Exploring Books Through Articles, Reviews, Announcements, & Lists 2023-2 Apr.-June

Continuing Exploring Books Through Articles, Reviews, Announcements, & List 2023-1 Jan.-Mar.

NYRB online April 6, 2023 (Note: posted Mar. 19)

Literature

Frances Wilson. Descriptions of a Struggle. Review of: The Diaries / Franz Kafka, translated from the German by Ross Benjamin.

Gary Saul Morson. The Master of Toska. Review of: Chekhov Becomes Chekhov: The Emergence of a Literary Genius: 1886–1887 / Bob Blaisdell.

Nick Laird. Auden’s Dialectic. Review of: The Complete Works of W. H. Auden: Poems / W.H. Auden, edited by Edward Mendelson.

Ed Park. Becoming Enid Coleslaw. Review of: The Complete Eightball: Issues 1–18 / Daniel Clowes.

Alejandro Chacoff. The Unbearable Weight of Levity. Review of: Too Much of Life: The Complete Crônicas / Clarice Lispector, translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson.

Christine Smallwood. The Exorcist. Review of: The Shards / Bret Easton Ellis.

Anahid Nersessian. The Couple Form. Review of: Couplets: A Love Story / Maggie Millner -- A Queen in Bucks County / Kay Gabriel.

Darryl Pinckney. Zimbabwe’s Wounds of Empire. Review of the following titles by Tsitsi Dangarembga: Black and Female -- Nervous Conditions -- The Book of Not -- This Mournable Body.

Karan Mahajan. Avoidance Issues. Review of: The Last White Man / Mohsin Hamid.

Arts & Architecture

James Fenton. Here’s Looking at Yew. Review of: English Garden Eccentrics: Three Hundred Years of Extraordinary Groves, Burrowings, Mountains and Menageries / Todd Longstaffe-Gowan.

Orville Schell. Appeasement at the Cineplex. Review of: Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy / Erich Schwartzel -- Hollywood in China: Behind the Scenes of the World’s Largest Movie Market / Ying Zhu.

Martin Filler. The Architect of Subtraction. Review of: Ornament and Crime: Thoughts on Design and Materials / Adolf Loos, translated from the German by Shaun Whiteside -- Essays on Adolf Loos / Christopher Long -- The Looshaus / Christopher Long -- Adolf Loos: Works and Projects / Ralf Bock, with photographs by Philippe Ruault -- The Private Adolf Loos / Claire Beck Loos, translated from the German by Constance C. Pontasch and Nicholas -- Adolf Loos: The Last Houses / Christopher Long -- Adolf Loos on Trial / Christopher Long.

Religon

Anna Della Subin. A Body That’s Divine. Review of: God: An Anatomy / Francesca Stavrakopoulou.

Susan Neiman. Longing for Reconciliation. Review of: Professor of Apocalypse: The Many Lives of Jacob Taubes / Jerry Z. Muller.

Politics, History, & Society

Christopher de Bellaigue. Erdogan in the Ruins. Review of: Erdoğan’s War: A Strongman’s Struggle at Home and in Syria / Gönül Tol.

Amy Knight. Putin’s Folly. Review of: Invasion: The Inside Story of Russia’s Bloody War and Ukraine’s Fight for Survival / Luke Harding.

Phillip Lopate. Drowned Worlds. Review of: Nineteen Reservoirs: On Their Creation and the Promise of Water for New York City / Lucy Sante, with photographs by Tim Davis.

Ingrid D. Rowland. An Exceptional Witness. Review of: One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World / Michael Frank, with illustrations by Maira Kalman.

Eric Foner. A Regional Reign of Terror. Review of: By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners / Margaret A. Burnham.

Alan Jacobs. The New Atlantis, winter 2023: A Humanism of the Abyss. Revisiting Awakenings / Oliver Sacks.

NYRB online 04/20/2023

Literature

Cathleen Schine. ‘Binding and Building’ America. Review of: Maxine Hong Kingston: The Woman Warrior, China Men, Tripmaster Monkey,… / edited by Viet Thanh Nguyen.

Rumaan Alam. A Formative Loss. Review of: The Furrows / Namwall Serpell.

Geoffrey O'Brien. Joe Brainard’s Communal Intimacy. Review of: Joe Brainard: The Art of the Personal / John Yau.

John Banville. Special Correspondent. Review of: The Secret Heart: John le Carré: An Intimate Memoir / Suleika Dawson -- A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carré / edited by Tim Cornwell.

Negar Azimi. Wilder, Riskier, More Generous. Review of: Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black: Collected Stories / Cookie Mueller, edited by Hedi El Kholti, Chris Kraus, and Amy Scholder, and with an introduction by Olivia Laing -- Edgewise: A Picture of Cookie Mueller / Chloé Griffin.

Miranda Seymour. Consider the Publisher. Review of: Dinner with Joseph Johnson: Books and Friendship in a Revolutionary Age / Daisy Hay.

Ruth Margalit. Writing the Nakba in Hebrew. Review of: Arabesques / Anton Shammas, translated from the Hebrew by Vivian Eden, with an afterword by Elias Khoury.

History, Politics, & Society

Mark O'Connell. Hastening the End. Review of: The Revolt Against Humanity: Imagining a Future Without Us / Adam Kirsch.

Michelle Nijhuis. Refill the Swamp! Review of: Fen, Bog and Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis / Annie Proulx -- Wild by Design: The Rise of Ecological Restoration / Laura J. Martin.

William Dalrymple. Garum Masala. Review of: The Indian Ocean Trade in Antiquity: Political, Cultural and Economic Impacts / edited by Matthew Adam Cobb -- Globalization and Transculturality from Antiquity to the Pre-Modern World / edited by Serena Autiero and Matthew Adam Cobb (to be publ. May 2023) -- Rome and the Indian Ocean Trade from Augustus to the Early Third Century CE / Matthew Adam Cobb.

Robert Kuttner. 300 Years of ‘Too Big to Jail.’ Review of: Impunity and Capitalism: The Afterlives of European Financial Crises, 1690–1830 / Trevor Jackson.

Matthew Desmond. The High Cost of Being Poor. (Essay: "The American government gives the most help to those who need it least. This is the true nature of our welfare state.")

Jameel Jaffer. Judging in Secret. (Essay: "The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel was once known as the “constitutional conscience” of the executive branch, but in recent years it has been known principally for green-lighting torture, mass surveillance, and extrajudicial killings.")

Manisha Sinha. The Beautiful Struggle. Review of: Remaking the Republic: Black Politics and the Creation of American Citizenship / Christopher James Bonner -- The Practice of Citizenship: Black Politics and Print Culture in the Early United States / Derrick R. Spires -- Educated for Freedom: The Incredible Story of Two Fugitive Schoolboys Who Grew Up to Change a Nation / Anna Mae Duane.

E. Tammy Kim. The Safe Harbor. Review of: Harry Bridges: Labor Radical, Labor Legend / Robert W. Cherny.

Matt Seaton. The British Broadcasting Conundrum. Review of: The BBC: A Century on Air / David Hendy -- This Is the BBC: Entertaining the Nation, Speaking for Britain? 1922–2022 / Simon J. Potter.

April 7, 2023|No. 6262

Literature & Bibliography

Jane Maas. A recurring dream: How Philip Roth was haunted in his life and his fiction by a student romance. (Essay)

Jonathan Taylor. Let me tell you a story: How our narratives now threaten to devour us. Review of: Seduced by Story: The use and abuse of narrative / Peter Brooks.

Mary C. Flannery. Literary treasure hunts: Giving new life to manuscripts in the Middle Ages. Review of: Re-Using Manuscripts in Late Medieval England: Repairing, recycling, sharing / Hannah Ryley.

Michèle Roberts. Romantic fictions: The autobiographical novels of two French writers in love with the same man. Review of: This Woman, This Man / George Sand; translated by Graham Anderson -- This Was the Man / Louise Colet; translated by Graham Anderson.

Kathryn Sutherland. Sister act: Two siblings who vied with Walter Scott as pioneers of the historical novel. Review of: Sister Novelists: The trailblazing Porter sisters, who paved the way for Austen and the Brontës / Devoney Looser.

Craig Raine. Global warning: Literature and the threat of the great cold. (i.e., the second law of thermodynamics)

In Brief Review of: To the Stars: and other stories / Fyodor Sologub; translated by Susanne Fusso.

Religion

Piotr H. Kosicki. More to it than the Pope: The paradoxes and contradictions of modern Catholicism. Review of: Catholicism: A global history from the French Revolution to Pope Francis / John T. McGreevy -- The Roman Mass: From early Christian origins to Tridentine reform / Uwe Michael Lang.

David Baddiel. The play was the thing: On being a Jew through or despite atheism. (Essay)

In Brief Review of: He Will Save You From the Deadly Pestilence: The many lives of Psalm 91 / Philip Jenkins.

History, Politics, & Society

Margarette Lincoln. A micro-manager’s mess: The failure of Philip II of Spain’s great enterprise. Review of: The Spanish Armada / Colin Martin and Geoffrey Parker.

Ronal Hutton. Gen A and B: How generational conflicts illuminate Reformation history. Review of: Generations: Age, ancestry, and memory in the English Reformations / Alexandra Walsham.

Felipe Fernández-Armesto. Divided they stand: Why modern Spain’s problems are distinctive but not exceptional. Review of: The Penguin History of Modern Spain: 1898 to the present / Nigel Townson.

Annie McDermott. Sobering minority report: Caught between a Hispanic heritage and the gringo elite. Review of: Hunger of Memory: The education of Richard Rodriguez / Richard Rodriguez.

David Throsby. Everyone’s business: The ruthlessness of the consulting industry. Review of: The Big Con: How the consulting industry weakens our businesses, infantilizes our governments and warps our economies / Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington -- When McKinsey Comes to Town: The hidden influence of the world’s most powerful consulting firm / Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe.

Charles Foster. Tyranny of the clock: ‘Time is money’ or time well spent? Review of: Saving Time: Discovering a life beyond the clock / Jenny Odell.

In Brief Review of: After the Annex: Anne Frank, Auschwitz, and Beyond / Bas von Benda-Beckmann.

Adam Serwer. The Atlantic, 04/09/2023: The Ruling That Threatens the Future of Libraries.

Casey Cep. New Yorker, 04/10/2023: The Oddballs and Odysseys of Charles Portis.

Two from LitHub:

Adrian Johns. 04/07/2023: The Most Mysterious of Arts: On the Science of Reading. Excerpt from: The Science of Reading: Information, Media, and Mind in Modern America.

Ed Simon. 04/10/2023: Baroque, Purple, and Beautiful: In Praise of the Long, Complicated Sentence.

Anne Perry, 1938-2023 (b. Juliet Marion Hulme)

Anita Gates, 04/12/2023: Anne Perry, Crime Writer With Her Own Dark Tale, Dies at 84. The inspiration for the Peter Jackson film Heavenly Creatures. "Ms. Perry’s books, including the Thomas Pitt and William Monk series of historical mysteries, have sold more than 26 million copies, according to her website."

April 14, 2023|No. 6263

Literature

Jeremy Noel-Tod. Knowing like mad: The poetry and criticism of J. H. Prynne. Review of: The Letters of Douglas Oliver and J. H. Prynne, 1967–2000 / Joe Luna, editor -- Snooty Tipoffs / J.H. Prynne -- Whitman and Truth / J.H. Prynne -- Not Ice Novice / J.H. Prynne.

Emily A. Bernhard Jackson. Controlling men: Blokeish musings on Dickens and Prince. Review of: Dickens and Prince: A particular kind of genius / Ni k Hornby.

James Corke Webster. Gothic novel: George Gissing's ‘wonderful’ fiction set in sixth-century Italy. Review of: Veranilda / George Gissing, edited by Markus Neacey.

Maren Meinhardt. Waiting for the fall: Between East and West Berlin, before and after die Wende. Review of: The Short End of the Sonnenallee / Thomas Brussig; translated by Jonathan Franzen and Jenny Watson -- While We Were Dreaming / Clemens Meyer; translated by Katy Derbyshire.

Martin Beagles. Rebels without a cause: Two aspiring Basque terrorists find themselves adrift. Review of: Hijos de la Fábula / Fernando Aramburu.

Nina Allen. Crimes and symbols: A murderer takes on the role of carer. Review of: Quinn / Em Strang.

Alice Blackhurst. Between good and evil: A violent, petty act reimagined as a sociological fable. Review of: Offenses / Constance Debré.

Luke Warde. Document of barbarism: A Walter Benjamin scholar plunges to his death. Review of: Le Vingtième Siècle / Aurélien Bellanger.

Libby Purvis. Are friends electric?: Michael Frayn looks back on those who sparked his creativity. Review of: Among Others: Friendships and encounters / Michael Frayn.

In Brief Review of: The Private Lives of Trees / Alejandro Zamba; translated by Megan McDowell.

In Brief Review of: The Joys of Motherhood / Buchi Emecheta.

In Brief Review of: To the one I love best / Ludwig Bemelmans.

Arts

Hettie Judah. Artist genius, not society girl: Revisiting the work of female abstract artists. Review of the exhibition Action, Gesture, Paint: Women artists and global abstraction 1940–70, Whitechapel Gallery, London, until May 7.

