle. 12/06/2025: A man adrift. Review of: Flesh / David Szalay.
Jeremy Black. 12/06/2025: Murders for December: Crime fiction to chill you this Christmas.
Niall Gooch. 12/06/2025: History hamstrung by anti-Christian agenda. Review of: Domination: The Fall of the Roman Empire and the Rise of Christianity / Alice Roberts.
Megan Dent. 12/05/2025: We need better Christians and better democracy. Review of: Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy / Jonathan Rauch.
John Self. 12/04/2025: Debuts, comebacks and suprises. Reviewed: The Boyhood of Cain / Michael Amherst -- The Bureau / Eoin McNamee -- Sololand / Hassan Blasim; translator Jonathan Wright -- Love Forms: a novel / Claire Adam -- Stories of Ireland / Brian Friel -- We Live Here Now / C.D. Rose.
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Lorna Finlayson. Boston Review, 12/04/2025: Tainted Ladies: Liberal feminism is collapsing. Who’s really to blame?. Review of: Who’s Afraid of Gender? / Judith Butler -- Enemy Feminisms: TERFs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses Against Liberation / Sophie Lewis -- Right-Wing Women / Andrea Dworkin, with a new foreword by Moira Donegan.
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December 01-06 2025 updates
American Scholar Dec 1: Schopenhauer >129 featherbear:
Asian Review of Books Dec 6: Grave of the Fireflies -- Dec 5: city of Kashmir -- Dec 3: Spring Castle by Michiko Ishimure -- Dec 2: Afghanistan >131 featherbear:
Atlantic Dec 5: historians try to recapture the emotions of the past -- Dec 4: the 10 bks that made the Atlantic editors think -- Dec 3: Jane Birkin bio -- Dec 2: Helen Lewis on the Olivia Nuzzi memoir -- Dec 1: Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia; societal collapse >123 featherbear:
Boston Review Dec 4 (?): collapse of liberal feminism in 3 books >137 featherbear:
The Critic (UK): Dec 6: David Szalay's Flesh; crime fiction for December omnibus review; Christian domination after the fall of the Roman Empire -- Dec 5: better Christians can lead to better democracy -- Dec 4: John Self omnibus review >136 featherbear:
fivebooks.com Dec 6: beautiful books of 2025 -- Dec 5: best philosophy books of 2025 -- Dec 3: best science-fiction novels of 2025 (though some of these are novellas) -- Dec 2: best sports books of 2025 -- Dec 1: best of 2025 >120 featherbear:
Guardian Dec 6: best fiction of 2025 -- Dec 5: best poetry books of 2025; best music books of 2025 -- Dec 4: best memoirs of 2025; judging a book by its cover -- Dec 3: best science & nature bks of 2025; best sports books of 2025 -- Dec 2: best of 2025: history & politics; crime & thrillers -- Dec 1: best of 2025: cookbooks >122 featherbear:
LARB Dec 6: 38 Londres Street -- Dec 5: freeing the library; King Lear in China -- Dec 4: a mother reacts to her son becoming a priest -- Dec 3: Mary Jo Bang's translation of Paradiso -- Dec 2: the almost complete poetry of Seamus Heaney >130 featherbear:
LitHub Dec 4: libraries -- Dec 3: becoming a better reader >135 featherbear:
New Yorker Dec 6: Olga Tokarczuk visionary sf recommendations -- Dec 5: are we getting stupider? -- Dec 3: Samuel Beckett in analysis -- Dec 2: performative reading; Molly Fischer reviews Olivia Nuzzi memoir -- Dec 1: new thoughts on economics in the 21st century; romansh & Swiss identity -- Merve Emre reviews new Goethe bio; Jessica Mitford bio >132 featherbear:
NYRB Dec 4 >125 featherbear: -- Dec 18 >126 featherbear:
NYT Dec 6: niche field guides, including: California Lizards & How to Find Them & Fishes of the Chicago Region -- Dec 5: Hannah Arendt; barbieland -- Dec 3: Janice Page memoir -- Dec 2: Casanova 20; 10 best books of 2025; A.O. Scott explains why Kiran Desai's Sonia & Sunny is one of them; Alexandra Jacobs reviews the Olivia Nuzzi memoir -- Dec 1: Denis Johnson bio >121 featherbear:
Public Books Dec 3: Big Chief >134 featherbear:
WaPo Dec 6: Octavia Butler bio -- Dec 5: children's book about cybersecurity; reissue of a classic Palestinian novel; Sid Caesar bio -- Dec 3: reprieve for Institute of Museums & Libraries -- Dec 2: family of spies; town & country; Becca Rothfeld reviews the Olivia Nuzzi memoir >127 featherbear:
December index >119 featherbear:
New websites for this week:
The Walrus >142 featherbear:
American Scholar Dec 1: Schopenhauer >129 featherbear:
Asian Review of Books Dec 6: Grave of the Fireflies -- Dec 5: city of Kashmir -- Dec 3: Spring Castle by Michiko Ishimure -- Dec 2: Afghanistan >131 featherbear:
Atlantic Dec 5: historians try to recapture the emotions of the past -- Dec 4: the 10 bks that made the Atlantic editors think -- Dec 3: Jane Birkin bio -- Dec 2: Helen Lewis on the Olivia Nuzzi memoir -- Dec 1: Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia; societal collapse >123 featherbear:
Boston Review Dec 4 (?): collapse of liberal feminism in 3 books >137 featherbear:
The Critic (UK): Dec 6: David Szalay's Flesh; crime fiction for December omnibus review; Christian domination after the fall of the Roman Empire -- Dec 5: better Christians can lead to better democracy -- Dec 4: John Self omnibus review >136 featherbear:
fivebooks.com Dec 6: beautiful books of 2025 -- Dec 5: best philosophy books of 2025 -- Dec 3: best science-fiction novels of 2025 (though some of these are novellas) -- Dec 2: best sports books of 2025 -- Dec 1: best of 2025 >120 featherbear:
Guardian Dec 6: best fiction of 2025 -- Dec 5: best poetry books of 2025; best music books of 2025 -- Dec 4: best memoirs of 2025; judging a book by its cover -- Dec 3: best science & nature bks of 2025; best sports books of 2025 -- Dec 2: best of 2025: history & politics; crime & thrillers -- Dec 1: best of 2025: cookbooks >122 featherbear:
LARB Dec 6: 38 Londres Street -- Dec 5: freeing the library; King Lear in China -- Dec 4: a mother reacts to her son becoming a priest -- Dec 3: Mary Jo Bang's translation of Paradiso -- Dec 2: the almost complete poetry of Seamus Heaney >130 featherbear:
LitHub Dec 4: libraries -- Dec 3: becoming a better reader >135 featherbear:
New Yorker Dec 6: Olga Tokarczuk visionary sf recommendations -- Dec 5: are we getting stupider? -- Dec 3: Samuel Beckett in analysis -- Dec 2: performative reading; Molly Fischer reviews Olivia Nuzzi memoir -- Dec 1: new thoughts on economics in the 21st century; romansh & Swiss identity -- Merve Emre reviews new Goethe bio; Jessica Mitford bio >132 featherbear:
NYRB Dec 4 >125 featherbear: -- Dec 18 >126 featherbear:
NYT Dec 6: niche field guides, including: California Lizards & How to Find Them & Fishes of the Chicago Region -- Dec 5: Hannah Arendt; barbieland -- Dec 3: Janice Page memoir -- Dec 2: Casanova 20; 10 best books of 2025; A.O. Scott explains why Kiran Desai's Sonia & Sunny is one of them; Alexandra Jacobs reviews the Olivia Nuzzi memoir -- Dec 1: Denis Johnson bio >121 featherbear:
Public Books Dec 3: Big Chief >134 featherbear:
WaPo Dec 6: Octavia Butler bio -- Dec 5: children's book about cybersecurity; reissue of a classic Palestinian novel; Sid Caesar bio -- Dec 3: reprieve for Institute of Museums & Libraries -- Dec 2: family of spies; town & country; Becca Rothfeld reviews the Olivia Nuzzi memoir >127 featherbear:
December index >119 featherbear:
New websites for this week:
The Walrus >142 featherbear:
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Frank Gehry, 1929-2025
Nicolai Ouroussoff. NYT, 12/05/2025, upd 12/06: temporarily unlocked; enjoy the pictures!: Frank Gehry, Titan of Architecture, Is Dead at 96. "He designed some of the world’s most recognizable buildings, notably the spectacular Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, his masterpiece."
Joshua Barone. NYT, 12/06/2025: Frank Gehry’s Buildings Sound as Marvelous as They Look. "Gehry, who died on Friday at 96, made an invaluable contribution to classical music by designing spaces with stunning acoustics."
Michael Kimmelmann. NYT, 12/06/2025: temporarily unlocked w/pix: Frank Gehry: 12 Essential, Stunning Projects. "Frank Gehry: 12 Essential, Stunning Projects."
Catherine Slessor. Guardian, 12/06/2025: Frank Gehry: maximalist master who created instant icons like the Bilbao Guggenheim. "He made buildings that looked like slouching drunks and quarrelling couples but it was the Spanish museum that secured his ‘starchitect’ status – a creation that became something of a curse."
Carla Russo. Guardian, 12/06/2025: Bold shapes and binoculars: Frank Gehry’s stunning California architecture.
Elaine Woo. WaPo, 12/05/2025: temporarily unlocked: Frank Gehry, who stretched architecture’s boundaries, dies at 96. "His unearthly but brilliant designs, from Los Angeles to Bilbao, became global landmarks."
Frank Gehry's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/gehryfranko
Nicolai Ouroussoff. NYT, 12/05/2025, upd 12/06: temporarily unlocked; enjoy the pictures!: Frank Gehry, Titan of Architecture, Is Dead at 96. "He designed some of the world’s most recognizable buildings, notably the spectacular Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, his masterpiece."
Joshua Barone. NYT, 12/06/2025: Frank Gehry’s Buildings Sound as Marvelous as They Look. "Gehry, who died on Friday at 96, made an invaluable contribution to classical music by designing spaces with stunning acoustics."
Michael Kimmelmann. NYT, 12/06/2025: temporarily unlocked w/pix: Frank Gehry: 12 Essential, Stunning Projects. "Frank Gehry: 12 Essential, Stunning Projects."
Catherine Slessor. Guardian, 12/06/2025: Frank Gehry: maximalist master who created instant icons like the Bilbao Guggenheim. "He made buildings that looked like slouching drunks and quarrelling couples but it was the Spanish museum that secured his ‘starchitect’ status – a creation that became something of a curse."
Carla Russo. Guardian, 12/06/2025: Bold shapes and binoculars: Frank Gehry’s stunning California architecture.
Elaine Woo. WaPo, 12/05/2025: temporarily unlocked: Frank Gehry, who stretched architecture’s boundaries, dies at 96. "His unearthly but brilliant designs, from Los Angeles to Bilbao, became global landmarks."
Frank Gehry's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/gehryfranko
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Fern Michaels, 1933-2025
Alex Williams. NYT, 12/07/2025: Fern Michaels, Prolific Author of Romance Novels, Dies at 92.
"Ms. Michaels sold an estimated 150 million books, including bodice rippers, family dramas and mysteries, according to Kensington Publishing, her longtime publisher. Her work has been translated into 20 languages.
"In her early years, Ms. Michaels wrote with a partner, Roberta Anderson, but took legal control of the pen name in 1989 and adopted it as her public persona in interviews. Her actual name was Mary Kuczkir.
"She was best known for the sprawling Sisterhood series, a collection of 36 romantic thrillers, starting with “Weekend Warriors” (2003), that focuses on a tight-knit group of vigilante-minded women who, with steely resolve, set out to right the wrongs of the legal system.
"As Ms. Michaels often described it, it took a steely resolve to embark on a writing career in her 40s. “When my youngest went off to kindergarten,” she recounted on her website, “my husband told me to get off my ass and get a job. Those were his exact words. I didn’t know how to do anything except be a wife and mother.”
“Rather than face the outside world with no skills,” she added, “I decided to write a book. As my husband said at the time, stupid is as stupid does. Guess what, I don’t have that husband any more.” The couple never divorced, but parted ways in the early 1970s.
"Ms. Michaels met Ms. Anderson, another suburban mother, while working part time in market research. They chose their pen name because Ms. Michaels liked the name Michael in general, and had a huge plastic fern in her living room, as recounted in a 1978 interview with The New York Times.
"The duo worked odd jobs, including cleaning clogged drains and taking door-to-door surveys, before publishing the first Fern Michaels novel, “Pride & Passion,” in 1975. The book recounts the tale of a woman who finds passion and danger in taking over her father’s rubber plantation in the Amazon.
