Book Reviews

Julia Wertz's loving, obsessively detailed visual history of the less-distinguished corners of New York City celebrates charming flops, long-gone businesses and dusty corners where dreams go to die.

The second volume in Mike Wallace's Pulitzer-winning history of New York City weighs in at over six pounds — and every ounce is packed with fascinating detail about the city that never sleeps.

While they tend towards traditional rather than edgy, the stories in Fresh Complaint will remind readers what they like about Eugenides' writing: His sensitivity and compassion for flawed people.

Both books vividly capture the dizzying highs of mania and the shattering lows of depression that mark the disease. Mental's approach is comprehensive, Gorilla and the Bird's more intimate.

Leigh Bardugo's new The Language of Thorns is a collection of fairy tales set in the world of her Grishaverse books — a world of dangerous magic where happy endings may just involve minimal murder.

Emily Nunn's sharp memoir chronicles an epic road trip she took in search of comfort — culinary and otherwise — after losing her job, her brother and her fiance and a descent into alcoholism.

Jason Fagone's biography of pioneering code-breaker Elizebeth Friedman — who, with her husband William, helped catch both smugglers and Nazis — is the story of a fascinating woman in perilous times.

Librarian Annie Spence's new book is a collection of love letters and breakup notes to the books in her life — written in a warm, funny, specific voice that skillfully balances reverence and wryness.

In this standalone novel, Ann Leckie returns to the world of her award-winning Ancillary trilogy with a different mission — a cozy mystery about the theft of some politically sensitive antiques.