Cartwheel
by Jennifer duBois (Random House, $26)
It’s quite a feat to elevate the Amanda Knox case “from the realm of scuttlebutt” to “that of art,” said Jenny Shank in The Dallas Morning News. Like Knox, the central figure in Jennifer duBois’s fictionalized version of that roommate-murder drama is a “loopy, privileged, distracted young woman”: She invites suspicion when she turns a cartwheel while waiting alone in a police interrogation room. But duBois also gets us into the minds of the prosecutor and an old boyfriend, and makes her sad story a rich study of character.
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A Guide for the Perplexed
by Dara Horn (Norton, $26)
Dara Horn’s fourth novel “exists in its own universe,” said Jami Attenberg in The New York Times. The author of 2006’s The World to Come interweaves an episode in the life of the philosopher Maimonides with a fictional story about two sisters traveling in post-revolutionary Egypt. When Josie, a tech entrepreneur, is kidnapped in Cairo by extremists, the pages fly, but too often a reader is forced to cut away to a world of ideas, “perhaps too many ideas.”
Rivers
by Michael Farris Smith (Simon and Schuster, $25)
Michael Farris Smith couldn’t have known that the antagonist in this “wonderfully cinematic” first novel would end up reminding readers of Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro, said Mary Doria Russell in The Washington Post. But the creepy survivalist who has locked up a group of women in Smith’s story lives in a hurricane-battered stretch of the Gulf Coast that’s been permanently evacuated, and, like every other character here, he’s “rounded and real.” Smith rushes the story’s ending, but the rest is gripping, cliché-free suspense.
Two Boys Kissing
by David Levithan (Knopf, $17)
David Levithan has created “an unexpected nail-biter,” said Meredith Goldstein in The Boston Globe. In this young adult novel, two teenage boys react to a Tyler Clementi–like suicide by attempting to stage the world’s longest recorded kiss, and “you’ll find yourself gasping” when it appears that they’ll pass out before reaching their goal. Trusting the narration to a Greek chorus of deceased AIDS victims might sound heavy-handed, but the story “kicks you in the gut from page 1.”
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5 Post Office-approved cartoons about mail-in votingCartoons Artists take on reverse logic, Putin's election advice, and more
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The battle of the weight-loss drugsTalking Point Can Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly regain their former stock market glory? A lot is riding on next year's pills
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Crossword: August 24, 2025The Week's daily crossword puzzle
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Also of interest...in picture books for grown-upsfeature How About Never—Is Never Good for You?; The Undertaking of Lily Chen; Meanwhile, in San Francisco; The Portlandia Activity Book
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Author of the week: Karen Russell
feature Karen Russell could use a rest.
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The Double Life of Paul de Man by Evelyn Barish
feature Evelyn Barish “has an amazing tale to tell” about the Belgian-born intellectual who enthralled a generation of students and academic colleagues.
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Book of the week: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
feature Michael Lewis's description of how high-frequency traders use lightning-fast computers to their advantage is “guaranteed to make blood boil.”
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Also of interest...in creative rebellion
feature A Man Called Destruction; Rebel Music; American Fun; The Scarlet Sisters
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Author of the week: Susanna Kaysen
feature For a famous memoirist, Susanna Kaysen is highly ambivalent about sharing details about her life.
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You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age by Robert Wagner
feature Robert Wagner “seems to have known anybody who was anybody in Hollywood.”
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Book of the week: Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark
feature The tale of Astoria’s rise and fall turns out to be “as exciting as anything in American history.”