"Two years later, they achieved a commercial breakout with “Captive Passions,” a fiery tale set in 17th-century Java about a Spanish woman who embarks on a quest for revenge after her sister is ravaged and murdered by pirates.
"After Ms. Michaels took over the pen name, she continued her relentless pace for decades. Even into her 90s, she typically published four books a year.
"“Fern’s books became a safe place for women to find someone who not only understood what they were going through, but also celebrated them,” Esi Sogah, who edited several of Michaels’s books at Kensington Publishing, her publisher for most of the past three decades, wrote in an email. “She gave us a window into the world the way it could be, and showed us how to have a fun time doing it.”"
Fern Michaels's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/michaelsfern
Alex Williams. NYT, 12/07/2025: Fern Michaels, Prolific Author of Romance Novels, Dies at 92.
"Ms. Michaels sold an estimated 150 million books, including bodice rippers, family dramas and mysteries, according to Kensington Publishing, her longtime publisher. Her work has been translated into 20 languages.
"In her early years, Ms. Michaels wrote with a partner, Roberta Anderson, but took legal control of the pen name in 1989 and adopted it as her public persona in interviews. Her actual name was Mary Kuczkir.
"She was best known for the sprawling Sisterhood series, a collection of 36 romantic thrillers, starting with “Weekend Warriors” (2003), that focuses on a tight-knit group of vigilante-minded women who, with steely resolve, set out to right the wrongs of the legal system.
"As Ms. Michaels often described it, it took a steely resolve to embark on a writing career in her 40s. “When my youngest went off to kindergarten,” she recounted on her website, “my husband told me to get off my ass and get a job. Those were his exact words. I didn’t know how to do anything except be a wife and mother.”
“Rather than face the outside world with no skills,” she added, “I decided to write a book. As my husband said at the time, stupid is as stupid does. Guess what, I don’t have that husband any more.” The couple never divorced, but parted ways in the early 1970s.
"Ms. Michaels met Ms. Anderson, another suburban mother, while working part time in market research. They chose their pen name because Ms. Michaels liked the name Michael in general, and had a huge plastic fern in her living room, as recounted in a 1978 interview with The New York Times.
"The duo worked odd jobs, including cleaning clogged drains and taking door-to-door surveys, before publishing the first Fern Michaels novel, “Pride & Passion,” in 1975. The book recounts the tale of a woman who finds passion and danger in taking over her father’s rubber plantation in the Amazon.
"Two years later, they achieved a commercial breakout with “Captive Passions,” a fiery tale set in 17th-century Java about a Spanish woman who embarks on a quest for revenge after her sister is ravaged and murdered by pirates.
"After Ms. Michaels took over the pen name, she continued her relentless pace for decades. Even into her 90s, she typically published four books a year.
"“Fern’s books became a safe place for women to find someone who not only understood what they were going through, but also celebrated them,” Esi Sogah, who edited several of Michaels’s books at Kensington Publishing, her publisher for most of the past three decades, wrote in an email. “She gave us a window into the world the way it could be, and showed us how to have a fun time doing it.”"
Fern Michaels's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/michaelsfern
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Greta Rainbow. The Walrus, 12/05/2025: How “Cozy Lit” Became the Latest and Most Shameless Form of Digital Escapism.
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John Noble Wilford, 1933-2025
Robert D. McFadden. NYT, 12/08/2025: John Noble Wilford, Times Reporter Who Covered the Moon Landing, Dies at 92.
"John Noble Wilford, a Pulitzer Prize-winning science reporter for The New York Times who covered America’s first moon landing a half-century ago with the zeal of a fellow space traveler stepping onto the powdery lunar surface alongside Neil Armstrong, died on Monday at his home in Charlottesville, Va. He was 92.
"Under the front-page banner headline “MEN WALK ON MOON,” with a Houston dateline of July 21, 1969, Mr. Wilford gave readers an awe-inspiring and comprehensive account of Apollo 11’s gentle touchdown and exploratory mission on the moon’s arid Sea of Tranquillity after a 230,000-mile voyage from Earth.
"Mr. Wilford traveled widely as a correspondent. He flew through the eye of a hurricane for a story on cloud seeding, plunged into ocean depths in a research submersible, rode an astronaut-training centrifuge, operated lunar-landing and space shuttle simulators, joined a mapping party in the Grand Canyon, flew ice patrols over Greenland and Newfoundland, and ran rapids on the Colorado River.
"In 1976, he covered an expedition to Scotland to explore the longstanding mystery of the Loch Ness monster. With sonar probes and underwater television cameras, the expedition, partly funded by The Times, scanned the murky depths of the 23-mile-long lake for a month, but turned up no trace of the creature, said in legend and in many unverified accounts of sightings to be an undulating serpent.
"Mr. Wilford’s assignments led to several books, starting with “We Reach the Moon,” about America’s space program, from President John F. Kennedy’s commitment in 1961 to the success of Apollo 11. It was published 76 hours after the Pacific Ocean splashdown of Mr. Armstrong and Col. Buzz Aldrin, who had also walked on the moon, and Lt. Col. Michael Collins, who had remained in the orbital command ship.
"Mr. Wilford’s other books include “The Mapmakers” (1981), about the history of surveying the Earth’s surface and ocean floors; “The Riddle of the Dinosaur” (1985); “Mars Beckons: The Mysteries, the Challenges, the Expectations of Our Next Great Adventure in Space” (1990); and “The Mysterious History of Columbus: an Exploration of the Man, the Myth, the Legacy” (1991).
"He was also a member of a Times team that won a Pulitzer for national reporting in 1987 for coverage of the fatal explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.
"A year after reaching the milestone of 50 years with The Times in 2015, Mr. Wilford saw his last front-page article published. It was the obituary, on Dec. 8, 2016, about John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, who went on to become a national political figure for 24 years in the Senate."
John Noble Wilford LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/wilfordjohnnoble
Robert D. McFadden. NYT, 12/08/2025: John Noble Wilford, Times Reporter Who Covered the Moon Landing, Dies at 92.
"John Noble Wilford, a Pulitzer Prize-winning science reporter for The New York Times who covered America’s first moon landing a half-century ago with the zeal of a fellow space traveler stepping onto the powdery lunar surface alongside Neil Armstrong, died on Monday at his home in Charlottesville, Va. He was 92.
"Under the front-page banner headline “MEN WALK ON MOON,” with a Houston dateline of July 21, 1969, Mr. Wilford gave readers an awe-inspiring and comprehensive account of Apollo 11’s gentle touchdown and exploratory mission on the moon’s arid Sea of Tranquillity after a 230,000-mile voyage from Earth.
"Mr. Wilford traveled widely as a correspondent. He flew through the eye of a hurricane for a story on cloud seeding, plunged into ocean depths in a research submersible, rode an astronaut-training centrifuge, operated lunar-landing and space shuttle simulators, joined a mapping party in the Grand Canyon, flew ice patrols over Greenland and Newfoundland, and ran rapids on the Colorado River.
"In 1976, he covered an expedition to Scotland to explore the longstanding mystery of the Loch Ness monster. With sonar probes and underwater television cameras, the expedition, partly funded by The Times, scanned the murky depths of the 23-mile-long lake for a month, but turned up no trace of the creature, said in legend and in many unverified accounts of sightings to be an undulating serpent.
"Mr. Wilford’s assignments led to several books, starting with “We Reach the Moon,” about America’s space program, from President John F. Kennedy’s commitment in 1961 to the success of Apollo 11. It was published 76 hours after the Pacific Ocean splashdown of Mr. Armstrong and Col. Buzz Aldrin, who had also walked on the moon, and Lt. Col. Michael Collins, who had remained in the orbital command ship.
"Mr. Wilford’s other books include “The Mapmakers” (1981), about the history of surveying the Earth’s surface and ocean floors; “The Riddle of the Dinosaur” (1985); “Mars Beckons: The Mysteries, the Challenges, the Expectations of Our Next Great Adventure in Space” (1990); and “The Mysterious History of Columbus: an Exploration of the Man, the Myth, the Legacy” (1991).
"He was also a member of a Times team that won a Pulitzer for national reporting in 1987 for coverage of the fatal explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.
"A year after reaching the milestone of 50 years with The Times in 2015, Mr. Wilford saw his last front-page article published. It was the obituary, on Dec. 8, 2016, about John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, who went on to become a national political figure for 24 years in the Senate."
John Noble Wilford LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/wilfordjohnnoble
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Literary Review December 2025
Joanna Kavenna. Inside the Outsider. Review of: The Complete Notebooks / Albert Camus (Translated from French by Ryan Bloom).
Elizabeth Goldring. Varnish & Virtue. Review of: Holbein: Renaissance Master / Elizabeth Goldring.
Dorian Lynskey. Doublethink & Doubt. Review of: Orwell: 2+2=5 / Raoul Peck (dir) -- George Orwell: Life and Legacy / Robert Colls (Oxford University Press).
Sophie Oliver. Ms Fixit’s Characteristics. Review of: Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts / Margaret Atwood.
Edward Shawcross. The Real American Revolution. Review of: Mexico: a 500 year history / Paul Gillingham (UK subtitle: "a history." US publisher Atlantic Monthly Press; UK: Allen Lane)
Joanna Kavenna. Inside the Outsider. Review of: The Complete Notebooks / Albert Camus (Translated from French by Ryan Bloom).
Elizabeth Goldring. Varnish & Virtue. Review of: Holbein: Renaissance Master / Elizabeth Goldring.
Dorian Lynskey. Doublethink & Doubt. Review of: Orwell: 2+2=5 / Raoul Peck (dir) -- George Orwell: Life and Legacy / Robert Colls (Oxford University Press).
Sophie Oliver. Ms Fixit’s Characteristics. Review of: Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts / Margaret Atwood.
Edward Shawcross. The Real American Revolution. Review of: Mexico: a 500 year history / Paul Gillingham (UK subtitle: "a history." US publisher Atlantic Monthly Press; UK: Allen Lane)
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Sophie Kinsella aka Madeleine Wickham, 1969-2025
Sopan Deb. NYT, 12/10/2025: Temporarily unlocked Sophie Kinsella, ‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’ Author, Dies at 55. "Writing under a pseudonym, Madeleine Wickham cultivated an international following for her series centered on a young woman addicted to shopping."
Ella Creamer. Guardian, 12/10/2025: Confessions of a Shopaholic novelist Sophie Kinsella dies aged 55. "The ‘queen of romantic comedy’ has died 18 months after announcing her brain cancer diagnosis."
"Wickham, dubbed “the queen of romantic comedy” by novelist Jojo Moyes, wrote more than 30 books for adults, children and teenagers, which have sold more than 45m copies."
JoJo Moyes. Guardian, 12/11/2025: Sophie Kinsella obituary.
Brian Murphy. WaPo, 12/10/2025: Sophie Kinsella, hit author of ‘Shopaholic,’ dies of brain cancer at 55. "Her books sold more than 50 million copies and made her a “chick-lit goddess.” Some were published under her given name, Madeleine Wickham."
Sophie Kinsella's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/kinsellasophie
Sopan Deb. NYT, 12/10/2025: Temporarily unlocked Sophie Kinsella, ‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’ Author, Dies at 55. "Writing under a pseudonym, Madeleine Wickham cultivated an international following for her series centered on a young woman addicted to shopping."
Ella Creamer. Guardian, 12/10/2025: Confessions of a Shopaholic novelist Sophie Kinsella dies aged 55. "The ‘queen of romantic comedy’ has died 18 months after announcing her brain cancer diagnosis."
"Wickham, dubbed “the queen of romantic comedy” by novelist Jojo Moyes, wrote more than 30 books for adults, children and teenagers, which have sold more than 45m copies."
JoJo Moyes. Guardian, 12/11/2025: Sophie Kinsella obituary.
Brian Murphy. WaPo, 12/10/2025: Sophie Kinsella, hit author of ‘Shopaholic,’ dies of brain cancer at 55. "Her books sold more than 50 million copies and made her a “chick-lit goddess.” Some were published under her given name, Madeleine Wickham."
Sophie Kinsella's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/kinsellasophie
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TLS December 12, 2025|No. 6394
Featured
Mary Beard. 12/09/2025 (from the TLS landing page). What makes a good caption?
Devoney Looser. Object of attention: Marking the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth. Review of: Jane Austen in 41 Objects / Kathryn Sutherland -- Jane Austen’s Bookshelf: The women writers who shaped a legend / Rebecca Romney -- Jane Austen and George Eliot: The lady and the radical / Edward Whitley (Biteback).
Peter Thonemann. Wise fools: Irritating professors for the ages. Review of: On Pedantry: A cultural history of the know-it-all / Arnoud S. Q. Visser.
Nicola Shulman. Prince of the printed word: Tactful notes from a literary self-promoter. Review of: John Updike: a life in letters / ed. James Schiff.
