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Books

Master builders

Books on, and by, architects
A good architectural monograph is more than just a big colorful book with too-good-to-be-true photos; it’s a window into the heart and mind of the architect it profiles.

By: DAVID EISEN | June 24, 2008

Confessions of an editor

DeWitt Henry's candid new collection of essays meditates on manhood
There’s a quiet courage in these essays, and a revelatory sense of the continuing challenge of pressing on.

By: NINA MACLAUGHLIN | June 20, 2008

Priorities, rediscovered

In her first book, actress Debra Winger focuses on home, not Hollywood
Instead of checking into rehab, the actress spoke her mind.

By: JENNY HALPER | June 19, 2008

Frank Bidart’s ambivalent appetite

The poet probes human opposites in his latest collection
Frank Bidart adores the savage Catullan paradox.

By: SVEN BIRKERTS | June 17, 2008

Small presses

Big ideas, and a match made in heaven
Rose Metal Press focuses on unique, non-traditional literary forms such as flash fiction, prose poetry, or novels-in-verse.

By: DEIRDRE FULTON | June 11, 2008

Mike Edison walks alone

Funhouse
On his death bed, Mike Edison probably won’t lament that he didn’t do this or he didn’t go there.

By: AMY FINCH | June 10, 2008

Spy games

Alan Furst’s “Night Soldiers” novels
The gray afternoon, the loveless assignation, the endless bureaucracy.

By: CLEA SIMON | June 10, 2008

The great American (office) novel

Thirteen fictional perspectives on your 9-5
They are coming regularly now, like buses, like bulletins — the great office novels of the 21st century.

By: JAMES PARKER | June 06, 2008

Booked up

Several shelves’ worth of summer reads
Summertime, and the reading is easy.

By: BARBARA HOFFERT | June 09, 2008

Masterful mysteries

Rendell and Nabb transcend genre
Not in the Flesh is Ruth Rendell’s 21st Inspector Wexford novel since she and the character debuted in 1964.

By: CHARLES TAYLOR | June 10, 2008

The thief who reinvented himself as a Hollywood celebrity
The new guy showed up as a guest at the Lakeside Golf Club in 1932, and to the surprise of absolutely no one, he won the club championship the first time he entered it.

By: GEORGE KIMBALL | June 10, 2008

Flying high

Interview: Jonathan Miles’s airport novel
There’s nothing new about the complaint as literature, says author Jonathan Miles.

By: CLEA SIMON | June 02, 2008

Second thoughts

Amis yes and no
Amis hasn’t had this much press since he fell out with Julian Barnes.

By: JAMES PARKER | June 03, 2008

‘Great’ is definitely the wrong word

Richard Bradley’s fact-challenged book on the Sox-Yanks’ ’78 season finale is filled with Buckner-esque errors.
When I come across an obvious factual error in a book, my initial inclination is to wince in sympathy for the soon-to-be-embarrassed author. Unless, that is, the mistake is infuriatingly egregious, in which case I’m more apt to throw the book up against the wall in disgust.

By: GEORGE KIMBALL | January 28, 2010