Sunday Book Review
Illustration by Frank Viva
Cookbooks
Reviewed by SAM SIFTON
More than a dozen new cookbooks, full of fantasy, truth, good meals and bad.
Post a Comment on Diner's JournalGardening Books
Reviewed by DOMINIQUE BROWNING
A bumper crop of new gardening books that make a good case for the simple joy of growing things.
Travel Books
Reviewed by JOSHUA HAMMER
In this season’s travel books, the most resonant journeys are recorded by writers who hit the road to escape failed relationships, broken marriages and dead-end careers.
Summer Reading: Music
Don Hunstein
Bob Dylan in 1965.
Books About Bob Dylan
Reviewed by JIM WINDOLF
New books by Greil Marcus, David Yaffe and Daniel Mark Epstein reaffirm Bob Dylan’s enduring ability to captivate.
Biographies of Metallica and Queen
Reviewed by ALAN LIGHT
The life and times of Metallica and Queen, two of the world’s biggest, loudest and most emotionally complicated rock groups.
‘Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music’
By ROB YOUNG
Reviewed by BILL WYMAN
Rob Young traces the pastoral roots of Britain’s folk music scene of the 1960s and ’70s.
Summer Reading: Hollywood
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Robert Redford in 1975.
‘Robert Redford’
By MICHAEL FEENEY CALLAN
Reviewed by STEPHANIE ZACHAREK
A meticulous, tiptoeingly respectful biography of Robert Redford: actor, director and environmental activist.
Show Business Memoirs
By DICK VAN DYKE and BARBARA EDEN
Reviewed by HOWARD HAMPTON
Memoirs by Dick Van Dyke and Barbara Eden recall a pioneering era of television comedy.
‘Good Stuff: A Reminiscence of My Father, Cary Grant’
By JENNIFER GRANT
Reviewed by ADA CALHOUN
Cary Grant’s daughter celebrates their relationship.
‘Infamous Players: A Tale of Movies, the Mob (and Sex)’
By PETER BART
Reviewed by CARYN JAMES
Paramount Pictures as seen from on high when the American new wave came in.
Summer Reading: Fiction
‘Sister’
By ROSAMUND LUPTON
Reviewed by LIESL SCHILLINGER
In this novel, a free-spirited sister’s death — perhaps it was murder — forces a highly conventional woman to examine the truth of their relationship.
‘Embassytown’
By CHINA MIÉVILLE
Reviewed by CARLO ROTELLA
On a distant planet, humans introduce the natives to a destructive habit — lying.
‘The Devil’s Light’
By RICHARD NORTH PATTERSON
Reviewed by ISAAC CHOTINER
In Richard North Patterson’s new thriller, Al Qaeda plans to set off a nuclear bomb on Sept. 11, 2011.
‘22 Britannia Road’
By AMANDA HODGKINSON
Reviewed by SARAH TOWERS
In this first novel, a couple shattered by World War II struggle to start anew.
‘When God Was a Rabbit’
By SARAH WINMAN
Reviewed by HENRY ALFORD
This darkly comic novel’s child heroine quotes Nietzsche at the dinner table and names her pet rabbit “God.”
‘Someday This Will Be Funny’
By LYNNE TILLMAN
Reviewed by FORREST GANDER
Lynne Tillman experiments with narrative form in these innovative stories.
Science Fiction Chronicle
By JEFF VANDERMEER
Speculative fiction by Lauren Beukes, Genevieve Valentine, Peter S. Beagle and Jo Walton.
Summer Reading: Travel & Adventure
‘An Empire of Ice’
By EDWARD J. LARSON
Reviewed by JENNIFER A. KINGSON
In time for the 100th anniversary of the conquest of the South Pole, a history of Antarctic exploration through the lens of science.
‘Wanderlust: A Love Affair With Five Continents’
By ELISABETH EAVES
Reviewed by ZOË SLUTZKY
For this traveler, each new place is more mirage than reality.
‘Lost in Shangri-La’
By MITCHELL ZUCKOFF
Reviewed by MICHAEL WASHBURN
How three World War II sightseers survived a crash in remote New Guinea.
