(Books of The Times): You might think that Michael Wolff, whose blockbuster “Fire and Fury” wasn’t exactly a glowing portrait of President Donald Trump’s first year in the White House, might have burned so many bridges that a second insider book on the administration would have been an impossible task.
(Books of The Times): There’s something telling about the fact that “Our Man,” George Packer’s hefty, dishy biography of U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke, clocks in at more than 500 pages without the courtesy of an index. This isn’t a book you’re supposed to dip into piecemeal, searching for information; it’s best appreciated like a novel, consumed whole.
(Books of The Times): As a Filipino child growing up in a small Massachusetts town, Grace Talusan felt both scrutinized and unseen. Having arrived from the Philippines when she was 2, she rehearsed a Boston accent and prayed for a metamorphosis, pleading with God to turn her into a white girl with blonde hair and blue eyes.
Dworkin, who died in 2005 at 58, knew that in fighting this battle she would confront the problem that any woman faced whenever it was a case of her word against his
This isn’t an academic question but a vital and urgent one. As William Davies makes clear in “Nervous States,” his wide-ranging yet brilliantly astute new book, issues that were presumably settled before our turbulent moment are now up for grabs.
It’s a somewhat startling admission, coming toward the end of this resolutely humane book, but an outsider’s perspective is what gives “Say Nothing” its exacting and terrifying lucidity.
A friend of mine says that whenever he walks into someone’s home he’s tempted to yell out, “Hey, Alexa,” or “OK, Google,” and order 50 pizzas, just to see if there’s a device listening in on whatever gossip he planned to dish out next.
Her phrasing may have been new, but Conway was taking part in what has apparently become a conservative tradition — performing a skepticism so extreme that it makes the ancient Greek skeptics look like babes in the woods.