Sylvia Townsend Warner. The Pursuit and the End: An unpublished story by Sylvia Townsend Warner, with a commentary by Peter Swaab.
Literature
Madeleine Saidenberg. Boots and beastliness: Contrasting biographical portraits. Review of: Wild for Austen: A rebellious, subversive, and untamed Jane / Devoney Looser -- Jane Austen: The biography / Elizabeth Jenkins -- Patchwork: A graphic biography of Jane Austen / Kate Evans.
Prashant Kidambi. State of tension: A contested tale of communal violence in Uttar Pradesh. Review of: The Once and Future Riot / Joe Sacco.
Lily Herd. Eyes on the universe: Stories of wonderment and altered natural laws. Review of: Cixin Liu Collected Stories / Cixin Liu; translated by John Chu, Andy Dudak et al.
Stuart Kelly. Art monsters: A nightmare world of factories producing digital ‘slop.’ Review of: All That We See or Seem / Ken Liu.
Sophie Pinkham. Imperial creep: A counter-historical Europe is overrun by Russian glaciers. Review of: Ice / Jacek Dukaj; translated by Ursula Phillips.
Nicholas Clee. Skating on thin ice: A solitary man is faced with a disquietingly prolonged life. Review of: Freezing Point / Anders Bodelsen; translated by Joan Tate.
Rohan Maitz. Oh love!: A novel of innocence, experience and return. Review of: Heart the Lover / Lily King.
Kevin Brazil. ‘I’ becomes ‘she’: A writer looks back on how she began. Review of: Lowest Common Denominator / Pirkko Saisio; translated by Mia Spangenberg (US publisher: Two Lines Press; UK: Penguin Classics).
Maria Margaronis. Literature, lies and life: A daughter’s view of John Cheever and his fiction. Review of: When All the Men Wore Hats: On the stories of John Cheever / Susan Cheever.
Ronald K. Fried. ‘Let’s stay strangers’: The writers Dick Cavett interviewed – backstage and on air. (Essay)
M.C. NB: Taking the bait: Words of the year, Colin Sackett’s concretisms, Babar at large, A Rolling Stone walks into a bookshop.
In Brief Review of: A Kaleidoscope of Stories / Selma Lagerlöf; translated by Sarah Death, Peter Graves and Linda Schenck (Norvik Press).
In Brief Review of: Zombie Proust / Jérôme Prieur; translated by Nancy Kline.
In Brief Review of: The Long Glass: short stories / Sean O'Brien (Red Squirrel Press).
In Brief Review of: Before Superman: Superhumans of the Radium Age / edited by Joshua Glenn.
Arts
Muriel Zagha. When the lights go down: Fourteen writers’ personal reflections on cinema. Review of: In the Good Seats: Essays on film (PVA)
Francesca Tiana. Worlds apart: A new film asks what to make of our memories. Review of the film Eternity / David Freyne.
John-Paul Stonard. In the lone and level sands: A film-maker’s attempt to come to terms with the climate crisis. Review of Josh Appignanesi's documentary Colossal Wreck in hottest Dubai.
James Cahill. The promise of things: How Wayne Thiebaud rendered the stuff of life. Review of the exhibition, Courtauld Gallery, until January 18, & catalog Wayne Thiebaud: American still life / Barnaby Wright, Karen Serres and Chloe Nahum (Yale University Press).
Larry Wolff. Irrepressible primate: Huang Ruo’s opera of monks and monkeys. Review of: The Monkey King / Huang Ruo; libretto by David Henry Hwang; San Francisco Opera.
Irina Dumitrescu. Colour coded: The social history of saturated shades. (Essay)
Philosophy
Peter Salmon. Capturing the scream: A Parisian philosopher’s battle with the canvas. Review of: On Painting: Courses, March-June 1981 / Gilles Deleuze; edited by David Lapoujade, translated by Charles J. Stivale.
Clare Carlisle. Brave submission: A novelist records her father-in-law’s last weeks. Review of: Death of an Ordinary Man / Sarah Perry.
Josh Cohen. Through the maze: A ‘subtle and slippery’ book in which folklore meets reality. Review of: The Tower / Thea Lenarduzzi
Science & Technology
Helen Gordon. How the land lies: Geology, history and myth. Review of: The Stones of Britain: A history of Britain through its geology / Jon Cannon -- The Whispers of Rock: The Stories That Stone Tells About Our World and Our Lives UK subtitle: Stories from the earth / Anjana Khatwa (US publisher: Basic Books; UK: Bridge Street Press).
Jim Al-Khalili. Weird science: The tech revolution that manipulates the subatomic world. Review of: Quantum 2.0: The past, present, and future of quantum physics / Paul Davies.
In Brief Review of: The Edge of Silence: In search of the disappearing sounds of nature / Neil Ansell (Birlinn)
In Brief Review of: Snö: A history / Sverker Sörlin; translated by Elizabeth DeNoma.
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Ian Sansom. World in a pint glass: Industrial commodity, cultural signifier and yeasty drink. Review of: Hopped Up: How travel, trade, and taste made beer a global commodity / Jeffrey M. Pilcher -- Filthy Queens: A history of beer in Ireland / Christina Wade -- The Meaning of Beer: An alternative history of the world / Jonny Garrett.
Wendy Slater. Paradise lost: How women’s liberation in Russia became a domestic trap. Review of: Motherland: A feminist history of modern Russia, from revolution to autocracy / Julia Ioffe.
Daniel Beer. Heroic failure: Two hundred years of the Decembrist Revolt. Review of: The First Russian Revolution: The Decembrist Revolt of 1825 / Susanna Rabow-Edling -- Pushkin, the Decembrists, and Civic Sentimentalism / Emily Wang -- Rebel Russia: Dissent and protest from the tsars to Navalny / Anna Arutunyan.
Bradley A. Gorski. Restless spirit: What a Pussy Rioter did next. Review of: Political Girl: Life and fate in Russia / Maria Alyokhina with Olga Borisova; translated by Emily Eccles.
David Horspool. Home thoughts: A journey into a nation’s past. Review of: The Discovery of Britain: An accidental history / Graham Robb.
Patrick Sims-Williams. Who are you?: Conflicting ideas about the Celts. Review of: The Celts: A modern history / Ian Stewart.
Seb Emina. Chips off the old bloc: Squat or artists’ refuge? Review of: Precarious Lease / Jacqueline Feldman.
In Brief Review of: Always Home, Always Homesick: A love letter to Iceland / Hannah Kent.
In Brief Review of: The Story of Football in 100 Objects / National Football Museum.
In Brief Review of: A Truce That Is Not Peace / Miriam Toews.
Featured
Mary Beard. 12/09/2025 (from the TLS landing page). What makes a good caption?
Devoney Looser. Object of attention: Marking the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth. Review of: Jane Austen in 41 Objects / Kathryn Sutherland -- Jane Austen’s Bookshelf: The women writers who shaped a legend / Rebecca Romney -- Jane Austen and George Eliot: The lady and the radical / Edward Whitley (Biteback).
Peter Thonemann. Wise fools: Irritating professors for the ages. Review of: On Pedantry: A cultural history of the know-it-all / Arnoud S. Q. Visser.
Nicola Shulman. Prince of the printed word: Tactful notes from a literary self-promoter. Review of: John Updike: a life in letters / ed. James Schiff.
Sylvia Townsend Warner. The Pursuit and the End: An unpublished story by Sylvia Townsend Warner, with a commentary by Peter Swaab.
Literature
Madeleine Saidenberg. Boots and beastliness: Contrasting biographical portraits. Review of: Wild for Austen: A rebellious, subversive, and untamed Jane / Devoney Looser -- Jane Austen: The biography / Elizabeth Jenkins -- Patchwork: A graphic biography of Jane Austen / Kate Evans.
Prashant Kidambi. State of tension: A contested tale of communal violence in Uttar Pradesh. Review of: The Once and Future Riot / Joe Sacco.
Lily Herd. Eyes on the universe: Stories of wonderment and altered natural laws. Review of: Cixin Liu Collected Stories / Cixin Liu; translated by John Chu, Andy Dudak et al.
Stuart Kelly. Art monsters: A nightmare world of factories producing digital ‘slop.’ Review of: All That We See or Seem / Ken Liu.
Sophie Pinkham. Imperial creep: A counter-historical Europe is overrun by Russian glaciers. Review of: Ice / Jacek Dukaj; translated by Ursula Phillips.
Nicholas Clee. Skating on thin ice: A solitary man is faced with a disquietingly prolonged life. Review of: Freezing Point / Anders Bodelsen; translated by Joan Tate.
Rohan Maitz. Oh love!: A novel of innocence, experience and return. Review of: Heart the Lover / Lily King.
Kevin Brazil. ‘I’ becomes ‘she’: A writer looks back on how she began. Review of: Lowest Common Denominator / Pirkko Saisio; translated by Mia Spangenberg (US publisher: Two Lines Press; UK: Penguin Classics).
Maria Margaronis. Literature, lies and life: A daughter’s view of John Cheever and his fiction. Review of: When All the Men Wore Hats: On the stories of John Cheever / Susan Cheever.
Ronald K. Fried. ‘Let’s stay strangers’: The writers Dick Cavett interviewed – backstage and on air. (Essay)
M.C. NB: Taking the bait: Words of the year, Colin Sackett’s concretisms, Babar at large, A Rolling Stone walks into a bookshop.
In Brief Review of: A Kaleidoscope of Stories / Selma Lagerlöf; translated by Sarah Death, Peter Graves and Linda Schenck (Norvik Press).
In Brief Review of: Zombie Proust / Jérôme Prieur; translated by Nancy Kline.
In Brief Review of: The Long Glass: short stories / Sean O'Brien (Red Squirrel Press).
In Brief Review of: Before Superman: Superhumans of the Radium Age / edited by Joshua Glenn.
Arts
Muriel Zagha. When the lights go down: Fourteen writers’ personal reflections on cinema. Review of: In the Good Seats: Essays on film (PVA)
Francesca Tiana. Worlds apart: A new film asks what to make of our memories. Review of the film Eternity / David Freyne.
John-Paul Stonard. In the lone and level sands: A film-maker’s attempt to come to terms with the climate crisis. Review of Josh Appignanesi's documentary Colossal Wreck in hottest Dubai.
James Cahill. The promise of things: How Wayne Thiebaud rendered the stuff of life. Review of the exhibition, Courtauld Gallery, until January 18, & catalog Wayne Thiebaud: American still life / Barnaby Wright, Karen Serres and Chloe Nahum (Yale University Press).
Larry Wolff. Irrepressible primate: Huang Ruo’s opera of monks and monkeys. Review of: The Monkey King / Huang Ruo; libretto by David Henry Hwang; San Francisco Opera.
Irina Dumitrescu. Colour coded: The social history of saturated shades. (Essay)
Philosophy
Peter Salmon. Capturing the scream: A Parisian philosopher’s battle with the canvas. Review of: On Painting: Courses, March-June 1981 / Gilles Deleuze; edited by David Lapoujade, translated by Charles J. Stivale.
Clare Carlisle. Brave submission: A novelist records her father-in-law’s last weeks. Review of: Death of an Ordinary Man / Sarah Perry.
Josh Cohen. Through the maze: A ‘subtle and slippery’ book in which folklore meets reality. Review of: The Tower / Thea Lenarduzzi
Science & Technology
Helen Gordon. How the land lies: Geology, history and myth. Review of: The Stones of Britain: A history of Britain through its geology / Jon Cannon -- The Whispers of Rock: The Stories That Stone Tells About Our World and Our Lives UK subtitle: Stories from the earth / Anjana Khatwa (US publisher: Basic Books; UK: Bridge Street Press).
Jim Al-Khalili. Weird science: The tech revolution that manipulates the subatomic world. Review of: Quantum 2.0: The past, present, and future of quantum physics / Paul Davies.
In Brief Review of: The Edge of Silence: In search of the disappearing sounds of nature / Neil Ansell (Birlinn)
In Brief Review of: Snö: A history / Sverker Sörlin; translated by Elizabeth DeNoma.
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Ian Sansom. World in a pint glass: Industrial commodity, cultural signifier and yeasty drink. Review of: Hopped Up: How travel, trade, and taste made beer a global commodity / Jeffrey M. Pilcher -- Filthy Queens: A history of beer in Ireland / Christina Wade -- The Meaning of Beer: An alternative history of the world / Jonny Garrett.
Wendy Slater. Paradise lost: How women’s liberation in Russia became a domestic trap. Review of: Motherland: A feminist history of modern Russia, from revolution to autocracy / Julia Ioffe.
