Robert S. Boynton
Robert Boynton directs New York University’s magazine journalism program and is the author of The New New Journalism: Conversations With America’s Best Nonfiction Writers on Their Craft.
Honor Thy Father by Gay Talese (Ivy, $6.99). Written long before the Mob became the stuff of bad fiction and good cable television, this book put Talese’s famous “fly on the wall” reporting technique to the test: During the six years he followed Mafia scion Joseph Bonanno Jr., there were long periods when Bonanno’s father was in hiding and Talese’s protagonist was himself the target of hit men.
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Rolling Nowhere by Ted Conover (Vintage, $14). Conover captured the last gasp of American hobo culture with this beautifully written first book. He entered the life so completely that when another tramp tried to enter his boxcar (a violation of hobo etiquette), Conover barely hesitated before stepping on the man’s hand, sending him flying off the train.
Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (Scribner, $14). LeBlanc’s intimate view of life in the drug-ridden South Bronx unnerved readers across the political spectrum. Conservatives wanted her to chastise her subjects’ morality. Liberals thought she was too unsympathetic. But nobody denied the essential truth of what she documented, or how beautifully the portrait was rendered.
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The Other Side of the River by Alex Kotlowitz (Anchor, $15). Kotlowitz presents the 1991 death of a black Michigan teenager as a screen onto which two adjacent towns—one black and one white—project their resentments and fears. The fact that the murder is never solved might stand as a metaphor for race relations in America.
The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm (Vintage, $13). A classic study of murder, deceit, and journalistic ethics. The book’s first line—“Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible”—should be emblazoned on the wall of every journalism school.
Remembering Satan
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Democrats: How to rebuild a damaged brand
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Unraveling autism
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'Two dolls': Can Trump sell Americans on austerity?
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Laurence Leamer's 6 favorite books that took courage to write
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Amor Towles' 6 favorite books from the 1950s
Feature The author recommends works by Vladimir Nabokov, Jack Kerouac, and more
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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
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Ione Skye's 6 favorite books about love and loss
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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
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Max Allan Collins’ 6 favorite books that feature private detectives
Feature The mystery writer recommends works by Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and more
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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
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Abdulrazak Gurnah's 6 favorite books about war and colonialism
Feature The Nobel Prize winner recommends works by Michael Ondaatje, Toni Morrison, and more