False Prophets
How an investigation into a Mormon murder spree led one author to uncover the lurid world of America’s New Age movement—cult leaders, reincarnation, QAnon, and all
A Forgotten Master of Pulp Fiction
The only thing more noir than the work of writer Cornell Woolrich may have been his own life
The Mother of Surrealism
How one woman born into a world on the brink of turmoil inspired Paul Éluard, Max Ernst, André Breton, and the love of her life, Salvador Dalí
Palm Springs Eternal
Two new coffee-table books capture the timeless allure of Palm Springs, a favorite destination of Sinatra and Capote and a birthplace of modernist architecture
Private Predicaments and Natural Disasters
Meghan Daum wrote a book called The Catastrophe Hour. Three months before it was published, her house burned down.
Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss a history of Russian espionage, a window into the world of snakes, and a curated guide to the best of international cinema
One Hundred Years of Gatsby
Editions of The Great Gatsby—which achieved popularity only after F. Scott Fitzgerald’s death—abound, but the mysteries surrounding the Great American Novel endure
Flower Power
A Dior designer’s take on floral arrangements, a visual history of the rose, and a gardening guide by Martha Stewart … Ring in spring with three new coffee-table books
Positively 4th Street
When New York was still called New Amsterdam, a former slave ran a farm on the very terrain that would become the Greenwich Village stomping ground of folk singers and Beat poets
Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss a timely look back at McCarthyism, a novel about a couple’s tragic battle with dementia, and a history of the four compass points
Death Stares on the Tigris
Inside Victorian England’s most intense feud—a backstabbing, betrayal-laden rivalry to decipher the writings of ancient Babylon and Assyria
My Adventures in Journalism
In an interview, AIR MAIL Co-Editor Graydon Carter discusses Trump’s short fingers, the enduring magic of New York, and his memoir on the golden age of magazines
Zen and the Art of Being Ruth Asawa
Coinciding with a major San Francisco exhibition, an updated biography of the sculptor chronicles her journey from Japanese-internment-camp prisoner to art-world pioneer
Loos Woman
The novelist who beat F. Scott Fitzgerald at his own game
Deadly Pleasures to Read and Watch
This month’s best crime-fiction book and TV shows
Titans at War
A new book tells the inside story of an epic feud between Winston Churchill and U.S. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon
Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss a novel from a former New Yorker fact-checker, a history of NPR, and a portrait of one of the grandes dames of Impressionism
Signs of the Times
From giant Nazi monsters to Mussolini–loving children, a new coffee-table book collects 20th- and 21st-century propaganda used by regimes around the world
The Yin to John Lennon’s Yang
Half a century after co-writing “Imagine” with her Beatle husband, Yoko Ono is finally getting the recognition she deserves
