Book News and Reviews
Mark Ostow
Tom Perrotta
Tom Perrotta’s new novel explores how people cope with grief after loved ones disappear into thin air.
CHILDREN'S BOOKS
Picture Books About Sick Days
Reviewed by PAMELA PAUL
“Llama Llama Home with Mama” and “Bear’s Loose Tooth” are two new picture books that deal with childhood fevers, aches and pains.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘Disaster Was My God ’
By BRUCE DUFFY
Reviewed by CARLIN ROMANO
In his historical novel, “Disaster Was My God,” Bruce Duffy imagines why the youthful genius Rimbaud gave up the literary life.
Bells and Whistles for a Few E-Books
By JULIE BOSMAN
Booktrack, a start-up company in New York, is planning to release e-books with soundtracks that play throughout the books, a technology that its founders hope will change the way many novels are read.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘Just My Type: A Book About Fonts’
By SIMON GARFIELD
Reviewed by JANET MASLIN
“Just My Type: A Book About Fonts” is an accessible book that makes typography noticeable and fun for people who had no idea they were interested in the subject.
RIFF
Another Thing to Sort of Pin on David Foster Wallace
By MAUD NEWTON
How he both inadvertently created the voice of the Internet and ruined a generation of writers.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
Her Life Since Then: Different Views of It
By JANET MASLIN
Patricia Bosworth’s “Jane Fonda” is about a younger woman who had very little idea of who she was, while Ms. Fonda’s “Prime Time” is a how-to book about being happy at 73.
As the Gavels Fell: 240 Years at Old Bailey
By PATRICIA COHEN
Digital tabulation methods allow historians to tabulate trials from 1764 to 1913 at the Old Bailey in London.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘Wendy and the Lost Boys ’
By JULIE SALAMON
Reviewed by EMMA BROCKES
“Wendy and the Lost Boys” is Julie Salamon’s biography of the playwright Wendy Wasserstein, who died in 2006.
Newly Released Books
By SUSANNAH MEADOWS
New books from Gordon Reece, Robert Olen Butler, Jennifer Close, Brandi Lynn Ryder, Evan Mandery and James Sallis.
Sunday Book Review
‘Class Warfare ’
By STEVEN BRILL
Reviewed by SARA MOSLE
Illustration by Joon Mo Kang; Photograph from Jupiterimages/Comstock — Getty Images
In “Class Warfare,” Steven Brill brings a sharp legal mind to the world of education reform and mounts a zealous case against America’s teachers’ unions.
‘The Submission’
By AMY WALDMAN
Reviewed by CLAIRE MESSUD
Amy Waldman’s new novel concerns the controversy surrounding the choice of a Muslim to design a 9/11 memorial.
‘Rebels In Paradise’
By HUNTER DROHOJOWSKA-PHILP
Reviewed by HOLLAND COTTER
An account of how the Los Angeles art scene hit the big time in the 1960s.
‘I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl’
By KELLE GROOM
Reviewed by MADGE McKEITHEN
In her memoir, the poet Kelle Groom struggles with the loss of her son.
‘A First-Rate Madness’
By NASSIR GHAEMI
Reviewed by THOMAS MALLON
A specialist in bipolar disorder explores whether madness improves political leadership.
‘Busy Monsters’
By WILLIAM GIRALDI
Reviewed by FIONA MAAZEL
A protagonist with an odd manner of speaking strives to win back his fiancée from a hunter of giant squid.
‘1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created’
By CHARLES C. MANN
Reviewed by IAN MORRIS
Charles C. Mann argues that ecological encounters since Columbus have affected much of subsequent human history.
Shel Silverstein from "Every Thing on It." © 2011 Evil Eye, LLC.; lettering by Ray Fenwick‘Addie on the Inside’
By JAMES HOWE
Reviewed by JUDITH WARNER
Narrated by a brainy female outcast, this book is the third volume in James Howe’s “Misfits” series.
