Sunday Book Review
Mark Mahaney for The New York Times
Harold Bloom
At the age of 80, with almost 40 books behind him and nearly as many accumulated honors, Harold Bloom has written a kind of summing-up of his monumental career as a critic and scholar.
‘2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America’
By ALBERT BROOKS
Reviewed by TOM CARSON
Albert Brooks’s first novel imagines a cancer-free future in which parents live longer than ever — and children resent them for it.
‘The Man In the Gray Flannel Skirt’
By JON-JON GOULIAN
Reviewed by FRANK BRUNI
Jon-Jon Goulian has a peculiar strategy for coping with physical insecurity, lofty expectations and other “pressures of modern life.”
‘Swim Back to Me’
By ANN PACKER
Reviewed by LYDIA PEELLE
In the stories of Ann Packer, individuals struggle against personal devastation.
‘The Watery Part of the World’
By MICHAEL PARKER
Reviewed by EMILY BARTON
A novel ties the fate of Aaron Burr’s daughter to a cloistered community on the Outer Banks.
‘Pulse’
By JULIAN BARNES
Reviewed by CHRISTOPHER BENFEY
Julian Barnes’s stories cover loss, friendship, sex and what it takes for two people to click.
‘Join The Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World’
By TINA ROSENBERG
Reviewed by JEFFREY D. SACHS
A journalist argues that social networks can mitigate social ills.
‘The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism’
By DEBORAH BAKER
Reviewed by LORRAINE ADAMS
How a Jewish girl from Larchmont became an Islamic polemicist.
‘The House of Wisdom’
By JIM AL-KHALILI
Reviewed by JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
An Iraqi-born physicist recalls the golden age of Islamic astronomy, mathematics, medicine and philosophy.
‘Soul Dust: The Magic of Consciousness’
By NICHOLAS HUMPHREY
Reviewed by ALISON GOPNIK
A psychology professor offers the theory that consciousness is a show we stage for ourselves.
‘Revolutionary Founders: Rebels, Radicals, and Reformers in the Making of the Nation’
Reviewed by MARY BETH NORTON
A collection of essays expands our textbook view of the American Revolution.
‘Bottom of the 33rd’
By DAN BARRY
Reviewed by MARC TRACY
Dan Barry finds layers of meaning in baseball’s longest game.
‘Tabloid City’
By PETE HAMILL
Reviewed by JOHN DARNTON
A New York murder tale unfolds over the 24-hour news cycle.
ESSAY
The Case for Self-Publishing
By NEAL POLLACK
For a writer like me — midcareer, midlist, more or less middlebrow — self-publishing seems to make a lot of sense.
CRIME
Touch of Evil
By MARILYN STASIO
Mystery novels by Lawrence Block, Jo Nesbo, Stefanie Pintoff and Scott O’Connor.
Book News and Reviews
Benjamin Benschneider
Erik Larson
A Berlin post in the 1930s was no plum, but William E. Dodd accepted the role of ambassador to Germany, and he and his family offer a glimpse into life as Hitler rose to power.
At Home on the Farm and in E-Books
By JULIE BOSMAN
Susan Orlean’s new book, a long essay called “Animalish,” about her love of animals, was written for Amazon’s Kindle Singles collection.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘Open City’
By TEJU COLE
Reviewed by MICHIKO KAKUTANI
Teju Cole’s first novel follows a lugubrious narrator as he wanders around New York.
Newly Released Books
By SUSANNAH MEADOWS
This month’s new releases include Will Allison’s “Long Drive Home,” Mark Watson’s “Eleven,” Danzy Senna’s “You Are Free,” Marcelo Figueras’s “Kamchatka” and Anna Gavalda’s “French Leave.”
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
Bedtime Books for Boys
Reviewed by PAMELA PAUL
Three new picture books lull children to sleep with a construction site going to bed, a boy in search of his lost bedtime bunny and the story of a little bear’s day told backwards.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘The Man in the Gray Flannel Skirt’
By JON-JON GOURLIAN
Reviewed by DWIGHT GARNER
A loquacious, high-strung, daft and vaguely sad new memoir by Jon-Jon Goulian, a grandson of Sidney Hook’s.
EXHIBITION REVIEW
Oh, the Stuff Those Lions Guard
By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN
In “Celebrating 100 Years,” the New York Public Library shows its populist side in a millennium’s worth of artifacts.
In Book, Sugar Ray Leonard Says Coach Sexually Abused Him
By HARVEY ARATON
In his forthcoming autobiography, Sugar Ray Leonard says he was sexually abused by “a prominent Olympic boxing coach” as a young boxer.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
The Psychopath Test
By JON RONSON
Reviewed by JANET MASLIN
In “The Psychopath Test,” Jon Ronson takes his mistrust of psychiatry along on his expeditions, visiting people everywhere from prisons to the corridors of power.
Celebrity Memoirs
BY SHIRLEY MacLAINE and ROB LOWE
Reviewed by CARINA CHOCANO
In their new memoirs, Shirley MacLaine and Rob Lowe treat the reader like a friend while making it clear that noncelebrities can never really understand the strangeness of celebrity life.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘Area 51’
By ANNIE JACOBSEN
Reviewed by JANET MASLIN
Annie Jacobsen’s exhaustively researched book asserts that its title subject was a cold war site, not a home to little green men.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘Electric Eden’
By ROB YOUNG
Reviewed by DWIGHT GARNER
Rob Young’s new book explores folk music during the 1960s and early ’70s in Britain.
