Hitting the Ceiling
While Michelangelo’s St. Peter’s Basilica is remembered as a Renaissance masterpiece, the drama around the construction nearly stopped the project
Sister Act
How the McLaughlin twins broke the glass ceiling of the male-dominated photography industry during the golden age of magazines
(Mid-)20th-Century Women
Ruth Orkin’s postwar photographs, collected in a new book, offer a snapshot of the modern woman navigating life in the big city
Liar’s Poker, London–Style
How I went from the mean streets of East London to becoming the most profitable trader in the world
Drumming Up Sympathy
A new biography of rock legend Jim Gordon reveals how the music scene ignored his mental health struggles, then abandoned him when he snapped
Romantasy Addicts
It’s unadulterated escapism. It’s junk food for the mind. Suddenly, sales of fiction classed as both fantasy and romance are booming
Guiding Spirit
To write about Carson McCullers, the great American novelist, a biographer briefly lived in her childhood home
Weathering the Storm
The Pulitzer Prize–winning author and critic Michiko Kakutani discusses disruptive politics, the technology of the future, and her new book, The Great Wave
Romancing the Twitter Bro
The untold story of the lengths to which Twitter founder Jack Dorsey went to sway his company’s acquisition in Elon Musk’s favor
Spin Doctor
How libertarians’ efforts to deregulate the health-care system has given rise to dubious doctors with dangerous medical advice
Comeback King
Two new biographies of King Charles mark a return to good old-fashioned royal journalism
Murder, They Wrote
This month, a sterling trifecta of books by men who don’t underestimate a woman with a badge
A Voice in the Wilderness
A look at Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, the 20th-century Brazilian general, pacifist, and Amazonian explorer
A St. Swithin’s Day Surprise
The author behind One Day details how fatherhood and getting older inspired his best-seller, which he’s helped turn into a Netflix series
