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Book Reviews

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EDITOR's CHOICE

6 New Books We Recommend This Week

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Non-Fiction

If You Want to Understand Why Democracy Is Under Attack, Read This Book

In “Black Pill,” the journalist Elle Reeve finds that the once-fringe alt-right is dead — because now it’s mainstream.

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Book Club: Read ‘My Brilliant Friend’ With the Book Review

In August, the Book Review Book Club will read and discuss “My Brilliant Friend,” the first book in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet.

From Harlem to Selma to Paris, James Baldwin’s Life in Pictures

An exploration of the long arc of Baldwin’s career, on what would have been the 100th birthday of the author of “Giovanni’s Room” and “The Fire Next Time.”

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The Woman Who Beat the Boys of the French New Wave to the Punch

The French filmmaker Agnès Varda, who died in 2019 at the age of 90, was so revered that her final decade was one long victory.

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A Memoir That Delivers on Its Promise of ‘Sex, Drugs, and Opera’

In “Seeing Through,” the prolific composer Ricky Ian Gordon shares the heroes, monsters, obsessions and fetishes that drive his art and fuel a dizzying life.

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She Found Bounties in Small Towns, Local Talk and Everyday Life

Rebecca West, in an elegy for D.H. Lawrence, recalled that when he arrived in a new city, he would race from the rail station to his hotel room and immediately sit down.

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Don’t Worry, Be Happy? ‘Feh’ on That.

That much of writing is not writing, or rewriting, or outright trashing what one has written, is a well-worn truth of the trade, fascinating maybe only to practitioners. But Shalom Auslander is a truth teller.

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In Chicago, 3 Shows That Keep the Audience in Mind and Engaged

Musical adaptations of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” and “The Lord of the Rings” as well as a new Samuel D. Hunter play were on our critic’s itinerary.

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6 New Paperbacks to Read This Week

Ready for your next book? Check out these recent paperback releases, including a biography of Hollywood’s first Chinese American movie star and a thriller that unfolds between library stacks.

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A Genre-Twisting Novel by an Author Writing About an Author Writing About Exile

In “Unspeakable Home,” Ismet Prcic writes about a broken writer named Izzy Prcic, who is working on a book about his immigration, displacement and life struggles.

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It Was Supposed to Be a Garden Oasis, but It Led to Unexpected Dangers

In Helen Phillips’s near-future novel, “Hum,” a family’s dream vacation away from technology devolves into a misadventure with major consequences.