Fairyland
by Alysia Abbott (Norton, $26)
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Bootstrapper
by Mardi Jo Link (Knopf, $25)
Mardi Jo Link’s memoir mostly just strings together “a series of hokey anecdotes” about her first year as a single mother trying to operate a small Michigan farm, said Amanda Fortini in The New York Times. But though Link’s ex-husband and even her young sons feel “hazily sketched,” Link’s resourcefulness proves impressive, and her “raw, willful energy” throws off sparks. She’s built a life that’s less a pastoral idyll than “barely controlled chaos,” but it feels authentic.
It’s Only Slow Food Until You Try to Eat It
by Bill Heavey (Atlantic Monthly, $25)
Bill Heavey is “nothing if not honest,” said Catherine Ramsdell in PopMatters.com. The veteran Field and Stream contributor admits in this memoir about feeding himself with only what he can grow, forage, or kill himself that he’s not a picky eater and once messily murdered a squirrel with a garden hoe. But if he sometimes buries his larger points in colorful anecdotes and “beautifully snarky humor,” he’s at least delivered a good read, the kind filled with bits you instantly want to share aloud.
Walden on Wheels
by Ken Ilgunas (New Harvest, $16)
Ken Ilgunas gives me new hope about America’s next generation, said Daniel Akst in The Wall Street Journal. Saddled with college debt, the young graduate took menial work to quickly pay off a $32,000 loan, then earned a master’s at Duke while living out of a Ford van to avoid further debt. His “thoroughly endearing” account of the whole adventure takes factual liberties that could have been avoided, but the Ilgunas we meet here is still fueled by surprising idealism.
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Microsoft pursues digital intelligence ‘aligned to human values’ in shift from OpenAIUNDER THE RADAR The iconic tech giant is jumping into the AI game with a bold new initiative designed to place people first in the search for digital intelligence
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Codeword: November 7, 2025The Week's daily codeword puzzle
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Crossword: November 7, 2025The Week's daily crossword
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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.”