Book News and Reviews
Courtesy of the author
Sapphire
“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.
Down to the Sea Again, Impersonating Writers
By DWIGHT GARNER
The paperback game — a variation on games with poetry or Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations — lets players create their own openings to genre novels.
‘The Swinger’
By MICHAEL BAMBERGER and ALAN SHIPNUCK
Reviewed by JANET MASLIN
In this novel about a very famous golfer whose extracurricular kinks become a public embarrassment, the authors Michael Bamberger and Alan Shipnuck know their man and know their game.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘The Land at the End of the World’
By ANTÓNIO LOBO ANTUNES
Reviewed by LARRY ROHTER
In this newly translated novel, the Portugese writer António Lobo Antunes recalls the waning days of his country’s colonial efforts in Angola.
An Author Embodies His Books’ Childlike Spirit
By PAMELA PAUL
Tomi Ungerer, the author and illustrator of children’s books, is his old mischievous self as he nears 80.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘The Steal: A Cultural History of Shoplifting’
By RACHEL SHTEIR
Reviewed by DWIGHT GARNER
Rachel Shteir offers a cultural (and literary) history of shoplifting in her new book.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘Reckless Endangerment’
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON and JOSHUA ROSNER
Reviewed by PAM LUECKE
Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner dissect the financial meltdown, paying particular attention to the legal and regulatory changes that stoked the unsustainable housing boom.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘The American Heiress’
By DAISY GOODWIN
Reviewed by JANET MASLIN
Daisy Goodwin’s novel is about a Gilded Age Newport belle who heads for England to marry her way into a title.
Sunday Book Review
‘A World on Fire’
By AMANDA FOREMAN
Reviewed by GEOFFREY WHEATCROFT
Illustration by Jeffrey Smith
This new history of Britain’s role in the American Civil War examines the battle the Union and the Confederacy waged for English support.
‘Bright’s Passage’
By JOSH RITTER
Reviewed by STEPHEN KING
In the singer-songwriter Josh Ritter’s first novel, a West Virginia farm boy heeds voices he began hearing in the trenches of World War I.
‘Conscience’
By LOUISA THOMAS
Reviewed by ALAN RIDING
Writing about her great-grandfather, the socialist Norman Thomas, Louisa Thomas considers how conscience fares when society deems it subversive.
‘Marriage Confidential’
By PAMELA HAAG
Reviewed by KATIE ROIPHE
Pamela Haag examines the phenomenon of marriages that are not unhappy enough to break up, but not exactly happy, either.
‘Paying for It’
By CHESTER BROWN
Reviewed by ANNIE SPRINKLE
In this graphic memoir, Chester Brown gives up on romance and pursues sex with prostitutes.
‘Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics’
Reviewed by HARRY V. JAFFA
A new translation of Aristotle’s “Ethics” addresses the perennial question of well-being.
‘Miss New India’
By BHARATI MUKHERJEE
Reviewed by AKASH KAPUR
Bharati Mukherjee’s eighth novel is a kind of parable of the new India.
‘Long Drive Home’
By WILL ALLISON
Reviewed by LUCINDA ROSENFELD
In this novel, a suburban dad accidentally contributes to a fatal accident, and tries to hide his actions.
‘The End of Anger: A New Generation’s Take on Race and Rage’
By ELLIS COSE
Reviewed by RICHARD THOMPSON FORD
A journalist draws on interviews to trace the evolution of race relations in the post-civil-rights era.
‘Manstein: Hitler’s Greatest General’
By MUNGO MELVIN
Reviewed by ALEXANDER ROSE
A biography of Erich von Manstein, a general who made Hitler’s military dreams a reality.
‘The Raising’ and ‘Space, in Chains’
By LAURA KASISCHKE
Reviewed by STEPHEN BURT
In a novel and poems, Laura Kasischke considers college ghostlore, mortality and grief through generations.
Fiction Chronicle
By HIRSH SAWHNEY
Novels by Banana Yoshimoto, Marcelo Figueras, Helon Habila and Johanna Skibsrud.
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
‘Super Diaper Baby 2’
By DAV PILKEY
Reviewed by PAMELA PAUL
The second graphic novel in Dav Pilkey’s “Super Diaper Baby” spinoff of his wildly popular “Captain Underpants” series.
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PRINT & E-BOOKS
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HARDCOVER
- Trade Fiction
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PAPERBACK
Book Review Back Page
ESSAY
Tennis by the Book
By TOURÉ
On one side, we had John McPhee against Nabokov. On the other, Martin Amis against David Foster Wallace.
CRIME
Death Among Neighbors
By MARILYN STASIO
Mystery novels by Ruth Rendell, Hakan Nesser, Helen Grant and Conor Fitzgerald.
Book Review Podcast
Featuring Louisa Thomas on her book, “Conscience”; and Katie Roiphe on Pamela Haag’s “Marriage Confidential.”
This Week's Book Review Podcast (mp3)
Magazine
What Does Newt Gingrich Know?
By ANDREW FERGUSON
Let’s consult the literature — all 21 books by the self-proclaimed ideas man of politics.
Business
OFF THE SHELF
The Moral Behind All the Numbers
By NANCY F. KOEHN
In a new book, the Czech economist Tomas Sedlacek shows that economic thinking predates the cut-and-dried science, with tales from Gilgamesh and Genesis.
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
Up Front: Annie Sprinkle
By THE EDITORS
“From the day I gave away my virginity at 17 I started documenting my sexual experiences,” Annie Sprinkle told us via e-mail. “I still am, 40 years later.”
TBR
Inside the List
By JENNIFER SCHUESSLER
Janet Evanovich’s “Smokin’ Seventeen” jumps past Tom Clancy’s “Against All Enemies” to give Evanovich her 12th straight No. 1 hardcover best seller in her Stephanie Plum series.
Editors’ Choice
Recently reviewed books of particular interest.
