12 New Books We Recommend This Week | Book Review - New York Times

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Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times by Gregory Cowles, Senior Editor, Books. 

The anthropologist Franz Boas — he’s the central figure in Charles King’s new book, “Gods of the Upper Air,” below — was more interested in similarities than in differences, ever alert to the things that united human cultures. So maybe he would find a common theme among the 12 titles we recommend this week. Me, I’ll just note how wildly varied they are (an anthology of reporting by Arab women, a study of Supreme Court politics, a gay coming-of-age memoir, a punctuation history and a biography of Confederate sisters, along with King’s book and half a dozen disparate novels), and happily remember the slogan I first saw on a banner at a church carnival years ago: Strength through diversity.
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Source: New York Times