Inauguration Day - The New York Times Book Review

Selman Design Dear Reader... Today is Inauguration Day, and because it's difficult for the publishing industry to respond to immediate headlines with anything other than quickie books, we asked Beverly Gage, a professor of history at Yale University, and Jon Meacham, the Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential historian and author most recently of "Destiny and Power," to take a long view of the recent election and the incoming administration. Both writers turned to the 1930s in their respective essays. Gage writes about the legacy of Sinclair Lewis's "It Can't Happen Here," while Meacham writes about Edward Dahlberg's "Those Who Perish" and Nathanael West's "A Cool Million," as well as a few later works. For more recent views of the presidency, we review Michael Tomasky's biography of Bill Clinton and Jonathan Chait's new book, "Audacity: How Barack Obama Defied His Critics and Created a Legacy That Will Prevail." Prefer to escape into fiction? There are plenty of options this week. Ottessa Moshfegh, author of the acclaimed novel "Eileen" (reviewed on our cover in 2015), has published a collection of short stories, "Homesick for Another World." Lucinda Rosenfeld's new novel satirizes liberal Brooklynites and their pieties about class and race. Plus, André Aciman has a new novel. And Marilyn Stasio's Crime column looks at a debut medical mystery, another thriller with "girl" in the title, and a chilly suspense novel by Randall Silvis. Please stay in touch and let us know what you think – whether it's about this newsletter, our reviews, our podcast or what you're reading. We read and ponder all of it. I even write back, albeit belatedly. You can email me at books@nytimes.com. Pamela Paul Editor of The New York Times Book Review