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AIR MAIL’s 10 Best Books of 2022

Michael K. Williams’s memoir, a history of G.E., a biography of F.D.R., Elena Ferrante’s essay collection: holiday reading for every type

How the Bright Young Things Bloomed

A Night Celebrating Jim McMullan

Louise Grunwald, Ed Sorel, and André Bishop gathered at the Waverly Inn to celebrate the illustrator’s new book

A Man of Parts

John le Carré was always obsessed with controlling his narrative. Following the publication of a tell-all by one of his mistresses, the spy novelist is once again seeking to set the record straight—this time, from the grave

Le Coucou Confidential

From a New York City maître d’, an inside look into what critics mean for restaurants—and how owners steel themselves for the dreaded reviews

The Surreal World of Elsa Schiaparelli

A new book, accompanying an exhibition in Paris, explores the sensational creations of the Italian designer

Larger than Life

Stretches of the Imagination

Staff Picks

Don’t miss profiles of 31 little-known New Yorkers; the story of how Sesame Street was adapted for Russian TV; and a cookbook from the Via Carota chefs

Hot Topic

Ever since Edward VIII abdicated the British throne to marry the American divorcée Wallis Simpson, there has been speculation about their relationship. A new book attempts to set the record straight

Leave the Gun, Take the Cocktail

In an excerpt from his upcoming memoir, a maître d’hôtel for Brooklyn’s River Café recalls getting on the wrong side of a mobster from the Gotti crime family—and how he lived to tell the tale

Murder, They Wrote

As the holiday season approaches, gifts for mystery book–lovers of every type

In Colder Blood

Man of Letters

Neighborhood Watch

Michael Kimmelman, the New York Times architecture critic and lifelong New Yorker, discusses the old Village and new downtowns

“Why Can’t You Write Normal?”

Kathy Acker’s journey from daughter of Sutton Place to genre- and gender-bending cult novelist

Acquired Taste

The granddaughter of the River Cafe’s Ruthie Rogers discovers the thrill of cooking, one page at a time

The Power and the Glory

In 1985, G.E. purchased RCA for $6.3 billion in cash, then the largest M&A deal of all time. That G.E. was actually buying back a business it had started 65 years earlier was largely forgotten

Dreams in Progress

A new book celebrates Hollywood’s greatest behind-the-scenes photographer

Crime Pays

He’s written 37 books and sold more than 80 million copies—yet The New York Times still won’t give Michael Connelly’s well-crafted and timely whodunits a proper review

From Unknown to Downton, with Stops Along the Way

Down to Business

Broken Images

T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” is the rare modernist masterpiece that still feels modern

Not Your Father’s Ghostwriter

Unfortunately for the royal family, J. R. Moehringer, Prince Harry’s ghostwriter, specializes in damaged father-son relationships