Daniel Beer. Heroic failure: Two hundred years of the Decembrist Revolt. Review of: The First Russian Revolution: The Decembrist Revolt of 1825 / Susanna Rabow-Edling -- Pushkin, the Decembrists, and Civic Sentimentalism / Emily Wang -- Rebel Russia: Dissent and protest from the tsars to Navalny / Anna Arutunyan.
Bradley A. Gorski. Restless spirit: What a Pussy Rioter did next. Review of: Political Girl: Life and fate in Russia / Maria Alyokhina with Olga Borisova; translated by Emily Eccles.
David Horspool. Home thoughts: A journey into a nation’s past. Review of: The Discovery of Britain: An accidental history / Graham Robb.
Patrick Sims-Williams. Who are you?: Conflicting ideas about the Celts. Review of: The Celts: A modern history / Ian Stewart.
Seb Emina. Chips off the old bloc: Squat or artists’ refuge? Review of: Precarious Lease / Jacqueline Feldman.
In Brief Review of: Always Home, Always Homesick: A love letter to Iceland / Hannah Kent.
In Brief Review of: The Story of Football in 100 Objects / National Football Museum.
In Brief Review of: A Truce That Is Not Peace / Miriam Toews.
147featherbear
DéLana R.A. Dameron, 1985-2025
Clay Risen. NYT, 12/09/2025: DéLana R.A. Dameron, Writer of the Black South, Dies at 40.
Imani Perry, Raina León, Garlia Cornelia Jones. LitHub, 12/17/2025: Remembering DéLana R.A. Dameron.
DéLana R.A. Dameron's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/damerondlanara
Clay Risen. NYT, 12/09/2025: DéLana R.A. Dameron, Writer of the Black South, Dies at 40.
Imani Perry, Raina León, Garlia Cornelia Jones. LitHub, 12/17/2025: Remembering DéLana R.A. Dameron.
DéLana R.A. Dameron's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/damerondlanara
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Jasmine Vojdani. Vulture, 12/24/2025: 28 Book Industry Professionals Get Candid About the State of the Industry.
Anthony Jeselnik. Vulture, 12/10/2025: The Best Novels of 2025, According to Anthony Jeselnik. "The stand-up comedian read 51 books this year. Here are his favorites."
Anthony Jeselnik. Vulture, 12/10/2025: The Best Novels of 2025, According to Anthony Jeselnik. "The stand-up comedian read 51 books this year. Here are his favorites."
149featherbear
Joanna Trollope, 1943-2025
Victor Mather. NYT, 12/12/2025: Joanna Trollope, Popular British Author, Dies at 82. "Her books, many of which were best sellers, often described empty marriages, love affairs (with tasteful sex) and heroic clergymen."
Linda Evans. Guardian, 12/12/2025: Joanna Trollope obituary.
Joanna Trollope's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/trollopejoanna
Victor Mather. NYT, 12/12/2025: Joanna Trollope, Popular British Author, Dies at 82. "Her books, many of which were best sellers, often described empty marriages, love affairs (with tasteful sex) and heroic clergymen."
Linda Evans. Guardian, 12/12/2025: Joanna Trollope obituary.
Joanna Trollope's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/trollopejoanna
150featherbear
Rebecca Laurence and Lindsay Baker. bbc culture, 12/12/2025: The Director to Flesh: The 25 best books of 2025. unlocked for now
151featherbear
December 07-13 2025 updates
Asian Review of Books Dec 13: When the Museum is Closed by Emi Yagi -- Dec 12: the Indian caliphate -- Dec 10: A Home in the Himalaya -- Dec 9: Masashi Matsuie's A Summer House -- Dec 7: Bhima's wife >131 featherbear:
Atlantic Dec 11: dystopian migration novel that inspired MAGA; Aquinas & happiness; Tamar Adler's cooking philosophy -- Dec 10: Iranian pop singer Googoosh memoir >123 featherbear:
The Critic (UK) Dec 13: Central Europe -- Dec 12: can Europe survive? -- Dec 11: Cory Doctorow's entshittification thesis -- Dec 10: post-liberalism -- Dec 8: Whig vs Tory & modern Britain -- Dec 7: reparations >136 featherbear:
fivebooks.com Dec 12: funniest books of the 21st century -- Dec 9: best 2025 fantasy books, including one Hugo & one Nebula award winner >120 featherbear:
Guardian Dec 13: 30 authors on the books they give to everyone -- Dec 12: Susan Orlean's memoir; best science fiction, fantasy, & horror for 2025 survey -- Dec 11: Trinidad novel; survey of Arundhati Roy's oeuvre -- Dec 10: the 1994 Soccer World Cup; Flat Earth by Anika Jane Levy -- Dec 9: Olivia Nuzzi memoir; Jane Birkin the It Girl bio; On the Calculation of Volume III -- Dec 8: death of a tech billionaire & his yacht; Jewish life in pre-Nazi Berlin; plans for an Ancient Celtic dictionary -- Dec 7: Margaret Atwood & The Handmaid's Tale >122 featherbear:
LARB Dec 11: Michel Tournier's Friday; Fiend by Alma Katsu -- Dec 10: women writing horror fiction -- Dec 9: genre in literary fiction post 1945; a fictional world based on Riverside California -- Dec 8: trans actor's memoir -- Dec 7: martyr for free speech >130 featherbear:
Literary Review (UK) Dec: Camus notebooks; Holbein bio; George Orwell; Margaret Atwood memoir; Mexico history >144 featherbear:
LitHub Dec 12: excerpt from "progress" book -- Dec 10: Thomas Pynchon's hardboiled trilogy; Catullus meets GenZ; reflections on a failed novel -- Dec 9: To the Lighthouse as plague novel >135 featherbear:
New Yorker Dec 13: Nicolas Sarkozy in prison -- Dec 10: best books of 2025; Looking for Tankman -- Dec 9: If You Quit Social Media, Will You Read More Books? -- Dec 8: Oliver Sacks >132 featherbear:
NYT Dec 13: Ideas Have Consequences -- Dec 12: no more reading of whole books; NYT daily book reviewers bonked list; best poetry of 2025; best graphic novels of 2025 -- Dec 11: best mystery fiction of 2025; A.O. Scott on a Louise Glück poem; hidden gems unlocked; Yaddo president steps down -- Dec 10: best 2025 thrillers -- Dec 9: Cape Fear; The Sea Captain's Wife; the George and Martha children's books -- Dec 8: Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration; Albert Camus notebooks; Television novel; best historical fiction of 2025 >121 featherbear:
Public Books Dec 10: the empty laboratory in science & fiction -- Dec 9: classical music in 6 works of literary fiction >134 featherbear:
TLS Dec 12 >146 featherbear:
WaPo Dec 13: Edward Gorey coffee table book -- Dec 11: Wild Boy of Aveyron -- Dec 10: Michael Dirda's lists & recommends less well-known mysteries, ghost tales, & adventure stories; Ron Charles reviews a novel about the dark side of AI >127 featherbear:
December index >119 featherbear:
websites added this week:
bbc culture >150 featherbear:
Literary Review (UK) >144 featherbear:
Vulture >148 featherbear:
Asian Review of Books Dec 13: When the Museum is Closed by Emi Yagi -- Dec 12: the Indian caliphate -- Dec 10: A Home in the Himalaya -- Dec 9: Masashi Matsuie's A Summer House -- Dec 7: Bhima's wife >131 featherbear:
Atlantic Dec 11: dystopian migration novel that inspired MAGA; Aquinas & happiness; Tamar Adler's cooking philosophy -- Dec 10: Iranian pop singer Googoosh memoir >123 featherbear:
The Critic (UK) Dec 13: Central Europe -- Dec 12: can Europe survive? -- Dec 11: Cory Doctorow's entshittification thesis -- Dec 10: post-liberalism -- Dec 8: Whig vs Tory & modern Britain -- Dec 7: reparations >136 featherbear:
fivebooks.com Dec 12: funniest books of the 21st century -- Dec 9: best 2025 fantasy books, including one Hugo & one Nebula award winner >120 featherbear:
Guardian Dec 13: 30 authors on the books they give to everyone -- Dec 12: Susan Orlean's memoir; best science fiction, fantasy, & horror for 2025 survey -- Dec 11: Trinidad novel; survey of Arundhati Roy's oeuvre -- Dec 10: the 1994 Soccer World Cup; Flat Earth by Anika Jane Levy -- Dec 9: Olivia Nuzzi memoir; Jane Birkin the It Girl bio; On the Calculation of Volume III -- Dec 8: death of a tech billionaire & his yacht; Jewish life in pre-Nazi Berlin; plans for an Ancient Celtic dictionary -- Dec 7: Margaret Atwood & The Handmaid's Tale >122 featherbear:
LARB Dec 11: Michel Tournier's Friday; Fiend by Alma Katsu -- Dec 10: women writing horror fiction -- Dec 9: genre in literary fiction post 1945; a fictional world based on Riverside California -- Dec 8: trans actor's memoir -- Dec 7: martyr for free speech >130 featherbear:
Literary Review (UK) Dec: Camus notebooks; Holbein bio; George Orwell; Margaret Atwood memoir; Mexico history >144 featherbear:
LitHub Dec 12: excerpt from "progress" book -- Dec 10: Thomas Pynchon's hardboiled trilogy; Catullus meets GenZ; reflections on a failed novel -- Dec 9: To the Lighthouse as plague novel >135 featherbear:
New Yorker Dec 13: Nicolas Sarkozy in prison -- Dec 10: best books of 2025; Looking for Tankman -- Dec 9: If You Quit Social Media, Will You Read More Books? -- Dec 8: Oliver Sacks >132 featherbear:
NYT Dec 13: Ideas Have Consequences -- Dec 12: no more reading of whole books; NYT daily book reviewers bonked list; best poetry of 2025; best graphic novels of 2025 -- Dec 11: best mystery fiction of 2025; A.O. Scott on a Louise Glück poem; hidden gems unlocked; Yaddo president steps down -- Dec 10: best 2025 thrillers -- Dec 9: Cape Fear; The Sea Captain's Wife; the George and Martha children's books -- Dec 8: Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration; Albert Camus notebooks; Television novel; best historical fiction of 2025 >121 featherbear:
Public Books Dec 10: the empty laboratory in science & fiction -- Dec 9: classical music in 6 works of literary fiction >134 featherbear:
TLS Dec 12 >146 featherbear:
WaPo Dec 13: Edward Gorey coffee table book -- Dec 11: Wild Boy of Aveyron -- Dec 10: Michael Dirda's lists & recommends less well-known mysteries, ghost tales, & adventure stories; Ron Charles reviews a novel about the dark side of AI >127 featherbear:
December index >119 featherbear:
websites added this week:
bbc culture >150 featherbear:
Literary Review (UK) >144 featherbear:
Vulture >148 featherbear:
152featherbear
Robert J. Samuelson, 1945-2025
Michael S. Rosenwald. NYT, 12/15/2025: Robert Samuelson, Award-Winning Economics Columnist, Dies at 79. "He was a familiar byline in Newsweek and The Washington Post for decades, explaining the intricacies of economic policy in reader-friendly vernacular."
"Robert J. Samuelson, an economics columnist for Newsweek and The Washington Post who explored, in reader-friendly vernacular, the perils of inflation, the fiscal consequences of entitlement spending and the slow-motion crisis of the bulging national debt, died on Saturday in Bethesda, Md.
"With no formal training in economics, Mr. Samuelson viewed himself as an outsider who translated dense but important policy debates for a broad audience.
“I don’t have an economics degree, and I think in some ways that’s a strong point, because I’m always trying to explain things to myself, and if I can explain them to me, I think I could try to explain them to my readers,” he said on the C-SPAN program Q&A in 2010. “I’m not trying to impress economists.”
"Though Mr. Samuelson choose to view himself as “sensible” rather than beholden to a particular political party, many of his columns bemoaned what he viewed as the fiscal excesses of entitlement spending on Medicare and Social Security benefits — policies favored by Democrats.
"In addition to his columns, he published several books, most notably “The Great Inflation and Its Aftermath" (2008). In it, he argued that the elimination of double-digit inflation in earlier decades led to years of prosperity that made Americans — especially bank executives and ordinary homeowners — overconfident, enabling the reckless behavior that caused the 2008 financial crisis."
Matt Schudel. WaPo, 12/15/2025: Robert J. Samuelson, sharp-eyed economics columnist at The Post, dies at 79.
Robert J. Samuelson's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/samuelsonrobertj
Michael S. Rosenwald. NYT, 12/15/2025: Robert Samuelson, Award-Winning Economics Columnist, Dies at 79. "He was a familiar byline in Newsweek and The Washington Post for decades, explaining the intricacies of economic policy in reader-friendly vernacular."
