Steve Fishman
Steve Fishman, a contributing editor at New York magazine, is the author of Karaoke Nation, or How I Spent a Year in Search of Glamour, Fulfillment, and a Million Dollars (Free Press, $25).
Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow (Penguin, $15). This is the Bellow to read. All the great stuff is in this one: the narrator who wants and wants, the serial objects of desire (women), the snub-nosed business-oriented brother, the gorgeous talker Humboldt, and also the brilliant throwaway lines that other writers would kill for…all that before Bellow wanders off into a cannibal theme.
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (Modern Library, $10). Tolstoy’s prose is pedestrian and often ponderous. But his relentless descriptive energy, his full characters, and above all his Anna—so wonderfully and modernly unhappy—make this a treat.
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.
Bobos in Paradise by David Brooks (Touchstone Books, $14). Sly and funny, this book caught that touchstone moment when we found ourselves at cocktail parties lamenting, with a heartsick laugh, how we’d once been liberal, rebellious, but now, what with the kids and the cars, hugged the moderate middle, though, of course, we still preferred whole grains and natural fibers.
Selling Ben Cheever by Ben Cheever (Bloomsbury USA, $15). Hapless Ben, who has assigned himself the role of less-famous son, takes a series of low-end jobs and gets surprising uplift out of it. You come away knowing a lot more about the meaning of work—and adulthood—in America, though Cheever himself doesn’t really achieve either.
The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat by Ryszard Kapuscinski (Vintage, $12). This is the story of the fall of the dictator Selassie in Ethiopia. Very little of it strikes the reader as literally true. Yet the madcap landscape of dictatordom, personal and political, is searing. And in its essence the book feels true.
Anti-Intellectualism in American Life
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
-
May 26 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Monday's political cartoons feature Donald Trump's red tie, Hunter Biden's crypto lament, and one meaning of Memorial Day
-
3 tips for coping with financial stress
The explainer Feel more at peace in an unpredictable economy
-
Sudoku medium: May 26, 2025
The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
-
Richard Bausch's 6 favorite books that are worth rereading
Feature The award-winning author recommends works by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and more
-
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