What’s New in Paperback: ‘The Devil You Know’ and ‘The Adult Liar Life’


MAGIC LESSONS, Alice Hoffman’s photo. (Simon & Schuster, 416 people, $17.) “Hoffman’s book swept me away at a time when I needed it most,” our review writer Edan Lepucki wrote of the third installment (and second preface) of the Practical Magic fantasy series. While the plot here is darker than in other novels, Lepucki’s exuberant storytelling is “(forgive me) fascinating”.

BARRY SONNEFELD, CALL YOUR MOTHER: Memoirs of a Neurotic Filmmaker, Barry Sonnenfeld’s photo. (Hachette, 368 p., $18.99.) In the words of our critic Dave Itzkoff, a director known for “making endearing and highly commercial films about the weirdos, eccentrics, and strangers” explores why he “turns to these kinds of characters.” Along the way, he serves as “the ideal tour guide amongst the whims and hypocrisies of the entertainment industry.”

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW: A Dark Power Manifesto, by Charles M. Blow. (Harper Perennial, 256 pp., $17.99.) Our critic, Tanisha C. Ford, called her book a “helpful introduction” to the frantic debate about voting rights, while questioning the historical foundations of Blow’s argument that African-Americans’ best bet is to migrate south to eradicate white supremacy.

THE LIE LIFE OF ADULTS, Elena Ferrante’s photo. Translated by Ann Goldstein. (Europa Editions, 324 p., $18.) Dayna Tortorici set out to review the pseudonymous Italian author’s first novel since the Neapolitan quartet. Ferrante places her last young heroine in the 1990s, “insidiously asking how decades of feminism have changed the world.”

WAGNERISM: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music, by Alex Ross. (Picador, 784 p., $23). Our critic John Adams noted that Ross, rather than focusing on Wagner’s music, saw the composer as “a ur-source from which numerous artistic, social and political movements were born.” Showcasing “its ‘Wagnerian’ weight”, this work, which has “an enormous intellectual spectrum”, “is nothing more than a history of ideas”.

IF THEN: How Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future, Jill Lepore’s photo. (Liveright, 432 p., $17.95.) A highlight is the Harvard history professor and New York staff writer’s “fascinating yet flawed” book about a “robot campaign strategist” (aka “The Human Machine”) who came to light after John F. Kennedy’s narrow presidential victory in 1960. there is. It’s a story to tell, according to our critic Seth Mnookin.



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