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BOOK REVIEW

Higher education, riding for a fall

Higher education — the crown jewel of postwar America, its growth powered by the GI Bill, the rush for credentials, the notion that a college degree is a ladder of social mobility, and the glamour of tailgate Saturdays outside the stadium — is in deep trouble, argues a new book. It's worth paying heed.
BIBLIOPHILES

Anthony Marra on reading mysteries and historical fiction

It’s been nearly ten years since Anthony Marra’s last novel. Much of that interim was devoted to researching Hollywood, Italy, and World War II in order to write his new novel “Mercury Pictures Presents,” which follows the highs and lows of a young Italian movie producer. He talked with us about what he's been reading lately.
BOOK REVIEW

Mohsin Hamid’s new novel imagines white men changing color

In Hamid’s “The Last White Man,” a man named Anders wakes up to darkened pigmentation, followed swiftly by others who turn “a deep undeniable brown.” His country (by which we mean white people), grows zealously protective of a whiter shade of pale.
BOOK REVIEW

A country girl in the City of Lights

Try to find out virtually anything about Kiki de Montparnasse online — I was looking for "The Acrobat," a painting she made in 1927, late in her heyday as the queen of avant-garde Paris — and you run into a brick wall: a company using her evocative name to sell high-end lingerie. The real Kiki was a varied and remarkable person, a model, artist, writer, singer, muse, and friend, as an uneven but absorbing and insightful new biography of her by Mark Braude reveals.
New England Literary News

An exhibit that combines books and nature, a richly told history of Necco, a community cookbook from Maine

All the news of a bookish bent from around the region.
STORY BEHIND THE BOOK

In ‘Koshersoul,’ everyone has a seat at the table

Michael W. Twitty’s latest book brings together cultures and traditions through food.

Latest Headlines in Books

BOOKINGS

Author readings around Boston Aug. 7-13

All author appearances are virtual and free unless otherwise noted.

BOOKS

Local bestsellers for the week ended July 31

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

Dance

Boston Ballet’s ÜNI Public Art offers 360-degree views of dance under a portable dome

With a new pop-up initiative, Boston Ballet is taking its artistry out of Citizens Bank Opera House and into the streets.

WORKING ON IT

Alex Light’s ‘You Are Not a Before Picture’ celebrates loving the body you’re in

As a former beauty editor at the UK’s Hello! magazine and a woman with a history of eating disorders, Light has written a frank, comforting book.

Put a little poetry in your summer with these August events

The Boston Poetry Marathon and the Summer Poetry Festival have readings in store in August.

BOOK REVIEW

The virus of inequality in ‘The Viral Underclass’

When George Floyd was murdered in 2020, he was found to be positive for COVID. If police violence hadn’t killed Floyd, the virus might have — and that’s no coincidence, says journalist Steven W. Thrasher in this engaging, enraging new book.

Caring for one who didn’t care for you

“From the age of six, I had disliked my mother,” writes Tillman, “but I didn’t wish her dead.” And so unfolds this masterfully-wrought story of ambivalence that is both heartbreaking and exasperating.

Related Reading: A city of one’s own

Why did so many women flock to New York to find themselves in the 20th century? And what can we learn from reading books about their lives?