On the Scent
Tracking down the essential oils that become perfumes took one fragrance aficionado to far-flung places, from Bulgarian rose fields to Somalian mountains
High Life, Low Life
In his new book, the photographer Dafydd Jones captures a bygone New York, an era of new and old money, La Grenouille and Le Cirque
Playing Hardball
Separating the man from the myth of Pete Rose, one of baseball’s most fabled—and controversial—stars
Murder, They Wrote
The settings for this month’s best mystery books range from the Las Vegas underworld to cosseted suburban London
Renaissance Women
A new book spotlights four forgotten female writers who were contemporaries of Shakespeare’s but cut out of history
From the Metropol Hotel to Hollywood
In an interview, Amor Towles discusses adapting A Gentleman in Moscow for the screen and the inspiration behind his newest book, Table for Two
A Publisher of One’s Own
For 25 years, Persephone Books has been turning the works of forgotten female writers into unexpected best-sellers
Around the World with Steve McCurry
Refugee camps in Pakistan, civil wars in Cambodia, religious ceremonies in India … A new book collects more than 100 images by the American photojournalist
Finding Gaudí
How the playful details of Antoni Gaudí’s architecture turned one critic into an admirer
All That Is Solid Melts into Theory
How did a once obscure academic notion called “gender identity” triumph over material reality? Credit—or blame—Judith Butler
Spring Breakers
A new book of photographs evokes the sun-and-booze-soaked days of British holidayers in southern Spain during the 60s and beyond
Reaching for the Starman
How a stylist went from cutting David Bowie’s mother’s hair to joining the rockstar’s rollicking Ziggy Stardust tour
A Touch of Smut
Wayne Koestenbaum has been writing seriously salacious poetry for decades. A new collection about New York and its denizens gets down and dirty
A Mission from God
How an epic friendship born out of quaaludes, comedy, and a shared love of R&B paved the way for The Blues Brothers
