Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss a charming history of American presidents’ financial affairs, Tove Jansson’s chronicle of summers in Finland, and a collection of Dorothy Parker’s New Yorker reviews
Su Wu’s Guide to Mexico City
The American curator, editor, and writer shares her favorite spots in her adopted city
Can’t Read, Won’t Read
Have children fallen out of love with books? And, if so, does it matter?
True Confessions?
Did Joan Didion’s husband have the hots for Eve Babitz—or was he moving in another direction?
Architecture’s Philosopher
A new coffee-table book celebrates the life and career of I. M. Pei, the modernist visionary behind Paris’s Louvre Pyramid and Hong Kong’s Bank of China Tower
Sophie Calle’s Lessons in Provocation
A genre-defying show in Minneapolis marks the French artist, memoirist, and voyeur’s first-ever North American retrospective
From Russia with Lust
Sean Baker’s latest film, Anora, was a hit at Cannes and is now drawing Oscar buzz. How did he make sex work so respectable?
Boffing for Britain
The new, high-camp TV adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Rivals sticks two fingers up at today’s sexless puritanism
Inside the Secret Life of Joan Didion
On this week’s podcast, Lili Anolik reveals what she learned about the revered writer and her private life
Like to a Lonely Dragon
A shattering Coriolanus from Tom Hiddleston, ten years on
Adventures in Absinthe
When I set out to expose a black-market counterfeiter of vintage absinthe, things didn’t go the way I expected
Yulia Navalnaya Picks Up the Baton
Eight months after the Kremlin murdered her husband, Alexei Navalny’s widow reflects on their marriage, their shared aspirations for their home country, and why she doesn’t hate Vladimir Putin
Mimi Thorisson’s Guide to Turin
The cookbook author and chef shares her favorite spots in her adopted city
Open Roads to Candy Mountain
In an interview, the actor Kevin J. O’Connor reflects on his experience shooting Robert Frank’s newly restored 1987 film
From Russia, with Lulz
Mark Eydelshteyn landed his first English-speaking role with a very unusual audition tape
X-istential Crisis
Trump and Musk want to take the MAGA movement to Mars
Deadly Pleasures to Listen to, Read, and Watch
Get in the Halloween spirit with this month’s best mystery podcast, book, and movie