THE FREE WORLD: ART AND THOUGHT IN THE COLD WAR by Louis Menand (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Well…that “war” isn't really the point, here—there's even a touch of irony in the use of the term; …
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George Ernsberger - Columnist
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5/6/21
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WHEREABOUTSby Jhumpa Lahiri (Knopf). A deeply sad, even despairing, and still lovely short novel by this great American writer—and one from which it may be possible to learn something of language …
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George Ernsberger - Columnist
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4/30/21
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WHEREABOUTS BY JHUMPA LAHIRI (Knopf). A deeply sad, even despairing, and still lovely short novel by this great American writer—and one from which it may be possible to learn something of language …
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George Ernsberger - Columnist
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4/29/21
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THE MUSICAL HUMAN: A HISTORY OF LIFE ON EARTH by Michael Spitzer (Bloomsbury). The subtitle is a clue to the author's subtle wit. Of course his book is a history of music; yet it really is deep and …
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George Ernsberger - Columnist
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4/23/21
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HEAVEN'S A LIE by Wallace Stroby (Mulholland). One of the best pure crime novelists—writers of dark doings by people that we root for without quite approving of them—one of the best we've got, I …
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George Ernsberger - Columnist
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4/16/21
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HEAVEN'S A LIE by Wallace Stroby (Mulholland).
One of the best pure crime novelists—writers of dark doings by people that we root for without quite approving of them—one of the best we've …
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George Ernsberger - Columnist
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4/15/21
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THE DICTIONARY OF LOST WORDS by Pip Williams (Ballantine). A novel, even a historical romance (of a sort), and certainly not a dictionary. It is fond of words, and of the OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY. …
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George Ernsberger - Columnist
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4/9/21
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WE BEGIN AT THE END by Chris Whitaker (Holt). A dark, demanding but rewarding thriller/noir/small town family novel—very American, convincingly so, though by an established British thriller writer. …
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George Ernsberger - Columnist
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4/2/21
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THE HARDEST PLACE: THE AMERICAN MILITARY ADRIFT IN AFGHANISTAN'S PECH VALLEY by Wesley Morgan (Random House). Brilliant, intimately reported, narrow-focused history of one of the few wars in our (or …
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George Ernsberger - Columnist
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3/26/21
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THE DARK HEART OF FLORENCE: A LADY EMILY MYSTERY by Tasha Alexander (St. Martin's). The sixteenth of a series that might as well be acknowledged, at last, as classic (you noticed, “sixteenth?”). …
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George Ernsberger - Columnist
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3/19/21
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THE HOSPITAL: LIFE, DEATH, AND DOLLARS IN A SMALL AMERICAN TOWN by Brian Alexander (St. Martin's). There are medical dramas in this intimate account of a small-town hospital struggling to serve its …
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George Ernsberger - Columnist
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3/12/21
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THE SANATORIUM by Sarah Pearse (Pamela Dorman/Viking). This terrific debut suspense/thriller/gothic/detective novel—really, it's all of those at once, and maybe most surprising of all, given the …
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George Ernsberger - Columnist
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3/5/21
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