The Wonderful Wizard of Dyson
Eight questions with the inventor James Dyson, who has a new memoir, on electric cars and the thinking behind the $399 hair dryer
White Man for the Job
Jeremy Clarkson gets out the Farrow & Ball. Sort of …
Opera Pick of the Week
The certain something in this pandemic Don Giovanni from Prague is the unique aura of the theater in which it was filmed
Inside Afghanistan
At the core of the current Afghanistan disaster is the West’s misunderstanding of a country and its people. These books offer a good place to start
The Art of Subtlety
To attract readers but stump libel lawyers, 20th-century magazine writers alluded to sordid gossip instead of printing it
Family Feuds
The story of famed U.K. department store John Lewis rivals that of the Murdoch clan in its similarities with Succession
Sharon Horgan Goes Viral
Shot over 10 days, her new film is a raw look at lockdown’s effect on one family
What It Was Like to Date John F. Kennedy
Sixty years after her affair with the president ended, a woman looks back
Great Marketing Minds of 2021
Lest you think the cinema is intellectually bankrupt, Hollywood welcomes you to the Year of the Intense Middle-Aged Bearded White Guy in a Baseball Cap!
The Bright Side of Life
A swarm of musicals open in London’s West End, proving that both the fun and the show must go on
So Long, Summer
Whether you’re over the season or clinging on for dear life, tracks from the likes of Willie Nelson, the Kinks, and Rosemary Clooney will serve you well
Family Business
To write his second novel, Atticus Lish asked himself, “What hurts?”
Lost in Translation
The moment Japan opened its doors to the West, in the late 1800s, was the moment many of its traditions disappeared. A new volume brings them back
Kate Moennig
The actress’s pandemic podcast with The L Word co-star Leisha Hailey has become the new gay go-to
Joan of Art
Joan Mitchell, who revolutionized postwar American art alongside “Ninth Street women” Lee Krasner and Elaine de Kooning, finally gets her due
A Hello to Arms
Ernest Hemingway: renowned novelist, bullfighting aficionado, and … Spanish guerrilla fighter?
Opera Pick of the Week
Yuval Sharon’s Twilight: Gods crunches Richard Wagner’s four-night “Ring” cycle into a 60-minute crawl through a parking garage
Short List
What to read this week, from a history of a secret Nixon meeting to an exploration of French colonialism in Congo and a look back at Bernini’s Rome
