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The mystery of Garbo

Glamorously elusive onscreen and famously reclusive off it, Greta Garbo was the rare silent-movie idol who finessed the transition to talkies. In “Garbo,” his lively new appraisal of her life and films, Robert Gottlieb explores how “more than any other star she invaded the subconscious of the audience.”

At the bottom of the bottle in ‘Bright Burning Things’

Lisa Harding’s second novel is moving — humane and emotionally scrubbed raw — as a depiction of a woman's journey to the bottom of the bottle and (after her father’s intervention) her desperate efforts to claw her way back to sobriety to regain her life.

A neuroscientist on the science of reading

In his new book, “Feeling & Knowing,” the prominent Portuguese-American neuroscientist Antonio Damasio explores how emotions play a central role in what we do, how we think, and who we are. Here he talks about what he likes to read (and reread).

Finding the poet of ‘Paradise Lost’

Joe Moshenska’s new biography of poet John Milton, “Making Darkness Light: A Life of John Milton,” is a strange but captivating, book. The author draws his reader, not only into the life and world of his subject, but into a sort of lived experience of Milton’s approach to poetry.

Author readings for Dec. 5-11

All author appearances are virtual unless otherwise noted.

Siri Hustvedt’s ‘Mothers, Fathers, and Others’ explores family ties and tangents

At 66, the writer says, “I have the sense that I have a lot more behind me than I have ahead of me, which changes your perspective on time.”

Latest Headlines in Books

New England Literary News
Karla Van Vliet's new collection includes a series of asemic writing.

A collection of asemic writing and poetry by Karla Van Vliet and an exhibit of work by Kadir Nelson

News of a bookish bent from around the region.

BOOKS

Local bestsellers for the week ending Nov. 28

Based on reporting from the independent booksellers of the New England Independent Booksellers Association and IndieBound.

Rick Berlin, shown in 2017 at Papercuts JP. He'll be doing a reading of "The Big Balloon (A Love Story)" at the Jamaica Plain bookstore on Dec. 9.

Rick Berlin’s stuff has a lot of stories to tell

The musician has written his second book, “The Big Balloon (A Love Story),” inspired by the things in his home and the memories and feelings they evoke.

BOOK REVIEW

Stop romanticizing World War II, a historian urges

Elizabeth D. Samet will make plenty of people angry with “Looking for the Good War.” In her searching analysis of changing American attitudes toward World War II over the course of 75 years, she characterizes its current glorification as “shaped…by nostalgia, sentimentality, and jingoism.” Instead, she wants readers to rethink the war and look more carefully at the mythology left in its wake.

BIBLIOPHILES
Mo Willems.

Mo Willems loves books on artists and Genghis Khan

When asked how many books he’s published, the prolific illustrator and author doesn’t give an exact number. “Over 50. I love them all equally.” He’s published at least three since August alone: “Doodling 101,” “Opposites Attract,” essentially an art book for the under-2 set, and “Guess What,” a new addition in his Unlimited Squirrels series. He talked with us about his own reading habits.

BOOK REVIEW

Fun with languages from Lydia Davis

“All art is quite useless,” according to Oscar Wilde, but even the jolt conveyed by that artful line means art does something, and so it must have some use. Or maybe it just feels useful — I don’t know; how useful is a short story compared to a spoon? The essays of Lydia Davis are helpful on this subject.

NEW ENGLAND LITERARY NEWS
Meg Reynolds's book of poetry comics documents a year post-break-up.

A post-breakup poetry collection and more local award-winning authors

All the bookish news from around the region.

BOOK REVIEW
Author Claire Keegan.

A new Claire Keegan book is cause for celebration

“Small Things Like These” is an ideal title for this exquisite novella in which Keegan closely attends to the daily life of a modest County Wexford coal vendor.