"Robert J. Samuelson, an economics columnist for Newsweek and The Washington Post who explored, in reader-friendly vernacular, the perils of inflation, the fiscal consequences of entitlement spending and the slow-motion crisis of the bulging national debt, died on Saturday in Bethesda, Md.
"With no formal training in economics, Mr. Samuelson viewed himself as an outsider who translated dense but important policy debates for a broad audience.
“I don’t have an economics degree, and I think in some ways that’s a strong point, because I’m always trying to explain things to myself, and if I can explain them to me, I think I could try to explain them to my readers,” he said on the C-SPAN program Q&A in 2010. “I’m not trying to impress economists.”
"Though Mr. Samuelson choose to view himself as “sensible” rather than beholden to a particular political party, many of his columns bemoaned what he viewed as the fiscal excesses of entitlement spending on Medicare and Social Security benefits — policies favored by Democrats.
"In addition to his columns, he published several books, most notably “The Great Inflation and Its Aftermath" (2008). In it, he argued that the elimination of double-digit inflation in earlier decades led to years of prosperity that made Americans — especially bank executives and ordinary homeowners — overconfident, enabling the reckless behavior that caused the 2008 financial crisis."
Matt Schudel. WaPo, 12/15/2025: Robert J. Samuelson, sharp-eyed economics columnist at The Post, dies at 79.
Robert J. Samuelson's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/samuelsonrobertj
154featherbear
Norman Podhoretz, 1930-2025
Joseph Berger. NYT, 12/16/2025, upd 12/17: Norman Podhoretz, Influential Editor and Neoconservative Force, Dies at 95.
Norman Podhoretz LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/podhoretznorman
Joseph Berger. NYT, 12/16/2025, upd 12/17: Norman Podhoretz, Influential Editor and Neoconservative Force, Dies at 95.
Norman Podhoretz LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/podhoretznorman
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Cathy Mason. Aeon, 08/12/2025, reposted 12/31/2025: Why love matters most: For Iris Murdoch, morality is not about duties and rules but stopping our ego fantasies and attending to others with love.
Inanna Hamati-Ataya. Aeon, 01/10/2025, reposted 12/30/2025: There are no pure cultures. "All of our religions, stories, languages and norms were muddled and mixed through mobility and exchange throughout history."
Andrea Banchi. Aeon, 12/19/2025: Philosopher of pride. "For Mandeville, humankind has a bottomless need to be liked: it is this perennial craving that forms the foundation of society."
Inanna Hamati-Ataya. Aeon, 01/10/2025, reposted 12/30/2025: There are no pure cultures. "All of our religions, stories, languages and norms were muddled and mixed through mobility and exchange throughout history."
Andrea Banchi. Aeon, 12/19/2025: Philosopher of pride. "For Mandeville, humankind has a bottomless need to be liked: it is this perennial craving that forms the foundation of society."
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December 14-20 updates
Asian Review of Books Dec 20: New Byzantines -- Dec 19: Guardian & a Thief -- Dec 17: upside down women -- Dec 16: India stock market -- Dec 14: Arab identity in the Medieval Middle East >131 featherbear:
Atlantic Dec 19: Jeffrey Epstein misread Lolita -- Dec 18: Joe Sacco's graphic novel about the 2013 Muzaffarnagar Riot -- Dec 17: Henry James's Venice -- Dec 16: Black nationalist Audley Moore bio >123 featherbear:
The Critic (UK) Dec 20: young Tennyson; opera & the British -- Dec 19: "Our need for physical books is greater than ever" -- Dec 17: science of dreams -- Dec 15: great art explained >136 featherbear:
fivebooks.com Dec 20: award winning bios of 2025; best crime fiction of 2025 -- Dec 16: literary prizes for fiction -- Dec 15: cosmic horror books for Xmas >120 featherbear:
Guardian Dec 20: bibliotherapy -- Dec 19: the making of the Mary Poppins movie; Yael van der Wouden: the books in my life -- Dec 18: prescient J.G. Ballard novel; prescient Danish science fiction cryogenics novel -- Dec 17: have people stopped reading nonfiction?; Bog Queen -- Dec 16: big sales for Epstein victim memoir, Renaissance foundling hospital & its influence on art; Noopiming -- Dec 15: Pulse (short stories by Cynan Jones); US librarians join w/civil libertarians to oppose book bans -- Dec 14: what blockbusters have in common >122 featherbear:
LARB Dec 19: J. M. Coetzee and Mariana Dimópulos’s new book on translation -- Dec 18: 2 novels: The Ten Year Affair & Wreck -- Dec 16: Jane Austen's 250th -- Dec 15: stories inspired by Alfred Hitchcock -- Dec 14: the "late style" of postmodernists like Thomas Pynchon >130 featherbear:
LitHub Dec 16: books checked out from New York public libraries in 2025 -- Dec 15: 50 Biggest Literary Stories of the Year >135 featherbear:
New Yorker Dec 20: what if readers like AI generated fiction; favorite cookbooks -- Dec 18: all of the New Yorker has been digitized -- Dec 17: Lee Lai's Cannon graphic novel -- Dec 15: Stephen Sondheim's puzzle fascination >132 featherbear:
NYT Dec 19: Middle Earth -- Dec 18: healing power of poetry -- Dec 17: intellectuals of the New Right; Thomas Paine's Common Sense -- Dec 15: what happened to the American dream? (an omnibus review) >121 featherbear:
Public Books Dec 18: Public Books picks for 2025 -- Dec 17: reading, disability, & materialism in Victorian culture >134 featherbear:
WaPo Dec 20: W. David Marx on 21st century pop culture; interactive tour of Geraldine Brooks's library -- Dec 18: fangirl counterculture -- Dec 16: Canticle >127 featherbear:
December index >119 featherbear:
New websites this week:
Aeon >155 featherbear:
UnHerd >153 featherbear:
Asian Review of Books Dec 20: New Byzantines -- Dec 19: Guardian & a Thief -- Dec 17: upside down women -- Dec 16: India stock market -- Dec 14: Arab identity in the Medieval Middle East >131 featherbear:
Atlantic Dec 19: Jeffrey Epstein misread Lolita -- Dec 18: Joe Sacco's graphic novel about the 2013 Muzaffarnagar Riot -- Dec 17: Henry James's Venice -- Dec 16: Black nationalist Audley Moore bio >123 featherbear:
The Critic (UK) Dec 20: young Tennyson; opera & the British -- Dec 19: "Our need for physical books is greater than ever" -- Dec 17: science of dreams -- Dec 15: great art explained >136 featherbear:
fivebooks.com Dec 20: award winning bios of 2025; best crime fiction of 2025 -- Dec 16: literary prizes for fiction -- Dec 15: cosmic horror books for Xmas >120 featherbear:
Guardian Dec 20: bibliotherapy -- Dec 19: the making of the Mary Poppins movie; Yael van der Wouden: the books in my life -- Dec 18: prescient J.G. Ballard novel; prescient Danish science fiction cryogenics novel -- Dec 17: have people stopped reading nonfiction?; Bog Queen -- Dec 16: big sales for Epstein victim memoir, Renaissance foundling hospital & its influence on art; Noopiming -- Dec 15: Pulse (short stories by Cynan Jones); US librarians join w/civil libertarians to oppose book bans -- Dec 14: what blockbusters have in common >122 featherbear:
LARB Dec 19: J. M. Coetzee and Mariana Dimópulos’s new book on translation -- Dec 18: 2 novels: The Ten Year Affair & Wreck -- Dec 16: Jane Austen's 250th -- Dec 15: stories inspired by Alfred Hitchcock -- Dec 14: the "late style" of postmodernists like Thomas Pynchon >130 featherbear:
LitHub Dec 16: books checked out from New York public libraries in 2025 -- Dec 15: 50 Biggest Literary Stories of the Year >135 featherbear:
New Yorker Dec 20: what if readers like AI generated fiction; favorite cookbooks -- Dec 18: all of the New Yorker has been digitized -- Dec 17: Lee Lai's Cannon graphic novel -- Dec 15: Stephen Sondheim's puzzle fascination >132 featherbear:
NYT Dec 19: Middle Earth -- Dec 18: healing power of poetry -- Dec 17: intellectuals of the New Right; Thomas Paine's Common Sense -- Dec 15: what happened to the American dream? (an omnibus review) >121 featherbear:
Public Books Dec 18: Public Books picks for 2025 -- Dec 17: reading, disability, & materialism in Victorian culture >134 featherbear:
WaPo Dec 20: W. David Marx on 21st century pop culture; interactive tour of Geraldine Brooks's library -- Dec 18: fangirl counterculture -- Dec 16: Canticle >127 featherbear:
December index >119 featherbear:
New websites this week:
Aeon >155 featherbear:
UnHerd >153 featherbear:
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Lou Cannon, 1933-2025
Adam Bernstein. WaPo, 12/20/2025: Lou Cannon, Post reporter and preeminent Reagan biographer, dies at 92. "His books on Reagan “have never been transcended,” said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley."
Robert D. McFadden. NYT, 12/20/2025: Lou Cannon Dies at 92; Journalist Chronicled Reagan as an Author. "He was a foremost authority on the president, tracing his career in unvarnished accounts from his time as California governor through his years in the White House."
Lou Cannon's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/cannonlou
Adam Bernstein. WaPo, 12/20/2025: Lou Cannon, Post reporter and preeminent Reagan biographer, dies at 92. "His books on Reagan “have never been transcended,” said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley."
Robert D. McFadden. NYT, 12/20/2025: Lou Cannon Dies at 92; Journalist Chronicled Reagan as an Author. "He was a foremost authority on the president, tracing his career in unvarnished accounts from his time as California governor through his years in the White House."
Lou Cannon's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/cannonlou
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Celine Nguyen. asterisk, n.d. (Dec 2025): Is the Internet Making Culture Worse?. "*The decline of criticism might explain the sense that our culture is stagnating. How can we bring it back?"
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Isle McElroy. The Scoop, 12/19/2025: Grift Guide 2025 aka 2025 Grift Guide. Olivia Nuzzi, navigating social media, & so forth.
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Pittsburgh Review of Books (PRoB) December 2025
Ed Simon. 12/31/2025: This is Not a Top Ten Novel List. “A best of list isn’t empirical, it’s a game, and it’s meant to be playful. To be audacious, to be galling, to be annoying, but most of all to be interesting.”
Vaughn Joy. 12/24/2025: Archives, McCarthyism, and the Legendary Pink Capra-Corn. Excerpt from: Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy. (De Gruyter)
PRoB staff. 12/22/2025: The Books We Sit With at Year’s End: PRoB staff on the books keeping them company this holiday season.
Yushan Wang. 12/19/2025: The Rationalized State in China. Review of: The Gilded Cage: Technology, Development, and State Capitalism in China / Ya-Wen Lei.
Trevin Corsiglia. 12/17/2025: That Other 1925 Classic American Novel. Regarding: An American Tragedy / Theodore Dreiser.
Jon Hoel. 12/16/2025: The Passion of Louise Glück. Review of: About Suffering: Cambridge Elements Poetry and Poetics / Christos Hadjiyiannis (Cambridge University Press).
Beth Kisselheff. 12/12/2025: America’s Shameful History of Antisemitism. Review of: Antisemitism: An American tradition / Pamela Nadell.
Ed Simon. 12/31/2025: This is Not a Top Ten Novel List. “A best of list isn’t empirical, it’s a game, and it’s meant to be playful. To be audacious, to be galling, to be annoying, but most of all to be interesting.”
Vaughn Joy. 12/24/2025: Archives, McCarthyism, and the Legendary Pink Capra-Corn. Excerpt from: Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy. (De Gruyter)
PRoB staff. 12/22/2025: The Books We Sit With at Year’s End: PRoB staff on the books keeping them company this holiday season.
Yushan Wang. 12/19/2025: The Rationalized State in China. Review of: The Gilded Cage: Technology, Development, and State Capitalism in China / Ya-Wen Lei.
Trevin Corsiglia. 12/17/2025: That Other 1925 Classic American Novel. Regarding: An American Tragedy / Theodore Dreiser.
Jon Hoel. 12/16/2025: The Passion of Louise Glück. Review of: About Suffering: Cambridge Elements Poetry and Poetics / Christos Hadjiyiannis (Cambridge University Press).
Beth Kisselheff. 12/12/2025: America’s Shameful History of Antisemitism. Review of: Antisemitism: An American tradition / Pamela Nadell.
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Clara Thorp. bbc culture, 12/24/2025: The Salt Path and 2025's most scandalous books. "In 2025, personal stories proved popular and powerful – but several controversies raised questions about the future of the memoir genre."
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John Carey, 1934-2025
Michael S. Rosenwald. NYT, 12/25/2025: John Carey, Literary Eminence Who Excoriated Snobbery, Dies at 91. "An Oxford professor and renowned critic, he was pugnacious, fearless and disdainful of the received wisdom of his intellectual milieu."
