The Beautiful and Damned
F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s drink-fueled behavior became notorious during their summers on the Riviera, where they were joined by Ernest Hemingway, the Marx Brothers, and Dorothy Parker
The French Twist
The key to mastering French style: look like you don’t care, even when you do
A Summer Odyssey
Emma Cline has communed with the Manson family and channeled Harvey Weinstein. For her new novel, she infiltrates the Hamptons
Ghostwriters with Benefits
Victoria Beckham’s former ghostwriter on the perilous mistake Prince Harry’s ghostwriter has made: liking his subject too much
All in the Family
The Romanovs author Simon Sebag Montefiore discusses his latest book, a sprawling “family history” of humanity from the Stone Age to the drone age
Murder, They Wrote
This month’s best mystery books put the spotlight on veteran sleuths
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
Jackie Kennedy, on Candid Camera
Before marrying J.F.K., Jackie transformed a staid newspaper column into “the best escapist literature” in Washington
A Tendency to Court Disaster
Peter Matthiessen aspired to write the Great American Novel. His son Lucas’s posthumous memoir reads like Greek tragedy
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
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
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
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
