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The book reviews are updated daily by the New York Times.
- Books of The Times: In a Changing World, an Ever-Evolving Terrorism Philip Bobbitt’s powerful, dense and brilliant new book argues that the nature of terrorism has changed as nationhood has evolved.
- Books of The Times: Forget It, Comrade. This Is Moscow. Tom Rob Smith’s tightly woven debut novel is a thriller set in a Soviet era when serial killers didn’t exist. Officially.
- Sports of The Times: A Son’s Death, a Mother’s Agony, a Country’s Shame Mary Tillman’s book reminds readers that, while athletes have died in wars before, her son Pat’s death in Afghanistan was different because of the way he was used, posthumously, blatantly.
- Books of The Times: The Making of Yeltsin, His Boldness and Flaws Timothy J. Colton’s biography of Boris N. Yeltsin argues that the Russian president was a great democratizer, “in the company of Nelson Mandela, Lech Walesa, Mikhail Gorbachev and Vaclav Havel.”
- It’s Florida. It’s Hiaasen. It’s Golf? Carl Hiaasen’s new book is part memoir, part golf diary: an account of how the novelist took up golf again after what he calls “a much-needed layoff of 32 years.”
- Books of The Times: A Challenge for the U.S.: Sun Rising on the East Fareed Zakaria contends that the age of unipolar American power is over, writing that “we are moving into a post-American world, one defined and directed from many places and by many people.”
- Chief of Random House Said to Be Stepping Down Peter W. Olson, one of the most powerful figures in American book publishing, will step down amid mounting pressure over declining profits at Random House.
- Books of The Times: Hard Sell, Soft Touch and the Right Question Barbara Walters’s “Audition: A Memoir” is a legitimately star-studded autobiography.
- Born Again The Chinese writer Mo Yan’s wildly visionary and creative new novel covers almost the entire span of his country’s revolutionary experience, from 1950 until 2000, while constantly mocking and rearranging itself and jolting the reader with its own internal commentary.
- Call of the Wild Jiang Rong’s novel is set in the pristine grasslands of Inner Mongolia in the 1960s.
Latest book news from NPR
The book reviews are updated daily by the National Public Radio.
- Queen's Brian May Rocks an Astrophysics Rhapsody As a member of the glam rock band Queen, May wrote "We Will Rock You" and played that guitar solo on "We Are the Champions." But the curly haired musician also dreamed of a career in astrophysics. Three decades later, he's gotten his doctorate and written a book about the history of the universe.
- Ricardo Sanchez: 'Wiser' in Hindsight on Iraq, Politics Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez commanded ground troops in Iraq from 2003 to 2004; it was on his watch that the Abu Ghraib prison scandal took place. Subsequently, Sanchez has vocally criticized the conduct of the Iraq war — especially the Bush administration's "catastrophically flawed, unrealistically optimistic war plan." His new book is Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story.
- Exhuming a Real-Life British Murder Mystery In her new book, The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: Murder and the Undoing of A Great Victorian Detective, Kate Summerscale revisits the gruesome 150-year-old murder that helped catapult British mystery fiction into being. Fresh Air book critic Maureen Corrigan offers a review.
- Tillman's Mother Honors Him with Questions Pat Tillman, the former NFL player who signed up for the Army Rangers after 9-11, died under friendly fire in Afghanistan. In Boots on the Ground by Dusk: My Tribute to Pat Tillman, his mother, Mary Tillman, continues to demand the truth.
- Barbara Walters' Lifelong 'Audition' The veteran television journalist reflects on her glamorous — but unhappy — childhood, and her storied career interviewing notable celebrities, presidents and even murderers.
- Strained Connections in 'Unaccustomed Earth' Jhumpa Lahiri offers a new collection of stories exploring the rich terrain of Bengali-American life. The book is the third from the Pulitzer Prize winner.
- Father-Son 'Film Club' Keeps Teen on Track When David Gilmour's 16-year-old son was failing out of school, Gilmour offered him a deal: Jesse could drop out, but only if he watched three movies a week with his dad. David and Jesse Gilmour tell their story of unconventional home-schooling in a new memoir, Film Club.
- 'BPP' Book Club Talks to Aryn Kyle The Bryant Park Project book club just finished reading The God of Animals. Now the novel's author, Aryn Kyle, talks about how she came write the story and what she's doing next.
- Ayn Rand Studies on Campus, Courtesy of BB&T Since 2005, banking giant BB&T has given several million dollars to different colleges and universities in an effort to promote the study of Ayn Rand's books and economic philosophy. But should a corporation have a role in establishing curricula?
- Mother Questions Tillman's Death in 'Fog of War' Four years ago, Army Ranger Pat Tillman was killed in Afghanistan. The military initially reported that the former NFL star died a heroic death in an insurgent strike, before admitting he was killed by friendly fire. Mary Tillman has continued to investigate her son's death and has written a book about him.
