American Beauties
Illuminating the Beats From Their Shadow
Joyce Johnson’s “Minor Characters” is among the great American literary memoirs.
Highlights
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Credit Telling Trump’s Story to Children: For Book Publishers, It’s Tricky
Presidential biographies aimed at young readers hit bookshelves every four years. But the latest round has posed a unique set of challenges.
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‘Unwanted Advances’ Tackles Sexual Politics in Academia
In this new book by Laura Kipnis, the author addresses her dismay over the intersection between free speech and sensitivity issues at universities.
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CreditDerek Shapton Books of The Times
Mary Gaitskill Looks Unhappiness Straight in the Eye
The writer turns to nonfiction in “Somebody With a Little Hammer,” a formidable collection of essays, reviews and the like.
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Roving Eye
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CreditMaëlle Doliveux A Great Indian Novel Emerges From Another Tongue
Vivek Shanbhag’s “Ghachar Ghochar” is the first novel translated into English from an Indian language spoken by 40 million people and published here.
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By the Book
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CreditIllustration by Jillian Tamaki Mitch Albom: By the Book
The author of “Tuesdays With Morrie” and, most recently, “The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto” avoids “grim, angst-ridden, navel-gazing books and horror. Enough of that in the real world.”
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Books of The Times
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CreditPatricia Wall/The New York Times Stories of Wonder, Fear and Kindness From the Moth
The storytelling movement has led to a book, which gathers 45 tales that attest to the startling variety and travails of human experience.
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The Book Review Podcast
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Credit The Charm of ‘The Idiot’
Batuman talks about her first novel, “The Idiot”; David Bellos discusses “The Novel of the Century: The Extraordinary Adventure of ‘Les Misérables.’ ”
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Best Sellers
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Credit Best-Seller Lists for April 9, 2017
All the lists: print, e-books, fiction, nonfiction, children’s books and more.
Books of The Times
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Books of The Times
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CreditRichard Nixon Presidential Library ‘Richard Nixon,’ Portrait of a Thin-Skinned, Media-Hating President
This elegant and sympathetic biography by John A. Farrell arrives as a current president makes comparisons unavoidable.
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Books of The Times
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CreditFlorida State Library and Archives A Florida of Sun, Sky, Sea and Mind
“Sunshine State,” Sarah Gerard’s essay collection, and “Gulf: The Making of an American Sea,” Jack E. Davis’s environmental history, each explore the terrain of an unmoored state.
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Books of The Times
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CreditJames Nieves/The New York Times A Haunting Debut Looks Ahead to a Second American Civil War
The details of “American War,” Omar El Akkad’s dystopian novel about an unraveling United States, makes his fictional future feel alarmingly real.
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Books of The Times
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CreditMichael Lionstar From Camille Paglia, ‘Free Women, Free Men’ and No Sacred Cows
This essay collection finds a firebrand author railing against modern feminism and groupthink at American universities.
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Books of The Times
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CreditPatricia Wall/The New York Times ‘Cork Dork’ Sniffs, Swills and Spits Through the World of Wine Experts
A journalist sets her sights on becoming a sommelier, and learns that the training can be grueling for these “masochistic hedonists.”