(London) Times. 12/12/2025: John Carey obituary: literary critic. "Witty, eclectic and sometimes scathing scholar and reviewer who held sacred cows in little respect, dies aged 91."
John Carey's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/careyjohn-1
Michael S. Rosenwald. NYT, 12/25/2025: John Carey, Literary Eminence Who Excoriated Snobbery, Dies at 91. "An Oxford professor and renowned critic, he was pugnacious, fearless and disdainful of the received wisdom of his intellectual milieu."
(London) Times. 12/12/2025: John Carey obituary: literary critic. "Witty, eclectic and sometimes scathing scholar and reviewer who held sacred cows in little respect, dies aged 91."
John Carey's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/careyjohn-1
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TLS December 26, 2025|No. 6395
Featured
Mary Beard. 12/19/2025 (blog post from the TLS landing page): A five-star museum in Alexandria.
Miranda France. Cultivating our garden: how to live a good life. Review of: The Meaning of Life: Letters from extraordinary people and their answer to life’s biggest question / James Bailey -- Good Days: An A-Z of hope and happiness / Michael Rosen -- The View from Ninety: Reflections on how to live a long, contented life / Charles Handy (US publisher: Penguin; UK: Hutchinson Heinemann).
Nicola Upson. Murder, they wrote: The ingredients of a classic crime novel. Review of: The Murder Game: Play, puzzles and the Golden Age / John Curran -- V Is for Venom: Agatha Christie’s chemicals of death / Kathryn Harkup -- Not to Be Taken: A puzzle in poison / Anthony Berkeley -- The Golden Age of Murder / Martin Edwards.
Timothy Brook. The final piece of the puzzle: The secret meaning of Vermeer’s art. Review of: Johannes Vermeer – Provocateur: Risk and courage in dissent / Neil Thomas Proto (FriessenPress) -- Vermeer: A life lost and found / Andrew Graham-Dixon.
Deborah Levy. The bald truth: Revisiting Eugène Ionesco’s irreverent La Cantatrice chauve. (Essay, regarding Ionesco's The Bald Soprano.
Literature & Bibliography
Barbara Graziosi. Homer goes viral: Ancient narratives bent on survival. Review of: Storylife: On epic, narrative, and living things / Joel P. Christensen.
Sebastian Dows-Miller. Cracking the code: Early cryptography and the individuals behind it. Review of: Cryptic: From Voynich to the Angel Diaries, the Story of the World's Mysterious Manuscripts / Garry J. Shaw.
Helen Tyson. Laugh out loud funny?: Virginia Woolf’s comedic experiments in the fantastical and surreal. Review of: The Life of Violet: Three early stories / Virginia Woolf; edited by Urmila Seshagiri.
Suzanne Rait. In a minor key: An intimate view of Virginia Woolf’s daily life. Review of: The Uncollected Letters of Virginia Woolf / Stephen Barkway and Stuart N. Clarke, editors.
Tim Parks. Cultural work: The Italian writer who could never say no. (Essay regarding "the collected letters of Luciano Bianciardi (1922–71))."
Contemporary Fiction
M. John Harrison. Both the pretty horses: A hybrid cowboy adventure set in 1980s Utah. Review of: Tom's Crossing: a novel / Mark Z. Danielewski.
Philip Womack. Unions of convenience: A twentieth-century Bildungsroman in a nineteenth-century shadow. Review of: Queen Esther: a novel / John Irving.
Phoebe Roy. Blood on the screen: A debut novel explores the links between subculture and culture. Review of: Flat Earth: a novel / Anika Jay Levy.
Alex Clark. Bread and leeches: Stories of pessimistic mysticism. Review of: The Pelican Child: stories / Joy Williams.
Anna Aslanyan. Between the pages: Stories of negative space and roads not taken. Review of: Paris Fantastique / Nicholas Royale.
Ian Thomson. Behind the Baltic barricades: An epic of Estonian resistance to tsarist rule. Review of: When the Storm Fell Silent / A. H. Tammsaare; translated by Matthew Hyde (Vagabond Voices).
In Brief Review of: Discontent / Beatriz Serrano; translated by Mara Faye Lethem
Poetry
Kit Fan. More intense than the men: Wit, paradox and longing in the poems of a Chinese philosopher. Review of: The Magpie at Night / Li Qingzhao; translated by Wendy Chen.
Caitríona Ní Dhúill. The past that will not pass: A slow unpacking of Ingeborg Bachmann’s ‘Salt and Bread.’ Review of: The Threshold and the Ledger / Tom McCarthy.
William Wootten. Carved in the memory: Two recent poetry collections. Review of: Drypoint / Jamie McKendrick -- Invasion of the Polyhedrons / William Eaves (CB Editions).
Martyn Crucefix. Unanswered questions: An anthology of contemporary German poetry. Review of: The Opposite of Seduction: New poetry in German / Alexander Kappe, Nicola Thomas and Jana Maria Weiß, editors.
Arts
Kate Hext. Something Wilde: Hedonism, ennui and the search for a modern style. Review of: Aesthetic Movement Satire: A dramatic anthology / Devon Cox, editor -- Decadent Plays: 1890–1930; Decadent Plays: 1890–1930 / Adam Alston and Jane Desmarais, editors (Methuen Drama).
Maria Margaronis. Sparkle in the dark: Stephen Sondheim’s resonant, melancholy musicals. Review of the film Merrrily We Roll Along & the musical Into the Woods, Bridge Theatre, London, until May 30. Both by Stephen Sondheim.
Guy Dammann. Truth, power and what is lost: An operatic exploration of Ibsen’s explosive play. Review of Francesco Coll's opera Enemigo del pueblo, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, Valencia; Teatro Real, Madrid, February 12–18.
Toby Lichtig. Marionettes and machinations: Puppets and disrupters abound in this season’s family shows. Review of The BFG / Roald Dahl; adapted by Tom Wells, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, until February 7 -- Pinocchio / Carlo Collodi; adapted by Charlie Josephine, Globe Theatre, London, until January 4.
Christopher Mooney. Paris: 100 years of art deco. (Essay: Letter From Paris).
Philosophy
Nigel Warburton. His critique of pure raisin: Ludwig Wittgenstein, warts and all. Review of: Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophy in the age of airplanes / Anthony Gottlieb.
Costica Bradatan. Ethics of uncertainty: Western philosophy from an eastern perspective. Review of: Buddha, Socrates, and Us: Ethical living in uncertain times / Stephen Batchelor.
Edward Harcourt. Everybody’s questions: The Royal Institute of Philosophy at 100. (Essay)
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Josephine Crawley Quinn. Rome’s great rival: The other republican city-state empire. Review of: Carthage: A new history of an ancient empire / Eve MacDonald.
Jas Elsner. Antique land: the origins of Europe. Review of: The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Late Antique Art and Archaeology. Volume 1: Architecture, artifacts and evidence. Volume 2: Settlements, regions, peoples and debates / Leonard V. Rutgers, Neil Christie, Robin M. Jensen and Jodi Magness, editors (Cambridge University Press).
Harold James. Go with the flow: The development and future of capitalism. Review of: Capitalism: A global history / Sven Beckert.
Nat Segnit. Weekends in the mosh-pit: A ‘travelogue-cum-anthropological study’ of communal celebration. Review of: Fiesta: A journey through festivity / Daniel Stables (Icon).
Amy Hawkins. ‘O is for Oriental’: Food and identity among the Hong Kong diaspora. Review of: Chinese Parents don’t say I love you: A memoir of saying the unsayable with food / Candice Chung -- An A-Z of Chinese Food*: *Recipes Not Included / Jenny Lau -- I am not a tourist: Conversations on being British Chinese / Daisy J. Hung (HQ).
Joe Moran. Those pesky kids: The rise and fall of an undervalued institution. Review of: Up the Youth Club: Illuminating a hidden history / Emma Warren.
Donald Macintyre. Amid the ruins: Gaza’s losses and traumas. Review of: On the Pleasures of Living in Gaza: Remembering a way of life now destroyed / Mohammed Omer Almoghayer -- The Palestinians Updated edition / Jonathan Dimbleby; photographs by Don McCullin -- The Gaza Catastrophe: The genocide in world-historical perspective / Gilbert Achcar (Saqi) -- Who Will Tell My Story?: A Gaza diary / Anonymous.
Toby Lichtig. Survivor’s story: Enduring 491 days of captivity in Hamas’s tunnels. Review of: Hostage / Eli Sharabi; translated by Eylon Levy.
Ian Cawood. Mid-term madness: By-elections and the state of the nation. Review of: British By-elections, 1769–2025: The 88 by-election campaigns that shaped our politics / Iain Dale (Biteback).
In Brief Review of: Jazz June: A self-portrait in essays / Clifford Thompson.
In Brief Review of: Ghost Stations: Essays and branchlines / Patrick McGuinness.
In Brief Review of: The Defector: The untold story of the KGB agent who saved MI5 and changed the Cold War / Richard Kerbaj.
In Brief Review of: Killing the Nerve / Anna Pazos; translated by Laura McGloughlin and Charlotte Coombe.
In Brief Review of: The Ministry of Munitions in the First World War: Doing their bit / Andrew Rawson.
In Brief Review of: Victory in Australia: The remarkable story of England’s greatest Ashes triumph 1954—55 / Richard Whitehead (cricket).
Miscellaneous
M.C. NB: Catnip and coinages: Author anniversaries, Lexipedian lists, Writing rituals, John Allin’s East End.
Letters to the Editor. Pedants of many colours: Pedants of many colours, Tennyson and the poetry of science, Railway reading, etc.
Featured
Mary Beard. 12/19/2025 (blog post from the TLS landing page): A five-star museum in Alexandria.
Miranda France. Cultivating our garden: how to live a good life. Review of: The Meaning of Life: Letters from extraordinary people and their answer to life’s biggest question / James Bailey -- Good Days: An A-Z of hope and happiness / Michael Rosen -- The View from Ninety: Reflections on how to live a long, contented life / Charles Handy (US publisher: Penguin; UK: Hutchinson Heinemann).
Nicola Upson. Murder, they wrote: The ingredients of a classic crime novel. Review of: The Murder Game: Play, puzzles and the Golden Age / John Curran -- V Is for Venom: Agatha Christie’s chemicals of death / Kathryn Harkup -- Not to Be Taken: A puzzle in poison / Anthony Berkeley -- The Golden Age of Murder / Martin Edwards.
Timothy Brook. The final piece of the puzzle: The secret meaning of Vermeer’s art. Review of: Johannes Vermeer – Provocateur: Risk and courage in dissent / Neil Thomas Proto (FriessenPress) -- Vermeer: A life lost and found / Andrew Graham-Dixon.
Deborah Levy. The bald truth: Revisiting Eugène Ionesco’s irreverent La Cantatrice chauve. (Essay, regarding Ionesco's The Bald Soprano.
Literature & Bibliography
Barbara Graziosi. Homer goes viral: Ancient narratives bent on survival. Review of: Storylife: On epic, narrative, and living things / Joel P. Christensen.
Sebastian Dows-Miller. Cracking the code: Early cryptography and the individuals behind it. Review of: Cryptic: From Voynich to the Angel Diaries, the Story of the World's Mysterious Manuscripts / Garry J. Shaw.
Helen Tyson. Laugh out loud funny?: Virginia Woolf’s comedic experiments in the fantastical and surreal. Review of: The Life of Violet: Three early stories / Virginia Woolf; edited by Urmila Seshagiri.
Suzanne Rait. In a minor key: An intimate view of Virginia Woolf’s daily life. Review of: The Uncollected Letters of Virginia Woolf / Stephen Barkway and Stuart N. Clarke, editors.
Tim Parks. Cultural work: The Italian writer who could never say no. (Essay regarding "the collected letters of Luciano Bianciardi (1922–71))."
Contemporary Fiction
M. John Harrison. Both the pretty horses: A hybrid cowboy adventure set in 1980s Utah. Review of: Tom's Crossing: a novel / Mark Z. Danielewski.
Philip Womack. Unions of convenience: A twentieth-century Bildungsroman in a nineteenth-century shadow. Review of: Queen Esther: a novel / John Irving.
Phoebe Roy. Blood on the screen: A debut novel explores the links between subculture and culture. Review of: Flat Earth: a novel / Anika Jay Levy.
Alex Clark. Bread and leeches: Stories of pessimistic mysticism. Review of: The Pelican Child: stories / Joy Williams.
Anna Aslanyan. Between the pages: Stories of negative space and roads not taken. Review of: Paris Fantastique / Nicholas Royale.
