Reviews & Essays - The Barnes & Noble Review

Reviews & Essays

Displaying articles for: December 2011

Labels:

FOOD

December 29, 2011

The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food

By ADAM GOPNIK

Reviewed by Peter Lewis

Following "the simple path between eating well and feeling happy."

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EDITOR'S NOTE

December 28, 2011

Next Up: Coming in 2012

Twenty forthcoming works that augur happy reading in the new year.

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POETRY

December 23, 2011

The Death of King Arthur and Seeing Stars

By SIMON ARMITAGE

Reviewed by Tess Taylor

The poet's new translation of a medieval Arthurian epic -- and some new enchantments of his own.

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CLASSICS

December 23, 2011

End Times

By Adam Kirsch

Cruelty and consolation in the last days of the Roman Empire.

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FICTION

December 22, 2011

The Truth about Marie

By JEAN-PHILIPPE TOUSSAINT

Reviewed by Christopher Byrd

Mysteries of identity and the shadow of madness haunt the new novel from the author of Running Away.

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lives

December 21, 2011

Howard Cosell: The Man, the Myth, and the Transformation of American Sports

By MARK RIBOWSKY

Reviewed by Mark J. Miller

The voice! The ego! The drama!

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BEST OF 2011

December 16, 2011

Year's Best Reading 2011: Editors' Picks

Our favorite books of the year -- in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Beyond Category.

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ARCHITECTURE

December 14, 2011

The Art-Architecture Complex

By HAL FOSTER

Reviewed by Jason Farago

Where image-making and space-shaping meet.

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YOUNG READERS

December 14, 2011

Getting Real: Best Young Adult Fiction of 2011

By Amy Benfer

Ten great books for younger readers.

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LIVES

December 9, 2011

Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr

By RICHARD RHODES

Reviewed by Barbara Spindel

A Hollywood star's inventive legacy.

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FICTION

December 7, 2011

The Third Reich

By ROBERTO BOLAÑO, translated by NATASHA WIMMER

Reviewed by Scott Esposito

A study in slow-burning suspense from the author of 2666.

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BEYOND CATEGORY

December 6, 2011

The Cult of LEGO

By JOHN BAICHTAL and JOE MENO

Reviewed by Paul Di Filippo

How the blocks and "minifigs" have leapt the gap from toy to obsession.

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MYSTERY

December 6, 2011

Death Comes to Pemberley

By P. D. JAMES

Reviewed by Anna Mundow

A murder mystery set in the world of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

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ESSAYS

December 02, 2011

Higher Gossip: Essays and Criticism

By JOHN UPDIKE

Reviewed by John Freeman

The author who believed that "the humanities and arts need repeated injections of amateurism" delivers another shot in the arm.

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SPORTS

December 2, 2011

War Room: The Legacy of Bill Belichick and the Art of Building the Perfect Team

By MICHAEL HOLLEY

Reviewed by Cameron Martin

How an NFL coach scouted a path to victory.

Daybook

May 23: Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow died on this day in 1934, gunned down in a police ambush on a road in the north Louisiana woods. The Barrow Gang's crime spree was short and small time, but the young "celebrity bandits" were…

Previously in Daybook

In the Margin

Angry robots! Aren't they all? Well, not the line of fine science fiction and fantasy books that comes to readers under the rubric Angry Robot. In fact, their offerings…

Earlier Posts

The Long List

Books, CDs, DVDs to know about now

She Left Me the Gun

Emma Brockes' mother Paula escaped from South Africa with a smuggled pistol and a dark secret. A daughter unravels her family's covert past -- and a suspenseful legal drama -- in this hard-boiled memoir of survival.

Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking

Expand your memory, puzzle-solving skills, and sense of metaphysical wonder with philosopher Daniel C. Dennett's tasting menu of user-friendly neuroscience and poetic lingual pursuits.

When the Devil Drives

Thespian-turned-P.I. Jasmine Sharp searches for a missing actress and veteran detective Catherine MacLeod tries to solve the case of a murdered one. Their paths intertwine amid the Scottish theater community with uproarious and gory results.