James Hall. On a pedestal: An exhibition of the great sculptor’s work. Review of Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance, edited by Peta Motture, catalog of the exhibition of the same name at Victoria and Albert Museum, until June 11.

Mark Glanville. Italomania: The British passion for all things Italian in photographs. Review of: The Idea of Italy: Photography and the British imagination, 1840–1900 / Scott Wilcox and Maria Antonella Pelizzari, editors.

Ben Bollig. Calling the shots: An Argentine thriller that transcends its context. Review of the Netflix series El Reino (The Kingdom).

In Brief Review of: Affinities / Brian Dillon.

Philosophy & Science

Steven E. Aschheim. An obscene philosophy: Why Heidegger’s Black Notebooks make it impossible to separate his thinking from his politics. Review of: Heidegger in Ruins: Between philosophy and ideology / Richard Wolin.

James Uden. Anatomy lessons: Dissection of men and beasts in the ancient world. Review of: Dissection in Classical Antiquity: A social and medical history / Claire Bubb.

History, Geography, Politics, & Society

Tristram Hunt. Look back in anger: The monuments controversy revisited. Review of: Monumental Lies: Culture wars and the truth about the past / Robert Bevan -- The Everyday Life of Memorials / Andrew M. Shanken -- On the Street: In-between architecture / Edwin Heathcote.

Andrew Harvey. Spoils of empire: A history of the fourth largest African river. Review of: The Zambezi: a history / Malyn Newitt.

Barnaby Phillips. The explorer’s holy grail: Burton and Speke’s search for the source of the Nile. Review of: River of the Gods: Genius, courage, and betrayal in the search for the source of the Nile / Candice Millard.

Regina Rini. Why indict Trump?: Law, order and Kantian morality. (Essay)

Michael Taylor. The grass was greener: Is nostalgia what it used to be?. Review of: Rule, Nostalgia: A backwards history of Britain / Hannah Rose Woods -- Britain's Contested History: Lessons for patriots / Bernard Porter.

Emile Chabal. Pavement politics: The history of the French street. Review of: Histoire de la Rue: De l'Antiquité à nos jours / Danielle Tartakowsky et al.

Omer Bartov. The world turned to evil: The destruction and survival of a family in Ukraine. Review of: A Small Town in Ukraine: The place we came from, the place we went back to / Bernard Wasserstein.

Sarah Colvin. From the Pencil Palace: The writers and journalists who reported on the Nuremberg war crimes trials. Review of: Das Schloss der Schriftsteller: Nürnberg ’46: Treffen am Abgrund / Uwe Neumahr.

Jane Darcy. All a lottery?: How, and how much, people gambled in the eighteenth century. Review of: Gambling in Britain in the Long Eighteenth Century / Bob Harris.

Ann Kennedy Smith. First family: The remarkable legacy of one British clan. Review of: Serious Minds: The extraordinary Haldanes of Cloan / Richard McLauchlan.

Sarah Haight. A shrunken world: Hadley Freeman’s personal account of anorexia. Review of: Good Girls: A story and study of anorexia / Hadley Freeman.

In Brief Review of: Ryszard Kapuściński: biography of a writer / Beata Nowacka and Zygmunt Ziątek; translated by Lindsay Davidson.

In Brief Review of: Zig-Zag Boy: Madness, motherhood and letting go / Tanya Frank.

Advice from Albert Einstein.

Jack Zipes. The Millions, 04/06/2023: My Fairy-Tale Life. An excerpt from: Buried Treasures: The Power of Political Fairy Tales / Jack Zipes.

Motoko Rich. NYT, 04/15/2023. ‘The Tale of Genji’ Is More Than 1,000 Years Old. What Explains Its Lasting Appeal?

"The iconoclastic French historian Paul Veyne illuminated the past by showing how deeply alien it is to the present."

Carlos Noreña. Aeon, 04/18/2023: Guide to a foreign past.

April 21, 2023|No. 6264

Featured!

Tyler Cowen. Every little helps: The advantages of gradual reform over long-term thinking. Review of: The Long View: Why we need to transform how the world sees time / Richard Fisher -- The Lost Future: And how to reclaim it / Jan Zielonka -- Gradual: The case for incremental change in a radical age / Greg Berman and Aubrey Fox.

Margreta De Grazia. Putting horns on the Bard: How Shakespeare came to be seen as a cuckold. (Essay)

Sara Hudston. No sound of silence: The natural world is assailed by noise pollution. Review of: Sounds Wild and Broken: Sonic marvels, evolution’s creativity / David George Haskell.

Irina Dumritrescu. The sleep of the just: Rest and relaxation in a world that will not wait. (Essay)

Literature

Laurie Maguire. Of his time: Shakespeare’s concerns don’t always coincide with ours. Review of: The Invention of Shakespeare: And other essays / Stephen Orgel -- Shakespeare and Textual Theory / Suzanne Gossett.

David Coward. Not the premier league: Jules Verne’s publisher censored his novel to sell more copies. Review of: Vingt Mille Lieues Sous Les Mers: Texte restauré / Jules Verne; Édition établie, annotée et présentée par William Butcher.

Nick Holdstock. Ten eternal years: A novel of the Cultural Revolution. Review of: Golden Age / Wang Xiaobo; translated by Yan Yan.

Rhoda Feng. Doctrinal wrestling: A faculty promotes dialogue between China’s five main religions. Review of: Heart Sutra / Yan Lianke; translated by Carlos Rojas.

Aaron Peck. Dead ringer: A symbolist novel that inspired an opera and a Hitchcock film. Review of: Bruges-la-morte / Georges Rodenbach; translated by Will Stone.

Ben Bollig. Here comes everybody: An Argentine poet’s encyclopedic vision. Review of: Lexikón / Sergio Raimondi.

Philip Womack. Ripples into the future: A struggling teenager bonds with his struggling teacher. Review of: How to Build a Boat / Elaine Feeney.

Stephanie Sandler. Antiwar music: Two collections of Russian protest poems. Review of: Disbelief: 100 Russian anti-war poems / Julia Nemirovskaya, editor -- Poeziia poslednego vremeni: Khronika / Yuri Leving, editor.

In Brief Review of: Death under a little sky / Stig Abell.

Arts

Alex Clark. A watchful and suspicious talent: The life and loves of Patricia Highsmith on film. Review of the film: Loving Highsmith.

Duncan Wheeler. Dreams of the Golden Age: A new production of a Spanish classic. Review of a new performance of Pedro Calderón de la Barca's La vida es sueño (“Life Is a Dream”) at Barbican Theatre; on tour until July 22.

Henry Hitchings. The enigma of survival: Ivo van Hove’s adaptation of A Little Life. Review of the adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life at Harold Pinter Theatre, London, until June 18.

Philosophy

Anna Katharina Schaffner. Ever so ’umble: A critique of self-help that is itself a form of self-help. Review of: In Praise of Failure: Four lessons in humility / Costica Bradatan.

Science and technology

Nicole Jashapara. Happy hunting grounds: The medieval imagination and the idea of the wild. Review of: Wild: Tales from early medieval Britain / Amy Jeffs.

Clare Mulley. What a carve-up!: An archaeologist and craftsman’s imaginary museum of wood. Review of: The Museum of the Wood Age / Max Adams.

History & Biography

Emily Baughan. Women’s work: The makers of the NHS. Review of: The Welfare State Generation: Women, agency and class in Britain since 1945 / Eve Worth -- Posters, Protests, and Prescriptions: Cultural histories of the National Health Service in Britain / Jennifer Crane and Jane Hand, editors.

Eamonn Gearon. Islam’s great divide: How Muhammad’s followers fell out after his death. Review of: The Caliph and the Imam: The making of Sunnism and Shiism / Toby Matthiesen.

Elaine Showalter. Beautiful and damned: The tragic tale of a high achiever brought low by schizophrenia and the spirit of the age. Review of: The Best Minds: A story of friendship, madness, and the tragedy of good intentions / Jonathan Rosen.

Ann Kennedy Smith. Stolen youth: How a round-the-world family voyage turned into a nightmare. Review of: Wavewalker: Breaking free / Suzanne Heywood.

In Brief review of: Paper Knives, Paper Crowns: Political prints in the Dutch Republic / Maureen Warren et al.

E. Tammy Kim. New Yorker, 04/20/2023: When the Culture Wars Come for the Public Library.

Rhian Sasseen. Baffler, 04/20/2023: Of Monsters and Men. Review of: Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma / Claire Dederer.

Sarah Shaffi. The Guardian, 04/19/2023: Lydia Davis refuses to sell her next book on Amazon.

TLS April 28, 2023|No. 6265

Featured

Abigail Green. To the barricades: A panoramic account of the continent-wide outbreak of revolutions in 1848. Review of: Revolutionary Spring: Fighting for a new world 1848–1849 / Christopher Clark.

Julian Baggini. Eating ourselves to death: A manifesto for public health by the government’s former health tsar. Review of: Ravenous: How to get ourselves and our planet into shape / Henry Dimbleby with Jemima Lewis -- Healthy Eating Policy and Political Philosophy: A public reason approach / Anne Barnhill and Matteo Bonotti.

Dinah Roe. Victorian values: Rescuing Tennyson’s female relatives from the footnotes. Review of: Letters and Lives of the Tennyson Women / Marion Sherwood and Rosalind Boyce.

Camille Ralphs. Letting the mob in: On the enduring influence of the poetry anthology. Review of: The Treasuries: Poetry anthologies and the making of British culture / Clare Bucknell.

Literature

Oliver Harris. Him, the jury: The reviled master of hard-boiled detective fiction. Review of: Spillane: King of pulp fiction / Max Allan Collins and James L. Traylor.

Michael Snyder. American love and death: A novelist whose work explored man-to-man emotional contact. Review of: James Purdy: Life of a contrarian writer / Michael Snyder.

A.S.G. Edwards. The full Monty?: A disappointing edition of letters by the ghost-story writer. Review of: Casting the Runes: The letters of M. R. James / Jane Mainley-Piddock, editor.

Douglas Field. A land unfit for Black heroes: The ‘war for democracy’ failed to fulfil its promise back home in America. Review of: The Wounded World: W. E. B Du Bois and the First World War / Chad L. Williams.

Alice Jolly. Other people’s scandals: An elegant literary tribute to W. Somerset Maugham. Review of: The House of Doors / Tan Twan Eng.

George Cochrane. A story, not a plot: A young girl goes wandering in the woods – and through the twentieth century. Review of: The Story of the Forest / Linda Grant.

Andrew Motion. Aliens on the moon: A young boy goes missing in the nineteenth-century outback. Review of: The Sun Walks Down / Fiona McFarlane.

Ian Sansom Rope-a-dope trope: A boxer soaks up punishment in early-twentieth-century Australia. Review of: Grimmish / Michael Winkler.

In Brief Review of: Female Desire in Chaucer's Legend of Good Women and Middle English Romance / Lucy M. Allen-Goss.

In Brief Review of: The Near Future in Twenty-First-Century Fiction: climate, retreat and revolution / David Sergeant.

In Brief Review of: Cousins / Aurora Venturini; translated by Kit Maude.

Arts

Pablo Scheffer. A very modern mystery play: How the Passion is portrayed in the Netherlands. (Essay: "... since 2011, a chosen town in the Netherlands has played host to The Passion, a jukebox musical-style adaptation of the Passion of Christ.")

Laurie Maguire. Women’s work: Grief and reconciliation in Stratford’s first family. Review of an adaptation of Maggie Farrell's novel Hamnet, Adapted by Lolita Chakrabarti, Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, until June 17; then Garrick Theatre, London, from September 30 until January 6, 2024.

Kevin Le Gendre. Dread beat an’ blood: Brixton’s poet laureate. Review of: Time Come: selected prose / Linton Kwesi Johnson.

Philosophy

Geertje Bol. Ahead of her time: An advocate of republican liberty and women’s rights whose history of England outsold David Hume’s. Review of: Catharine Macaulay: Political writings / Max Skjönsberg, editor.

Raffael Fassel. The wrongs of animals: An argument to protect the dignity of all sentient beings. Review of: Justice for Animals: Our collective responsibility / Martha C. Nussbaum.

Science & Technology

Brandon J. Weichert. A new space race: The final frontier of the Cold War between America and China. Review of: The Future of Geography: How power and politics in space will change our world / Tim Marshall -- Astrotopia: The dangerous religion of the corporate space race / Mary-Jane Rubenstein.

History, Politics, & Society

Ian Sansom. Relatively famous: Nepo babies and normal celebrities. (Essay)

Simon Franklin. In their own words: How Russian intellectuals came to record peasant speech. Review of: Recording Russia: Trying to listen in the nineteenth century / Gabriella Safran.

Kristin Roth-Ey. Puppet government: When Big Bird met the Russian Eagle. Review of: Muppets in Moscow: The unexpected crazy true story of making / Natasha Lance Rogoff.

Charles Glass. Find me the link!: An apologist seeks to justify an ‘abomination of a war.’ Review of: Confronting Saddam Hussein: George W. Bush and the invasion of Iraq / Melvyn P. Leffler.