Ian Thomson. Behind the Baltic barricades: An epic of Estonian resistance to tsarist rule. Review of: When the Storm Fell Silent / A. H. Tammsaare; translated by Matthew Hyde (Vagabond Voices).
In Brief Review of: Discontent / Beatriz Serrano; translated by Mara Faye Lethem
Poetry
Kit Fan. More intense than the men: Wit, paradox and longing in the poems of a Chinese philosopher. Review of: The Magpie at Night / Li Qingzhao; translated by Wendy Chen.
Caitríona Ní Dhúill. The past that will not pass: A slow unpacking of Ingeborg Bachmann’s ‘Salt and Bread.’ Review of: The Threshold and the Ledger / Tom McCarthy.
William Wootten. Carved in the memory: Two recent poetry collections. Review of: Drypoint / Jamie McKendrick -- Invasion of the Polyhedrons / William Eaves (CB Editions).
Martyn Crucefix. Unanswered questions: An anthology of contemporary German poetry. Review of: The Opposite of Seduction: New poetry in German / Alexander Kappe, Nicola Thomas and Jana Maria Weiß, editors.
Arts
Kate Hext. Something Wilde: Hedonism, ennui and the search for a modern style. Review of: Aesthetic Movement Satire: A dramatic anthology / Devon Cox, editor -- Decadent Plays: 1890–1930; Decadent Plays: 1890–1930 / Adam Alston and Jane Desmarais, editors (Methuen Drama).
Maria Margaronis. Sparkle in the dark: Stephen Sondheim’s resonant, melancholy musicals. Review of the film Merrrily We Roll Along & the musical Into the Woods, Bridge Theatre, London, until May 30. Both by Stephen Sondheim.
Guy Dammann. Truth, power and what is lost: An operatic exploration of Ibsen’s explosive play. Review of Francesco Coll's opera Enemigo del pueblo, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, Valencia; Teatro Real, Madrid, February 12–18.
Toby Lichtig. Marionettes and machinations: Puppets and disrupters abound in this season’s family shows. Review of The BFG / Roald Dahl; adapted by Tom Wells, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, until February 7 -- Pinocchio / Carlo Collodi; adapted by Charlie Josephine, Globe Theatre, London, until January 4.
Christopher Mooney. Paris: 100 years of art deco. (Essay: Letter From Paris).
Philosophy
Nigel Warburton. His critique of pure raisin: Ludwig Wittgenstein, warts and all. Review of: Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophy in the age of airplanes / Anthony Gottlieb.
Costica Bradatan. Ethics of uncertainty: Western philosophy from an eastern perspective. Review of: Buddha, Socrates, and Us: Ethical living in uncertain times / Stephen Batchelor.
Edward Harcourt. Everybody’s questions: The Royal Institute of Philosophy at 100. (Essay)
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Josephine Crawley Quinn. Rome’s great rival: The other republican city-state empire. Review of: Carthage: A new history of an ancient empire / Eve MacDonald.
Jas Elsner. Antique land: the origins of Europe. Review of: The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Late Antique Art and Archaeology. Volume 1: Architecture, artifacts and evidence. Volume 2: Settlements, regions, peoples and debates / Leonard V. Rutgers, Neil Christie, Robin M. Jensen and Jodi Magness, editors (Cambridge University Press).
Harold James. Go with the flow: The development and future of capitalism. Review of: Capitalism: A global history / Sven Beckert.
Nat Segnit. Weekends in the mosh-pit: A ‘travelogue-cum-anthropological study’ of communal celebration. Review of: Fiesta: A journey through festivity / Daniel Stables (Icon).
Amy Hawkins. ‘O is for Oriental’: Food and identity among the Hong Kong diaspora. Review of: Chinese Parents don’t say I love you: A memoir of saying the unsayable with food / Candice Chung -- An A-Z of Chinese Food*: *Recipes Not Included / Jenny Lau -- I am not a tourist: Conversations on being British Chinese / Daisy J. Hung (HQ).
Joe Moran. Those pesky kids: The rise and fall of an undervalued institution. Review of: Up the Youth Club: Illuminating a hidden history / Emma Warren.
Donald Macintyre. Amid the ruins: Gaza’s losses and traumas. Review of: On the Pleasures of Living in Gaza: Remembering a way of life now destroyed / Mohammed Omer Almoghayer -- The Palestinians Updated edition / Jonathan Dimbleby; photographs by Don McCullin -- The Gaza Catastrophe: The genocide in world-historical perspective / Gilbert Achcar (Saqi) -- Who Will Tell My Story?: A Gaza diary / Anonymous.
Toby Lichtig. Survivor’s story: Enduring 491 days of captivity in Hamas’s tunnels. Review of: Hostage / Eli Sharabi; translated by Eylon Levy.
Ian Cawood. Mid-term madness: By-elections and the state of the nation. Review of: British By-elections, 1769–2025: The 88 by-election campaigns that shaped our politics / Iain Dale (Biteback).
In Brief Review of: Jazz June: A self-portrait in essays / Clifford Thompson.
In Brief Review of: Ghost Stations: Essays and branchlines / Patrick McGuinness.
In Brief Review of: The Defector: The untold story of the KGB agent who saved MI5 and changed the Cold War / Richard Kerbaj.
In Brief Review of: Killing the Nerve / Anna Pazos; translated by Laura McGloughlin and Charlotte Coombe.
In Brief Review of: The Ministry of Munitions in the First World War: Doing their bit / Andrew Rawson.
In Brief Review of: Victory in Australia: The remarkable story of England’s greatest Ashes triumph 1954—55 / Richard Whitehead (cricket).
Miscellaneous
M.C. NB: Catnip and coinages: Author anniversaries, Lexipedian lists, Writing rituals, John Allin’s East End.
Letters to the Editor. Pedants of many colours: Pedants of many colours, Tennyson and the poetry of science, Railway reading, etc.
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crimereads.com, 12/20/2025: The Best Reviewed Crime Novels of 2025. "Rounding up the year's most acclaimed novels in crime, mystery, and thrillers."
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Patrick Whittle. Quillette, 12/30/2025: The Sexual Paradise That Never Was. Regarding Coming of Age in Samoa / Margaret Mead.
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Dec 21-31 2025 updates
Aeon Dec 31 (reposted from Aug 8 2025): Iris Murdoch on love -- Dec 30 (reposted from Jan 10 2025): no pure cultures >155 featherbear:
Asian Review of Books Dec 31: the year in translations -- Dec 29: Elisa Shua Dusapin's The Old Fire -- Dec 27: notable reviews listing -- Dec 24: the year in Asian books -- Dec 23: translated short stories by G. Akasegawa -- Dec 21: Andhar Bil by Dalit author Kalyani Thakur Charal >131 featherbear:
Atlantic Dec 31: five books about going out -- Dec 24: Rabih Alameddine True True Story -- Dec 23: culture wars in schools -- Dec 22: Charlie Kirk's latest on the Sabbath >123 featherbear:
The Critic (UK) Dec 31: military history -- Dec 27: in search of Capote -- Dec 26: British Empire comeuppance -- Dec 25: a French Peter Mathiessen in the Alpine whiteness -- Dec 23: books of the year bah humbug -- Dec 21: movie composer John Williams bio >136 featherbear:
fivebooks.com Dec 28: Booker Prize-winning historical novels through the years -- Dec 27, upd Dec 28: non-fiction prize winners -- bonus blast from the past June 30 2011: books on the history of food -- Dec 25: best spy books of 2025 -- Dec 22: prize winning memoirs of 2025 -- Dec 21: best economics books of 2025 >120 featherbear:
Guardian Dec 31: Neil Rollinson's The Dead Don't Bleed -- Dec 30: The Zorg -- Dec 29: This Is Where the Serpent Lives; 8 English houses -- Dec 26: Tupperware erotica; best recent crime fiction & thrillers -- Dec 25: Jacek Dukaj's Ice & the Tunguska asteroid --Dec 24: the legacy of Dark Materials; vampires; converts to Catholicism -- Dec 23: Sven Beckert's Capitalism; Gish Jen's Bad Bad Girl; "best Kenyan, Nigerian and black diaspora writing from 2025 – and some to look out for next year" -- Dec 22: John Updike's best books ranked; land ownership; Bryan Washington's Palaver --Dec 21: banned book gifting guide; romance fiction >122 featherbear:
LARB Dec 30: Jeffrey Ford's Well-Built City trilogy -- Dec 28: resistance SF -- Dec 27: interview with Googoosh regarding the Iranian pop star's memoir -- Dec 24: John Berryman's Uncollected Dream Songs -- Dec 23: bringing a baby into the world nowadays -- Dec 22: Flat Earth >130 featherbear:
LitHub Dec 23: Ed Simon on symbolic interpretation; impact of Lord of the Rings -- Dec 16: books checked out from New York libraries >135 featherbear:
New Yorker Dec 24: 2 books on religious conversion in the U.S.; Harlem on her mind -- Dec 22: fashion; dictionaries; dyslexia -- Dec 21: top 25 New Yorker stories of 2025 >132 featherbear:
NYT Dec 30: universalism vs identity in philosophy; coming of age in Grand Rapids; the book business in 2025: winners & losers -- Dec 25: the more you know, book version -- Dec 24: reissued golden age crime fiction -- Dec 23: Middle East slavery; masculinity crisis in a 2006 book; surprise best sellers -- Dec 22: Betty Fussell & the joy of old age -- Dec 21: audiobooks=reading?; writing & illness >121 featherbear:
PRoB Dec 31: Ed Simon on top ten books lists -- Dec 24: Frank Capra Christmas -- Dec 22: PRoB staff favorites, plus backdated items from Dec 12, 16, 17, 19 >160 featherbear:
TLS Dec 26 >163 featherbear:
Vulture Dec 24 book business in 2025 >148 featherbear:
WaPo Dec 31: revisiting Neil Strauss's pickkup book 20 years on --3 science fiction novels -- Dec 30: Ben Markovits's The Rest of Our Lives; Kristin Martin's Scavengers -- Dec 24: Theo of Golden, a self-published breakout hit by a first time novelist -- Dec 21: obesity in fiction -- see also a belated Dec 20 excerpt from W. David Marx >127 featherbear:
December index >119 featherbear:
December updates: Dec 01-06 >139 featherbear: -- Dec 07-13 >151 featherbear: -- Dec 14-20 >156 featherbear:
new websites added this week:
asterisk >158 featherbear:
bbc culture >161 featherbear:
crimereads.com >164 featherbear:
Metropolitan Review (TMR) >168 featherbear:
The Millions >167 featherbear:
Pittsburgh Review of Books (PRoB) >160 featherbear:
Quillette >165 featherbear:
The Scoop >159 featherbear:
Aeon Dec 31 (reposted from Aug 8 2025): Iris Murdoch on love -- Dec 30 (reposted from Jan 10 2025): no pure cultures >155 featherbear:
Asian Review of Books Dec 31: the year in translations -- Dec 29: Elisa Shua Dusapin's The Old Fire -- Dec 27: notable reviews listing -- Dec 24: the year in Asian books -- Dec 23: translated short stories by G. Akasegawa -- Dec 21: Andhar Bil by Dalit author Kalyani Thakur Charal >131 featherbear:
Atlantic Dec 31: five books about going out -- Dec 24: Rabih Alameddine True True Story -- Dec 23: culture wars in schools -- Dec 22: Charlie Kirk's latest on the Sabbath >123 featherbear:
The Critic (UK) Dec 31: military history -- Dec 27: in search of Capote -- Dec 26: British Empire comeuppance -- Dec 25: a French Peter Mathiessen in the Alpine whiteness -- Dec 23: books of the year bah humbug -- Dec 21: movie composer John Williams bio >136 featherbear:
fivebooks.com Dec 28: Booker Prize-winning historical novels through the years -- Dec 27, upd Dec 28: non-fiction prize winners -- bonus blast from the past June 30 2011: books on the history of food -- Dec 25: best spy books of 2025 -- Dec 22: prize winning memoirs of 2025 -- Dec 21: best economics books of 2025 >120 featherbear:
Guardian Dec 31: Neil Rollinson's The Dead Don't Bleed -- Dec 30: The Zorg -- Dec 29: This Is Where the Serpent Lives; 8 English houses -- Dec 26: Tupperware erotica; best recent crime fiction & thrillers -- Dec 25: Jacek Dukaj's Ice & the Tunguska asteroid --Dec 24: the legacy of Dark Materials; vampires; converts to Catholicism -- Dec 23: Sven Beckert's Capitalism; Gish Jen's Bad Bad Girl; "best Kenyan, Nigerian and black diaspora writing from 2025 – and some to look out for next year" -- Dec 22: John Updike's best books ranked; land ownership; Bryan Washington's Palaver --Dec 21: banned book gifting guide; romance fiction >122 featherbear:
LARB Dec 30: Jeffrey Ford's Well-Built City trilogy -- Dec 28: resistance SF -- Dec 27: interview with Googoosh regarding the Iranian pop star's memoir -- Dec 24: John Berryman's Uncollected Dream Songs -- Dec 23: bringing a baby into the world nowadays -- Dec 22: Flat Earth >130 featherbear:
LitHub Dec 23: Ed Simon on symbolic interpretation; impact of Lord of the Rings -- Dec 16: books checked out from New York libraries >135 featherbear:
New Yorker Dec 24: 2 books on religious conversion in the U.S.; Harlem on her mind -- Dec 22: fashion; dictionaries; dyslexia -- Dec 21: top 25 New Yorker stories of 2025 >132 featherbear:
NYT Dec 30: universalism vs identity in philosophy; coming of age in Grand Rapids; the book business in 2025: winners & losers -- Dec 25: the more you know, book version -- Dec 24: reissued golden age crime fiction -- Dec 23: Middle East slavery; masculinity crisis in a 2006 book; surprise best sellers -- Dec 22: Betty Fussell & the joy of old age -- Dec 21: audiobooks=reading?; writing & illness >121 featherbear:
PRoB Dec 31: Ed Simon on top ten books lists -- Dec 24: Frank Capra Christmas -- Dec 22: PRoB staff favorites, plus backdated items from Dec 12, 16, 17, 19 >160 featherbear:
TLS Dec 26 >163 featherbear:
Vulture Dec 24 book business in 2025 >148 featherbear:
WaPo Dec 31: revisiting Neil Strauss's pickkup book 20 years on --3 science fiction novels -- Dec 30: Ben Markovits's The Rest of Our Lives; Kristin Martin's Scavengers -- Dec 24: Theo of Golden, a self-published breakout hit by a first time novelist -- Dec 21: obesity in fiction -- see also a belated Dec 20 excerpt from W. David Marx >127 featherbear:
December index >119 featherbear:
December updates: Dec 01-06 >139 featherbear: -- Dec 07-13 >151 featherbear: -- Dec 14-20 >156 featherbear:
new websites added this week:
asterisk >158 featherbear:
bbc culture >161 featherbear:
crimereads.com >164 featherbear:
Metropolitan Review (TMR) >168 featherbear:
The Millions >167 featherbear:
Pittsburgh Review of Books (PRoB) >160 featherbear:
Quillette >165 featherbear:
The Scoop >159 featherbear:
167featherbear
Editor, The Millions, 12/22/2025: A Year in Reading: 2025.
