Neil deGrasse Tyson: By the Book
The Hayden Planetarium director and author, most recently, of “Space Chronicles,” would love to have met Oscar Wilde.
Sunday Book Review
Norman Rockwell Museum
"Christmas Packages," by Norman Rockwell, from the December 1920 issue of The American Boy magazine.
‘American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell’
By DEBORAH SOLOMON
Reviewed by GARRISON KEILLOR
Deborah Solomon’s biography of Rockwell, who believed in art as storytelling and created images that reside in collective memory.
Author's Note
Other Countries, Other Shores
By ORHAN PAMUK
C. P. Cavafy makes no explicit reference to himself in his best and most stirring work; and yet, with every poem we read, we cannot help thinking of him.
‘The Empty Chair’
By BRUCE WAGNER
Reviewed by DANI SHAPIRO
The narrators of linked novellas relate tales of loss and the search for spiritual solace.
‘The Letters of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.’
Edited by ANDREW SCHLESINGER and STEPHEN SCHLESINGER
Reviewed by GEORGE PACKER
Arthur Schlesinger Jr.’s letters reveal he was no ivory-tower scholar, but an enthusiastic partisan.
‘The Apartment’
By GREG BAXTER
Reviewed by STACEY D’ERASMO
Returned from Iraq, a young man searches for a new life in Europe.
‘Nothing’
By ANNE MARIE WIRTH CAUCHON
Reviewed by TAO LIN
The lives of Anne Marie Wirth Cauchon’s young narrators intersect in a Montana town.
‘Report From the Interior’
By PAUL AUSTER
Reviewed by SARAH MANGUSO
Paul Auster’s memoir traces the history of his psychological development from childhood to early adulthood.
‘Pinkerton’s Great Detective’
By BEAU RIFFENBURGH
Reviewed by BEN MACINTYRE
The most notorious operative of Pinkerton’s detective agency, James McParland was a thorn in the sides of unions and outlaws.
‘The Great Escape’
By ANGUS DEATON
Reviewed by DAVID LEONHARDT
An economist argues that most humans now live longer, healthier, more connected lives.
‘The Myth of America’s Decline’
By JOSEF JOFFE
Reviewed by CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL
Josef Joffe disputes the popular perception that America’s supremacy is on the wane.
In Other Words
By MIGNON FOGARTY
From lost phrases to newly coined terms, three works present a range of definitions.
Children's Books
Blizzard of his dreams: From "Big Snow."
Thoughts of snowstorms — real or imagined — preoccupy the children in three picture books.
Children's Books
‘Rooftoppers’
By KATHERINE RUNDELL. Illustrated by TERRY FAN.
Reviewed by EMILY EAKIN
In Katherine Rundell’s middle-grade novel, an orphan befriends children who live on top of Parisian buildings.
Children's Books
Bookshelf: Play On!
By SARAH HARRISON SMITH
New books include Gus Gordon’s “Herman and Rosie,” featuring a crocodile who plays oboe and a doe who sings jazz.
Children's Books
‘Reality Boy’
By A. S. KING
Reviewed by JOHN GREEN
A boy is overwhelmed by rage when his deeply unhappy family appears on a TV show.
Children's Books
‘The Kingdom of Little Wounds’
By SUSANN COKAL
Reviewed by DARCEY STEINKE
Women’s bodies are the battlegrounds in Susann Cokal’s novel of palace intrigue set during the Scandinavian Renaissance.
Books News & Reviews
Julien Jourdes for The New York Times
Ned Vizzini in 2004.
Ned Vizzini, 32, Dies; Wrote Teenage Novels
By WILLIAM YARDLEY
Mr. Vizzini addressed depression and other adolescent issues in works like “It’s Kind of a Funny Story.”
Books of The Times
‘The Invisible Code’
By CHRISTOPHER FOWLER
Reviewed by JANET MASLIN
“The Invisible Code,” the 10th novel in Christopher Fowler’s Peculiar Crimes Unit series, follows two Golden Age detectives as they solve a murder.
ArtsBeat
Turning Points: Margaret MacMillan Talks About ‘The War That Ended Peace’
By JOHN WILLIAMS
Ms. MacMillan’s new book tracks the events that led to the outbreak of World War I.
Cynthia Russett, Historian of Victorian Attitudes Toward Women, Dies at 76
By MARGALIT FOX
Professor Russett’s best-known book, “Sexual Science,” published in 1989, explored attempts by Victorian thinkers, including Darwin, to scientifically “prove” women’s inferiority.
Books of The Times
‘The Beast’
By ÓSCAR MARTÍNEZ. Translated by DANIELA MARIA UGAZ and JOHN WASHINGTON.
