The New York Times asks a handful of writers what books they’ve enjoyed most over the last few months, and why. Their choices are idiosyncratic and instructive. From Salon, from the pursuit of a lost Shakespeare manuscript to a chilling tale of missing sisters, these recommendations will add sizzle to your beach book list; and Opus Day: An interview with Berkeley Breathed, Salon's new Sunday cartoonist. The Skim Trade: At New York's BookExpo, the literary event of a lunchtime. In Praise Of The Small Press: There are numerous other small presses out there. Check them out - you might discover a gem of your own.
From Harper's, an article on Why Dickens Matters. Orhan Pamuk's prosecution for "insulting Turkishness" made headlines around the world but he is not interested in engaging directly with politics. He is delighted to find that people are finally talking to him about his novels. A review of You Must Set Forth at Dawn: A Memoir by Wole Soyinka. A review of When She Was White: The True Story of a Family Divided By Race by Judith Stone. A review of Neal Stephenson's "Baroque Cycle" (Quicksilver; The Confusion; and The System of the World). Ten questions with marketing maven and Chasing Cool author Noah Kerner about generating an authentic vision and why "the process is the prize". From Literary Review, a review of What is the What by Dave Eggers; and intrepid foreign correspondent Jason Burke finds harmony in the spare prose of the late Ryszard Kapuscinski's final work, Travels with Herodotus.
From Smithsonian, an interview with Jay Levenson, guest curator of the exhibition "Encompassing the Globe: Portugal and the World in the 16th and 17th Centuries". A review of Christian Demonlogy and Popular Mythology: Demons, Spirits, Witches, vol. 2 by Gabor Klaniczay and Éva Pocs. From Strange Maps, here's a look at the first, false map of the "True North". A review of The Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures by Louis Theroux.
More on Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr by Nancy Isenberg. A review of Age of Betrayal: The Triumph of Money in America, 1865 – 1900 by Jack Beatty. Jonathan Yardley reviews FDR by Jean Edward Smith. More on Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Vincent Bugliosi. A review of The Invincible Quest: The Life of Richard Milhous Nixon by Conrad Black. David S. Broder reviews Gerald R. Ford by Douglas Brinkley. More on Presidential Courage by Michael Beschloss. A review of Courage: Eight Portraits by Gordon Brown and Instruction to Deliver by Michael Barber (and more).
A review of Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire and the Birth of Europe by William Rosen (and more). A review of The Noble Revolt: The Overthrow of Charles I by John Adamson. A review of The Pursuit of Glory: Europe, 1648-1815 by Tim Blanning. A review of William Wilberforce: The Life of the Great Anti-Slave Trade Campaigner by William Hague. A review of Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero by Lucy Riall. A review of Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore. A review of Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions that Changed the World 1940-41 by Ian Kershaw (and more). A review of The President, the Pope and the Prime Minister by John O'Sullivan (and more). A review of The Berlin Wall: A World Divided, 1961–89 by Frederick Taylor.
