Don’t Judge a Book by Its Advance
Publishers are handing out six-figure book deals to young, debut authors. How long can the bubble last if nearly all of them are losing money?
Christmas Eve at the Alberses
The director of the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation recalls re-creating the Berlin holidays of Anni’s youth—complete with beluga caviar and rock lobster—Stateside
Soviet Sojourn
A new coffee-table book collects photographs of dachas, colorful cottages that have dotted the Russian countryside since the 18th century
A Man Out of Time
How Robert Altman and a down-on-his-luck Elliott Gould re-invented the detective movie
Black Emanuelle Matters
A saucy sexploitation-movie series is being re-assessed as a groundbreaking feminist work in an exhaustive new boxed set
The Amsterdam Diaries
The 12 Years a Slave director, Steve McQueen, and his partner, Bianca Stigter, discuss the making of Occupied City, a new documentary about Nazi-era Amsterdam
Why Was the “Indiana Jones of Lost Movies” Accused of Manslaughter?
On this week’s podcast, John von Sothen reports from Paris on a trial fit to be a film
Marguerite Humeau
For her latest exhibition, the French artist has installed nearly 90 sculptures across Colorado’s San Luis Valley
Confessions of a Yakuza Boss
The Tokyo Vice author, whose new book, The Last Yakuza, is out now, details how he won—and kept—the trust of Japan’s Mafia
Jimmy Carter
The former president and his wife, Rosalynn, had a perfect marriage—then it almost collapsed when they collaborated on a book
25 Lunches Later …
As the first season of Table for Two comes to a close, host Bruce Bozzi invites you to a veritable all-you-can-eat buffet of his favorite moments from the show’s past 25 episodes. Enjoy, and remember to save room for Season Two!
AIR MAIL’s Best Coffee-Table Books of 2023
Dazzling volumes on Karl Lagerfeld’s homes, vintage cars, and an artists’ amusement park, plus photography collections from Mary Ellen Mark, Lee Miller, and Nick Waplington, and a cookbook or two
Murder, They Wrote
A pair of rollicking mystery books to get you in the holiday spirit. Plus, the best Christmas episodes of ITV’s beloved Midsomer Murders
Phases of the Moon
Under the Cherry Moon, Prince’s directorial debut—a black-and-white passion project set on the glistening Côte d’Azur and starring Kristin Scott Thomas—bombed when it premiered in 1986. Did the critics miss the point?
Popcorn Presidents
The movies watched in the White House provide fascinating insights into the mindset—angry, affable, aggrieved—of its inhabitants
Tales of a Trump Ghostwriter from the 90s
On this week’s podcast, Charles Leerhsen has tales from the crypt
The Old Romantic
From Dresden to Berlin, museums celebrate Caspar David Friedrich, the pioneer of German Romanticism who was born 250 years ago
AIR MAIL’s 12 Best Mystery Books of 2023
Richard Osman, John Banville, Janice Hallett, Val McDermid, and more …
AIR MAIL’s 12 Best Books of 2023
David Grann’s shipwreck tale, Sam Wasson’s Hollywood history, Mona Simpson’s latest novel, Tim Alberta’s foray inside the Evangelical Right: holiday reading for every type
His Last Bow
Much to his annoyance, Basil Rathbone became inseparable from his on-screen Sherlock Holmes. Now he’s back, reimagined as the debonair protagonist of a new novel
