All In
by Paula Broadwell (Penguin, $30)
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The Operators
by Michael Hastings (Blue Rider, $28)
Michael Hastings’s report from inside the Afghanistan war machine is a “polarizing book about a polarizing war,” said Matt Gallagher in TheDailyBeast​.com. Built around Hastings’s controversial Rolling Stone profile of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, which led to McChrystal’s 2010 resignation, The Operators also takes other journalists to task for being too obsequious while covering military leaders. Not some “pop-culture puff piece,” this is “a book of great consequence” that demands reading.
Westmoreland
by Lewis Sorley (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $30)
“Reading Lewis Sorley’s scalding biography of Gen. William Westmoreland is like watching a slow-motion replay of an oncoming train wreck,” said Tony Perry in the Los Angeles Times. Sorley’s Westmoreland is “arrogant, duplicitous, and not altogether smart,” and if you think the author is devastating when detailing Westmoreland’s failures as the Army’s top commander in Vietnam, wait until you meet this book’s defensive, delusional protagonist in retirement.
Marshall and His Generals
by Stephen R. Taaffe (Univ. of Kansas, $38)
Gen. George Marshall was the Army’s “indispensable man” during World War II, said John M. Taylor in The Washington Times. “Rigidly self-disciplined,” the Army chief of staff and chief military adviser to President Roosevelt “dominated official Washington by means of his integrity, the force of his personality, and his keen intelligence.” Historian Stephen R. Taaffe’s new biography offers an insightful assessment not only of Marshall but also of 38 other generals who operated within his sphere.
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Aimee Betro: the Wisconsin woman who came to Birmingham to killIn the Spotlight US hitwoman wore a niqab in online lover's revenge plot
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Facial recognition vans and policingThe government is rolling out more live facial recognition technology across England
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Dive in! The best children's books to spark a love of readingThe Week Recommends These gripping stories will keep kids hooked until the last page
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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.”