True Books

You'll be hearing a lot about Alan Turing this fall, with The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, telling the story of this math genius who played a crucial code-breaking role in World War... (Tom)

In a year full of fantastic books of essays, one of the last ones might be the best. D'Ambrosio's language is thrillingly precise and his honesty about himself and what he sees is sometimes so open yo... (Tom)

I'm not sure if all the fiscal malfeasance that's gone unpunished since Enron spectacularly imploded back in 2001 makes The Smartest Guys in the Room seem quaintly outdated now or even more compelling... (Tom)

Boy (or I should say "Girl"), Jill Lepore must have been thrilled when she came upon the previously unseen papers of Wonder Woman's creator William Marston. The facts, both sensational and substantial... (Tom)

I don't know about you, but I always feel like history happens to other people, in other places. And Red Love makes the case that one German family experienced more than its fair share of 20th-century... (Liz)

"Ooooh, honey, all that's going to make you tired, tired, tired," Rosa Parks once told Bryan Stevenson when he breathlessly listed his ambitions for the Equal Justice Initiative, his shoestring legal-... (Tom)

If you're tired of reading about vaccination only in bitter Facebook comment threads, you might be refreshed by On Immunity. Biss is the daughter of a doctor and a poet, and her little book is an exte... (Tom)

Wright's calmly intrepid reporting on al-Qaeda, in The Looming Tower, and Scientology, in Going Clear, made those the definitive books on their difficult subjects. Now he has taken on the apparently i... (Tom)

I'm usually too proud to confess an interest in self-help books ("Who needs help? Not me!"), but this one I embraced immediately. Maybe it's because Tharp's art form, dance, feels so distant and myste... (Tom)

Gossipy, intelligent, well-read, and well-written, Richard Burton's diaries, first published in 2012, are just about everything you could hope for from the form. Burton's artistry was always in danger... (Tom)

It's hard to think of a mid-century kids' classic that wasn't guided into print by Ursula Nordstrom. Where the Wild Things Are, Charlotte's Web, Harriet the Spy, Bread and Jam for Frances, Goodnight M... (Tom)

Perlstein's four-book project is remarkable not only for its subject—a liberal historian writing an at times sympathetic history of modern American conservatism, the dominant political movement of our... (Tom)

My copy of Homage to Catalonia which I bought for this month's Ridge Readers Book Club meeting is the 49th printing of the American edition. Why are we still reading Orwell's memoir of fighting in the... (Tom)

Old Books of the Week The Glory of Their Times by Lawrence Ritter Pitching in a Pinch by Christy Mathewson It's August, with the Mariners actually still in a pennant race, so let's take a few moments... (Tom)

Old Books of the Week The Glory of Their Times by Lawrence Ritter Pitching in a Pinch by Christy Mathewson It's August, with the Mariners actually still in a pennant race, so let's take a few moments... (Tom)

Writing in a clipped, hip style any James Ellroy fan will recognize, Selvin unearths the story of the long-neglected Berns, who in his short life, and his even shorter time at the top of pop, wrote "T... (Tom)

A few years ago, on vacation, I picked up an old copy of Act One, knowing only vaguely that it was a famous theater memoir. Some number of breathless, elated hours later, I picked my head up again. Wo... (Tom)

Harris's first book, Pictures at a Revolution, which be built around the five Best Picture Oscar nominees from 1967, was a smart treat, and in his second he returns to that magic number, telling the p... (Tom)

Not traveling this summer? Take a trip with this gorgeously illustrated, appealingly oversized book of maps. Every page is a wanderer's delight, detailing the flora, fauna, landmarks, geography, and c... (Kim)

When I was writing A Reader's Book of Days I made a rule not to visit Usher's blog, Letters of Note, because there was so much good stuff there. (It was too tempting to crib.) Now he's made a big, lov... (Tom)