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Actress Ione Skye was a teenager when her appearances in River's Edge and Say Anything... made her a star. In her best-selling new memoir, Say Everything, she details her rocky romantic history and long estrangement from her father, the folk-rock legend Donovan.
'West of Eden' by Jean Stein (2016)
After writing Edie—a portrait of Andy Warhol superstar Edie Sedgwick that was also one of the greatest oral-history books of all time—Stein explored the history of Los Angeles through intriguing and dark stories, both well-known and obscure, that took place in and around the movie industry. Buy it here.
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'The Magic World' by E. Nesbit (1912)
Nesbit was a fantastic and witty writer. This is one of those brilliant children's books that grown-ups will love as well. Its stories mostly follow English kids, raised with too many rules, as they get into trouble and fabulous, magical, fairy-tale-like things happen to them. Buy it here.
'Music for Chameleons' by Truman Capote (1980)
I can reread these short stories and non-fiction pieces forever. The story "Hand-Carved Coffins" is an account of a crime, much like In Cold Blood—though some say Capote made this one up. I love his Southern, almost surreal sensibility in his early short stories, as well as the portraits, such as "A Beautiful Child," about a day spent with his friend Marilyn Monroe. Buy it here.
'Giovanni's Room' by James Baldwin (1956)
This is a marvelous novel, set in Paris, about a tempestuous gay love affair between the American narrator and an Italian bartender who is about to be executed for murder. Baldwin's emotional intelligence and insight into human behavior are absolutely stunning. Buy it here.
'Heartburn' by Nora Ephron (1983)
Ephron's novel is a brilliant and funny comfort read about the end of a marriage, inspired by the author's own split with Washington Post journalist Carl Bernstein. Ephron's stand-in is a food writer, and because I love food, I enjoy when food plays a role in books. Buy it here.
'The Complete Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham' (1951)
Maugham was famous for his novels and plays, but I love his short stories best. He often uses a narrator drinking a nightcap at a men's club, recounting a recent scandalous tale of adultery or murder set in the morally questionable British Far Eastern colonies. Many of his stories and books became films, including The Letter, starring Bette Davis. Buy it here.
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The UK-made Storm Shadow missiles Ukraine is using in RussiaThe Explainer Ukraine reportedly deployed the long-range British missiles this week, following a tense meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump
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Dry skin, begone! 8 products to keep your skin supple while travelingThe Week Recommends Say goodbye to dry and hello to hydration
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Crossword: October 23, 2025The Week's daily crossword
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Film reviews: A House of Dynamite, After the Hunt, and It Was Just an AccidentFeature A nuclear missile bears down on a U.S. city, a sexual misconduct allegation rocks an elite university campus, and a victim of government terror pursues vengeance
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Book reviews: ‘Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife’ and ‘Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong With Baseball and How to Fix It’Feature Gertrude Stein’s untold story and Jane Leavy’s playbook on how to save baseball
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Rachel Ruysch: Nature Into ArtFeature Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, through Dec. 7
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Music reviews: Olivia Dean, Madi Diaz, and Hannah FrancesFeature “The Art of Loving,” “Fatal Optimist,” and “Nested in Tangles”
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Gilbert King’s 6 favorite books about the search for justiceFeature The journalist recommends works by Bryan Stevenson, David Grann, and more
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Ready for the apocalypseFeature As anxiety rises about the state of the world, the ranks of preppers are growing—and changing.
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A little-visited Indian Ocean archipelagoThe Week Recommends The paradise of the Union of the Comoros features beautiful beaches, colourful coral reefs and lush forests
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Diane Keaton: the Oscar-winning star of Annie HallIn the Spotlight Something’s Gotta Give actor dies from pneumonia at the age of 79
