Birthplaces of Cool
A new book explores masterpieces of architecture by Gio Ponti, Luis Barragán, and Lina Bo Bardi, and the people who live in them
The Game Is Afoot
Netflix and the estate of Arthur Conan Doyle are butting heads over Sherlock Holmes’s true identity
Gossip Girl Grows Up
Gossip Girl creator Cecily von Ziegesar sets her sights on the parents of Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
Back to the 70s
Bill Flanagan’s new novel is a music-inspired riff on time-travel classics. In an interview with the author, Tom Freston discusses going back in time—and the best age to do it
All That Glitters …
With the coronavirus decimating book sales, Shakespeare and Company is launching a membership scheme inspired by the one that got the Paris shop through the Great Depression
New This Week
Richard Preston reviews Numbers Don’t Lie, Vaclav Smil’s latest, which uses data to understand our world, and James McConnachie reviews Ed Caesar’s account of an unlikely ascent of Everest
Better by Design
Nearly 50 years after the publication of Louis Kahn’s monograph, a new edition presents the singular work of the architect in a fresh light
Dwight Garner
The New York Times book critic is out with a collection of his favorite quotations. Here, three recommendations to whet our appetite
Daddy Day Care
If you have no concern for your personal safety and like the idea of your house looking like a shrink’s office, the author has the perfect roommate for you
New This Week
Melanie Reid reviews playboy photographer David Bailey’s rollicking memoir, and new light is shed on the French Resistance in Patrick Marnham’s War in the Shadows, reviewed by Roger Boyes
Not Harry Potter, But It’ll Do
Available online for free, The Ickabog, accompanied by whimsical illustrations from children around the world, brings joy to lockdown
Life After Boris
Marina Wheeler on her new book, her broken marriage to Boris Johnson, and raising children who won’t speak to their father
A World Apart
Never-before-published photographs by Steve McCurry bring faraway places and cultures into radiant focus
Two Lovers
Sylvia Plath’s biographer uncovers the poems her husband, Ted Hughes, wrote for her after her tragic death
Léna in Paris
With the publication of a self-help book that is outselling classics, millennial influencer Léna Mahfouf casts herself as a French girl next door
A Day in the Life
On the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ breakup, early photographs capture the band on the cusp of fame
Lockdown Pick-Me-Up
The deputy books editor at The Times of London recommends the best humorous volumes to take the edge off, including classics from Nora Ephron, Bill Bryson, and P. G. Wodehouse
New This Week
Roger Lewis reviews Douglas Murray’s biography of Lord Alfred Douglas, Oscar Wilde’s lover, and Tom Burgis unravels a web of financial crime in Kleptopia, reviewed by Simon Nixon
Gold Rush
Photographs celebrate the epic car chase in Goldfinger, set in scenic Switzerland and starring the late Sean Connery
