The Virgin Warrior
by Larissa Juliet Taylor
The Week
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This new biography of Joan of Arc is the “most accurate” account of the saint’s life that we’re likely to have for some time, said David A. Bell in The New Republic. The 15th-century teenage warrior was probably stranger than the author makes her seem, and Joan’s lightning journey from obscurity to the stake deserves more lively prose. But author Larissa Juliet Taylor does a great service simply by sifting through Joan’s extensive trial records and producing “a lucid, reliable narrative.”
The Lady in the Tower
by Alison Weir
(Ballantine, $28)
Historians may never determine why Anne Boleyn’s “clever head” was severed from her “seductive body” just three years after Henry VIII made her England’s queen, said Hilary Mantel in The New York Times. Did Anne really commit adultery with five men? If not, who was behind the whisper campaign that led to her death? Doubts have been raised about one key source in Alison Weir’s new investigation, but “that doesn’t invalidate her brave effort to lay bare the bones of the controversy.”
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
by Rebecca Skloot
(Crown, $26)
The story of Henrietta Lacks’ life after death “reads like a novel,” said Eric Roston in The Washington Post. Lacks, a black woman, died of cervical cancer in the 1950s, but tissue that had been taken from her without her knowledge generated a strain of cells that has been used ever since by medical researchers around the world. Digging into Lacks’ previously untold story, journalist Rebecca Skloot has produced a “deftly crafted” narrative that brings Lacks and her legacy “fully alive.”
Crazy Like Us
by Ethan Watters
(Free Press, $26)
Both greedy drug companies and well-meaning mental-health professionals seem to be driving the global spread of certain psychological disorders, said Ethan Gilsdorf in The Boston Globe. That’s the case made by this “groundbreaking,” uneven book. Studying the rising incidence of depression in Japan, or of schizophrenia in East Africa, author Ethan Watters attempts to combine travel reportage with exposé. “You can see Watters struggling for a consistent voice,” but his insights are startling.
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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.”