Brenda Maddox
Brenda Maddox, a former Economist editor, has written acclaimed biographies of Nora Joyce and D.H. Lawrence. Her most recent is the award-winning Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA.
Buy Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA at Amazon
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (Penguin, $9). The book that showed me, and many others, the way out of the Catholic Church. With wit and what he called “the scholastic stink,” Joyce elegantly decided to serve only himself. Was he going to turn Protestant? “I said that I had lost the faith…not that I had lost self-respect,” says his protagonist, Stephen Dædalus.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Scoop by Evelyn Waugh (Back Bay, $15). The funniest book ever written, in the cleanest prose. Would I love it so much had I not thrown my lot in with journalism? The novel illustrates my conviction that journalism is not a profession. It is a craft—open to anybody who can get an assignment and an expense account.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brönte (Penguin, $8). Feminism started here: the story of a plain woman with no fortune earning money the only honest way she could, by becoming a governess and shutting her ears to the shrieks of the madwoman in the attic. What female does not identify with Jane sitting behind the curtain in the window seat while the boorish gentry make fun of her low status?
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
The Selected Letters of D.H. Lawrence (Cambridge, $26). Forget the embarrassing Lady Chatterley’s Lover, the tedious Women in Love, even Sons and Lovers. Lawrence is his letters, the most vivid and engaging self-portrait left by any English writer since Keats. Unlike Keats, Lawrence traveled the world knowing that his life would be short, and he captured the spirit of each place in unforgettable phrases.
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster (Harvest, $13). Forster’s masterpiece, displaying well-intentioned but incurable misunderstanding between two cultures that have good manners and understatement in common.
Houses of the Welsh Countryside
-
Why Rikers Island will no longer be under New York City's control
The Explainer A 'remediation manager' has been appointed to run the infamous jail
-
California may pull health care from eligible undocumented migrants
IN THE SPOTLIGHT After pushing for universal health care for all Californians regardless of immigration status, Gov. Gavin Newsom's latest budget proposal backs away from a key campaign promise
-
Is Apple breaking up with Google?
Today's Big Question Google is the default search engine in the Safari browser. The emergence of artificial intelligence could change that.
-
Marya E. Gates' 6 favorite books about women filmmakers
Feature The film writer recommends works by Julie Dash, Sofia Coppola, and more
-
Laurence Leamer's 6 favorite books that took courage to write
Feature The author recommends works by George Orwell, Truman Capote and more
-
Amor Towles' 6 favorite books from the 1950s
Feature The author recommends works by Vladimir Nabokov, Jack Kerouac, and more
-
Susan Page's 6 favorite books about historical figures who stood up to authority
Feature The USA Today's Washington bureau chief recommends works by Catherine Clinton, Alexei Navalny, and more
-
Ione Skye's 6 favorite books about love and loss
Feature The actress recommends works by James Baldwin, Nora Ephron, and more
-
Colum McCann's 6 favorite books that take place at sea
Feature The National Book Award-winning author recommends works by Ernest Hemingway, Herman Melville, and more
-
Max Allan Collins’ 6 favorite books that feature private detectives
Feature The mystery writer recommends works by Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and more
-
John McWhorter’s 6 favorite books that are rooted in history
Feature The Columbia University professor recommends works by Lyla Sage, Sally Thorne, and more