Sunday Book Review
‘Absolute Monarchs’
By JOHN JULIUS NORWICH
Reviewed by BILL KELLER
Illustration by Lorenzo Petrantoni
John Julius Norwich’s popular history of the papacy finds that the truly great popes were outnumbered by the corrupt, the inept, the venal, the lecherous and the mediocre.
‘‘There Are Things I Want You To Know’ About Stieg Larsson and Me’
By EVA GABRIELSSON
Reviewed by DAVID CARR
Eva Gabrielsson recalls her 32-year partnership with the best-selling author of the Millennium trilogy.
Biographies of Clarence Darrow
By ANDREW E. KERSTEN and JOHN A. FARRELL
Reviewed by KEVIN BOYLE
A pair of biographies about the trial lawyer Clarence Darrow draw on newly unearthed documents.
‘Stone Arabia’
By DANA SPIOTTA
Reviewed by KATE CHRISTENSEN
In Dana Spiotta’s novel, a woman struggles with the loss of her brother, an unrecognized rock star.
Biographies of Lee Krasner and Joan Mitchell
By GAIL LEVIN and PATRICIA ALBERS
Reviewed by JED PERL
Two biographies examine the spiritedness and formidable success of the Abstract Expressionist painters Lee Krasner and Joan Mitchell.
‘A Level Playing Field’
By GERALD L. EARLY
Reviewed by ROBERT LIPSYTE
A provocative and lively collection of lectures and essays about the intersection of race and sports, from a professor of American culture.
‘Tyrant Memory’
By HORACIO CASTELLANOS MOYA
Reviewed by SHEILA GLASER
Through one family’s ordeal, the Salvadoran novelist Horacio Castellanos Moya depicts a country in the grip of a despot.
‘The Wreckage’
By MICHAEL ROBOTHAM
Reviewed by JOE NOCERA
Michael Robotham’s thriller borrows from real events, like the financial crisis and the disappearance of billions of dollars in Iraq.
‘When the World Spoke French’
By MARC FUMAROLI
Reviewed by CAROLINE WEBER
A magisterial study of the role of the French language in its 18th-century heyday, when it was it was still the international idiom of choice.
‘René Blum and the Ballets Russes’
By JUDITH CHAZIN-BENNAHUM
Reviewed by JENNIFER HOMANS
A look at René Blum, who made a place in history running the Ballets Russes.
‘The Crimean War: A History’
By ORLANDO FIGES
Reviewed by GARY J. BASS
Orlando Figes explains how the Crimean War, a major turning point in European and Middle Eastern history, resonates today.
Book News and Reviews
William P.O'Donnell/The New York Times
Rock Stars of Books: Musicians’ Big Sales
By JULIE BOSMAN
Rock ’n’ roll memoirs are selling well for publishers and bring large advances for their authors.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘Reasonable Doubt’
By PETER MANSO
Reviewed by DWIGHT GARNER
The writer Peter Manso recounts a Cape Cod murder case that wound up involving him.
EXHIBITION REVIEW
Venerating Sacred Relics of Shakespeare
By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN
A show at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington traces the veneration of First Folios as much as objects as literature.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘Dominance’
By WILL LAVENDER
Reviewed by JANET MASLIN
In Will Lavender’s second novel, “Dominance,” a Vermont college becomes the setting for a copycat murder.
Picture Books for Children Who Want Pets and Parents Who Don't
Reviewed by PAMELA PAUL
Four new picture books about the sometimes difficult realities of caring for a pet.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘Tomatoland’
By BARRY ESTABROOK
Reviewed by DWIGHT GARNER
In “Tomatoland,” Barry Estabrook delivers a withering criticism of the tactics of the tomato industry in South Florida, where the soil is as devoid of plant nutrients as a pile of moon rocks.
In Cuba, the Voice of a Blog Generation
By LARRY ROHTER
Yoani Sánchez, a 35-year-old writer in Havana, has increasingly drawn attention as a chronicler of daily life under Castro.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘The Kid’
By SAPPHIRE
Reviewed by MICHIKO KAKUTANI
“The Kid” by Sapphire traces the life of the son of Precious, the heroine of Sapphire’s novel “Push.”
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
'A Death in Summer' and 'Tigerlily's Orchids'
By BENJAMIN BLACK and RUTH RENDELL
Reviewed by JANET MASLIN
The Irish novelist Benjamin Black (a pseudonym for John Banville) and the British mystery writer Ruth Rendell have new books.
- Fiction
- Nonfiction
PRINT & E-BOOKS
- Fiction
- Nonfiction
HARDCOVER
- Trade Fiction
- Mass-Market Fiction
- Nonfiction
PAPERBACK
Book Review Back Page
ESSAY
The Writer as Detective
By ROGER ROSENBLATT
All writers are mystery writers, mucking around in a world studded with clues, in pursuit of bad guys.
Book Review Podcast
Featuring Bill Keller on a new history of the papacy; and Eva Gabrielsson on her life with Stieg Larsson.
This Week's Book Review Podcast (mp3)
Magazine
THE 6TH FLOOR BLOG
As if You Don't Have Enough to Read, Fiction Edition
By HUGO LINDGREN
After digesting your additions to, and critiques of, our nonfiction list, we decided to reconvene our panel of nonexperts (ourselves) and come right back at you with a list of the best fiction of all time.
Business
OFF THE SHELF
Investment Tips for the Accident-Prone
By Paul B. Brown
Two new personal finance books are intended to keep investors from tripping over their own feet.
Metropolitan
BOOKSHELF
An Era When the City Roared
By SAM ROBERTS
Books about New York in the ’20s, a Wall Street man in a fatal love triangle and the evolution of a town house overlooking the East River.
Book Review Features
TBR
Inside the List
By JENNIFER SCHUESSLER
Should serial best-seller writers be banned from the list after one appearance, to make way for new blood? The authors of the latest grisly crime thriller out of Sweden might say yes.
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