The powerful, brutal story of Polish resistance fighter Elżbieta Zawacka
In Agent Zo , Clare Mulley has written a thrilling, consistently tense page-turner
Book review
Monday
How music can be weaponized
Rebel Sounds is an uplifting compendium of hidden histories of those who have produced, performed and distributed music in times of war
The Position of Spoons is flawed but fascinating
Deborah Levy’s latest book is a sketch of the author in motion
Why Shakespeare remains the great playwright
Rhodri Lewis’s book offers so many fresh insights and well-turned phrases that I had to buy a new notebook to fit them all in
The real Kennedy men
Maureen Callahan challenges us to ask whether our American heroes are really who we think they are
Saturday
Catherine Nixey’s Heresy is a joy to read
Nixey takes us on a tour across the early centuries of Christianity
Thursday
Michael Richards’s memoir is heavier on introspection than laughs
Entrances and Exits shows the Seinfeld actor’s clever, energetic, dissatisfied, self-critical mind at work
Charles Baxter’s Blood Test is a necessary novel
The novel’s central conceit serves as a sharp satire of our data-driven, algorithmic age
Will Self’s impressive paean to his mother’s frustrating life in the US
In Elaine , Self has shown that understanding is possible, across generations and across time
Back to the birth of the Greenwich Village music scene
David Browne’s latest book pivots around 1961
Monday
The chameleonic life of Claire Clairmont
Lesley McDowell restores Lord Byron’s young lover and Mary Shelley’s step-sister to thrilling, palpitating life
Thursday
Nick Lloyd takes you through the horrors of the Eastern Front
The book’s primary focus on military detail and power-brokering is both a strength and weakness
Monday
Giles Milton retells the story of the Grand Alliance as a cinematic thriller
In the hands of a less skilled writer, The Stalin Affair could easily have been rather dull
Examining children’s literature and its enduring worth
One of The Haunted Wood’s great strengths is Sam Leith’s awareness of just how important children’s literature is
Creation Lake is one of the best books of the year
Creation Lake is a book about how humans deal with what is deemed to be Other
Jane Thynne pulls off a new kind of spy novel
Midnight in Vienna channels the ominous parallels between the present-day rise of fascism in Europe and America with what happened in 1938
Thursday
A superbly written and insightful account of the contemporary American military
General McKenzie’s fine memoir is a rich and powerful testament to the qualities that our best military commanders bring to their service to the nation
A compelling and evocative biography of the redoubtable Mrs. Mandelbaum
Margalit Fox brings the period to life by providing sharply drawn cameos of a supporting cast of colorful characters
Pat Nixon, ambassador of goodwill
In a new biography of the former First Lady, Heath Hardage Lee attempts to uncover the real woman
James Shapiro’s timely account of the rise and fall of an influential public theater
The Playbook is a dramatic tale, full of overreaching ambition, dastardly plots, embattled heroes and last-minute reversals
