Le Sirenuse’s Siren Call
Seventy years after John Steinbeck visited the spectacular Amalfi Coast hotel, Le Sirenuse maintains its literary roots in the form of a springtime writers’ retreat
And the Oscar Goes
to …
In Good Night, Oscar, pianist and actor Oscar Levant’s startling appearance on Jack Paar’s Tonight show plays out onstage
No News Is Bad News
Can political documentaries effect change? Benjamin Netanyahu seems to think so
Murder, They Wrote
This month’s best mystery books are throwbacks to different periods in American history, from the 20s to the 90s
Sean Connery Knew How to Beat Putin
On this week’s episode, Alessandra Stanley discusses how The Untouchables holds the key to deterring Vlad
Goodnight Vienna
An updated version of Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, a comic opera about a Viennese love triangle, finishes its run at the Metropolitan Opera
Staff Picks
This week, don’t miss the case for slow societal change, a look at the murder of Nelson Mandela’s heir apparent, and the story of how the I.R.A. nearly assassinated Margaret Thatcher
Mutiny on the Wager
The Lost City of Z and Killers of the Flower Moon author David Grann discusses his latest book, the 18th-century mutiny-and-shipwreck story The Wager
New York Restaurants and the High Price of Eating Out
On this week’s podcast, Alan Richman reveals how N.Y.C. restaurants charge $100 for a $12 bottle of wine
Dinner with Rob Lowe
On this week’s episode of Table for Two, the West Wing actor and podcaster explains why he hated the “Brat Pack” label, reveals Francis Ford Coppola’s bizarre directing methods, and much more
Articles of War
How an author discovered W. E. B. Du Bois’s definitive history of Black participation in W.W. I, and why it remained unfinished—and largely forgotten
Slam Dunk
Ben Affleck directs a career-making film with an unlikely star: a Nike sneaker
The Felicity Factor
With an army of star authors under her wing, Felicity Blunt, a London literary agent and the wife of the actor Stanley Tucci, is having her moment
The Accidental Journalist
Over a long and unconventional career, Edward Jay Epstein learned to assume nothing—landing scoops on everything from the Kennedy assassination to Watergate along the way
The King’s English
To write about King George VI, Sally Bedell Smith was granted exclusive access to royal archives that included his World War II–era diaries and love letters to Queen Elizabeth
Death Becomes Her
Classic Hollywood movies have played a central, if ambiguous, role in the paintings of Cecily Brown