At Google, the Book Tour Becomes Big Business
By KATHARINE MIESZKOWSKI
Many authors may be concerned over Google’s plan to make their books available free online, but a number of them are happy to promote their work at the company’s speakers series.
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
Picture Books About Family Photography
By ANNA ALTER and HARRIET ZIEFERT
Reviewed by PAMELA PAUL
“Grandma’s Wedding Album” depicts an album within a book; “A Photo for Greta” is about a bunny whose father is a photographer.
Children’s Books Special Section
Illustration by Elwood H. Smith
Picture Books About Jane Goodall
By PATRICK McDONNELL and JEANETTE WINTER
Reviewed by STEVE JENKINS
A pair of biographies connect a pre-eminent primatologist’s lifelong work to her childhood fascinations.
‘Divergent’
By VERONICA ROTH
Reviewed by SUSAN DOMINUS
In Veronica Roth’s first novel, an urban dystopia is divided into five factions, each guided by a particular virtue.
‘Okay for Now’
By GARY D. SCHMIDT
Reviewed by RICHARD PECK
Gary D. Schmidt tells a tale of an eighth grader’s healing and discovery through art.
‘Noah Barleywater Runs Away’
By JOHN BOYNE
Reviewed by LOIS LOWRY
When an 8-year-old boy gets fed up and leaves home, he meets some strange characters.
‘Beauty Queens’
By LIBBA BRAY
Reviewed by WHITNEY JOINER
Beauty pageant contestants crash on an island, and defy expectations.
Picture Books About Folk Music
Reviewed by SEAN WILENTZ
In these two picture books, an appreciation of folk music is passed from generation to generation.
‘Abandon’
By MEG CABOT
Reviewed by KATHARINE MIESZKOWSKI
In this supernatural romance inspired by the myth of Persephone, a girl flirts with a death deity.
Novels About Abusive Relationships
By JENNIFER BROWN and DEB CALETTI
Reviewed by LISA BELKIN
Two young adult novels explore abusive dating relationships.
‘Babymouse: Mad Scientist’ and ‘Squish’
By JENNIFER L. HOLM and MATTHEW HOLM
Reviewed by DAN KOIS
A science project in the “Babymouse” graphic novel series takes on a life of its own in “Squish: Super Amoeba.”
‘Fallen Grace’
By MARY HOOPER
Reviewed by AMANDA FOREMAN
A Victorian orphan goes in search of her missing sister in Mary Hooper’s historical novel.
‘Ruby Red’
By KERSTIN GIER
Reviewed by SUSAN BURTON
In this novel, a London schoolgirl inherits a time-travel gene.
- Fiction
- Nonfiction
PRINT & E-BOOKS
- Fiction
- Nonfiction
HARDCOVER
- Trade Fiction
- Mass-Market Fiction
- Nonfiction
PAPERBACK
Book Review Preview
Harold Bloom's Influence
Sam Tanenhaus, the Book Review editor, interviewed Harold Bloom, who has achieved an almost unheard-of celebrity for a literary scholar. Bloom's new book is "The Anatomy of Influence."
Albert Brooks's First Novel
Albert Brooks has written his first novel, “2030.” The Book Review’s editor, Sam Tanenhaus, interviews the acclaimed actor, screenwriter and director about the art of writing fiction.
Rob Lowe Wrote a Book
Rob Lowe discusses his memoir, “Stories I Only Tell My Friends,” with Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review.
Jane Goodall, Illustrated
Two new children's books explore the life of Jane Goodall, the chimpanzee expert and prominent conservationist. The Times spoke with Dr. Goodall about living out her childhood dreams.
SKETCHBOOK
Book Covers That Got Away
A gallery of rejected book cover designs whose creators couldn’t quite let them rest in peace.
Book Review Podcast
A conversation with Harold Bloom about his life and work and Albert Brooks discusses his first novel,”2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America.”
This Week's Book Review Podcast (mp3)
Related in Opinion
OPINIONATOR | FIXES
Publishers as Partners in Literacy
By DAVID BORNSTEIN
First Book Marketplace, which makes quality new books affordable for poor children, helps in ways that libraries and used book bins can’t.
Children’s Books
Operation Seduction
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
Is everyone in France out to rope you in? Mais oui! Elaine Sciolino unmasks a nation forever obsessed with the soft sell.
Magazine
RIFF
Eat, Pray, Love, Rinse, Repeat
By SAM ANDERSON
What happens when a character from the book decides to write a memoir about being in a memoir? It’s the dawn of a new genre: the meta-moir.
Business
OFF THE SHELF
Behind the Greening of Wal-Mart
By BRYAN BURROUGH
In a new book, Edward Humes tells how a former river-rafting guide convinced Wal-Mart to change its environmental policies.
Book Review Features
TBR
Inside the List
By JENNIFER SCHUESSLER
Erik Larson’s “In the Garden of Beasts” hits the hardcover nonfiction list at No. 4, without any help from Navy Seals or Steven Tyler’s hairdresser.
Up Front: Tom Carson
By THE EDITORS
The critic Tom Carson has written about music, books, television and film for publications as diverse as The Village Voice and GQ.
Editors’ Choice
Recently reviewed books of particular interest.
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