Michael Vatikiotis. Cruel state within the state: Sixty years of military impunity and violence in Myanma. Review of: Return of the Junta: Why Myanmar’s military must go back to the barracks / Oliver Slow -- I Feel No Peace: Rohingya fleeing over seas & rivers / Kaamil Ahmed.

In Brief Review of: City and Modernity in Georg Simmel and Walter Benjamin: Fragments of metropolis / Vincenzo Mele.

In Brief Review of: Medieval Horizons: Why the Middle Ages matter / Ian Mortimer.

In Brief Review of: Pan: The great god’s modern return / Paul Robichaud.

In Brief Review of: The Noise of Typewriters: Remembering journalism / Lance Morrow.

NYRB online, May 11, 2023

Arts & Literature

Susan Tallman. The Perpetual Provocateur. Review of: the catalog & exhibition Sublime Ideas: Drawings by Giovanni Battista Piranesi / John Marciari; exhibition at the Morgan Library and Museum, New York City, March 10–June 4, 2023 -- Piranesi and the Modern Age / Victor Plahte Tschudi -- Giovanni Battista Piranesi: Catalogue of the Complete Etchings / Luigi Ficacci.

Ingrid D. Rowland. Mysteries of Use and Reuse. Review of the catalog & exhibition Recycling Beauty / Catalog of the exhibition edited by Salvatore Settis with Anna Anguissola; exhibition at the Fondazione Prada, Milan, November 17, 2022–February 27, 2023.

Julian Bell. A Mind in Space. Essay: "Adam Elsheimer’s painting Flight into Egypt is in many ways a witness to humanity’s developing grip on nature, though its origin isn’t straightforward."

Colin B. Bailey. Dreams of Painting Walls. Review of: La Peinture impressionniste et la décoration = Impressionist Painting and Decoration / Marine Kisiel -- Le Décor impressionniste: aux sources des Nymphéas = Impressionist Decor: The Sources of the Water Lilies / exhibition at the Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, March 2–July 11, 2022, catalog of the exhibition edited by Sylvie Patry and Anne Robbins.

Andrew Katzenstein. Escaping from Notes to Sounds. Review of: Spirits Rejoice!: Albert Ayler and His Message / Peter Niklas Wilson, translated from the German by Jane White -- Holy Ghost: The Life and Death of Free Jazz Pioneer Albert Ayler / Richard Koloda -- Revelations: The Complete ORTF 1970 Fondation Maeght Recordings (4 CDs).

Wendy Doniger. Of Crocodiles and Kings. Review of: Needle at the Bottom of the Sea: Bengali Tales from the Land of the Eighteen Tides / translated from the Bangla by Tony K. Stewart, with contributions by Ayesha A. Irani.

Christopher Benfey. Resistance Pottery. Review of the exhibitions Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina / Catalog of the exhibition edited by Adrienne Spinozzi; exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, September 9, 2022–February 5, 2023; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, March 4–July 9, 2023; the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, August 26, 2023–January 7, 2024; and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, February 16–May 12, 2024 -- Crafting Freedom: The Life and Legacy of Free Black Potter Thomas W. Commeraw / exhibition at the New-York Historical Society, New York City, January 27–May 28, 2023.

Jed Perl. The Chilliest Mystique. Review of the catalogs & exhibitions Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952–1982 / catalog by Leslie Jones, with contributions by Bronaċ Ferran, Patrick Frank, and others; exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, February 12–July 2, 2023 -- Signals: How Video Transformed the World / Catalog of the exhibition by Stuart Comer and Michelle Kuo, with contributions by Erika Balsom, Aria Dean, and others; exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, March 5–July 8, 2023.

Jarrett Earnest. Art Is a Drug. Review of the catalogs and exhibitions General Idea / catalog of the exhibition edited by Adam Welch; exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, June 3–November 20, 2022; and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, March 11–June 4, 2023 -- Ecce Homo: The Drawings of General Idea, 1985–1993 / catalog of the exhibition edited by AA Bronson, Lionel Bovier, and Claire Gilman; exhibition at the Drawing Center, New York City, October 7, 2022–January 15, 2023; and MAMCO Geneva, February 22–June 18, 2023.

Alice Kaplan. Seeing Baya Anew. Review of the catalog & exhibition Baya: Femmes en leur jardin = Baya: Women in Their Garden / Catalog of the exhibition edited by Claude Lemand, Anissa Bouayed, and Djamila Chakour; exhibition at the Institut du monde arabe, Paris, November 8, 2022–March 26, 2023; and the Centre de la Vieille Charité, Marseille, May 11–September 24, 2023.

Nicole Rudick. Les Enfants Terribles. Review of three novels by Anne Garréta: Sphinx / translated from the French by Emma Ramadan, with an introduction by Daniel Levin Becker -- Not One Day / translated from the French by Emma Ramadan and the author, with an afterword by Sarah Gerard -- In Concrete / translated from the French and with an afterword by Emma Ramadan.

Jacqueline Rose. Fascism Plucking the Strings. Review of: Good, a play by C.P. Taylor, directed by Dominic Cooke, at the Harold Pinter Theatre, London, October 5, 2022–January 7, 2023.

Ariel Dorfman. A Profusion of Poets. Review of: Chilean Poet / Alejandro Zambra, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell.

History, Politics, & Culture

Fintan O'Toole. Bump and grind. (Essay: "That our former president is likely to be indicted for paying hush money to a porn star and lying about it shows the Trumpification of our politics: the relationship between reality and story has gone buck wild.")

Joshua Leifer. Whose Constitution, Whose Democracy? (Essay: "Many opponents of Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul have called for Israel to finally draft a constitution, but any serious attempt will mean choosing between a democratic state and one that privileges Jewish citizens above all others.")

Timothy Garton Ash. Yearning to Breathe Free. (Essay: "The opening of the Berlin Wall was a one-in-a-million piece of historical luck.")

Tash Aw. Personal Histories. Review of the catalog & exhibition Sim Chi Yin: One Day We’ll Understand / Catalog of the exhibition by Lotte Laub, Sam I-shan, Sim Chi Yin, Maaza Mengiste, and Hilary Roberts; exhibition at Zilberman Gallery, Berlin, September 14–November 27, 2021 -- and the book: She Never Rode That Trishaw Again / Sim Chi Yin.

Jonathan Mingle. Après-Ski. Review of: The Last Winter: The Scientists, Adventurers, Journeymen, and Mavericks Trying to Save the World / Porter Fox.

Jean Dykstra. ‘Looking Out.’ Review of Ear Hustle / a podcast created by Nigel Poor, Earlonne Woods, and Antwan Williams -- This Is Ear Hustle: Unflinching Stories of Everyday Prison Life / Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods -- The San Quentin Project / Nigel Poor, with contributions by Reginald Dwayne Betts, George Mesro Coles-El, Rachel Kushner, Michael Nelson, Ruben Ramirez, Lisa Sutcliffe, and others.

George Black. LitHub, 04/28/2023: The Vietnam War, 50 Years On: A Reading List.

Vanessa Cuti. crimereads.com, 04/28/2023: Five Great Novels Inspired by Real-Life Crimes.

David Wooton. The Critic, April 2023: Casting light in dark corners. Review of: Ignorance: a global history / Peter Burke.

Belated posting, apologies:

ChatGPT, interviewed by Juliet Frost & Sophie Roell. fivebooks.com, 01/06/2023: The best books on Artificial Intelligence recommended by ChatGPT.

Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (Pearson Series in Artificial Intelligence) 4th ed. / Stuart Russell & Peter Norvig.

Deep Learning (Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning series) / Aaron Coorville, Ian Goodfellow, & Yoshua Bengio. (#1 in Hockey Coaching per Amazon)

The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World / Pedro Domingo.

Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies / Nick Bostrom.

Thinking, Fast and Slow / Daniel Kahneman.

Catching up on The Millions:

Bryan Van Dyke. 04/19/2023: The Haunted Writing Life of John Polidori.

Leo Lasdun. 04/14/2023: Dream Journals: Revisiting Bruno Schulz.

Kent Puckett. Public Books, 04/28/2023: B-Sides: Reading, Race, and “Robert's Rules of Order.”

Rachel Cusk. NYT Magazine, 05/02/2023: Is Annie Ernaux the Most Brutally Honest Writer Alive? Just finished Rachel Cusk's Outline this year; worthwhile writing.

TLS May 5, 2023|No. 6266

Featured

Boris Dralyuk. Man of margins: How Bruno Schulz found freedom on the periphery of life. Review of: Bruno Schulz: An artist, a murder, and the hijacking of history / Benjamin Balint -- Nocturnal Apparitions: essential stories / Bruno Schulz; translated by Stanley Bill.

Joe Moran. Their little pony: The weird world of fandom. Review of: Fans: A journey into the psychology of belonging / Michael Bond.

Sarah Richmond. A philosopher’s philosopher: Why Derek Parfit thought that if morality was not objective, life was meaningless. Review of: Parfit: A philosopher and his mission to save morality / David Edmonds.

Edith Hall. Cleopatra’s afterlives: The cultural legacy of the Egyptian queen and her daughter. Review of: Cleopatra's Daughter: Egyptian princess, Roman prisoner, African queen / Jane Draycott -- Cleopatra: Her history, her myth / Francine Prose.

Literature

Craig Raine. Snap goes the weasel: The occluded, political, implacable chiaroscuro of Harold Pinter. (Essay)

James Cook. Other people’s stories: The comedy and difficulty of teaching creative writing. Review of: The Writing School (a memoir) / Miranda France.

Dinah Birch. Always on and on: The stories and poems of the swashbuckling, dissembling writer Patrick O’Brian. Review of: The Complete Short Stories / Patrick O'Brian -- The Uncertain Land / Patrick O'Brian.

Anna Aslanyan. Life was not so beautiful: An Italian film-maker’s childhood in the fascist era. Review of: The Sky Is Falling / Lorenza Mazzetti; translated by Livia Franchini.

Mark Glanville. Masters and slaves: Poetry and words that accompany Pasolini’s film La rabbia. Review of: La Rabbia = Anger / Pier Paolo Pasolini; translated by Cristina Viti.

Lindsay Duguid. No love, much infidelity: Clever plots and decorous style in women’s tales from the 40s and 50s. Review of: A Different Sound: Stories by mid-century women writers / Lucy Scholes, editor.

Benjamin Paloff. Flow of colours: The impressionist prose of the Polish master stylist Władysław Reymont. Review of: The Peasants / Władysław Reymont; translated by Anna Zaranko -- The Revolt of the Animals / Władysław Reymont; translated by Charles S. Kraszewski.

Lily Herd. Olympian struggle: The climate crisis through the prism of ancient myth. Review of: No Season But the Summer / Matilda Leyser.

Houman Barekat. The texture of silence: The tender rapport between a student and her teacher. Review of: Greek Lessons / Han Kang; translated by Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won.

In Brief Review of: Look at the Lights, My Love / Annie Ernaux; translated by Alison L. Strayer.

In Brief Review of: The Caterpillar Dogs and Other Early Stories / Tennessee Williams.

In Brief Review of: Love and Dread / Rachel Hadas.

Arts

Claudia Swan. Looking behind the curtain: Vermeer’s masterly meditations on light and form. Review of the exhibition Vermeer, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, until June 4.

Frances Wilson. Great artists, great sinners?: A study of figures whose creative output has become inseparable from their behaviour. Review of: Monsters: a fan's dilemma / Claire Dederer.

Philosophy

Emily Herring. Thinking with élan: A supremely stylish critic of scientific overreach. Review of: Creative Evolution / Henri Bergson; translated by Donald A. Landes.

History, Politics, & Culture

Isabel Hilton. Taking the Party line: How China tells its story to the world. Review of: Beijing's Global Media Offensive: China’s uneven campaign to influence Asia and the world / Joshua Kurlantzick.

Scott Lucas. Agency work: The troubled history of US intelligence. Review of: A Question of Standing: The history of the CIA / Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones.

Sarah Jilani. On amber alert: A family memoir that explores the effects of racism. Review of: I'm Black So You Don't Have To Be / Colin Grant.

David Motadel. The rise and fall of progress: A postwar age of technological wonders has ended in disillusionment. Review of: The Age of Interconnection: A global history of the second half of the twentieth century / Jonathan Sperber.

Frank Dikötter. Name the dead: Saving China's victims from oblivion. Review of: Red Memory: Living, remembering and forgetting China’s Cultural Revolution / Tania Branigan -- Victims of the Cultural Revolution: Testimonies of China’s tragedy / Wang Youqin; translated and edited by Stacy Mosher.

Jeffrey Wasserstrom. Hostage crisis: An international incident from China’s Warlord Era. Review of: The Peking Express: the bandits who stole a train, stunned the west, and broke the Republic of China / James M. Zimmerman.

David Arnold. Player, or pawn in the game: The frustrations of England’s earliest encounter with India. Review of: Courting India: England, Mughal India and the origins of empire / Nandini Das -- Adventurers: The improbable rise of the East India Company, 1550–1650 / David Howarth.

In Brief Review of: The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans left / Hassan Abbas.

In Brief Review of: Virtual Holocaust Memory / Matthew Boswell and Antony Rowland.

