“American Gun,” by Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson, recounts the grim history of the AR-15 rifle in unvarnished detail. Read more
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How WPA State Guides Fused the Essential and the Eccentric
New Jersey is a typical entry in the FWP’s American Guides series, published during the late 1930s and early ’40s. The series comprises shaggy biographies of all the then 48 states; pick one at random and you’ll find a smorgasbord of history, legends, jokes, industrial data, social analysis, epitaphs, old letters, old newspaper clippings, old diaries, ghost stories, dubious tales, and half-forgotten anecdotes. You’ll find handsome line illustrations alongside photographs of houses and monuments and people at work. You’ll find scattered, subtle reports on how people were sustaining themselves through the Depression and how New Deal policies were reshaping the country. You’ll find a little practical advice for travelers and a lot of information whose purpose is more obscure. You’ll find a guidebook that seems, itself, to have wandered off and gotten lost. Read more
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The Essential J. M. Coetzee
His spare, icily precise books explore humanity’s most serious themes, including South Africa’s legacy of apartheid. And not all of them are downers. Read more
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Red States Quit Nation’s Oldest Library Group Amid Culture War Over Books
The American Library Association is facing a partisan firefight unlike anything in its almost 150-year history. The once-uncontroversial organization, which says it is the world’s largest and oldest library association and which provides funding, training and tools to most of the country’s 123,000 libraries, has become entangled in the education culture wars — the raging debates over what and how to teach about race, sex and gender… Read more
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Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories
With solid research and engaging humor, this book takes apart the conspiracy theories surrounding the Rothschild family. Read more
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Kimiko Hahn Wins $100,000 Award from Poetry Foundation
Cornelius Eady, Toi Derricotte and Kimiko Hahn are among this year’s winners of awards from the Poetry Foundation, which announced some of the poetry world’s most lucrative prizes. Hahn, a faculty member of Queens College in New York City whose books include “The Unbearable Heart” and “Earshot,” won the $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for lifetime achievement. Read more
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John le Carré’s Seaside ‘Cottage’ is For Sale
One of the most prominent coastal houses in Cornwall, with a significant literary history, sitting elevated and proud with panoramic sea views. Read more
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‘Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult’ by Maria Bamford
Some of her misadventures … feel like anything but laughing matters. But it’s a testament to Bamford that she’s able to fill these pages with stories that are relatable and consistently hilarious, even when they’re harrowing. Throughout, she rejects the appeal of tidy solutions, instead embracing messy self-acceptance. Read more
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The London Home of Late Romance Author Barbara Cartland Just Listed for $44 Million
The historic Mayfair mansion spans five floors and was originally built in 1902. Read more
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‘Poor Things’ Will Be in Theaters on September 8th
From filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and producer Emma Stone comes the incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation. Watch trailer
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