Books

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  Book Review David Byrne: How Music Works

  The Talking Heads frontman gets analytical and slightly autobiographical in piecing together this fascinating extended essay on music. 

  September 17, 2012 | 12:03am -

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  Book Review Davy Rothbart: My Heart Is An Idiot: Essays 

  The creator and editor of Found magazine extends his range to essays, but tends to keep his focus too internal.

  September 17, 2012 | 12:02am -

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  Book Review Zadie Smith: NW 

  The author of White Teeth returns with a close exploration of a London neighborhood in this strong, emotional novel.

  September 17, 2012 | 12:01am -

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  Book Review Jay Caspian Kang: The Dead Do Not Improve

  Pop-culture references and obsessive annotations aside, the debut novel from a Grantland editor weaves an impressive, evocative spell.

  September 17, 2012 | 12:00am -

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  Book Review J. Hoberman: Film After Film: Or, What Became of 21st Century Cinema? 

  The vaunted ex-Village Voice critic examines film in the wake of celluloid’s decline, and intelligently picks apart the medium’s past decade. 

  September 10, 2012 | 12:03am -

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  Book Review Molly Ringwald: When It Happens To You 

  The teen star of Sixteen Candles and Pretty In Pink branches out into fiction with this promising but flawed novel in stories. 

  September 10, 2012 | 12:02am -

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  Book Review Paul Auster: Winter Journal

  The author of The New York Trilogy continues his career-long search for meaning and identity, this time by examining what it means to grow old. 

  September 10, 2012 | 12:01am -

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  Book Review Michael Chabon: Telegraph Avenue

  After a decade of colorful fantasies, the Pulitzer winner returns to a recognizable Earth, but takes more risks in the process.

  September 10, 2012 | 12:00am -

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  Book Review Martin A. Lee: Smoke Signals: A Social History Of Marijuana 

  This dryly serious book about pot has an agenda, but stoner humor is right off the menu. 

  September 3, 2012 | 12:02am -

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  Book Review Martin Amis: Lionel Asbo: State of England 

  A British ex-pat mocks the state of his home country through the lens of a thuggish nouveau-rich Lotto mega-winner. 

  September 3, 2012 | 12:01am -

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  Book Review Chris Colfer: The Land Of Stories: The Wishing Spell 

  That kid from Glee is back in yet another medium, this time a surprisingly complicated, hefty fairy-tale novel. 

  September 3, 2012 | 12:00am -

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  Book Review D.T. Max: Every Love Story Is A Ghost Story: A Life Of David Foster Wallace 

  David Foster Wallace gets a solid, mostly fair first biography 

  September 3, 2012 | 12:00am -

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  Book Review Craig Brown: Hello Goodbye Hello

  A meticulously configured series of stories about real-life encounters between famous figures provides some remarkable anecdotes. 

  August 27, 2012 | 12:03am -

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  Book Review Chuck Thompson: Better Off Without ’Em: A Northern Manifesto For Southern Secession 

  A travel writer explores the South to make sense of its culture, but comes back with facile conclusions. 

  August 27, 2012 | 12:02am -

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  Book Review Victor LaValle: The Devil In Silver 

  This novel sets out to expose some of the problems of mental hospitals, but the agenda outweighs the narrative. 

  August 27, 2012 | 12:01am -

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  Book Review Claire Vaye Watkins: Battleborn

  A debuting writer with familial ties to Charles Manson’s cult escapes her past and establishes herself as a strong voice. 

  August 27, 2012 | 12:00am -

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  Book Review Ariel S. Winter: The Twenty-Year Death

  Three novels in the style of three different crime-fiction greats make up the body of this compelling adult debut.

  August 20, 2012 | 12:03am -

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  Book Review Rachel Joyce: The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry 

  A walking trip across England creates many connections for an isolated man in this quixotic novel. 

  August 20, 2012 | 12:02am -

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  Book Review Stephen Miller: The Messenger 

  This story of a terrorist spreading smallpox through America seems inspired by thrillers, but is more delicate and personal. 

  August 20, 2012 | 12:01am -

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  Book Review Richard C. Morais: Buddhaland Brooklyn 

  A conceptually slight new novel from the author of The Hundred-Foot Journey follows a young Buddhist through trials and self-discovery in New York. 

  August 20, 2012 | 12:00am -

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  Book Review Stephen L. Carter: The Impeachment Of Abraham Lincoln 

  The Emperor Of Ocean Park’s author tries alternate history with this story of Lincoln’s post-assassination-attempt political woes. 

  August 13, 2012 | 12:03am -

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  Book Review Charles Yu: Sorry Please Thank You: Stories 

  A writer who’s been compared to Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams finds his own feet in these clever stories of Star Trek redshirts and videogame failures. 

  August 13, 2012 | 12:02am -

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  Book Review Kurt Andersen: True Believers 

  A ’60s radical struggles with her past—and worse, the question of whether anyone else cares about her past—in this fast-paced novel. 

  August 13, 2012 | 12:01am -

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  Book Review Chris Dumas: Un-American Psycho: Brian De Palma And The Political Invisible 

  What could have been a dry, academic work on the controversial filmmaker reads as a vital argument for the richness of his work. 

  August 13, 2012 | 12:00am -

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  Book Review Tana French: Broken Harbor 

  The latest literary mystery in a bestselling series has more to prove than past entries, and more to lose with its pompous hero.

  August 6, 2012 | 12:03am -

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  Book Review Carlos Ruiz Zafón: The Prisoner Of Heaven 

  A Spanish bestseller continues his florid fantasy series about the power of books, but this time finds some of his archetypes wearing thin. 

  August 6, 2012 | 12:02am -

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  Book Review Barry Fantoni: Harry Lipkin: Private Eye 

  The age of the geriatric detective in this murder mystery puts a new pressure on the familiar Sam Spade archetype.

  August 6, 2012 | 12:01am -

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  Book Review Christian Kiefer: The Infinite Tides 

  The marooned-on-Earth astronaut at the heart of this draggy debut never seems to find a purpose. 

  August 6, 2012 | 12:00am -

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  Book Review Mark Perryman: Why The Olympics Aren’t Good For Us, And How They Can Be 

  A sports journalist comes up with some smart observations about how to fix what’s wrong about the modern Olympic Games. 

  July 30, 2012 | 12:03am -

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  Book Review Graham Joyce: Some Kind Of Fairy Tale 

  The author of The Tooth Fairy returns with another unsettling modern fairy tale about a stolen child—or possibly something else entirely. 

  July 30, 2012 | 12:02am -