The Elizabethans
by A.N. Wilson
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Shooting Victoria
by Paul Thomas Murphy
(Pegasus, $35)
Elizabeth had nothing on Queen Victoria when it came to surviving assassination attempts, said Barbara Spindel in CSMonitor.com. As this “delightful” new book highlights, Victoria’s 64-year reign was nearly cut short by no fewer than eight attempts on her life. Historian Paul Thomas Murphy “vividly and entertainingly” re-creates each failed slaying, bringing to life such plotters as the mentally unbalanced Edward Oxford and the 4-foot-tall hunchback John Bean.
The Queen’s Lover
by Francine du Plessix Gray
(Penguin, $26)
For sheer drama, no tale of the monarchy “remains more magnetic than the downfall of Marie Antoinette,” said Kai Maristed in the Los Angeles Times. Francine du Plessix Gray has created a fictional memoir by Antoinette’s real-life lover, the Swedish Count Axel von Fersen, to provide a fresh take on the French queen toppled by revolution. Things start slowly, but once the Bastille is stormed, “the novel won’t leave your hand.” A reader knows the tale “but absolutely must have it again.”
Mercury
by Lesley-Ann Jones
(Touchstone, $26)
Stories of rock ’n’ roll excess spill from the pages of this biography of Queen front man Freddie Mercury, said David Kirby in The Washington Post. Lesley-Ann Jones, who enjoyed “unrivaled access” to the band during its heyday, collects “every fact of Mercury’s over-the-top life,” even some he fought to keep secret. There are, of course, tales of orgiastic parties. But Jones also provides the backstory on her protagonist, born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar and teased throughout boyhood about his buckteeth.
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What to know before turning to AI for financial advicethe explainer It can help you crunch the numbers — but it might also pocket your data
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Book reviews: 'The Headache: The Science of a Most Confounding Affliction—and a Search for Relief' and 'Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run'Feature The search for a headache cure and revisiting Springsteen's 'Born to Run' album on its 50th anniversary
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Keith McNally' 6 favorite books that have ambitious charactersFeature The London-born restaurateur recommends works by Leo Tolstoy, John le Carré, and more
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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.”