Caleb Carr, a military historian and author whose experience of childhood abuse drove him to explore the roots of violence — most famously in his 1994 best seller, “The Alienist,” a period thriller about the hunt for a serial killer in 19th-century Manhattan — died on Thursday at his home in Cherry Plains, N.Y. Read more
In Honor of Duke Ellington: Here Are 15 Great Books About Jazz
Can a sentence swing and a paragraph bop? Is it possible for prose to be as stripped down and cool as a Miles Davis trumpet solo, or a poem to be as incantatory as John Coltrane’s saxophone? Despite all of the musical genres which the United States contributed to contemporary culture, most of them born from the specifically African American experience it should be added, jazz remains in many ways the lodestar of our melodic and rhythmic firmament, the “Classical Music” of America (as complicated as that assertion might be). Read more
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The Best Crime Novels of the Year (So Far)
Looking for some murder and mayhem (fictional, of course)? Read more
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The Essential Don DeLillo
His fascination with terrorism, cults and mass culture’s weirder turns has given his work a prophetic air. Here’s where to start. Read more
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Can You Read a Book in a Quarter of an Hour?
Blinkist is an app. If I had to summarize what it does, I would say that it summarizes like crazy. It takes an existing book and crunches it down to a series of what are called Blinks. On average, these amount to around two thousand words. Some of the books that get Blinked are gleamingly new, such as “Leading with Light,” by Jennifer Mulholland and Jeff Shuck, which was published in March; other books are so old that they were written by people whose idea of a short-haul flight involved feathers and wax. In the realm of nonfiction alone, more than six and a half thousand works have been subjected to the Blinkist treatment. Across all platforms, there have been thirty-one million downloads on the app. Right now, there will be somebody musing over Blinks of “Biohack Your Brain,” “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin,” or “The Power of Going All-In,” which is, I am sorry to report, yet another study of successful leadership. Given the title, I was hoping that it might be about breakfast buffets, or the best way to behave yourself at an orgy. Read more
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Why I Kept My Kinks a Secret by R. O. Kwon
Kink is a large, shifting term, with outlines etched less by what it is than is not, this single word applied to an ever-changing negative space. Lina Dune, a prominent kink writer and podcaster, defines kink as any sexual act or practice diverging “one tiny step outside of what you were brought up to believe is acceptable.” So, bondage, sadomasochism, fetishes, and role play are examples of kinks, and these aren’t fringe penchants. By some measures, 40% to 70% of people might be kinky; given the stigma, this estimate could be on the low end. Read more
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A New Book Celebrates Author Kazuo Ishiguro and Singer Stacey Kent’s Collaboration
Author Kazuo Ishiguro and jazz singer Stacey Kent turned a friendship into a songwriting collaboration. Sixteen lyrics have been compiled in a new book The Summer We Crossed Europe in the Rain. Read more
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Caleb Azumah Nelson Wins £20,000 Dylan Thomas Prize for ‘Small Worlds’
British-Ghanaian author Caleb Azumah Nelson has won this year’s Swansea University Dylan Thomas prize for his second novel Small Worlds, which judges described as “symphonic” and “viscerally moving”. Read more
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She Left the CIA in Frustration. Now Her Spy Novel is Racking Up Awards.
Berry’s debut novel, “The Peacock and the Sparrow,” was released by Atria Books in May 2023 under the pen name I.S. Berry. The book was feted by both the New Yorker and NPR on their annual lists of the best books of the year. This month, the novel also won the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Allan Poe Award for best first novel by an American novelist, a significant industry award whose past recipients include Viet Thanh Nguyen and Tana French. Read more
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Four Must-See Museums for Bibliophiles
Bob Eckstein recommends some unmissable sights for writers and book lovers across America. Read more
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