NYRB online May 25 2023

Literature

Michael Hofmann. Bewitched by Goethe. Review of: Conversations with Goethe: In the Last Years of His Life / Johann Peter Eckermann, translated from the German by Allan Blunden, with an introduction and notes by Ritchie Robertson.

Larry Rohter. The Inventor of Magical Realism. Review of: Mr. President / Miguel Ángel Asturias, translated from the Spanish by David Unger, with a foreword by Mario Vargas Llosa and an introduction by Gerald Martin.

Brenda Wineapple. At Odds with Two Worlds. Review of: The Lost Wife: a novel / Susanna Moore.

Andrew Martin. The Documentarian. Review of: The Apartment on Calle Uruguay: a novel / Zachary Lazar.

Daisy Hildyard. Seeing Through It All. Review of: Seven Steeples / Sara Baume.

Arts

Joan Acocella. From Russia with Love. Review of: Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century / Jennifer Homans.

Edward Ball. ‘Tell Your Story, Omar.’ Review of: Omar / an opera by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels, at the Spoleto Festival, Charleston, May 27–June 12, 2022; the Los Angeles Opera, October 22–November 13, 2022; Carolina Performing Arts, Chapel Hill, February 25–26, 2023; the Boston Lyric Opera, May 4–7, 2023; and the San Francisco Opera, November 5–21, 2023.

Elaine Bahr. The Limits of Language. Review of: She Said a film directed by Maria Schrader -- Women Talking / a film written and directed by Sarah Polley -- I May Destroy You / a BBC One/HBO series written and directed by Michaela Coel.

Ian Johnson. Loot Under the Lindens. Review of: Empty Showcases?: About the Handling of Objects from Tanzania / an ongoing exhibition at the Humboldt Forum, Berlin -- A Modern History of China’s Art Market / Kejia Wu.

History, Politics, & Society

Adam Hochschild. History Bright and Dark. Review of: The Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum / 3,268 pp., available at k12.hillsdale.edu/Curriculum/The-Hillsdale-1776-Curriculum/Access/ -- The 1619 Project / a six-part Hulu documentary series hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones.

Jerome Groopman. Saving Lives and Making a Killing. Review of: For Blood and Money: Billionaires, Biotech, and the Quest for a Blockbuster Drug / Nathan Vardi.

Nicholas Guyatt. Blues, Grays & Greenbacks. Review of: Ways and Means: Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War / Roger Lowenstein -- Bonds of War: How Civil War Financial Agents Sold the World on the Union / David K. Thomson.

Jenny Uglow. Shifting Sands. Review of: Samuel Pepys and the Strange Wrecking of the Gloucester: The Shipwreck That Shocked Restoration Britain / Nigel Pickford.

Willa Glickman. The Fight for Fair Wages. Review of: Essential: How the Pandemic Transformed the Long Fight for Worker Justice / Jamie K. McCallum -- On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane / Emily Guendelsberger -- On the Line: A Story of Class, Solidarity, and Two Women’s Epic Fight to Build a Union / Daisy Pitkin -- Class Struggle Unionism / Joe Burns -- One Fair Wage: Ending Subminimum Pay in America / Saru Jayaraman.

Jed S. Rakoff. The Frontier Justice. Review of: Citizen Justice: The Environmental Legacy of William O. Douglas—Public Advocate and Conservation Champion / M. Margaret McKeown.

Momo Chang. Guardian, 05/05/2023:‘A culture, a people, an ethos’: one of the US’s oldest Asian American bookstores closes. Owners closed in part to take care of elderly parents; part of the ethos, I suppose.

New May articles from The Millions:

Jianan Qian. 05/04/2023: Dentistry and Doubt: On Writing About Teeth.

Katy Simpson Smith. 05/04/2023: Camille T. Dungy on ‘Soil,’ Growth, and Gardening. Review of: Soil: the Story of a Black Mother's Garden / Camille T. Dungy.

Leah Finnegan. The Baffler, 05/02/2023: Traffic Jam: worshipping at the altar of the click. Review of: Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral / Ben Smith.

Bruce McCall, 1935-2023

William Grimes. NYT, 05/05/2023: Bruce McCall, Satirical Artist Who Conjured a ‘Retrofuture,’ Dies at 87.

Ronald Steel, 1931-2023

Robert McFadden. NYT, 05/08/2023: Ronald Steel, Critic of American Cold War Policies, Dies at 92.

Author of, among others: Walter Lippmann and the American Century (1980) -- Pax Americana (1967) -- Temptations of a Superpower (1991)

Joumana Khatib, Alexandra Alter and Elizabeth A. Harris. NYT, 05/08/2023: Pulitzer Prizes 2023: A Guide to the Winning Books and Finalists.

Fiction

Demon Copperhead / Barbara Kingsolver and Trust / Hernan Diaz. Fiction finalist: The Immortal King Rao / Vauhini Rao.

History

Freedom’s Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power / Jefferson Cowie. Finalists: Watergate: A New History / Garrett M. Graff and Seeing Red: Indigenous Land, American Expansion, and the Political Economy of Plunder in North America / Michael John Witgen

Biography

G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century / Beverly Gage. Finalists: His Name is George Floyd / Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa and Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century / Jennifer Homans

Memoir

Stay True: a memoir / Hua Hsu. Finalists: The Man Who Could Move Clouds / Ingrid Rojas Contreras and Easy Beauty / Chloé Cooper Jones

Poetry

Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020 / Carl Phillips. Finalists: Still Life / Jay Hopler and Blood Snow / dg nanouk okpik

General non-fiction

His Name is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice / Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa -- Finalists: Sounds Wild and Broken: Sonic Marvels, Evolution’s Creativity, and the Crisis of Sensory Extinction / David George Haskell and Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution That Made China Modern / Jing Tsu

TLS May 12, 2023|No. 6267

Featured

Peter Thonemann. Know thyself: A civilization that questions its first principles. Review of: The West: A new history of an old idea / Naoíse Mac Sweeney.

Joe Moran. Eureka!: What imagination is and how to cultivate it. Review of: The Imagination Muscle: Where good ideas come from (and how to have more of them) / Albert Read.

Lara Pawson. Reasons to live: Deborah Levy’s most emphatically uncanny novel yet. Review of: August Blue: a novel / Deborah Levy.

Regina Rini. Gargoyle eyes: How pervasive surveillance is changing social norms. (Essay)

Literature

Alice Kelly. The party to end all parties: What four graphic novels tell us about The Great Gatsby. (Essay)

Sean O'Brien. There is no why: An erratic father initiates a cult. Review of: The Way the Day Breaks / David Roberts.

Ruth Scurr. The view from the doll’s house: A mother raises a young boy in an unequal world. Review of: Soldier Sailor / Claire Kilroy.

Rohan Maitzen. All the pieces: Finding meaning amid grief and war in 1940s London. Review of: The Midnight News / Jo Baker.

In Brief Review of: The Memory of Animals / Claire Fuller.

In Brief Review of: Space Crone / Ursula K. Leguin.

Arts

Ben Hutchinson. Histories of the tenth Muse: The astonishing impact of the new technology of print. Review of the exhibition & catalog Imprimer! L’Europe de Gutenberg; catalog Nathalie Coilly and Caroline Vrand, editors.

Michael Caines. Blood, guts and hesitation: Theatrical superstars battle it out over the Prince of Denmark. Review of Jack Thorne's play The motive and the cue, National Theatre, until July 15.

Science & Technology

Helen Gordon. Hot rocks: Sixty stones that illustrate the history of the world. Review of: Lapidarium: The secret lives of stones / Hettie Judah.

Andrew H. Knoll. Anybody out there?: Calculating the odds of alien life. Review of: The Possibility of Life: Searching for kinship in the cosmos / Jaime Green.

Religion

Libby Purves. Beckoning towers: A ‘treasure house’ of sketches of Anglican churches. Review of: A Church Near You: An introduction to Anglican churches from Cumbria to Cornwall / Denis Dunstone. (somebody in M.R. James stories always researching this book)

Ysende Maxtone Graham. Here’s the steeple: A lyrical, whimsical, elegiac journey round the holy buildings and sites of Britain. Review of: Steeple Chasing: Around Britain by church / Peter Ross. (murder victim in Ngaio Marsh novel)

History, Politics, & Culture

Benjamin Markovits. Hoop dreams: Getting to the core of a sporting great. Review of: Lebron / Jeff Benedict.

James Corke-Benedict. The spectre of autocracy gone wrong: Histories of Rome’s ‘worst’ emperor follow a historical trope. Review of: The Mad Emperor: Heliogabalus and the decadence of Rome / Harry Sidebottom.

Larry Wolff. Among the dogmen: The vexed concept of Mitteleuropa. Review of: The Middle Kingdoms: A new history of Central Europe / Martyn Rady.

Robert Irwin. A patriot before patriotism: A study of a sophisticated medieval Arab intellectual. Review of: Writing Egypt: Al-Maqrizi and his historical project / Nasser Rabbat.

Josh Ireland. Unholy compromises: How three slippery figures failed to navigate the moral universe of the Second World War. Review of: The Collaborators: Three stories of deception and survival in World War II / Ian Buruma.

Robert E. Norton. Champion of the Weimar Republic: A public intellectual who fought for democracy. Review of: Ernst Troeltsch: Theologe im Welthorizont / Friedrich Wilhelm Graf.

Miranda France. Where the bodies are buried: Tracing the victims of Latin America’s death squads. Review of: Still Life with Bones: Field notes on forensics and loss / Alexa Hagerty -- Voyager: Constellations of memory / Nona Fernández; translated by Natasha Wimmer.

In Brief Review of: I Dream With Open Eyes: A memoir about reimagining home / George Prochnik.

In Brief Review of: The Long Land War: The global struggle for occupancy rights / Jo Guldi.

In Brief Review of: Inheriting the Bomb: The collapse of the USSR and the nuclear disarmament of Ukraine / Mariana Budjeryn.

In Brief Review of: The Magnificent Boat: The colonial theft of a South Seas cultural treasure / Götz Aly; translated by Jefferson Chase.

Recent book notes from The New Yorker:

Jeannie Suk Gersen. 05/11/2023: The Dark Side of Defamation Law. Review of: Actual Malice: Civil Rights and Freedom of the Press in New York Times v. Sullivan / Samantha Barbas.

Wyatt Williams. 05/10/2023: Clancy Martin’s Writerly Repetitions. Review of: How Not to Kill Yourself: A Portrait of the Suicidal Mind / Clancy Martin.

Kelefa Sanneh. 05/08/2023: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Perilous Power of Respectability. Review of: King: a life / Jonathan Eig.

J. R. Moehringer. 05/08/2023: Notes from Prince Harry’s Ghostwriter. Regarding Spare by Harry.

Adam Iscoe. 05/08/2023: The Poet Writing on Prison Underwear.

Nathan Heller. 05/03/2023: BuzzFeed, Gawker, and the Casualties of the Traffic Wars. Review of: Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral / Ben Smith.

Thomas Mallon. 05/01/2023: The Making of Jackie Kennedy. Review of: Camera Girl: The Coming of Age of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy / Carl Sferrazza Anthony.

"Last week, Illinois became the first Democratic-controlled state to pass legislation designed to discourage local school districts from banning books. And a prominent grassroots progressive group today will announce a new national campaign to organize mothers against the conservative drive to remove books and censor curriculum under the banner of protecting “parents’ rights.”"

Ronald Brownstein. The Atlantic, 05/10/2023: The Book-Bans Debate Has Finally Reached a Turning Point.

TLS May 19, 2023|No. 6268

Featured

Edward Chancellor. Puffed up with wind: Why central bankers have lost the plot with inflation. Review of: We Need To Talk About Inflation: 14 urgent lessons from the last 2,000 years / Stephen D. King.

Jonathan Wolff. Justice for all?: The curious political legacy of John Rawls’s masterwork. Review of: Free and Equal: What would a fair society look like? / Daniel Chandler.

Andrew Harding. Beneath the fairy tale: A raw and revelatory biography of the Mandelas. Review of: Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a marriage / Jonny Steinberg.

Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough. Going berserk: Ancient Norse myths brought to life for the modern era. Review of: The Norse Myths That Shape the Way We Think / Carolyne Larrington.

Literature & Linguistics

Ann Lawson Lucas. Italy’s greatest novel?: A work described as Scott, Dickens and Thackeray rolled into one. Review of: The Betrothed / Alessandro Manzoni; translated by Michael F. Moore.

Paul Gravett. Be careful what you wish for: Inequality and fantasy in Cairo. Review of: Your Wish Is My Command / Deena Mohamed.

Nick Holdstock. Figs and formations: Between the Mamluks and French in eighteenth-century Egypt. Review of: The Turban and the Hat / Sonallah Ibrahim; translated by Bruce Fudge.

Julian Evans. Dead hand of the law: Russian corruption and deception, in lightly comic style. Review of: Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv / Andrey Kurkov; translated by Reuben Woolley.

Norma Clarke. Avian and thespian: The theatre of cruelty, coercion and corruption in Elizabethan London. Review of: The Ghost Theatre / Mat Osman.