‘You Against Me’
By JENNY DOWNHAM
Reviewed by EMILY BAZELON
Jenny Downham renews the classic formula of star-crossed romance in a story that forces a choice between youthful passion and family loyalty.
Picture Books About Making Friends
Reviewed by DANIEL HANDLER
Three new picture books deal with the pursuit of friendship.
Books About Troublemakers
Reviewed by A. J. JACOBS
Two bullies are redeemed through art and one remains defiantly unrepentant.
Tales of a Fourth-Grade Something
By MONICA EDINGER
Marissa Moss’s book series for young readers, “Daphne’s Diary of Daily Disasters,” takes on the highs and lows of fourth grade.
Picture Books About Elephants
Reviewed by BRUCE HANDY
The land heavyweights of the animal kingdom figure largely in three picture books.
Picture Books About Lonely Animals
Reviewed by PAMELA PAUL
Creatures in need of companionship are the main features in these three picture books.
Shakespeare and Austen, Updated
By CAITLIN FLANAGAN
Two young adult novels re-imagine two high-school staples, “Pride and Prejudice” and “Hamlet.”
Bookshelf: Back to School
By PAMELA PAUL
Children’s and young adult books about behavioral issues at school, creative play, dealing with bullies and more.
Picture Books About Sibling Rivalry
Reviewed by PAMELA PAUL
“Mine!” and “The Twins’ Blanket” are two new picture books about warring siblings aimed at the youngest readers and rivals.
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PRINT & E-BOOKS
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PAPERBACK
Back Page
ESSAY
Boys and Reading: Is There Any Hope?
By ROBERT LIPSYTE
Boys’ aversion to reading, let alone to novels, has been worsening for years, prompting the question — what turns boys into readers?
VIDEO:Inspiring Reluctant Readers
The best-selling authors James Patterson and Rick Riordan talk about the challenge of encouraging children, particularly boys, to love reading.
From Sunday Review
NEWS ANALYSIS
Fairies, Witches and Supply and Demand
By MOTOKO RICH
Once economics is on the brain, it seems to pop up a lot in children’s literature.
Economy 1-2-3Fiction Chronicle
By CAMERON MARTIN
Novels by Kevin Wilson, David Whitehouse, Maxine Swann and Francis Levy.
T Magazine
Bookshelf
By STEPHEN HEYMAN
On T’s bookshelf this month: a survey of the work of Hussein Chalayan, “Happy Accidents” by “Glee” star Jane Lynch, Cherie Burns’s account of the life of Millicent Rogers and a collection of stories by Sandra Novack.
Off the Shelf | ‘The Wanderings of Odysseus’
By JANE HERMAN
This week, T talks to the restaurateur Andrew Tarlow of Marlow & Sons about his affinity for ancient Greek myths.
Champagne by the Case
By AMY EPHRON
The bubbly flowed, the diamonds too. For one good-time girl in '70s L.A., it seemed like the party would never end.
Book Review Podcast
Featuring Amy Waldman on her 9/11-themed novel, “The Submission”; Holland Cotter discussing the Los Angeles art scene in the 1960s.
This Week's Book Review Podcast (mp3)
Thinking Cap: The Seemingly Persistent Rise of Plagiarism
August 23, 2011
E-Book Author Signs Print Deal With Simon & Schuster
August 22, 2011
Book Review Podcast: Steven Brill's 'Class Warfare'
August 19, 2011
Book Review Features
TBR
Inside the List
By JENNIFER SCHUESSLER
“Unlikely Friendships,” No. 7 on the paperback nonfiction list, chronicles some surprising pairings from the animal kingdom. But can these relationships last long enough for a sequel?
Business
OFF THE SHELF
Of Management and Mosquito Nets
By BRYAN BURROUGH
In his new book, “Lifeblood,” Alex Perry shows how philanthropists have applied management principles to charitable work around the world.
Leonard Bernstein8/25/1918 - 10/14/1990
