Women on a Mission
Just after World War II, six nuns from Kentucky moved to India to set up a missionary hospital. Their letters home offer insight into life on the ward
Staff Picks
Don’t miss a journalist’s memoir about re-invention; an appeal for readers to start writing; and the story of two men’s search for the source of the Nile River
In Putin’s Shadow
In an interview with the lieutenant turned military historian Antony Beevor about his newest book on a pre-U.S.S.R. Russia, it all goes back to Ukraine
A Legacy of Spies
The case of the Russian spy Robert Hanssen has been called the “worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history.” Many years on, the risk of espionage is just as high
Risky Business
Pulitzer Prize–winning war correspondent Ray Bonner always had a taste for trouble, but he just took on his most dangerous assignment yet: he bought a bookstore in Australia
Gen Z Finds Its Wise Man
How did Ryan Holiday, a former marketing executive in rural Texas, become the go-to philosopher for these times?
Murder, They Wrote
Actresses and other deceptive women dominate this month’s new thrillers. Plus, a look back at a true original: Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple
Letting It Loose
On the 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St., and the legendary tour that followed, the unlikely story of how a rock ’n’ roll masterpiece came to be
Guardian Angel
In the 19th century, Caroline Norton campaigned for mothers to have legal rights to their own children. She secured them for others—but not for herself
Staff Picks
Don’t miss the history behind the Kentucky Derby anthem; a biography of the philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville; and a dazzling look at Renaissance altarpieces
Meet You at Mortimer’s
A new book revisits the mid-70s heyday of Mortimer’s restaurant, which played host to everyone from Jackie O and Nancy Reagan to Liz Smith and Mick Jagger
When Marilyn Went British
In a 1956 trip to England, Marilyn Monroe sowed the seeds of divorce with Arthur Miller, battled with Laurence Olivier on set, and snagged an audience with the Queen
Staff Picks
Don’t miss the epic story of a search for a missing canoer; an insider’s look at Italian life; and a re-assessment of 20th-century classical music
Talking in Riddles
A collection of 95 medieval riddles has left scholars scratching their heads—and clutching their pearls
Diary of a Somebody
When Anne Frank’s father published her diaries, they inspired awe, criticism, and lawsuits. Seventy-five years later, they’re still the center of controversy
Once upon a Time in Hollywood
In the course of their brief, intense marriage, Dennis Hopper and Brooke Hayward lit the match for a cultural explosion in 1960s Los Angeles