Michael Caines. Something rotten in Israel: Preparations are made for a staging of Hamlet in Ramallah. Review of: Enter Ghost / Isabella Hammad.

Michael Hofmann. Heaney comes out swinging: The poet’s translations of great works reinvigorated his own. Review of: The Translations of Seamus Heaney / Seamus Heaney; Edited by Marco Sonzogni.

Hilary Davies. Opening the door: The virtues of translation. Review of: The Foreign Connection: Writings on poetry, art and translation / Jamie McKendrick.

In Brief Review of: Croire: Sur les pouvoirs de la littérature / Justine Augier.

In Brief Review of: The Hurting Kind: poems / Ada Limón.

In Brief Review of: Of Cattle and Men / Ana Paula Maia; translated by Zoë Perry.

Arts

Peter Stothard. How they spent it: An exhibition of Persian, Greek and Hellenistic luxuries. Review of the exhibition Luxury and Power: Persia to Greece, British Museum, until August 13.

James Hall. Renaissance gender benders: The National Gallery’s grotesque portrait by Quinten Massys. Review of the exhibition and catalog The Ugly Duchess: Beauty and satire in the Renaissance / Emma Capron et al; exhibition National Gallery, until June 11.

Science and Technology

Caroline Moorehead. Trembling lands: The story of Italy’s earthquakes told through a history of a house. Review of: When the Mountains Dance: Love, loss and hope in the heart of Italy / Christine Toomey.

Kate Simpson. Snails’ race to extinction: The threat from predators and climate change. Review of: A World in a Shell: Snail stories for a time of extinctions / Thom Van Dooren.

Yvonne Reddick. Natural disaster: Worst-case scenarios for global warming. Review of: Hothouse Earth: An inhabitant’s guide / Bill McGuire.

In Brief Review of: Taking Flight: The evolutionary story of life on the wing / Lev Parikian.

Religion

Paul Allen. Teacher for eternity: The ties that bind Augustine to other notable intellectual figure. Review of: Augustine and Tradition: Influences, contexts, legacy / David G. Hunter and Jonathan P. Yates, editors.

Cally Hammond. Lots of fun in bed: The saint’s relationships with four women. Review of: Queens of a Fallen World: The lost women of Augustine’s Confessions / Kate Cooper.

History, Politics, & Society

T. Corey Brennan. Roman island: The rich history of the Sant’Angelo district. Review of: The Lives of a Roman Neighborhood: Tracing the imprint of the past, from 500 BCE to the present / Paul W. Jacobs, II.

Kate Cooper. It takes a village: Sin, redemption and blended families in ancient Anatolia. Review of: The Lives of Ancient Villages: Rural society in Roman Anatolia / Peter Thonemann.

Jan Plamper. Get even: A history of political resentment. Review of: The Return of Resentment: The rise and decline and rise again of a political emotion / Robert A. Schneider.

Irina Dumitrescu. Taking advice: The popular medieval guides to self-help. (Essay)

James McConnachie. Sger, Skerries, Stack: A lively but melancholy history of the sea channel between Wales and the Republic of Ireland. Review of: The Turning Tide: A biography of the Irish Sea / Jon Gower.

In Brief Review of: From the Battlefield to the Stage: The many lives of General John Burgoyne / Norman S. Poser.

In Brief Review of: Travels with Tocqueville: Beyond America / Jeremy Jennings.

Recent articles from LARB

Bob Blaisdell. 05/17/2023: The Open Presentness of Past Moments. Review of: Wonder Confronts Certainty: Russian Writers on the Timeless Questions and Why Their Answers Matter / Gary Saul Morson.

Alexander Manshel, Laura B. McGrath, J. D. Porter. 05/17/2023: The Work of the Audiobook.

Erik Hmiel. 05/13/2023: The Binary of American Philosophy. Review of: Inventing Philosophy’s Other: Phenomenology in America / Jonathan Strassfeld.

Robert N. Watson. 05/11/2023: Is Multiculturalism an Oxymoron? Review of: Culture: The Story of Us, from Cave Art to K-pop / Martin Puchner.

Odds & ends from The Millions:

Sophia Stewart. 04/25/2023: Love Ruins Everything. On Claire Dederer's Monsters: a fan's dilemma.

Nick Ripatrazone. 05/08/2023: The Literary Lives of Mid-Century Nuns. Where he talks about his book The Habit of Poetry: The Literary Lives of Nuns in Mid-century America and some of their writings.

Lauren D. Wood. 05/11/2023: On Madness, Motherhood, and ‘King Lear.’

Connor Harrison. 05/17/2023: Max Porter Is Afraid of Bad Writing. Interview in conjunction with the publication of Porter's Shy.

Martin Amis, 1949-2023

Dwight Garner. NYT, 05/20/2023: Martin Amis, Acclaimed Author of Bleakly Comic Novels, Dies at 73.

My favorite of his is Money: a suicide note.

There was a thread on Twitter "10 Most Brilliant Physics Biographies" that lists the following:

1. Einstein: His Life and Universe / Water Isaacson

2. The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac / Graham Farmelo

3. Madame Curie: A Biography / Eve Curie

4. Schrodinger: Life and Thought / Walter J. Moore

5. American Prometheus / Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin

6. The Pope of Physics: Enrico Fermi and the Birth of the Atomic Age / Gino Segrè and Bettina Hoerlin

7. Richard Feynman: A Life in Science / John Gribbin and Mary Gribbin

8. Subtle is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein / Abraham Pais

9. Isaac Newton / James Gleick

10. The Quantum Labyrinth: how Richard Feynman and John Wheeler Revolutionized Time and Reality / Paul Halpern

10 Most Brilliant Physics Biographies: a thread

TLS May 26, 2023|No. 6269

Features

Alan Jenkins. Taking life sentence by sentence: Martin Amis, a talent for our time. (Essay)

Emily A. Bernhard-Jackson. Mad, bad and sad: The skilled poet who was also Byron’s lover and a drama queen. Review of: Lady Caroline Lamb: a free spirit / Antonia Fraser.

North of the future: Writers at the Hay Festival consider what art and literature can be, or do, in times of tension, conflict and destruction.

Owen Matthews. Winning on the home front: The triumph of the Kremlin propaganda machine. Review of: Z Generation: Into the heart of Russia’s fascist youth / Ian Garner -- Russia's War / Jade McGlynn -- Illiberal Vanguard: Populist elitism in the United States and Russia / Alexandar Mihailovic -- Russia Against Modernity / Alexander Etkind.

Literature

Ritchie Robertson. Gods, heroes and Wieland: The humane founder of modern German literature. Review of: Christoph Martin Wieland: Die Erfindung der modernen deutschen Literatur / Jan Philipp Reemtsma.

Seamus Perry. ‘I rattle on exactly as I talk’: Revisiting an exceptional poet and his epic of inconsequence. Review of: Byron and the Poetics of Adversity / Jerome McGann -- Reading Byron: Poems – life – politics / Bernard Beatty; introduction by Jerome McGann -- Byron / David Ellis.

Hal Jensen. Off campus: Dark new approaches to faculty fiction. Review of: Reservoir / Livi Michael -- Owlish / Dorothy Tse; translated by Natascha Bruce -- Vehicle / Jen Calleja -- Camp Zero / Michelle Min Sterling.

Jerome Boyd Maunsell. Mending roofs and hearts: The Rwandan genocide told through the story of a family. Review of: All Your Children, Scattered / Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse; translated by Alison Anderson.

Tabish Kair. A mystery to himself: A London poet goes off to fight in Syria. Review of: Mister, Mister / Guy Gunaratne.

In Brief Review of: Erinnerungen an Rainer Maria Rilke / Curdin Ebneter and Erich Unglaub, editors.

In Brief Review of: Three Roads Back: How Emerson, Thoreau, and William James responded to the greatest losses of their lives / Robert D. Richardson.

In Brief Review of: Selected Poems / Donald Davie; edited by Sinéad Morrissey.

In Brief Review of: Romantic Comedy / Curtis Sittenfeld.

Arts

Russell Williams. When a star was made: The life and career of the Divine Sarah. Review of the exhibition Sarah Bernhardt: Et la femme créa la star, Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, until August 27.

Kathryn Hughes. Four for the price of one: The intense Rossetti clan, dominated by one brother. Review of the exhibition The Rossettis, Tate Britain, until September 24.

Flora Wilson. Hearing is believing: Sonic technology and the importance of a shared space. Review of Sound Unwrapped, Kings Place, London, until December 10.

In Brief Review of: Cary Grant's Suit: Nine movies that made me the wreck I am today / Todd McEwen.

History, Politics, Society, & Culture

Amy Knight. Russia’s little brother: The war in Ukraine has pushed Lukashenko closer to Moscow. Review of: Belarus in Crisis: From domestic unrest to the Russia-Ukraine war / Paul Hansbury.

Jason Sokol. Dreams and horrors: An attempt at a more rounded picture of Martin Luther King. Review of: King: The Life of Martin Luther King / Jonathan Eig.

Osman Durrani. Too much in the son: August von Goethe’s problems lay with his domineering father. Review of: Im Schatten des Vaters: August von Goethe / Stephan Oswald.

Lucy Lethbridge. I don’t like to be beside the seaside: A whirlwind tour of the country’s coastline. Review of: The Seaside: England’s love affair / Madeleine Bunting.

Ian Sansom. A lovesome thing: A packet-of-seed-grown paradise, lost.

In Brief Review of: The Persuaders: Winning hearts and minds in a divided age / Anand Giridharadas.

Books in the recent New Yorker:

Benjamin Wallace-Wells. 05/29/2023: The Long Afterlife of Libertarianism. Review of: The Individualists: Radicals, Reactionaries, and the Struggle for the Soul of Libertarianism / Matt Zwolinski and John Tomasi.

05/24/2023: Martin Amis, Remembered by Writers.

Melissa Febos. 05/24/2023: Can You Love the Art and Hate the Monster? Review of: Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma / Claire Dederer.

Merve Emre. 05/23/2023: What Susan Sontag Wanted for Women. Review of: On Women / Susan Sontag.

Maya Jasanoff. 05/22/2023: The History of Nepo Babies Is the History of Humanity. Review of: The World: A Family History of Humanity / Simon Sebag Montefiore.

James Wood. 05/22/2023: The Graceful Rebellions of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Review of: Mozart in Motion / Patrick Mackie.

Ian McEwan. 05/22/2023: Losing a Brother in Martin Amis.

Ian Hacking, 1936-2023

"Ian Hacking, a Canadian philosopher widely hailed as a giant of modern thought for game-changing contributions to the philosophies of science, probability and mathematics, as well as for his widely circulated insights on issues like race and mental health, died on May 10 at a retirement home in Toronto. He was 87."

Alex Williams. NYT, 05/28/2023: Ian Hacking, Eminent Philosopher of Science and Much Else, Dies at 87. Author of The Taming of Chance, The Emergence of Probability, Rewriting the Soul: multiple personality and the sciences of memory.

TLS June 2, 2023|No. 6270

Featuring

Lesley Chamberlain. A perverted age: The downfall of Weimar’s licentious aesthetes. Review of: February 1933: The winter of literature / Uwe Wittstock; translated by Daniel Bowles -- Love in a Time of Hate: Art and passion in the shadow of war, 1929–39 / Florian Illies; translated by Simon Pare.

Russell Williams. Blue movie: Michel Houellebecq’s latest provocation falls flat. Review of: Quelques Mois Dans Ma Vie: Octobre 2022–Mars 2023 / Michel Houellebecq.

Kathleen Taylor. The limits of love: Human personality under assault from advanced dementia. Review of: My Father’s Brain: Understanding life in the shadow of Alzheimer’s / Sandeep Jauhar -- Travellers To Unimaginable Lands: Dementia, carers and the hidden workings of the mind / Dasha Kiper -- The Alzheimer's Diaries / Susan Elkin.

Page Dubois. Ye gods!: The Romans were happy to borrow the divinities of other societies. Review of: In Praise of Polytheism / Maurizio Bettini; translated by Douglas Grant Heise.

Literature & Bibliography

Douglas A. Jones, Jr. A true singer: The life and dialect poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar. Review of: Paul Laurence Dunbar: The life and times of a caged bird / Gene Andrew Jarrett.

Nikita Biswal. Life keeps on burning: A luminous ‘rewiring’ of an ancient epic. Review of: After / Vivek Narayanan.

Stephen Henighan. Tupi or not Tupi?: Brazil’s modernist national epic. Review of: Macunaíma: The Hero with No Character / Mário de Andrade; translated by Katrina Dodson.

Kit Maude. Forms of loss: A literary executor picks his way through a bloody history. Review of: Austral / Carlos Fonseca; translated by Megan McDowell.

Ian Sansom. Art really is important: Bold provocations by an author who should be famous. Review of: Conquest / Nina Allan.

David Collard. Stick to routine: The rich inner life of an unremarkable film buff. Review of: Brian / Jeremy Cooper.

Nicholas Clee. The sewage in your living room: Tragedy, farce and the downturn in an Irish town. Review of: The Bee Sting / Paul Murray.

Victoria Moul. Hearing the muse’s hunting horn: ‘Stern and lovely’ poems drawing on nature and scripture. Review of: Floodmeadow / Toby Martinez de las Rivas.

