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| Books Photo: New York Times |
Plenty of evidence this week that we’re
living in a boom time for thoughtful, powerful nature writing. “Vesper
Flights” collects essays by Helen Macdonald, whom you likely know from
her internationally best-selling memoir, “H Is for Hawk.” In “The Bird
Way,” Jennifer Ackerman takes a detailed look at the lives of birds —
including their parenting strategies — like the bowerbird, the cuckoo
and the kea. From the sky to the sea, with another international best
seller: Patrik Svensson’s “The Book of Eels,” which combines elements of
memoir with an examination of the slithery creatures.
As this strange summer (already, unbelievably) nears its end, Ali Smith reaches the end of her seasonal quartet of novels with her own “Summer.” Smith has conspicuously kept her eye on current events in these books, and has remarkably included the arrival of Covid-19 in this series-capper.
As this strange summer (already, unbelievably) nears its end, Ali Smith reaches the end of her seasonal quartet of novels with her own “Summer.” Smith has conspicuously kept her eye on current events in these books, and has remarkably included the arrival of Covid-19 in this series-capper.
Also on this week’s
list, a great diversity of genres and subjects: Kurt Andersen’s
indictment of American politics over the past several decades; Jeffrey
Toobin’s narrative treatment of the Mueller investigation; a group
portrait of four European philosophers who navigated the tumultuous
1920s in very different ways; the latest novel by the great Israeli
writer A.B. Yehoshua; the biography of a scientist who was once as
famous as Einstein; a deeply disturbing and brilliantly conceived novel
about cannibalism; and a devastating novel about tragedy in a Nigerian
family.
