Ian McEwan: By the Book
The author of “Atonement” and, most recently, “Sweet Tooth,” believes the greatest reading pleasure has “an element of self-annihilation.”
Sunday Book Review
Photograph by Kristina DiMatteo and Rex Bonomelli
The year’s best books, selected by the editors of The New York Times Book Review.
‘Magnificence’
By LYDIA MILLET
Reviewed by LISA ZEIDNER
A new widow inherits a peculiar Pasadena estate in the final installment of Lydia Millet’s trilogy.
‘Elsewhere’
By RICHARD RUSSO
Reviewed by MEG WOLITZER
Richard Russo escaped small-town New York State and became a writer, but he could never escape his mother.
‘The Stockholm Octavo’
By KAREN ENGELMANN
Reviewed by SUSANN COKAL
Politics, cartomancy and ambition collide in Karen Engelmann’s historical novel.
‘In the Pleasure Groove: Love, Death and Duran Duran’
By JOHN TAYLOR with TOM SYKES
Reviewed by CAROLINE WEBER
Duran Duran’s John Taylor on the perks and perils of being a rock star.
‘1775: A Good Year for Revolution’
By KEVIN PHILLIPS
Reviewed by JOSEPH J. ELLIS
The determining events of the American Revolution occurred a year earlier than most people realize, Kevin Phillips argues.
‘Sasha and Emma’
By PAUL AVRICH and KAREN AVRICH
Reviewed by ELSA DIXLER
A joint biography of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman traces their wide-ranging activities.
‘Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962’
By YANG JISHENG. Translated by STACY MOSHER and GUO JIAN.
Reviewed by JONATHAN MIRSKY
The Chinese famine of the mid-20th century is a monument to Maoist tyranny, a journalist argues.
‘The Generals: American Military Command From World War II to Today’
By THOMAS E. RICKS
Reviewed by MAX BOOT
Today’s Army, Thomas E. Ricks writes, retains manifestly incompetent generals rather than admit to failure.
Crime
Dark Passage
By MARILYN STASIO
In “The Black Box,” Michael Connelly’s battle-scarred veteran, Harry Bosch, settles past and present scores with a single case.
‘Familiar’
By J. ROBERT LENNON
Reviewed by KEVIN BROCKMEIER
In J. Robert Lennon’s novel, a woman encounters another version of her world.
‘The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot’
By ROBERT MACFARLANE
Reviewed by ROB NIXON
Robert Macfarlane’s contemplative walks take him from the British Isles to the sacred landscapes of Spain and the Himalayas.
Visuals
Yesterday’s Tomorrows
By STEVEN HELLER
“Norman Bel Geddes Designs America” is a profusely illustrated career monograph that serves as the catalog for an exhibition.
Book News & Reviews
Patricia Wall/The New York Times
“Great Expectations: The Sons and Daughters of Charles Dickens” explores the lives of the writer’s offspring before and after his death.
Books of The Times
‘The Twelve Tribes of Hattie’
By AYANA MATHIS
Reviewed by MICHIKO KAKUTANI
Ayana Mathis’s debut novel is a story of terrible loss and grief and survival, of endurance in the face of disappointment, heartbreak and harrowing adversity.
Robert Lescher, Literary Agent, Is Dead at 83
By PAUL VITELLO
Mr. Lescher’s client roster featured several distinguished authors, including Robert Frost, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Alice B. Toklas, Benjamin Spock and Georgia O’Keeffe.
Professor Who Learns From Peasants
By JENNIFER SCHUESSLER
The political scientist James C. Scott reprises the themes of his earlier work in “Two Cheers for Anarchism.” He also loves to raise animals on his Connecticut farm.
Q. and A.
The Fate of an American City: Mark Binelli on Detroit
By JOHN WILLIAMS
Mr. Binelli's book "Detroit City Is the Place to Be" examines the city's deep problems and how they might be solved.
Children's Books
The Other Tooth Collector
By PAMELA PAUL
“The Tooth Mouse” is a picture book about the French version of the Tooth Fairy.
Books of The Times
‘Martin Amis: The Biography’
By RICHARD BRADFORD
Reviewed by DWIGHT GARNER
Richard Bradford’s biography is a mostly reliable guide through Martin Amis’s best novels, but lacks an instinctive feeling for their author.
ArtsBeat
Canadian Wins Uncoveted Bad Sex in Fiction Award
By JENNIFER SCHUESSLER
Nancy Huston is honored, kind of, for passages in her novel "Infrared."
For Young Latino Readers, an Image Is Missing
By MOTOKO RICH
Educators say grade-school students develop reading skills better when they are engaged by characters with whom they can identify. For Hispanic children, that’s hard to find.