Craig Raine. Impossible to describe: The rarity of good sex in literature. (Essay)

In Brief Review of: Bloomsbury, Beasts and Britiish Modernist Literature / Derek Ryan.

In Brief Review of: Readers in a Revolution: Bibliographical change in the nineteenth century / David McKitterick.

In Brief Review of: It's the End of the World, My Love / Alla Gorbunova; translated by Elina Alter.

In Brief Review of: Standing Heavy: a novel / Gauz’; translated by Frank Wynne.

Arts

Mark Glanville. Sophisticated Primitive: An early Flemish painter’s claim to greatness. Review of the exhibition & catalog: Hugo Van Der Goes: Between pain and bliss / Erik Eising and Stephan Kemperdick, editors.

Charles Darwent. Not a team player: An abstractionist artist who was guided by the spirit world. Review of: Hilma af Klint: a biography / Julia Voss; translated by Anne Posten -- catalog & exhibition Hilma af Klint and Piet Mondrian: Forms of life / Nabila Abdel Nabi, Briony Fer and Laura Stamps, editors,Tate Modern, London, until September 3.

Ginette Vincendeau. Director’s cut: The compromises of a French studio during the Nazi occupation. Review of: Continental Films: French cinema under German control / Christine Leteux; translated by the author.

Science and Technology

Joanna Kavenna. Magic into light: Illuminating the faultlines between science and art. Review of: The Visible Unseen / Andrea Chapela; translated by Kelsi Vanada; artwork by Fabiola Menchelli.

Alexander van Tulleken. Number-crunching: A response to the routine misuse of poor-quality data in UK politics. Review of: Bad Data: How governments, politicians and the rest of us get misled / Georgina Sturge.

Julia Bueno. A locked-in world: Making sense of life with mental illness. Review of: Will You Read This, Please?: Living with mental illness – extraordinary stories from ordinary people / Joanna Cannon, editor.

History, Society, & Culture

David Abulafia. Merchant mariners: A radical rethink of Mediterranean history. Review of: The Donkey and the Boat: Reinterpreting the Mediterranean economy, 950–1180 / Chris Wickham.

John B. Hattendorf. Losing the Wager: Mutiny and mayhem on an epic voyage around the world. Review of: The Wager: A tale of shipwreck, mutiny and murder / David Grann.

David Horspool. A kind of green god: The godfather of wild swimming. Review of: The Swimmer: The wild life of Roger Deakin / Patrick Barkham.

Norma Clarke. Do-gooding: Unhappiness in a dynasty of social reformers. Review of: An Uneasy Inheritance: My family and other radicals / Polly Toynbee.

In Brief Review of: Lost in the Lakes: Notes from a 379-mile hike around the Lake District / Tom Chesshyre.

In Brief Review of: The White Mosque: A Silk Road memoir / Sofia Samatar.

In Brief Review of: A Stranger in Your Own City: Travels in the Middle East’s long war / Ghaith Abdul-Ahad.

NYRB Online June 8 2023

Literature, & Bibliography

Erin Maglaque. Unwanted Thoughts. Review of: The Index of Prohibited Books: Four Centuries of Struggle Over Word and Image for the Greater Glory of God / Robin Vose.

Arts

Joan Acocella. ‘The Real World Is Not Here.’ Review of: Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century / Jennifer Homans.

Kevin Powers. Ideal Detachments. Review of: Nothing Special / Nicole Flattery.

Yasmine El Rashidi. A Life of Sheer Will. Review of the following books by Etel Adnan: Paris When It's Naked -- Time, translated from the French by Sarah Riggs -- Of Cities and Women (Letters to Fawwaz) -- Sitt Marie Rose / translated from the French by Georgina Kleege -- Journey to Mount Tamalpais -- Master of the Eclipse -- From A to Z -- The Cost for Love We Are Not Willing to Pay -- The Arab Apocalypse -- In the Heart of the Heart of Another Country -- SEA and FOG -- Seasons.

Science

Laura Kolbe. ‘Autopsies of Many Kinds.’ Review of: The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human / Siddhartha Mukherjee.

History & Politics

Howard W. French. The Creation of Nigeria. Review of: What Britain Did to Nigeria: A Short History of Conquest and Rule / Max Siollun -- Formation: The Making of Nigeria from Jihad to Amalgamation / Fola Fagbule and Feyi Fawehinmi.

David W. Blight. The Two Constitutions. Review of: The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution / James Oakes.

Thomas Powers. Getting Sacagawea Right. Review of: Our Story of Eagle Woman: Sacagawea: They Got It Wrong / the Sacagawea Project Board of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation.

John Washington. Journey to the North. Review of: Solito / Javier Zamora.

Trevor Jackson. The Price of Crypto. Review of: The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze / Laura Shin -- Proof of Stake: The Making of Ethereum and the Philosophy of Blockchains / Vitalik Buterin, edited by Nathan Schneider.

Vivian Gornick. Surviving by Accident. Review of: Distant Fathers and Return to Latvia / Marina Jarre, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein.

NYRB Online odds & ends

Andrea R. Flores. 05/28/2023: Asylum in Limbo. (Essay: "Like the Trump-era policy it replaces, Biden’s new asylum ban suggests that certain migrants are less deserving of humanitarian protection than others.")

Anjan Sundaram, illustrated by John Grund. 05/28/2023: White Bay. (Essay: "Life under the chemical megafactories of Ingeniero White, Argentina.")

Abby Seiff and Sokummono Khan. 05/30/2023: How Microloans Betrayed Cambodians. (Essay: "Originally pitched as a way to lift the rural poor out of poverty, microfinance is driving many borrowers deeper into debt.")

Sophie Pinkham. 06/22/2023: Fireball Over Siberia. Review of: Tunguska: A Siberian Mystery and Its Environmental Legacy / Andy Bruno.

Recently from Public Books:

Devanshi Khetarpal. 06/01/2023: “TOMB OF SAND” brings Hindi Literature to the World. Review of: Tomb of Sand (Ret Samadhi) / Geetanjali Shree; translated by Daisy Rockwell.

Recommendations from the PB editorial staff. 05/31/2023: On Our Nightstands: MAY 2023.

Recently from LARB:

Michael S. Roth. 06/02/2023: The Ironic Radical. Review of: The Ethics of Narrative: Essays on History, Literature, and Theory, 1998–2007 / Hayden White.

Massimo Mazzotti. 06/02/2023: Foundational Anxieties, Modern Mathematics, and the Political Imagination. Essay adapted from Reactionary Mathematics: A Genealogy of Purity / Massimo Mazzotti.

Natasha Lennard. 06/01/2023: The General Crisis of Whiteness: A Conversation with Nicholas Mirzoeff. Regarding his White Sight: Visual Politics and Practices of Whiteness.

Tanya Ward Goodman. 05/31/2023: A Serious, Chronic, Complex, and Systemic Disease. Review of: American Breakdown: Our Ailing Nation, My Body’s Revolt, and the Nineteenth-Century Woman Who Brought Me Back to Life / Jennifer Lunden.

Koritha Mitchell. 05/30/2023: I Was Determined to Remember: Harriet Jacobs and the Corporeality of Slavery’s Legacies. Regarding Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl / Harriet Jacobs.

Jonathan Kirshner. 05/14/2023: Rigged Capitalism and the Rise of Pluto-populism. Review of: The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism / Martin Wolf.

Katie Roiphe. The Atlantic, 06/01/2023: Seven Tips From Susan Sontag for Independent Thinking. Tips from On Women / Susan Sontag.

Monica Westin. Aeon, 06/05/20223: Ingenious librarians.

"A group of 1970s campus librarians foresaw our world of distributed knowledge and research, and designed search tools for it"

TLS June 9, 2023|No. 6271

Featured

Elaine Showalter. ‘A hyena in petticoats’: Feminist writers who fought against the masculine assumptions of their times. Review of: On Mary Wollstonecraft's a Vindication of the Rights of Woman / Susan J. Wolfson -- A Life of One's Own: Nine women writers begin again / Joanna Biggs.

Wendy Law-Yone. Bad mother?: The ambiguous political journey of Aung San Suu Kyi. An edited extract from Aung San Suu Kyi: Politician, prisoner, parent / Wendy Law-Yone.

Declan Ryan. A league of their own: In praise of Britain’s folk sports, from bat and trap to cheese-rolling. Review of: No Pie, No Priest: A journey through the folk sports of Britain / Harry Pearson.

Noel Malcolm. The wisdom of crowds: A Renaissance thinker more influential than Erasmus and More. Review of: Political Meritocracy in Renaissance Italy: The virtuous republic of Francesco Patrizi of Siena / James Hankins.

Literature & Bibliography

Michael Caines. Happy associations: American bibliomania in the mid-nineteenth century. Review of: Book Madness: A story of book collectors in America / Denise Gigante.

Muriel Zagha. Good yarn: A revisionist take on a Brothers Grimm classic. Review of: The Valiant Little Tailor / Éric Chevillard; translated by Jordan Stump -- La Chambre à brouillard / Éric Chevillard.

James Waddell. Devils in the detail: The early blunders of the printing press. Review of: Printing and Misprinting: A companion to mistakes and in-house corrections in Renaissance Europe (1450–1650) / Geri Della Rocca de Candal, Anthony Grafton and Paolo Sachet, editors.

John Banville. Cast a cold eye: In search of W. B. Yeats, through crypts and vaults of heaven. Review of: Scattered Love / Maylis Besserie; translated by Clíona Ní Ríordáin.

Stephen Henighan. Fun on the Autobahn: A road trip through fascist Europe. Review of: The Cameraman / Matthew Kneale.

Lucy Scholes. Under the influence: Sadism masquerading as self-care in consumer culture. Review of: Chrysalis: a novel / Anna Metcalfe.

James Cahill. The coded nature of reality: Love and eros at an elite girls’ boarding school. Review of: Mrs. S. / K. Patrick.

Madoc Cairns. Inner space: A memoir of ‘a life lived through writing.’ Review of: Wish I Was Here: An anti-memoir / M. John Harrison.

In Brief Review of: The Company / J. M. Varese. ("a groggy Gothic thriller")

In Brief Review of: George: a magpie memoir / Frieda Hughes. (daughter of Ted Hughes & Sylvia Plath raises bird)

Arts

John-Paul Stonard. Speaking to the eyes: The distinctive world of the art of the Pacific coast. Review of the exhibition Empowering Art: Indigenous creativity and activism from North America’s northwest coast, Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, until July 30.

Boyd Tonkin. A saint with star power: An exploration of contradictions in the afterlives of the bird-loving monk. Review of the exhibition & catalog of St Francis of Assisi / Gabriele Finaldi, Joost Joustra et al, National Gallery, London, until July 30.

Simon Johns. Qui? Quoi? Quand? Où?: An early star of French cinema. Review of: Musidora, qui êtes-vous? / Carole Aurouet, Marie-Claude Cherqui, Laurent Véray et al.

Regina Rini. Rites of Succession: Nostalgia doesn't change. (Essay on the TV series)

Philosophy

Carlos Fraenkel. After the manner of Socrates: Ancient philosophers are civilization’s sharpest critics. Review of: Questioning: a new history of western philosophy / Gideon Baker.

Melissa Lane. The ring of power: The limits of rational choice. Review of: The Greeks and the Rational: The discovery of practical reason / Josiah Ober.

History, Politics, Society, & Culture

Richard Vinen. France’s guilty secret: The case for and against Vichy collaboration. Review of: France on Trial: The case of Marshal Pétain / Julian Jackson.

Christine Bold. Before #MeToo: American women who testified against male abuse. Review of: Fearless Women: Feminist patriots from Abigail Adams to Beyoncé / Elizabeth Cobbs.

Laura Thompson. Drumming of hooves: The romance of racing, a sport with an uncertain future. Review of: Courses for Horses: A journey round racing in Britain and Ireland / Nicholas Clee.

Sara Wheeler. On the trail of a Viking: The extraordinary life of a Danish explorer. Review of: Wanderlust: An eccentric explorer, an epic journey, a lost age / Reid Mitenbuler. (On the explorer Peter Freuchen)

In Brief Review of: Nadia Comăneci and the secret police: a Cold War escape / Stejărel Olaru; translated by Alistair Ian Blyth.

In Brief Review of: Medievalist Traditions in Nineteenth-Century British Culture: Celebrating the calendar year / Clare A. Simmons.

In Brief Review of: The Rooster House: A Ukrainian family memoir / Victoria Belim.

Tess Gunty, author of The Rabbit Hutch interview in NYT Book Rev, with interesting things to read:

Tess Gunty interview, NYT Book Review, 06/11/2023: BY THE BOOK: Three Books That Make Tess Gunty Angry.

