Book Reviews

It took over five years for Nathaniel Rich to finish his first novel — maybe because he was writing The Mayor's Tongue secretly, first as a college student, and then while writing film criticism during the day.

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Mr. Dover became known for his willingness to break taboos, from his frank descriptions of sexual behavior to his baldly stated desire to bring about the death of a vexing Oxford colleague.

In 1874, the author Mark Twain and the Dark Blues baseball team both arrived.

Stephen Crane, the author of “The Red Badge of Courage,” said he was “cut out to be a professional baseball player.”

A riveting account of the flawed leadership, bad luck and virulent personalities that led to the 2006 murder of an entire Iraqi family by American soldiers.

Mr. Stites opened up new territory for historians with a landmark work on the Russian women’s movement.

Vietcong guerrillas capture a female reporter in this vivid Vietnam War novel.

“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and its celebrated director arrive in America, each trailing big expectations.

The tiny, no-frills automobile imported from communist Yugoslavia during the 1980s is known to most Americans as the butt of many car jokes. Author Jason Vuic's book The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History reveals why it's the most famous lemon in automotive history.

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The first numbers that come to mind when thinking about Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland might be how much money the movie is raking in at the box office. But mathematicians say the books are full of algebraic lessons — such as why a raven is like a writing desk.

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At Hudson Valley Writers’ Center, there are workshops, support, even a publishing imprint known for nurturing poets.

Mystery novels by Jo Nesbo, Cara Black, Simon Lelic and Robert Goddard.

Novels by Dominick Dunne, Sadie Jones, Melanie Benjamin, Brian Hart and Elizabeth Kostova.

The boldness and the folly of the explorers who sought the Northwest Passage.

A journalist’s adventures in the world of taxidermy, where she observes the art of incising, skinning, sculpturing and reassembling.

Work has become central to most people’s self-conception. Why does fiction have so little to say about it?

With an assist from others’ quotations, David Shields argues that our deep need for reality is not being met by the old and crumbling models of literature.

A science writer addresses the question: What makes a sage?

This “character driven” account of two centuries of religious combat is the best recent history of the Crusades.

A documentary approach to Anne Frank’s life and diary; and a novel about Jewish refugee children during World War II.