Books of The Times
‘The Revolution Was Televised’
By ALAN SEPINWALL
Reviewed by MICHIKO KAKUTANI
In “The Revolution Was Televised,” the critic Alan Sepinwall analyzes a dozen dramas — “Mad Men,” “The Sopranos” and “Breaking Bad” among them — that he says have transformed television.
Critic’s Notebook
It Was The New Yorker With Hot Sauce
By DWIGHT GARNER
On the occasion of the first issue of The Oxford American under its new editorship, a critic hopes that the future of this Southern literary quarterly will live up to its estimable past.
Books of The Times
Homages to Mom
Reviewed by RACHEL SHTEIR
In “All Gone” Alex Witchel writes about her mother’s dementia (with recipes), and in “The End of Your Life Book Club” Will Schwalbe describes what he and his mother read as she was dying of cancer.
Columbia’s Gang Scholar Lives on the Edge
By ARIEL KAMINER
Sudhir Venkatesh is a rising star in sociology for his research on poverty and gang life, but his methods have led to questions from colleagues and a grueling inquiry by Columbia University.
Books of The Times
‘The Patriarch’
By DAVID NASAW
Reviewed by MICHIKO KAKUTANI
In “The Patriarch,” David Nasaw writes about Joseph P. Kennedy, a larger-than-life paterfamilias who endowed his children with a sense of destiny and his own driving will.
ArtsBeat
'Books, I Think, Are Dead': Joe Queenan Talks About 'One for the Books'
By JOHN WILLIAMS
Mr. Queenan's new book recounts his lifetime of reading the great, the ridiculous and everything in between.
- Fiction
- Nonfiction
PRINT & E-BOOKS
- Fiction
- Nonfiction
HARDCOVER
- Trade Fiction
- Mass-Market Fiction
- Nonfiction
PAPERBACK
Back Page
Reasons to Re-Joyce
By DARIN STRAUSS
It’s been a year of remarkable novels, several of them sharing an unlikely pedigree.
Stories, Essays and Poems for the Powder Room
By DWIGHT GARNER
To stock the ideal bathroom library, here’s a list of 11 titles from the books of 2012.
The Stars’ Year to Rock ’n’ Write
By JANET MASLIN
In 2012 books about the lives of acts like Fleetwood Mac and Rod Stewart have increased the canon of music bios and memoirs.
Heavyweights for the Holidays
By DWIGHT GARNER
Fashion designers and stylists, musicians, dogs and extinct birds are all celebrated in a new crop of gift-worthy coffee table books.
Between Two Covers, Wide Worlds of Art
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Books about art, by artists and from museums, with some intriguing hybrids included.
Books for Those Who Dream of Ancient Wealth
By EVE M. KAHN
Gift books survey, among other collections, the wealth of Saxons, ancient mosaics, Buddhist artifacts and the Book of Kells.
Drawn From History and Imagination
By GEORGE GENE GUSTINES
World War II intrigue, an audacious heist, misfits of science, an anthology of gay and lesbian comics and superheroes are on the bill in these graphic novels.
Book Review Podcast
This week, a discussion of the Book Review’s 10 Best Books of 2012; Caroline Weber talks about Duran Duran; Leslie Kaufman has notes from the field; Steven Heller on his latest Visuals column; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus is the host.
Book Review Features
Inside the List
By GREGORY COWLES
Among other things, Carol Loomis’s “Tap Dancing to Work” asks the timeless question, Are Jimmy and Warren Buffett related?
Goodbye, Frustration: Pen Put Aside, Roth Talks
By CHARLES McGRATH
Philip Roth discussed his decision to stop writing fiction: “I knew I wasn’t going to get another good idea, or if I did, I’d have to slave over it.”
Book Review Podcast: 10 Best Books of 2012
December 7, 2012
Novelist's Debut Is Newest Pick for Oprah's Book Club
December 5, 2012
Business
Off the Shelf
The C.E.O. Who Shocked Japan Inc.
By BRYAN BURROUGH
In “Exposure,” a new book, the former chief of Olympus of Japan tells how he became a whistle-blower after finding that the company was making questionable, money-losing acquisitions.
Metropolitan
Bookshelf
Rating a Mayor of New York
By SAM ROBERTS
Books on former Mayor David N. Dinkins, biking in the boroughs and the evolution of mass transit in the city.
Style
This Life
She’s Got Some Big Ideas
By BRUCE FEILER
Maria Popova is the mastermind of Brain Pickings, one of the faster growing literary empires on the Internet, yet she is virtually unknown.
Home
A Dark and Itchy Night
By CATHERINE SAINT LOUIS
Bedbugs reveal a taste for literature, turning up in library books.
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