Last great book? "I am most often moved by poetry, so I’ll name some collections I’ve adored in recent memory. “A Sand Book,” by Ariana Reines; “Phantompains,” by Therese Estacion; “Good Boys,” by Megan Fernandes; Knopf’s “Selected Poems of Frank O’Hara,” edited by Mark Ford; and a manuscript by my brilliant friend Laura Cresté, the working title of which is “Gentle or Not.” "

Current writers she admires: "An incomplete list: Claudia Rankine, Anne Carson, Maggie Nelson, Yuri Herrera, Zadie Smith, Diane Williams, Valeria Luiselli, Olga Tokarczuk, Rachel Kushner, Elena Ferrante, Ben Lerner, Carmen Maria Machado, Joy Williams, Hanif Abdurraqib, Nuar Alsadir, Robin Coste Lewis, Natalie Diaz, Ocean Vuong, Sharon Olds, Morgan Parker, Tommy Pico, Terrance Hayes, Ada Limón, Tracy K. Smith, Annie Baker, Amy Herzog, Paula Vogel, Svetlana Alexievich, Rachel Aviv, Ed Yong, Matthew Desmond, Alexandra Kleeman, Susan Choi, Chris Ware, Tommy Orange, Javier Zamora, Jenny Offill, Annie Ernaux, Anne Enright, Lydia Davis, Raven Leilani, Mark Z. Danielewski, Jennifer Egan, George Saunders."

Books that made her angry: Poverty, by America / Matthew Desmond -- Empire of Pain / Patrick Radden Keefe -- The Alignment Problem / Brian Christian.

Two book articles from The New Yorker online, June 5, 2023:

Merve Emre. (print version June 12): The Afterlives of Susan Taubes.

Idrees Kahloon. (print version June 12): Economists Love Immigration. Why Do So Many Americans Hate It? With comments on The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration -- Streets of Gold: America’s Untold Story of Immigrant Success / Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan -- Immigration and Democracy / Sarah Song.

List overkill from NYT:

Kate Dwyer. 06/09/2023: 24 Works of Fiction to Read This Summer.

Joumana Khatib and Neima Jahromi. 06/09/2023: 14 Nonfiction Books to Read This Summer.

New York Times Books Staff. 05/22/2023: What Book Should You Read Next?

Reading as self-improvement; an article from the past:

Tina Jordan. 10/26/2022 ("Editors note: This content was first published in Feb. 2020, and has been republished into this new format to allow you to move through each task at your own pace."): How to Be a Better Reader: Helpful advice to show you how to get the most out of your literary endeavor.

Interesting science notes from WaPo:

Barbara King. WaPo, 06/05/2023: Do plants have emotions? This philosopher thinks so. Review of: Planta Sapiens: the new science of plant intelligence / Paco Calvo.

Marianne Szegedy-Maszak. WaPo, 06/11/2023: This biologist wants us to find comfort in our world’s complexity. Review of: Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being / Neil Theise.

Brian Dillon. NYT, 06/13/2023: To Truly Understand the Past, Pick Up an Old Magazine. "Find a print issue, preferably more than 20 years old, and read it cover to cover. You’ll find the old days stranger than you remember."

NYRB, June 22, 2023 (plus some other dates)

Literature & Bibliography

Fara Dabhoiwala. Life Is Short. Indexes Are Necessary. Review of: Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age / Dennis Duncan.

Rachel Donadio. Escaping Biography. Review of: Nathalie Sarraute: A Life Between / An Jefferson.

Gary Saul Morson. Death and the Hedgehog. Review of: Tolstoy as Philosopher: Essential Short Writings (1835–1910): An Anthology / edited and translated from the Russian by Inessa Medzhibovskaya -- On Life: A Critical Edition / Leo Tolstoy, edited by Inessa Medzhibovskaya, and translated from the Russian by Michael Denner and Inessa Medzhibovskaya.

Arts

Ingrid D. Rowland. The Divine Guido. Review of: Guido Reni, an exhibition at the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, March 28–July 9, 2023; catalog of the exhibition edited by David García Cueto.

Martin Filler. Too Good for Hollywood. Review of: Aline MacMahon: Hollywood, the Blacklist, and the Birth of Method Acting / John Stangeland.

Science

Sophie Pinkham. Fireball Over Siberia. Review of: Tunguska: A Siberian Mystery and Its Environmental Legacy / Andy Bruno.

History, Politics, & Society

Steve Coll. Who Are the Taliban Now?. Review of: The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan After the Americans Left / Hassan Abbas.

Catherine Nicholson. Right Busy with Sticks and Spales. Review of: Tudor Children / Nicholas Orme.

Jessica Riskin. A Poisonous Legacy. Review of: Who Killed Jane Stanford?: A Gilded Age Tale of Murder, Deceit, Spirits, and the Birth of a University / Richard White -- American Disruptor: The Scandalous Life of Leland Stanford / Roland De Wolk.

Ruth Franklin. The Millions We Failed to Save. Review of: The US and the Holocaust, a PBS documentary series directed and produced by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein -- In the Garden of the Righteous: The Heroes Who Risked Their Lives to Save Jews During the Holocaust / Richard Hurowitz.

David A. Bell. Ego-Histories. Review of: Singular Pasts: The “I” in Historiography / Enzo Traverso, translated from the French by Adam Schoene -- History and Human Flourishing / edited by Darrin M. McMahon.

Ed Vulliamy. Reclaiming Native Identity in California. (Essay)

Linda Greenhouse. Not How He Wanted to Be Remembered. Review of: Judgment and Mercy: The Turbulent Life and Times of the Judge Who Condemned the Rosenbergs / Martin J. Siegel.

Gregory Hays. Meow!. Review of: Cats Galore Encore!: A New Compendium of Cultured Cats / Susan Herbert -- The Internet Is for Cats: How Animal Images Shape Our Digital Lives / Jessica Maddox -- Feline Philosophy: Cats and the Meaning of Life / John Gray -- All My Cats / Bohumil Hrabal, translated from the Czech by Paul Wilson -- Jeoffry: The Poet’s Cat / Oliver Soden,

Recently from LARB:

Geoffrey Kirsch. 06/13/2023: From Quiet Desperation to Quiet Quitting. Review of: Henry at Work: Thoreau on Making a Living / John Kaag and Jonathan van Belle.

Ellen Wayland-Smith. 06/13/2023: Sleepwalking to Madness in Mid-Century America". Review of: Girls and Their Monsters: The Genain Quadruplets and the Making of Madness in America / Audrey Clare Farley.

Kovie Biakolo. 06/12/2023: When a White Man Writes a Good Book About Africa. Review of: Lagos: Supernatural City / Tim Cocks.

Teow Lim Goh. 06/12/2023: A Carefully Cultivated Loss. Review of: West: A Translation / Paisley Rekdahl. "a hybrid collection of poems and essays on the first transcontinental railroad, the Union Pacific–Central Pacific from Omaha to Sacramento."

David E. Cooper. 06/11/2023: A World Beyond Us. Review of: The Revolt Against Humanity: Imagining a Future Without Us / Adam Kirsch.

Cormac McCarthy, 1933-2023

Dwight Garner. NYT, 06/13/2023: Cormac McCarthy, Novelist of a Darker America, Is Dead at 89. Author of No Country for Old Men, & the haunting Blood Meridian.

Harrison Smith. WaPo, 06/13/2023: Cormac McCarthy, spare and haunting novelist, dies at 89.

New York Times Books Staff. 06/13/2023: A Guide to Cormac McCarthy’s Books.

Sophia Nguyen. WaPo, 06/13/2023: A guide to Cormac McCarthy’s bloody, brutal fiction.

George Berridge. TLS, 03/23/2018: Madness and civilization: The literary influences and output of Cormac McCarthy. Review of: Books Are Made Out of Books: A guide to Cormac McCarthy’s literary influences / Michael Lynn Crews -- Cormac McCarthy and Performance: Page, stage, screen / Stacey Peebles.

Stacey Peebles, inteviewed by Cal Flynn. fivebooks.com, 06/12/2023: The Best Cormac McCarthy Books.

Washington Post Editorial Board. WaPo, 06/12/2023: 21st-century editors should keep their hands off 20th-century books.

"W. H. Auden’s lyrical and evocative work, often rife with ambiguity, reflected the turmoil of the twentieth century."

Adam Kirsch. City Journal, Spring 2023: A Poet’s Politics.

New books reviewed on The Critic:

Andrew Doyle. June 2023: The making of a modern prophet. Review of: Orwell: The New Life / D.J. Taylor

James Stevens Curl. 06/10/2023: Against inhumane architecture. Review of: Architectural Principles in the Age of Fraud / Branko Mitrović.

James Stevens Curl. 06/04/2023: An island to admire. Review of: Isle of Man in the Pevsner Architectural Guides Series, Jonathan Kewley

The Secret Author. June 2023: Young, gifted — and readerless.

TLS June 16, 2023|No. 6272

Features

Peter J. Conradi. ‘Recorded and honoured’: New light on E. M. Forster’s last love. (Essay)

Andrew Irwin. How to succeed in business: One-liners, despair and the weirdness of being super-rich. Review of the HBO series Succession.

Rachel Fraser. The biggest questions: How philosophical inquiry should be made to serve human need. Review of: What's the Use of Philosophy? / Philip Kitcher.

Claire Lowden. Stuck in traffic: Richard Ford’s Bascombe quintet grinds to a halt. Review of: Be Mine / Richard Ford.

Literature

Clare Pettit. This isn’t how it ends: The brutality, violence and joy of a Neapolitan family. Review of: The House on Via Gemito / Domenico Starnone; translated by Oonagh Stransky.

P.D. Smith. It’s not their world any more: A relationship in crisis, over a rural three-week sojourn. Review of: The Fire / Daniela Krien; translated by Jamie Bulloch.

Kevin Brazil. Stasi-crossed lovers: A troubled and abusive relationship, set against the fall of the Berlin Wall. Review of: Kairos / Jenny Erpenbeck; translated by Michael Hofmann.

In Brief Review of: American Rivals of James Bond / Graham Andrews.

In Brief Review of: The Fugitive of Gezi Park / Deniz Goran.

Arts

Norma Clarke. Garlanded with firsts: An extraordinary artist from a city full of opportunity. Review of: the exhibition National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, until August 27, and catalog Lavinia Fontana: Trailblazer, rule breaker / Aoife Brady, Babette Bohn and Jonquil O’Reilly;

Philosophy

Kieran Setiya. The good life: The rewards and frailties of the humanist tradition. Review of: Humanly Possible: Seven hundred years of humanist freethinking, enquiry and hope / Sarah Bakewell.

History, Politics, & Society

Wendy Slater. Small people: The marginal and the discarded in Russia’s cultural history. Review of: Out of Focus: Russia at the margins / Catriona Kelly.

Catherine Humble. Taking minds captive: When does social conditioning become thought control?. Review of: Brainwashed: A new history of thought control / Daniel Pick.

Mark Galeotti. Midwife to Ukraine: How Putin’s war has created a united nation. Review of: The Russo-Ukrainian War / Serhii Plokhy.

Harold James. Kissing Stalin on the mouth: The fantasies of a scholar-statesman. Review of: Kennan: A life between worlds / Frank Costigliola.

William Philpott. Too important to be left to the generals: Britain’s military performance in two world wars. Review of: Conquer We Must: A military history of Britain, 1914–1945 / Robin Prior -- Deterrence, Coercion, and Appeasement: British grand strategy, 1919–1940 / David French.

Caroline Moorehead. Sins of the fathers: How war trauma is passed down. Review of: In My Grandfather's Shadow: A story of war, trauma and the legacy of silence / Angela Findlay.

George Szirtes. Childhood’s end: Separation anxiety and depression with its roots in the Holocaust. Review of: The Absent Moon: A memoir of a short childhood and a long depression / Luiz Schwarcz; translated by Eric M. B. Becker.

Peter Geoghegan. Politics isn’t working: Why British democracy needs a reboot. Review of: Politics: A survivor’s guide: How to stay engaged without getting enraged / Rafael Behr.

David Edgerton. Radicals when necessary: A study from the left that takes the Conservative Party seriously. Review of: Tory Nation: How One Party Took Over / Samuel Earle.

Ben Rogers. Bright lights, big city: The links between freedom, citizenship and urbanization. Review of: Age of the City: Why our future will be won or lost together / Ian Goldin and Tom Lee-Devlin.

Irina Dumitrescu. The cares of office: St Cuthbert's management strategy. (Essay)

In Brief Review of: And Then What?: Inside stories of 21st-century diplomacy / Catherine Ashton.

In Brief Review of: Modernism at the Beach: Queer ecologies and the coastal commons / Hannah Freed-Thall.

In Brief Review of: Franco's Famine: Malnutrition, disease and starvation in post-Civil War Spain / Miguel Ángel del Arco Blanco and Peter Anderson, editors.

In Brief Review of: Hermit: A memoir of finding freedom in a wild place / Jade Angeles Fitton.

THE 2023 ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING

Couldn't find a date, unfortunately. "Martha Lane Fox, chair of this year's judging panel, talks us through the nine finalists for the 2023 Orwell Prize for Political Writing, awarded annually for a nonfiction book."

The finalists are: The Fire of the Dragon: China’s New Cold War / Ian Williams -- Invasion: Russia’s Bloody War and Ukraine’s Fight for Survival / Luke Harding -- The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule / Angela Saint -- Inside Qatar: Hidden Stories from One of the Richest Nations on Earth / John McManus -- The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain’s Colonial Legacy / Philippe Sands -- Divided: Racism, Medicine and Why We Need to Decolonise Healthcare / Annabel Sowemimo -- Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen / Peter Apps -- Who Cares: The Hidden Crisis of Caregiving, and How We Solve It / Emily Kenway -- Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children / Hannah Barnes.