‘Irresistible North’
By ANDREA di ROBILANT
Reviewed by SARA WHEELER
Andrea di Robilant’s discovery of an antique travel book sends him on a journey of his own.
‘Andes’
By MICHAEL JACOBS
Reviewed by ALIDA BECKER
A somewhat unlikely adventurer describes his trek down South America’s great mountain range to its icy finish in Patagonia.
‘The Tao of Travel’
By PAUL THEROUX
Reviewed by HENRY SHUKMAN
Paul Theroux’s literary travel volume cites passages from his favorite authors.
Summer Reading: Sport
‘At the Fights’
Reviewed by GORDON MARINO
Essays on boxing by A. J. Liebling, Richard Wright, Joyce Carol Oates, Gay Talese and others survey a world of extreme risk and unique nobility.
‘It’s All About the Bike’
By ROBERT PENN
Reviewed by TOM VANDERBILT
The cyclist Robert Penn sets out to assemble a “talismanic machine.”
Summer Reading: Baseball
‘The Captain: The Journey of Derek Jeter’
By IAN O'CONNOR
Reviewed by RICHARD SANDOMIR
This biography of the Yankees’ shortstop has only good things to say about him.
Biographies of Joe DiMaggio and Hank Greenberg
Reviewed by BILL SCHEFT
Short biographies of Joe DiMaggio and Hank Greenberg, two of the most feared hitters in baseball.
‘Stan Musial: An American Life’
By GEORGE VECSEY
Reviewed by JONATHAN EIG
A biography of Stan Musial, one of baseball’s great hitters who nonetheless kept a low profile.
Baseball Chronicle
By MARC TRACY
A grudge-bearing memoir by Bill White; accounts of Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hit streak and a 19th-century manager’s back-to-back pennant wins; and a retired ballplayer’s Zen-inspired meditation on the game.
Summer Reading: Comics
‘The Comics: The Complete Collection’
By BRIAN WALKER
Reviewed by JEFF SHESOL
An illustrated history of American newspaper comics, from the Yellow Kid to Dilbert.
Summer Reading: Food
Books About Lobster
By RICHARD J. KING and ELISABETH TOWNSEND
Reviewed by DAWN DRZAL
Two short books on lobster, the food and the creature.
Book News and Reviews
Crystal Image Photography, Lawrence, Kan.
Bill James
Bill James, known for his analysis of baseball statistics, tackles data pertaining to well-known murders.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘State of Wonder’
By ANN PATCHETT
Reviewed by JANET MASLIN
In Ann Patchett’s new novel, a research scientist goes outside her comfort zone, to the Amazon jungle, to help solve the mystery of a colleague’s death.
NOTICED
In Their Own Words? Maybe
By JULIE BOSMAN
There is an understanding among publishers, editors and agents that ghostwriters are behind many novels by celebrities.
Q&A
A Fire Lookout on Solitude (and Lots of Time to Read)
By STEVEN KURUTZ
Philip Connors, the author of “Fire Season,” spends his summers living in a remote cabin in the Gila National Forest of New Mexico, where he is on the lookout for fires.
AT HOME WITH KELLY COYNE AND ERIK KNUTZEN
Living Large, Off the Land
By MICHAEL TORTORELLO
Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen gave up a long commute to promote a do-it-yourself revolution from their home in Los Angeles.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘Man With a Pan’
Reviewed by DWIGHT GARNER
John Donohue has assembled a collection of essays and recipes by men who love cooking.
In Novel by Mayor’s Daughter, Hints of Family Life
By JULIE BOSMAN and MICHAEL BARBARO
Georgina Bloomberg’s new book, “The A Circuit,” is about a family headed by a blunt-talking Wall Street billionaire who lives in a Manhattan town house and “owns half of New York.”
Gluten-Free: Flavor-Free No More
By MELISSA CLARK
A slew of cookbooks have been published to help bakers navigate a gluten-free kitchen.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘Vaclav & Lena’
By HALEY TANNER
Reviewed by SUSANNAH MEADOWS
Haley Tanner’s “Vaclav & Lena” is a story of two Russian immigrants who first meet at age 6 in an English as a Second Language class at their Brooklyn school.
