Book News and Reviews
Jason P. Smith for The New York Times
The geographer Anne Kelly Knowles has used mapmaking software to re-examine the Gettysburg battlefield.
In the emerging field of “spatial humanities,” scholars are using mapmaking software to recreate vanished landscapes and envision history as it really happened.
A Mystical Tale, From Tee to Green
By CHARLES McGRATH
After years of development, Michael Murphy’s “Golf in the Kingdom” has been turned into a film by the director Susan Streitfeld and the producer Mindy Affrime.
Early Media Prophet Is Now Getting His Due
By IAN AUSTEN
Events in Europe, Washington and three Canadian cities last week honored the centennial of Marshall McLuhan, who introduced ideas like “the medium is the message” and “the global village” into everyday use.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘The Memory of All That’
By KATHARINE WEBER
Reviewed by BEN BRANTLEY
The novelist Katharine Weber brings many famous and glamorous names to her memoir, including that of her grandmother’s lover, George Gershwin.
BOOKS
Their Zeal Changed Lives, if Not the System
By ABIGAIL ZUGER, M.D.
Dr. David A. Ansell writes about his years working at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, where treating patients was often a medical and political struggle.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘This Beautiful Life’
Reviewed by JANET MASLIN
In “This Beautiful Life” Helen Schulman traces an e-mail caper at a New York private school that goes out of control.
Puerto Rico in History, Imagined and Real
By FELICIA R. LEE
Esmeralda Santiago’s latest work is a sweeping historical novel set on a plantation in her native Puerto Rico.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘David Bowie: Starman’
By BY PAUL TRYNKA
Reviewed by DWIGHT GARNER
“David Bowie: Starman,” by Paul Trynka, views its rock-star subject as a shape-shifting and calculating cabaret singer.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘Killed at the Whim of a Hat’
By COLIN COTTERILL
Reviewed by JANET MASLIN
Colin Cotterill’s “Killed at the Whim of a Hat” starts off a new series set in Thailand and featuring the female crime reporter Jimm Juree.
Newly Released Books
By SUSANNAH MEADOWS
New books from Megan Abbott, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Deborah Kay Davies, Sheila Kohler, Alafair Burke and Nina Darnton.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘An Anatomy of Addiction’
By HOWARD MARKEL
Reviewed by DWIGHT GARNER
In “An Anatomy of Addiction,” Howard Merkel views cocaine through the eyes of two fans, Freud and the surgeon William Halsted.
Sunday Book Review
‘An Anatomy of Addiction’
By HOWARD MARKEL
Reviewed by SHERWIN NULAND
An absorbing account of how cocaine affected the careers of Sigmund Freud and the pathbreaking American surgeon William Halsted.
'Inside Scientology' and 'Render Unto Rome'
Reviewed by GARRY WILLS
Two books examine the power that bountiful cash has bestowed on Scientology and the Roman Catholic Church.
READING LIFE
An Academic Author’s Unintentional Masterpiece
By GEOFF DYER
Michael Fried’s genius is to manage to tell you what he is not doing, what he has not done and what he is not going to do.
‘Orientation: And Other Stories’
By DANIEL OROZCO
Reviewed by JOHN WILLIAMS
A sense of workplace alienation permeates this first story collection, which explores the limits of social interaction.
‘The Sisters Brothers’
By PATRICK DeWITT
Reviewed by JOHN VERNON
Alchemy, gunplay and prospecting mix in this picaresque of the gold rush.
‘Once Upon a River’
By BONNIE JO CAMPBELL
Reviewed by JANE SMILEY
Bonnie Jo Campbell’s solitary, sharpshooting heroine fends for herself in rural Michigan.
‘The Idea of America’
By GORDON S. WOOD
Reviewed by DAVID HACKETT FISCHER
Eleven essays encompass the entire career of the historian Gordon S. Wood, whose work re-envisioned the American Revolution and, unusually, has appealed to readers all across the political spectrum.
‘The Girl in the Blue Beret’
By BOBBIE ANN MASON
Reviewed by DANIEL SWIFT
This novel’s hero, a World War II crash survivor, sets out to find the people who risked their lives to help him.
‘Wild Coast: Travels on South America’s Untamed Edge’
By JOHN GIMLETTE
Reviewed by LIESL SCHILLINGER
Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, a tangled green knot of jungle, rock and savannah, are vividly described in this travelogue.
‘This Is Not Your City: Stories’
By CAITLIN HORROCKS
Reviewed by ROBIN ROMM
Caitlin Horrocks’s sharp, rugged-hearted fictions share one consuming fixation: We live in a world studded with cruelty.
‘Ladies and Gentlemen: Stories’
By ADAM ROSS
Reviewed by DEAN BAKOPOULOS
For the characters in Adam Ross’s clever story collection, good intentions often go awry.
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
‘Picture Books About Bears’
Reviewed by PAMELA PAUL
“The Summer Visitors” and “The Next Door Bear” offer very different takes on the intersecting domestic lives of people and bears.
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PAPERBACK
Book Review Back Page
ESSAY
Why Writers Belong Behind Bars
By TONY PERROTTET
From a strictly literary point of view, prison was the best thing that ever happened to the Marquis de Sade. Other writers should be so lucky.
CRIME
Prying Eyes
By MARILYN STASIO
Mystery novels by P. L. Gaus, Linda Castillo, Harry Dolan, Colin Cotterill and Lars Kepler.
Fiction Chronicle
By ALISON McCULLOCH
Novels by Louis B. Jones, A. G. Mojtabai, David Abbott, Ann Joslin Williams and Sheila Kohler.
Book Review Podcast
Featuring the journalist Janet Reitman on her investigation “Inside Scientology”; and Adam Ross on his story collection, “Ladies and Gentlemen.”
This Week's Book Review Podcast (mp3)
Book Review Podcast: 'Inside Scientology'
July 22, 2011
Graphic Books Best Sellers: More Vampires
July 22, 2011
Help Us Compile an Alternative David Bowie Playlist
July 22, 2011
Metropolitan
BOOKSHELF
Giving Voice to Immigrants, Past and Present
By SAM ROBERTS
A collection of oral histories that recounts the hopes and dreams of immigrants, the best urban sanctuaries in the city and the legacy of Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood.
Book Review Features
TBR
Inside the List
By JENNIFER SCHUESSLER
This week’s fiction list feature one out-of-nowhere literary sensation: S. J. Watson well-reviewed neuro-thriller, “Before I Go to Sleep.”
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