Nathan Wolff, interviewed by Francesca Mancino. fivebooks.com, 06/16/2023: The Best 19th Century American Novels.

Wolff offers an early 21st century perspective on the 19th century American canon; his selections: Hope Leslie: or, Early Times in Massachusetts / Catharine Maria Sedgwick -- Moby Dick / Herman Melville -- Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl / Harriet A. Jacobs -- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn / Mark Twain -- The Marrow of Tradition / Charles Chesnutt.

Don't know why this popped up on today's NYT, but I don't recall tagging it before, so here it is, suggestions for summer crime fiction reading. Comments have more suggestions.

Sarah Weinman. NYT, 05/26/2023: Murder, They Wrote.

"The Books In My Life."

"The Soviet-born novelist on rewriting the Torah, learning from Judy Blume, and why Vladimir Nabokov is ‘yum’"

Gary Shteyngart. 06/16/2023: Gary Shteyngart: ‘Orwell made dictatorships seem a lot less sexy.’

Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera. LARB, 06/16/2023: Where the Humanities Are Not in Crisis. Concerning Professing Criticism: Essays on the Organization of Literary Studies / John Guillory.

John Semley. Baffler, 06/14/2023: Brains on Drugs: How tinkering with consciousness became a societal sin. Review of: Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind / Mike Jay.

Michael Dirda. WaPo, 06/16/2023: Classic mysteries are having a moment. Here are a few of my favorites. Including reissues of: Green for Danger / Christianna Brand -- Obelists at Sea / C. Daly King.

Robert Gottlieb, 1931-2023

Robert D. McFadden. NYT, 06/14/2023: Robert Gottlieb, Eminent Editor From le Carré to Clinton, Dies at 92.

TLS June 23, 2023|No. 6273

Features

Mary Beard et al. Summer books 2023: Twenty-two TLS writers share their summer reading.

James Cook. Communication breakdown: How autism is expressed in women. Review of: The Autists: Women on the spectrum / Clara Törnvall; translated by Alice E. Olsson.

Anna Della Subin. Touch me not: Witness to the Resurrection, saint, sinner and feminist icon. Review of: Mary Magdalene: A cultural history / Philip C. Almond -- Mary Magdalene: a visual history / Diane Apostolos-Cappadona.

Zachary Leader. Story of a friendship: The tragic tale of James Joyce’s literary assistant. Review of: James Joyce and Paul L. Léon: The story of a friendship revisited / Alexis Léon, Anna Maria Léon and Luca Crispi, editors.

Literature

Michael Casper. Welcome to LA: The overlooked influence of California on W. H. Auden. (Essay)

Dinah Birch. A new lick of paint: How twentieth-century illustrators reimagined Victorian classics. Review of: The Art of the Reprint: Nineteenth-century novels in twentieth-century editions / Rosalind Parry.

Anna Aslanyan. Book of laughter and forgetting: A prize-winning novel of pan-European dementia. Review of: Time Shelter / Georgi Gospodinov; translated by Angela Rodel.

Alberto Manguel. Naming his fear: The brutality of Portugal’s colonial past. Review of: By the Rivers of Babylon / António Lobo Antunes; translated by Margaret Jull Costa.

Declan Ryan. Calling time: Full-blooded poems of damage and disrepair. Review of: The Ghost Net / Alan Jenkins.

Khaled Hakim. Coming up for air: Uncanny detours and invective in the work of two poets. Review of: Medlars / Geraldine Clarkson -- White/Other & Hyena! Jackal! Dog! / Fran Lock.

In Brief Review of: Richard III's Bodies From Medieval England to Modernity: Shakespeare and disability history / Jeffrey R. Wilson.

In Brief Review of: Évocations et incantations dans la tragédie grecque / Roland Barthes; edited by Christophe Corbier and Claude Coste.

Arts

James Cahill. For the love of dogs: Depictions of our canine companions. Review of the exhibition Portraits of Dogs: From Gainsborough to Hockney, Wallace Collection, London, until October 15 and the books: Doggy People: The Victorians who made the modern dog / Michael Worboys -- Dog Hearted: Essays on our fierce and familiar companions / Rowan Hisayo Buchanan and Jessica J. Lee, editors.

Stuart Walton. Gardeners’ question time: The link between landscape painting and domestic cultivation. Review of: The Time of the Landscape: On the origins of the aesthetic revolution / Jacques Rancière; translated by Emiliano Battista -- Modern Times: Temporality in art and politics / Jacques Rancière; translated by Gregory Elliott.

History, Politics, & Society

Paul Collins. Normal people: The first named human individuals, found in clay tablets. Review of: Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A new history of the ancient Near East / Amanda H. Podany.

Catharine Edwards. ‘Whore empress’: Imperial court scandals, as written by the victors. Review of: Messalina: A story of empire, slander and adultery / Honor Cargill-Martin -- Palatine: An alternative history of the Caesars / Peter Stothard.

Kojo Koram. Hail, hail, Freedonia!: Capitalism outside the nation state. Review of: Crack-Up Capitalism: Market radicals and the dream of a world without democracy / Quinn Slobodian -- Our Lives in Their Portfolios: Why asset managers own the world / Brett Christophers.

Krishan Kumar. Home from home: Greater Britain as an alternative to the British Empire. Review of: Untied Kingdom: A global history of the end of Britain / Stuart Ward.

A.E. Stallings. A dream of home: From the Aegean to Auschwitz to a life lived in exile. Review of: One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World / Michael Frank.

Daniel Trilling. Voices from Yemen: Witness testimonies of a forgotten conflict. Review of: What Have You Left Behind? / Bushra al-Maqtari; translated by Sawad Hussain.

Ian Sansom. On your bike: The end of the line for public transport. (Essay)

In Brief Review of: In Sardinia: An unexpected journey in Italy / Jeff Biggers.

In Brief Review of: HMS Terror: The design, fitting and voyages of the polar discovery ship / Matthew Betts.

In Brief Review of: The Survivor: How I survived six concentration camps and became a Nazi hunter / Josef Lewkowic, with Michael Calvin.

Sam Apple. The Atlantic, 06/21/2023: Tolstoy and Chill: Listening to books is more passive than reading them. That might be a good thing.

A.O. Scott. NYT, 06/21/2023: Everyone Likes Reading. Why Are We So Afraid of It?

Julie Garwood, 1944-2023

Neil Genzlinger. 06/21/2023: Julie Garwood, Best-Selling Romance Novelist, Dies at 78.

Henry Petroski, 1942-2023

Richard Sandomir. NYT, 06/22/2023: Henry Petroski, Whose Books Decoded Engineering, Dies at 81. Best known for The Pencil, but as a former cataloger, I cherish The Book on the Bookshelf.

Good news!

Kate Dwyer. NYT, 06/22/2023: Bookforum Is Returning, Months After Its Closure Was Mourned in the Literary World. "The literary magazine will be back in print in August, with a new publishing partner: The Nation."

Sophia Nguyen. WaPo, 06/22/2023: Bookforum is back after shutting down last year.

>79 featherbear:, fascinating article, provided you can clamber over the paywall.

Hermione Lee. Guardian, 06/22/2023: The Diary of Virginia Woolf review – a book for the ages.

Justine Jordan, David Shariatmadari, Imogen Russell Williams. Guardian, 06/24/2023: Summer reading: 50 brilliant books to discover.

TLS June 30, 2023

Featured

Peter Parker. A handful of books: Four volumes from the complete works of Evelyn Waugh. Review of: A Handful of Dust (v. 4) / edited by H. R. Woudhuysen -- The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold (v. 14) / edited by Barbara Cooke -- Edmund Campion (v. 17) / edited by Gerard Kilroy -- Robbery Under Law (v. 24) / edited by Michael G. Brennan.

Ian Loader. A fair cop: The charge sheet against the Metropolitan Police. Review of: Baroness Casey Review: An independent review into the standards of behaviour and internal culture of the Metropolitan Police Service: Final Report (available online) / Baroness Casey of Blackstock -- Broken Yard: The fall of the Metropolitan Police / Tom Harper -- I Am Norwell Roberts / Norwell Roberts -- Into the Night: A year with the police / Matt Lloyd-Rose.

Claire Lowden. Singing at the graveside: A wacky road trip in the company of a corpse. Review of: I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home / Lorrie Moore.

David Papineau. Are there tables?: Working out what really exists. Review of: Being: A study in ontology / Peter van Inwagen.

Literature

N.S. Thompson. King of his castle: An Italian writer’s Kafkaesque masterpiece. Review of: The Stronghold / Dino Buzzati; translated by Lawrence Venuti -- A Love Affair / Dino Buzzati; translated by Joseph Green.

Justin Warshaw. California dreaming: Snakes, ticks and ecocide in suburbia. Review of: Blue Skies / T.C. Boyle.

Clifford Thompson. American wake-up call: Class, money and desperation: a humanities education. Review of: The Late Americans / Brandon Taylor.

In Brief Review of: Riambel / Priya Heim.

In Brief Review of: Termush / Sven Holm; translated by Sylvia Clayton.

Arts

Rod Mengham. The flow of the Liffey: Anselm Kiefer’s tribute to Finnegans Wake. Review of the exhibition Finnegans Wake, White Cube Bermondsey, London, until August 20.

In Brief Review of: Andrey Rublev: The artist and his world / Robin Milner-Gulland.

In Brief Review of: I'm Not As Well As I Thought I Was / Ruby Wax.

History, Politics, & Society

Michael Hughes. A scandal in bohemia: How thwarted intellectual ambitions led to two murders. Review of: A Thread of Violence: A story of truth, invention / Mark O’Connell.

T.P. Wiseman. The People’s thing: Patricians and plebeians in the Roman republic’s mid-life. Review of: Making the Middle Republic: New approaches to Rome and Italy, c.400–200 BCE / Seth Bernard, Lisa Marie Mignone and Dan-el Padilla Peralta, editors.

Henry Stead. Rods for history’s back: There is more to the fasces than Mussolini’s misappropriation. Review of: The Fasces: A history of ancient Rome’s most dangerous political symbol / T. Corey Brennan.

Stephen Lovell. Red scent: The taste, texture and smell of a vanished civilization. Review of: The Soviet Century: Archaeology of a lost world / Karl Schlögel; translated by Rodney Livingstone.

Chris Given-Wilson. ‘England for the English’: The war that led to the founding of the House of Commons. Review of: Henry III: Reform, rebellion, civil war, settlement, 1258-1272 / David Carpenter.

Anna Katharina Schaffner. Salvation by CBT: How medieval monks erased negative thoughts. Review of: The Wandering Mind: What medieval monks tell us about distraction / Jamie Kreiner.

Joshua Rice. Test-tube democracy: How monasteries served as political laboratories. Review of: To Govern Is To Serve: An essay on medieval democracy / Jacques Dalarun; translated by Sean L. Field -- Sacred Foundations: The religious and medieval roots of the European state / Anna Grzymała-Busse.

Oliver Balch. Review of: Into the Amazon: The life of Cândido Rondon, trailblazing explorer, scientist, statesman, and conservationist / Larry Rohter.

Anna Temkin. Bamboo biker: An environmentalist’s call to arms. Review of: The Life Cycle: 8,000 miles in the Andes by bamboo bike / Kate Rawles.

Craig Raine. Inappropriate behaviour: Finding humour in death. (Essay)

In Brief Review of: Flourish: The extraordinary journey into finding your best self / Antonia Case.

In Brief Review of: The Diary Keepers: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times – World War II in the Netherlands, as written by the people who lived through it / Nina Siegal.

In Brief Review of: The Three Lives of the Kaiser: A biography of Franz Beckenbauer / Uli Hesse.

David Herman. The Critic, 06/29/2023: Crooked Timber. Review of: Isaiah Berlin: A Life / Michael Ignatieff.

"Over the years, some 100 people have translated the entire “Iliad” into English. The latest of them, Emily Wilson, explains what different approaches to one key scene say about the original, and the translators."

Emily Wilson. NYT, 06/28/2023: Exit Hector, Again and Again: How Different Translators Reveal the ‘Iliad’ Anew.

Continued by Exploring Books Through Articles, Reviews, Announcements, & Lists 2023-3 July-September

A new book store featuring new books, too, opened in Takoma Park, Maryland this summer! People's Book Shop - https://peoplesbooktakoma.com/. This, along with a tiny and lovely used book store,The Mouse House - https://www.instagram.com/housemousebooksvintage/ - finally cancels out the quote from Neil Gaiman which has been looming over me since Chuck & Dave's Bookstore closed decades ago! Come and visit this small town.

“What I say is, a town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore, it knows it’s not foolin’ a soul.”
― Neil Gaiman, American Gods

Junot Diaz. Boston Review, 06/20/2023: Octavia But­ler’s Blasphemous Solidarities. On Butler's Kindred.

"Jacques Derrida was fascinated by the figure of the Marrano Jew, whose identity could barely be told even to themselves."

Peter Salmon. Aeon, 05/26/2023: A philosophy of secrets.