'Rogues' showcases Patrick Radden Keefe's preternatural gift for reading people
Keefe recognizes that we're all unreliable narrators of our own lives, and writes about his subjects with a keen sense of understanding.
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Keefe recognizes that we're all unreliable narrators of our own lives, and writes about his subjects with a keen sense of understanding.
(Image credit: Doubleday)
It's a testament to Hilary Mantel's brilliance as an author that even though the moments in these stories are subtle, the book somehow feels epic in its own way.
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Pulitzer prize-winning science journalist Ed Yong writes in a perfect balance of scientific rigor and personal awe as he invites readers to grasp something of how other animals experience the world.
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50 years on, the authors profess amazement that another president came along willing to jettison whatever conscience he had, and whatever respect for the rule of law, in an effort to stay in office.
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In David Santos Donaldson's debut novel, a young gay Black man gets some supernatural relationship advice from the Black lover of a famous white British writer, both of them long dead.
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Beach reads are great — but here are some new books offering the stuff of sticky, heat-stroke dreams; overgrown, light-filled wildflower fields; and twisted alleys of old cities waking from winter.
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Lindsey Fitzharris' new book tells the true story of Harold Gillies, a British surgeon whose team worked to reconstruct the faces of some of the 280,000 men who suffered facial trauma during WWI.
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Kingston burst onto the scene in 1976 with The Woman Warrior and then kept writing. Critic John Powers says that, like James Baldwin, she's managed to shift American culture and remain relevant.
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Séamas O'Reilly reflects on how he grieved his mother anew as he grew older, on the way grief multiplied within his family, and on mourning rituals — but it's woven through with amusement.
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The problem of American gun violence is persistent and solutions are hard to come by. But here are 5 books that help put a face to the victims, explain how we got here and how we might get out.
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Happy-Go-Lucky is more somber than David Sedaris' usual fare, but there are some fresh, funny bits wedged between the weighty boulders.
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The double threat of climate change and the global pandemic has made post-apocalyptic fiction an undeniably thriving and popular genre. Author David Yoon has one of the latest entrants.
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Book critic Maureen Corrigan has been diving into lighter literary novels and mysteries, searching for books suited for the beginning of summer. Here are some of her picks.
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New translations of Juan Emar's Yesterday, Cristina Rivera Garza's New and Selected Stories, and Gabriela Alemán's Family Album offer a look at human nature — and adventures along the way.
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Jhumpa Lahiri mixes detailed explorations of craft with broader reflections on her own artistic life, as well as the "essential aesthetic and political mission" of translation.
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Emma Straub's new novel is a charmer that unleashes the magic of time travel to sweeten its exploration of some heavy themes like mortality, the march of time, and how small choices can alter a life.
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A new book argues that greater public support for parents is critical for the brain development of America's kids.
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In their latest works, Azar Nafisi, Elena Ferrante, and Anna Quindlen vigorously assert that reading and writing can pull us out of our mess. In their hands, reading and writing are worth celebrating.
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Author Scott Hershovitz sets out to prove that philosophy, like inquisitive, rowdy children, can offer illuminating insights — even when addressing complex subjects related to misbehavior.
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Hernan Diaz's novel is constantly pulling a fast one on the reader. It opens with the saga of a Wall Street tycoon, but soon another narrative comes to upend the truth of everything that came before.
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