Flipping the Godfather Script
Mario Puzo was an avid gambler, novelist, and pizza eater. But there was one department where he could use some help: screenwriting
Jerusalem Syndrome
The Christian obsession with the holy city has played a key role in creating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—and remains a stumbling block to its resolution
Pfizer v. Trump
Inside Pfizer’s high-stakes coronavirus-vaccine trials and Donald Trump’s efforts to undermine them
Changing His Tune
Noël Coward was many things—a playwright, an actor, a filmmaker. The editor of a new collection of his writings explores another one of his talents
Risky Business
The notorious Jazz Age madam Polly Adler played hostess to every gangster, politician, and writer of the Roaring 20s—even, she once claimed, to F.D.R.
Staff Picks
This week, don’t miss a history of Christians in the Middle East; the Howard brothers’ tell-all; and a memoir from the man who edited Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton
When Trump Trumps Logic
Books on Donald Trump’s narcissism, by Michael Wolff, and financial misdeeds, by David Cay Johnston, sound a familiar alarm. Will people listen?
The Godfather of The Godfather
How Mario Puzo turned his gambling addiction and fruitful imagination into the best Mob story of all time
Dior Dreaming
Accompanying an exhibition on Christian Dior at New York’s Brooklyn Museum, an elegant volume spans the many iterations of the French fashion house
Faulty-Hearts Club
How Baby Fae, the 1980s infant who survived for several days with a baboon heart, paved the way for innovative new approaches to organ donation
Around the World with Oscar Wilde
Following in Wilde’s footsteps, from his birthplace of Dublin to the Peloponnese, the American Midwest, and the prison he spent the better part of two years in
He’s More than Logan Roy
In his new memoir, Brian Cox recounts his journey from growing up poor in Scotland to ruling Succession
Petty Clash
The left-leaning Paul Samuelson and right-leaning Milton Friedman went to their graves disagreeing with each other over economics
Amor Towles
The A Gentleman in Moscow author shares the American classics he read while preparing to write his latest novel, The Lincoln Highway
A Walk on the Wild Side
Eight questions with Susan Orlean, the writer portrayed by Meryl Streep in Adaptation, whose new book explores our interactions with animals
