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The Phantom of the Book List

“The UK’s leading criminologist,” Professor David Wilson, kept getting one-star reviews on Amazon. Putting his investigative credentials to the test, he tracked down the culprit

Talking Dirty

A sociologist separates fact from fiction in the enduring debate over the dangers of porn

Church and State

A Tendency to Court Disaster

Peter Matthiessen aspired to write the Great American Novel. His son Lucas’s posthumous memoir reads like Greek tragedy

Jackie Kennedy, on Candid Camera

Before marrying J.F.K., Jackie transformed a staid newspaper column into “the best escapist literature” in Washington

In the Limelight

Life in a Hot-and-Cold Climate

Editor’s Picks

This week, don’t miss the story of a British airship’s deadly crash, a critique of pop culture from People magazine’s former editor, and a memoir about overcoming addiction

The Secret Life of Lucinda Williams

Maria Schneider’s Last Tango

Trumpie Dearest

Despite containing more than 150 letters, including his correspondence with Kim Jong Un, Oprah Winfrey, and Jair Bolsonaro, Letters to Trump barely qualifies as a book

Going Viral

Ben Smith, the former BuzzFeed editor and New York Times columnist, discusses Fox’s firing of Tucker Carlson, the Gawker–Hulk Hogan scandal, and his new book on the age of disinformation, Traffic

Everyone’s Muse

In her new memoir, Jenny Boyd looks back on a life spent traveling the world with bands including Fleetwood Mac and the Beatles

Talking Trash

The author of a new essay collection about bad movies makes the case for treating trashy films like works of art

All Stations Go

Two new books offer an ode to historic train stations, from Roma Termini to Venice’s floating Santa Lucia to the London Underground, and the people who passed through them

Traces of Empire

The Dark Side of Happiness

Pirates of the Peking Express

The extraordinary, little-known story of the bandits who hijacked a Chinese sleeper train full of Westerners, including a Rockefeller heiress, on its way to Beijing

Full Blume

In an interview, Judy Blume discusses everything from J. K. Rowling to the upcoming adaptation of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret

Staff Picks

This week, don’t miss a veteran magazine editor’s homage to his mother, a survey of how germs have shaped history, and the story of a Bavarian village that embraced Nazism

The Red Flag of Modern Drama

Between Rome and Byzantium

A 40-year-old Milan Kundera essay holds the key to understanding the war in Ukraine

Murder, They Wrote

This month’s best mystery books are throwbacks to different periods in American history, from the 20s to the 90s

Degrees of Separation