Book News and Reviews
Gus Powell
John Donohue
John Donohue has assembled a collection of essays and recipes by men who love cooking.
In Novel by Mayor’s Daughter, Hints of Family Life
By JULIE BOSMAN and MICHAEL BARBARO
Georgina Bloomberg’s new book, “The A Circuit,” is about a family headed by a blunt-talking Wall Street billionaire who lives in a Manhattan town house and “owns half of New York.”
Gluten-Free: Flavor-Free No More
By MELISSA CLARK
A slew of cookbooks have been published to help bakers navigate a gluten-free kitchen.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘Vaclav & Lena’
By HALEY TANNER
Reviewed by SUSANNAH MEADOWS
Haley Tanner’s “Vaclav & Lena” is a story of two Russian immigrants who first meet at age 6 in an English as a Second Language class at their Brooklyn school.
BOOKS
Broad Brushstrokes Obscure a View of Brain Trauma
By ABIGAIL ZUGER, M.D.
In this tripartite story of brain, art and family life, the author aces the first part but comes up surprisingly short in the other two.
Five Poets Seasoned by Life
By DANA JENNINGS
New poetry by Dean Young, Dorianne Laux , Jim Moore, Tom Sexton and Laura Kasischke.
Novelist and His Hero Wonder, Will It Last?
By CHRISTOPHER KELLY
The Texas novelist Stephen Harrigan has been successful, but never in fashion among the New York literary set.
CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK
Books to Bury Yourself In
By JANET MASLIN
The beach book this summer is likely to have new names and new twists, even when it comes to Scandinavian mysteries.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘Alfred Kazin’s Journals’
By RICHARD M. COOK
Reviewed by DWIGHT GARNER
One of the many revelations in Alfred Kazin’s journals, published now for the first time, is the sense they impart of how ill at ease, how easily wounded, he was behind his bluff cosmopolitan mien.
E-Business Is the Buzz at Book Fair
By JULIE BOSMAN
This year’s BookExpo America, an annual publishing business trade show, is full of talk of e-reading and other shifts in the industry.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘Paying for It’
By CHESTER BROWN
Reviewed by DWIGHT GARNER
In “Paying for It,” Chester Brown, a Toronto cartoonist, delivers a comic-strip memoir of his life with prostitutes.
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
Princess Books
By SARAH GIBB and BRIGETTE BARRAGER
Reviewed by PAMELA PAUL
Two new picture books — “Rapunzel,” by Sarah Gibb and “Twelve Dancing Princesses,” by Brigette Barrager — offer highly sweetened variations on classic Grimm’s fairy tales.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe’
By PETER GODWIN
Reviewed by MICHIKO KAKUTANI
In “The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe,” Peter Godwin details many of the brutal actions employed by the Mugabe government to maintain control.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES
‘The Greater Journey’
By DAVID MCCULLOUGH
Reviewed by JANET MASLIN
The historian David McCullough’s latest volume begins in the 1830s and follows waves of young Americans who would become important in the arts, education and technological innovation.
Sunday Book Review
‘The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris’
By DAVID MCCULLOUGH
Reviewed by STACY SCHIFF
Illustration by Misprinted Type, photographs from Getty Images
David McCullough explores the intellectual legacy that France settled on its 19th-century visitors.
‘Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza’
By ADINA HOFFMAN AND PETER COLE
Reviewed by ANTHONY JULIUS
Tattered documents, dating back centuries, endure in a synagogue.
‘Toward You’
By JIM KRUSOE
Reviewed by SAM MUNSON
The narrator of Jim Krusoe’s novel tries to find a way for the living to get through to the dead.
‘The London Train’
By TESSA HADLEY
Reviewed by JEAN THOMPSON
Tessa Hadley’s novel is divided between two characters who once intersected for an affair.
‘Songs of Kabir’
Translated by ARVIND KRISHNA MEHROTRA
Reviewed by AUGUST KLEINZAHLER
A new translation brings a revered body of Indian verse into sharper relief.
‘Bullfighting’
By RODDY DOYLE
Reviewed by TOM SHONE
In Roddy Doyle’s stories, characters struggle with the funk brought on by middle age.
‘Reckless Endangerment’
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON and JOSHUA ROSNER
Reviewed by ROBERT B. REICH
An account of the financial crisis highlights individuals who played crucial roles of responsibility.
‘Boredom: A Lively History’
By PETER TOOHEY
Reviewed by ANTHONY GOTTLIEB
Admitting he’s been bored for large tracts of his life, a classicist offers a history of his affliction.
‘Convicting The Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong’
By BRANDON L. GARRETT
Reviewed by JEFFREY ROSEN
Since the ’80s, Brandon L. Garrett writes, DNA testing has exonerated over 250 people convicted of crimes they didn’t commit.
‘The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster’s Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture’
By JOSHUA KENDALL
Reviewed by JESSE SHEIDLOWER
Noah Webster was a journalist, reformer and lexicographer.
‘A Bittersweet Season: Caring for Our Aging Parents — and Ourselves’
By JANE GROSS
Reviewed by ANNIE MURPHY PAUL
Jane Gross recounts her struggle to help an infirm parent and offers practical advice on eldercare.
We'll begin publishing our favorites on May 31, and will publish a new favorite every day through June 13.
