The Killing Circle
Andrew Pyper’s fourth novel simultaneously follows the meta-literary life of a young book critic and a rash of murders in Toronto.
Robert Birnbaum
Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency
Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman levels a host of indictments against the standing vice president, the formidably secretive Chief of Staff, Dick Cheney.
On the Road
Jim Harrison’s new road novel prompts memories of a multitude of travel guides and essays, from de Tocqueville to the present.
Advertising and Art: International Graphics From the Affiche to Pop-Art
A historical look at the unsavory-to-some intersection between commercial and fine art—from Jules Chéret to Andy Warhol to the present.
A New Life Cut Short
The controversial ends of composer Gustav Mahler’s life and work makes for a mammoth tome.
Story Songs
I was looking over a recent copy of The Believer (the annual music issue) and was much pleased to see there was an article on singer/poet/songwriter Gil Scott-Heron, once of the long-ago Last Poets, who were known for their anthemic “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.
The Aura Estrada Prize
Backed by a cadre of writers, Francisco Goldman honors his late wife with a literary prize.
Matrimony
Plucking a novel from the bookstack reveals an accomplished novelist and a read worthy of your time.
Nicaragua
A new edition of photojournalist Susan Meiselas’s classic monograph, shot in the waning days of the Somoza regime and the glory days of the Sandanista revolution.
Raising the Bar
In the large, inchoate expanse of critical terrain best characterized by the question of “What were they thinking?” one must relegate the newest effort, Raising the Bar, by veteran TV producer Steven Bochco (Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, and N.Y.P.D. Blue). The bombardment of promotion on