Recent Book Reviews

Wendy Moffat’s perceptive biography does not make E. M. Forster’s sexuality explain everything, though of course it explains a great deal.

Selina Hastings’s biography sees the origins of Somerset Maugham’s habit of cruelty in his cruel childhood.

A history of the aftermath of World War I, when Britain strove to suppress its grief with willed gaiety.

This biography of an influential Russian clan encompasses the Soviet secret police and Sigmund Freud’s inner circle.

Two books on how yoga was packaged and promoted in different ways in America, depending on the audience and the era.

Two redemption-rock chronicles, one earnest, one jocular.

Long before Elizabeth Gilbert, Somerset Maugham turned the ashram experience into a monster best seller, “The Razor’s Edge.”

Complete contents of the Book Review since 1997.

Lily King’s novel delves into the relationship between a charismatic but troubled man and his devoted daughter.

The disorderly threesome in this novel are marginalized and angry, but for good reason.

Jack Rakove argues that the struggle for American independence molded the founders as much as they molded it.

Howard Norman’s crisp epistolary novel explores the illogic of love and the violent chaos left in its wake.

A collection of letters between George F. Kennan and the historian John Lukacs sheds light on the intellectual underpinnings of Kennan’s notion of “containing” the Soviets.

Amid clear echoes of “Sense and Sensibility,” two sisters of emotionally opposite persuasions navigate a world on the brink of 9/11 in Allegra Goodman’s new novel.

Why it feels so good to be right, and what happens to us when our wrongness is exposed.

Paperback books of particular interest.

Recently reviewed books of particular interest.

Miranda Seymour is deep into the research for her next book, a social study of the friendship and the royal and cultural links between England and Germany before World War I.

A patient, fair-minded exploration of the human ideals, hatreds and delusions that were on display in the Dreyfus Affair, “the most famous cause célèbre in French history.”

Featuring Allegra Goodman on her novel “The Cookbook Collector”; and Stefanie Syman on her history of yoga in America, “The Subtle Body.”

Letter in response to Andrew Cayton’s review of “At the Edge of the Precipice” and “Henry Clay.”

Letter in response to Dana Jennings’s review of Katherine Rosman’s “If You Knew Suzy.”

Letters in response to Armond White’s review of Nicole LaPorte’s “Men Who Would Be King”

Letter in response to Ben Downing’s review of Daisy Hay’s “Young Romantics.”

What is Laura Ingraham’s “Obama Diaries,” based on a stash of made-up White House memos, doing on the nonfiction list?

Top 5 at a Glance
1. BLACKEST NIGHT, by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis
2. BLACKEST NIGHT: GREEN LANTERN, by Geoff Johns and Doug Mahnke
3. BLACKEST NIGHT: GREEN LANTERN CORPS, by Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason
4. TWILIGHT: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL, VOL. 1, by Stephenie Meyer and Young C. Kim
5. KICK-ASS, by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.

Top 5 at a Glance
1. LEGO STAR WARS, by Simon Beecroft
2. STAR WARS, written and illustrated by Rufus Butler Seder
3. OOH LA LA! IT’S BEAUTY DAY, by Jane O’Connor
4. LADYBUG GIRL AT THE BEACH, by David Soman and Jacky Davis
5. THE VERY FAIRY PRINCESS, by Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton

Top 5 at a Glance
1. WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING, by Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel
2. THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE, by Mark Cotta Vaz
3. THE FIVE LOVE LANGUAGES, by Gary Chapman
4. THE BELLY FAT CURE, by Jorge Cruise
5. SKINNY BITCH, by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin

Top 5 at a Glance
1. WOMEN FOOD AND GOD, by Geneen Roth
2. DELIVERING HAPPINESS, by Tony Hsieh
3. THE LAST LECTURE, by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow
4. THE SECRET, by Rhonda Byrne
5. THE 4-HOUR WORKWEEK, by Timothy Ferriss

Top 5 at a Glance
1. EAT, PRAY, LOVE, by Elizabeth Gilbert
2. THREE CUPS OF TEA, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
3. ARE YOU THERE, VODKA? IT'S ME, CHELSEA, by Chelsea Handler
4. MY HORIZONTAL LIFE, by Chelsea Handler
5. THE GLASS CASTLE, by Jeannette Walls