Reviewed by LARRY ROHTER
In “The Beast,” Óscar Martínez recounts the life histories of Central American immigrants who attempt to escape to a better life in the United States.
Children’s Books
Christmas for Keeps
By SARAH HARRISON SMITH
Three new books about Santa Claus look set to become perennial favorites.
Books of The Times
‘The Empty Chair’
By BRUCE WAGNER
Reviewed by MICHIKO KAKUTANI
“The Empty Chair” by Bruce Wagner comprises two novellas that explore the world of spiritual seekers.
Hugh Nissenson, Who Pushed the Novel’s Boundaries, Dies at 80
By WILLIAM YARDLEY
A thorough researcher, Mr. Nissenson took years to create alternative worlds in pursuing questions of faith in books like “The Tree of Life.”
Books of The Times
‘Egyptomania’
By BOB BRIER
Reviewed by JANET MASLIN
In “Egyptomania,” Bob Brier traces the centuries-old lure of ancient Egypt and the kitsch it has inspired.
ArtsBeat
Random House Acquires 1800s Prison Memoir
By JULIE BOSMAN
The work, believed to be the first prison memoir by an African-American, was recently authenticated by scholars at Yale University.
The Literary Journal and the Small Press Live On in Austin
By CHRISTOPHER KELLY
These are supposed to be bad times for the publishing world, but a new countermovement has sprung up that may or may not make Texas’ capital city a literary hotbed like Brooklyn or San Francisco.
Trayvon Martin’s Parents Are Planning a Book
By JULIE BOSMAN
Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin met with publishers this week to discuss a book they intend to write about their son and his fatal shooting.
Books of The Times
The Light (and Short) Fantastic Told
By DANA JENNINGS
Howard Waldrop’s “Horse of a Different Color” and Catherynne M. Valente’s “The Bread We Eat in Dreams” are short-story collections that season pop-cultural myth with literary bite.
Books of The Times
‘Tune In’
By MARK LEWISOHN
Reviewed by JANET MASLIN
“Tune In,” the first volume of Mark Lewisohn’s planned three-part series on the Beatles, chronicles the band members up to 1962.
Prison Memoir of a Black Man in the 1850s
By JULIE BOSMAN
Yale University has acquired what it believes to be the earliest known memoir written in prison by an African-American, dated 1858.
Colin Wilson, Author Acclaimed at 24 for ‘The Outsider,’ Dies at 82
By MARGALIT FOX
Mr. Wilson shot to international acclaim with his first book, which in 1956 touched a deep nerve in postwar Britain. He went on to write more than 100 others.
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PRINT & E-BOOKS
- Fiction
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HARDCOVER
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PAPERBACK
No Literary Horse Race, Just Books We Like
By JANET MASLIN
Three critics of The New York Times tick off their favorite books of the year.
- 10 Favorite Books: Michiko Kakutani | Janet Maslin | Dwight Garner
Bookends
Bob Dylan: Musician or Poet?
Dana Stevens and Francine Prose discuss whether Bob Dylan’s lyrics make him more poet than musician.
Open Book
A Book Brings Champions Together
By JOHN WILLIAMS
Two “Jeopardy!” winners, Tom Nissley and India Cooper, recently crossed paths over Nissley’s trove of literary trivia and history, “A Reader’s Book of Days.”
The 10 Best Books of 2013
The year’s best books, selected by the editors of The New York Times Book Review.
The Shortlist
Pop Music
By ALAN LIGHT
New books by Donald Fagen, Ray Davies, Linda Ronstadt and CeeLo Green.
Inside The New York Times Book Review Podcast
This week, Alan Light discusses four new memoirs by music stars; Julie Bosman has notes from the field; David Leonhardt talks about Angus Deaton’s “Great Escape”; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host.
Book Review Features
Inside the List
By GREGORY COWLES
Joe Stefko, a former drummer for Meat Loaf, has been printing limited editions of Dean Koontz’s novels for more than 20 years.
From Sunday Review
Dispatch
Caution: Reading Can Be Hazardous
By CHARLES McGRATH
This year, I was a judge for the National Book Awards. A day when I got through only a single book felt like a day of delinquency.
Book Review Podcast: Behind the Music
December 20, 2013
Harry Potter Headed Onstage in London
December 20, 2013
Publishers to Bring Out Sequel to Stieg Larsson’s ‘Dragon Tattoo’ Books
December 17, 2013
Bookshelf
Suggested Reading for de Blasio
By SAM ROBERTS
Here are 10 books that Bill de Blasio could find helpful as he prepares to take office.
A Woman’s Fantasy in a Modern Reality
By LIESL SCHILLINGER
Erica Jong’s “Fear of Flying,” published 40 years ago, has its fervent supporters, men and women alike.
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