"The Millions has been on hiatus for the last year, so we’ve had to scale back our editorial output to just our seasonal Most Anticipated lists. But we couldn’t let 2025 go by without bringing out our annual Year in Reading series, where we check in with some of the most interesting writers and thinkers working today about their noteworthy reads of the last 12 months.
"This year, the series is taking a more condensed form—we asked contributors for shorter reflections, and are publishing them all simultaneously—but we hope it will nevertheless help you discover your next great book. I, for one, am newly determined to finally read some Muriel Spark—thanks, Sebastian Castillo."
"The Millions has been on hiatus for the last year, so we’ve had to scale back our editorial output to just our seasonal Most Anticipated lists. But we couldn’t let 2025 go by without bringing out our annual Year in Reading series, where we check in with some of the most interesting writers and thinkers working today about their noteworthy reads of the last 12 months.
"This year, the series is taking a more condensed form—we asked contributors for shorter reflections, and are publishing them all simultaneously—but we hope it will nevertheless help you discover your next great book. I, for one, am newly determined to finally read some Muriel Spark—thanks, Sebastian Castillo."
168featherbear
The Literarian Gazette & The Metropolitan Review. The Metropolitan Review, 12/26/2025: The Manifold Mind of Saul Bellow. Mr. Sammler lets loose on 21st century so-called "literature!"
169featherbear
Tatiana Schlossberg, 1990-2025
Scott Nover. WaPo, 12/30/2025: shared link: Tatiana Schlossberg, journalist and granddaughter of JFK, dies at 35.
Penelope Green. NYT, 12/30/2025, upd 12/31: Tatiana Schlossberg, Kennedy Daughter Who Wrote of Her Cancer, Dies at 35. "An environmental journalist and child of Caroline Kennedy, she wrote of her struggle with leukemia in The New Yorker in November, drawing worldwide sympathy."
"Tatiana Schlossberg, an environmental journalist and a daughter of Caroline Kennedy — and granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy — whose harrowing essay about her rare and aggressive blood cancer, published in The New Yorker magazine in November, drew worldwide sympathy and praise for Ms. Schlossberg’s courage and raw honesty, died on Tuesday. She was 35.
"Titled “A Battle With My Blood,” the essay appeared online on Nov. 22, the 62nd anniversary of her grandfather’s assassination. (It appeared in print in the Dec. 8 issue of the magazine with a different headline, “A Further Shore.”) In it, Ms. Schlossberg wrote of how she learned of her cancer after the birth of her daughter in May 2024. There was something off about her blood count, her doctor noticed, telling her, “It could just be something related to pregnancy and delivery, or it could be leukemia.”
"It was leukemia, with a rare mutation. Ms. Schlossberg had a new baby, and a 2-year-old son.
"She was never able to fully care for her daughter — to feed, diaper or bathe her — because of the risk of infection, and her treatments had kept her away from home for nearly half of her daughter’s first year of life.
“I don’t know who, really, she thinks I am,” Ms. Schlossberg wrote, “and whether she will feel or remember, when I am gone, that I am her mother.”
"“For my whole life, I have tried to be good,” she wrote, “to be a good student and a good sister and a good daughter, and to protect my mother and never make her upset or angry. Now I have added a new tragedy to her life, to our family’s life, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”
"Tatiana Celia Kennedy Schlossberg was born on May 5, 1990, in Manhattan, the middle child of Ms. Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg, an interactive digital designer. She attended the Brearley School and then Trinity School, private schools in Manhattan. She studied history at Yale University, graduating in 2012, and earned a master’s degree in history from Oxford University in 2014.
"In between, Ms. Schlossberg, who had been the editor of The Yale Herald, was a reporter for The Record of northern New Jersey. In 2012, she was named Rookie of the Year by the New Jersey Society of Professional Journalists. She joined The New York Times in 2014, working first on the metropolitan desk and then as a science and climate reporter.
"On the metro desk, Ms. Schlossberg covered grisly murders as well as lighter fare, including a nun on a path to sainthood, the ice-breaking boats of New York Harbor, the decline of the bodega and the mysterious discovery of a dead black bear cub in Central Park in 2014. Ten years later, The New Yorker reported that the carcass had been left there by her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a peculiar prank.
“Like law enforcement,” she told The Times then, “I had no idea who was responsible for this when I wrote the story.”
"In her essay in The New Yorker, she called out her cousin for his actions as secretary of Health and Human Services, describing him as “an embarrassment to me and my immediate family.”
Under his tenure, she noted, funding for medical research was being cut at institutions like Columbia University, where her husband, George Moran, a urologist, is an assistant professor, and she feared that his job, and those of his colleagues, were at risk. She wrote of the horror she felt when Mr. Kennedy cut a half-billion dollars for research on mRNA vaccines, a technology that is also deployed against some cancers. After her postpartum hemorrhage, she was given misoprostol, a drug used for medical abortions; she pointed out that her cousin had directed the Food and Drug Administration to review the drug after decades of safe use.
'“Suddenly,” she wrote, “the health-care system on which I relied felt strained, shaky.”
"Ms. Schlossberg was the author of “Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You Have” (2019), a kind of consumer’s guide to the ways in which human behavior adversely affects the climate. In 2020, the Society of Environmental Journalists honored the book with the Rachel Carson Environment Book Award. Ms. Schlossberg hoped her book would help people make changes in their behavior and buying habits, rather than being overwhelmed by climate anxiety and fatalism.
"Before her illness, she had been preparing to begin reporting for her second book, focused on climate change and the world’s oceans. She learned that one of her chemotherapy drugs, cytarabine, was derived from a type of sea sponge first synthesized by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1959. Those scientists, she wrote, “almost certainly relied on government funding” — the very thing, she added, that her cousin had cut."
Tatiana Schlossberg's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/schlossbergtatiana
Scott Nover. WaPo, 12/30/2025: shared link: Tatiana Schlossberg, journalist and granddaughter of JFK, dies at 35.
Penelope Green. NYT, 12/30/2025, upd 12/31: Tatiana Schlossberg, Kennedy Daughter Who Wrote of Her Cancer, Dies at 35. "An environmental journalist and child of Caroline Kennedy, she wrote of her struggle with leukemia in The New Yorker in November, drawing worldwide sympathy."
"Tatiana Schlossberg, an environmental journalist and a daughter of Caroline Kennedy — and granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy — whose harrowing essay about her rare and aggressive blood cancer, published in The New Yorker magazine in November, drew worldwide sympathy and praise for Ms. Schlossberg’s courage and raw honesty, died on Tuesday. She was 35.
"Titled “A Battle With My Blood,” the essay appeared online on Nov. 22, the 62nd anniversary of her grandfather’s assassination. (It appeared in print in the Dec. 8 issue of the magazine with a different headline, “A Further Shore.”) In it, Ms. Schlossberg wrote of how she learned of her cancer after the birth of her daughter in May 2024. There was something off about her blood count, her doctor noticed, telling her, “It could just be something related to pregnancy and delivery, or it could be leukemia.”
"It was leukemia, with a rare mutation. Ms. Schlossberg had a new baby, and a 2-year-old son.
"She was never able to fully care for her daughter — to feed, diaper or bathe her — because of the risk of infection, and her treatments had kept her away from home for nearly half of her daughter’s first year of life.
“I don’t know who, really, she thinks I am,” Ms. Schlossberg wrote, “and whether she will feel or remember, when I am gone, that I am her mother.”
"“For my whole life, I have tried to be good,” she wrote, “to be a good student and a good sister and a good daughter, and to protect my mother and never make her upset or angry. Now I have added a new tragedy to her life, to our family’s life, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”
"Tatiana Celia Kennedy Schlossberg was born on May 5, 1990, in Manhattan, the middle child of Ms. Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg, an interactive digital designer. She attended the Brearley School and then Trinity School, private schools in Manhattan. She studied history at Yale University, graduating in 2012, and earned a master’s degree in history from Oxford University in 2014.
"In between, Ms. Schlossberg, who had been the editor of The Yale Herald, was a reporter for The Record of northern New Jersey. In 2012, she was named Rookie of the Year by the New Jersey Society of Professional Journalists. She joined The New York Times in 2014, working first on the metropolitan desk and then as a science and climate reporter.
"On the metro desk, Ms. Schlossberg covered grisly murders as well as lighter fare, including a nun on a path to sainthood, the ice-breaking boats of New York Harbor, the decline of the bodega and the mysterious discovery of a dead black bear cub in Central Park in 2014. Ten years later, The New Yorker reported that the carcass had been left there by her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a peculiar prank.
“Like law enforcement,” she told The Times then, “I had no idea who was responsible for this when I wrote the story.”
"In her essay in The New Yorker, she called out her cousin for his actions as secretary of Health and Human Services, describing him as “an embarrassment to me and my immediate family.”
Under his tenure, she noted, funding for medical research was being cut at institutions like Columbia University, where her husband, George Moran, a urologist, is an assistant professor, and she feared that his job, and those of his colleagues, were at risk. She wrote of the horror she felt when Mr. Kennedy cut a half-billion dollars for research on mRNA vaccines, a technology that is also deployed against some cancers. After her postpartum hemorrhage, she was given misoprostol, a drug used for medical abortions; she pointed out that her cousin had directed the Food and Drug Administration to review the drug after decades of safe use.
'“Suddenly,” she wrote, “the health-care system on which I relied felt strained, shaky.”
"Ms. Schlossberg was the author of “Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You Have” (2019), a kind of consumer’s guide to the ways in which human behavior adversely affects the climate. In 2020, the Society of Environmental Journalists honored the book with the Rachel Carson Environment Book Award. Ms. Schlossberg hoped her book would help people make changes in their behavior and buying habits, rather than being overwhelmed by climate anxiety and fatalism.
"Before her illness, she had been preparing to begin reporting for her second book, focused on climate change and the world’s oceans. She learned that one of her chemotherapy drugs, cytarabine, was derived from a type of sea sponge first synthesized by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1959. Those scientists, she wrote, “almost certainly relied on government funding” — the very thing, she added, that her cousin had cut."
Tatiana Schlossberg's LT page: https://www.librarything.com/author/schlossbergtatiana
This topic was continued by Exploring Books Through Articles, Reviews, Announcements, & Lists 2026-01 Jan-March.
