Latest Headlines in Books
BOOK REVIEW
Grappling with manhood and hockey in ‘The Intangibles’
A spike in suicides. The loneliness epidemic. Boys lagging in school. The gloom of the manosphere. There’s a crisis in masculinity, experts argue, recognizing crucial differences in biology and socialization; yet solutions seem scarce while discourse splutters on in op-eds and think tanks. Enter Nick Paumgarten.
BOOK REVIEW
Humans invented the telephone, and then phones reinvented us, in master science explainer Gleick’s new account
Like every transformative invention, the telephone has a back story. It’s a story filled with chance and accident and peopled by a large cast of dreamers, gifted amateurs, and eccentrics.
‘Shadowhunter’ author Cassandra Clare thinks faeries have always been sexy, long before they got jacked in fan art
After nearly two decades, the Amherst-based fantasy author begins to say ‘goodbye’ to her world of faeries, runes, and demon hunters.
The Coast Guard captain who searched for JFK Jr., Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and Lauren Bessette tells his story
The husband-and-wife authors of “The Last Flight” — the first comprehensive account of the search-and-recovery mission for JFK Jr., Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and Lauren Bessette — discuss their book ahead of a Nov. 5 talk at the John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum.
Pulitzer-winning author Elizabeth Strout discusses death, grace, and strangers at Harvard
At Harvard Divinity School’s 2026 Ingersoll Lecture on immortality, the “Olive Kitteridge” author told a Cambridge audience that writing a death feels like surgery, and that you should compliment strangers even if they scowl.
STORY BEHIND THE BOOK
Jacob Weisberg’s ‘Profiles in Cowardice’ looks at who capitulates to power, and why
Author Weisberg, the former editor of Slate and current chair of the Committee to Protect Journalists, is well aware that the book’s subject matter is kind of a downer, but insists he tried not to make it “too grim and dire” for readers. He succeeds.
BOOKS
Local bestsellers for the week ended Oct. 25
"Miss Wolcott's Ghost (Chief Inspector Gamache Novel #21)" by Louise Penny and "Simply Ina: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook" by Ina Garten topped the hardcover bestsellers last week.