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The best books of 2022
Latest Headlines in Books
BOOKINGS
Author readings around Boston Jan. 29-Feb. 4
All author appearances are in person and free unless otherwise noted.
BOOKS
Local bestsellers for the week ended Jan. 22
Based on reporting from the independent booksellers of the New England Independent Booksellers Association and IndieBound.
Marion Meade, biographer of Dorothy Parker, dies at 88
Ms. Meade’s “Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This?” detailed the vibrant if difficult life of a major figure on the literary scene of the 1920s and ’30s.
Her debut novel was a bestseller. Then her agent told her to stop writing fiction. Now, Laura Zigman is back.
Cambridge writer Laura Zigman — a witty and sharp observer of relationships — could be the heroine of one of her own books.
BOOK REVIEW
A fragile island community faces destruction in Pulitzer Prize-winner Paul Harding’s ‘This Other Eden’
Harding took inspiration for his new novel from the true story of Malaga Island in Maine, whose mixed-race occupants were evicted in 1912.
BOOK REVIEW
In Selby Wynn Schwartz’s ‘After Sappho,’ long-listed for the 2022 Booker Prize, the Greek poet empowers women artists to push against traditional boundaries
To call “After Sappho” a novel is to push the definition of “a novel” right to the window without technically going completely outside. It is unpredictable in form and mercurial in its structure. But it remains enthralling.
BIBLIOPHILES
Jayne Ann Krentz on her love of contemporary gothic and what was missing from Nancy Drew
As Amanda Quick, she writes historical romance-suspense. As Jayne Castle, she pens futuristic romance-suspense. Under her married name, she writes contemporary romance-suspense novels.
BOOK REVIEW
Jonathan Carroll’s ‘Mr. Breakfast’ contemplates the roads not taken, with the help of a magical tattoo
People often look back at decisions made — about a job, a relationship, a relocation — and wonder how things might have turned out if they’d chosen differently.