New York Times Books
The Story Behind This Week’s Best Sellers
In “The Book of Joy,” No. 14 in hardcover nonfiction, the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu conclude: “The human drama is often a comedy, and laughter is the saving grace.”
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Letters to the Editor
Readers react to recent reviews of David France’s “How to Survive a Plague,” John Lewis’s “March Trilogy” and more.
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Fiction: A Novel of Infidelity in a Fast-Changing India
A wife meets her younger lover on the Delhi Metro in Ratika Kapur’s “The Private Life of Mrs. Sharma.”
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Nonfiction: The Conquerers: A New 19th-Century History Focuses on American Imperialism
Steven Hahn’s “A Nation Without Borders” identifies conquest at home and abroad as a major theme in our history.
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Nonfiction: Reefer Gladness: An Enthusiast’s Guide to the Marijuana Boom
“Brave New Weed,” by Joe Dolce, is a loving rethink of the care and consumption of marijuana.
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Books of Style: Celebrity Polaroids Give New Life to Dead Film
In an Instagram era, “instant” pictures of Madonna, Pharrell Williams and Emily Ratajkowski, made with film that is no longer available, acquire special status.
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The Trials of a Boxing Romantic
Brin-Jonathan Butler went to Cuba with boxing gloves, a wad of cash and an empty notebook. He returned with a critically acclaimed book. Now he makes ends meet by teaching boxing.
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Bookshelf: The Revolution Upstate: Saratoga’s Role in Forging the U.S.
A book recounts the town’s 33-day battle against the British, “arguably America’s most historic tipping point.”
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8 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading by book critics and editors at The New York Times.
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Times Critics’ Top Books of 2016
The Times’s critics give their choices of the best fiction and nonfiction works of the year.
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By the Book: Steven Johnson: By the Book
The author of “Wonderland” says that for a long period, he concentrated on science and technology. “But right around when I turned 40, I found myself needing the companionship of novels.”
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Open Book: Hank’s Long Suffering
“Hank: The Short Life and Long Country Road of Hank Williams” is a timely biography, though its subject died nearly 64 years ago.
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Books of The Times: Review: ‘Table Manners,’ Chef Jeremiah Tower’s Guide for All Dining Challenges
Mr. Tower delivers advice for confronting unknowns (finger bowls, artichokes, fish knives) and other dining etiquette, including cellphone behavior.
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Books of The Times: Review: ‘No Knives in the Kitchens of This City’ Describes a Syrian Hell
Khaled Khalifa’s episodic novel focuses on one family in Aleppo, his native city, and stops several years short of the Syrian civil war.
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Nonfiction: The Eerie Tragedy of Emmett Till’s Father, Told by John Edgar Wideman
In “Writing to Save a Life,” John Edgar Wideman tells the tragic story of a forgotten father.
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The Best Sellers: Filed Under Sports
The best-selling sports books in November 2016, according to the New York Times best-seller list.
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Shirley Hazzard, Novelist Who Charted Storm-Tossed Lives, Dies at 85
Australian-born, Ms. Hazzard spent decades in New York, writing award-winning fiction “stuffed with description so intellectually active as to be sometimes exhausting,” one critic said.
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E. R. Braithwaite, Author of ‘To Sir, With Love,’ Dies at 104
A Guyanese writer and diplomat, he recalled teaching in the East End of London in this memoir, which was the basis for a film starring Sidney Poitier.
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Café Carlyle Season Includes Debuts from Isaac Mizrahi and Jill Kargman
The lineup also includes John Lloyd Young, Joan Osborne and Suzanne Vega.
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Books of The Times: 'The Dream Life of Astronauts,’ Hopes Too Fragile for the Cold
For the NASA alumni and other Floridians in Patrick Ryan’s short-story collection, the American dream proves elusive.
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