Saturday, April 04, 2015

Book Reviews - The New York Times Weekend Edition

By VIET THANH NGUYEN

Revie  wed by PHILIP CAPUTO
Viet Thanh Nguyen's tragicomic debut novel compels us to look at the Vietnam War and its aftermath in a new light.

Lydia DavisLydia Davis: By the Book

The author, most recently, of "Can't and Won't" abandoned reading Harry Potter alongside her son: "I found the writing flat and shallow, and the characters less than interesting."
·       'All the Old Knives'
By OLEN STEINHAUER
Reviewed by CRAIG TAYLOR
Olen Steinhauer's thriller takes place, almost entirely, across a restaurant table.

Hanya Yanagihara'A Little Life'

By HANYA YANAGIHARA
Reviewed by CAROL ANSHAW
In Hanya Yanagihara's novel, four friends from college grapple with adulthood in New York.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali

'Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now'

By AYAAN HIRSI ALI
Reviewed by SUSAN DOMINUS
Ayaan Hirsi Ali believes that extremist violence is rooted in Islam's fundamental texts.
·         Ayaan Hirsi Ali: By the Book
ISIS jihadists in Tikrit, from a propaganda video uploaded on June 8, 2014.

'ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror,' and More

By STEVE NEGUS
Three books attempt to understand the Islamic State.

'A Higher Form of Calling'

By DIANA PRESTON
Reviewed by ALEXANDER ROSE
In 1915, the Germans turned for the first time to weapons that targeted civilians as well as soldiers.
Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

'Barefoot Dogs'

By ANTONIO RUIZ-­CAMACHO
Reviewed by PATRICIA ENGEL
A threatened Mexican clan seeks the safety of exile.

Ethel Payne confers with Vice President Richard Nixon.'Eye on the Struggle'

By JAMES McGRATH MORRIS
Reviewed by KHALIL GIBRAN MUHAMMAD
The life of the journalist Ethel Payne, who roved the world and brought black experience to readers and listeners.

'What Comes Next and How to Like It'

By ABIGAIL THOMAS
Reviewed by KATHERINE A. POWERS
Abigail Thomas's third memoir both records and laments the passage of time.

'The Wisdom of Perversity'

By RAFAEL YGLESIAS
Reviewed by JOYCE CAROL OATES
In Rafael Yglesias's novel, three grown friends decide whether to go public about the pedophile who disfigured their lives.
By JILL CIMENT
Reviewed by ANNA HEYWARD
In Jill Ciment's novel, a mysterious fungus takes root in Brooklyn and spreads through the city.
Kate Clanchy

'Meeting the English'

By KATE CLANCHY
Reviewed by MARY POLS
Inored by his family, an ailing writer enlists a teenager's aid.
Yasushi Inoue

'The Hunting Gun' and 'Life of a Counterfeiter'

By YASUSHI INOUE. Translated by MICHAEL EMMERICH.
Reviewed by JANICE P. NIMURA
Three tales and a novella by the postwar figure Yasushi Inoue.

'Delicious Foods'

By JAMES HANNAHAM
Reviewed by TED GENOWAYS
A boy searches for his young drug-addicted mother employed at a remote industrial farm.

Eleanor Marx'Eleanor Marx: A Life'

By RACHEL HOLMES
Reviewed by VIVIAN GORNICK
Eleanor Marx, the subject of a new biography, became a major player on the British left.
Steve Jobs in 1985.

'Becoming Steve Jobs'

By BRENT SCHLENDER and RICK TETZELI
Reviewed by BRAD STONE
A portrait of a volatile boy wonder and his path to technological vanguard.

Old-school tradecraft: Cuomo with labor leaders during his father's 1982 campaign for governor.'The Contender'

By MICHAEL SHNAYERSON
Reviewed by JASON ZENGERLE
A biography of Andrew Cuomo shows how he has often defined himself in opposition to the record of his father, Mario.
Crime

Dennis Lehane's 'World Gone By,' and More

By MARILYN STASIO - Dennis Lehane's new novel continues the sweeping fathers-and-sons tale started in "The Given Day" and "Live by Night."

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