BOOKS
Broad Brushstrokes Obscure a View of Brain Trauma
By ABIGAIL ZUGER, M.D.
In this tripartite story of brain, art and family life, the author aces the first part but comes up surprisingly short in the other two.
Five Poets Seasoned by Life
By DANA JENNINGS
New poetry by Dean Young, Dorianne Laux , Jim Moore, Tom Sexton and Laura Kasischke.
- Fiction
- Nonfiction
PRINT & E-BOOKS
- Fiction
- Nonfiction
HARDCOVER
- Trade Fiction
- Mass-Market Fiction
- Nonfiction
PAPERBACK
Book Review Back Page
SKETCHBOOK | AMY GOLDWASSER AND PETER ARKLE
The Books We Read Outdoors
On a recent partly sunny Sunday afternoon on the Sheep Meadow in Central Park, we asked some outdoor readers to give their ground-level book reviews.
Book Review Podcast
Featuring Sam Sifton on new cookbooks and Dominique Browning on new books about gardening.
This Week's Book Review Podcast (mp3)
WEEK IN REVIEW
In Book Circles, a Taming of the Feud
By JENNIFER SCHUESSLER
One of the last old-school literary dust-ups passed into history last week. Can Twitter feuds fill the void of swinging fists?
Children’s Books
‘Blackout’
By JOHN ROCCO
Reviewed by RICK MOODY
A Brooklyn family experiences a blackout in this picture book.
‘The Absolute Value of Mike’
By KATHRYN ERSKINE
Reviewed by GARY D. SCHMIDT
In this middle grade novel, a boy becomes aware of his father’s strengths, and his own, while spending the summer with relatives.
‘Blood Red Road’
By MOIRA YOUNG
Reviewed by JESSICA BRUDER
In this debut young adult novel, a girl searches for her brother in a postapocalyptic world.
‘Far From Shore’
By SOPHIE WEBB
Reviewed by PAMELA PAUL
A field biologist and ornithologist’s illustrated journal of a four-month scientific voyage on the Pacific Ocean.
Summer Reading: Crime
‘Popular Crime’
By BILL JAMES
Reviewed by BRYAN BURROUGH
A baseball statistician turns to his other passion: true crime cases, from Lizzie Borden to JonBenet Ramsey.
‘Violette Nozière: A Story of Murder in 1930s Paris’
By SARAH MAZA
Reviewed by JUDITH WARNER
A lurid murder case from the 1930s sheds light on a time of social change in France.
CRIME
Ghostbusters
By MARILYN STASIO
Mystery novels by Michael Koryta, Justin Evans, Jason Starr and Sara Gran.
Arts & Leisure
Modern Is Modern Is ...
By HOLLAND COTTER
San Francisco exhibitions a block apart explore Gertrude Stein as an art collector and as half of a public gay union.
Autos
BOOKS
The Books of Summer, Awaiting Your Armchair
By CHARLES McEWEN, LINDSAY BROOKE, DON SHERMAN, PHIL PATTON, KEITH MARTIN, STEVE HAYES, DAVE WALLACE Jr.
There is good automotive reading for the summer out there, and while the books may be too hefty for the beach, they are certainly good for the front porch.
Obituaries
Johanna Fiedler Dies at 65; Wrote of the Met Opera
By DANIEL E. SLOTNIK
Ms. Fiedler wrote tell-all books about the Metropolitan Opera and about her father, Arthur Fiedler.
Hans Keilson, Novelist of Life in Nazi-Run Europe, Dies at 101
By WILLIAM GRIMES
Mr. Keilson, a German-born psychoanalyst, won literary fame at the end of his long life when his long-forgotten stories, set in Nazi-occupied Europe, were republished to great acclaim.
Book Review Features
Up Front: Sam Sifton
By THE EDITORS
In the age of Google, it’s not that hard to find a photograph of of The Times’s restaurant critic — but we’re not about to make Sam Sifton’s day job any more difficult by printing one here.
TBR
Inside the List
By JENNIFER SCHUESSLER
Beach-reading season may be in full swing, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a whole lot of constitutional law being debated on the best-seller list.
Editors’ Choice
Recently reviewed books of particular interest.
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