This week: Linda Fairstein returns with another thrilling installment in her Alexandra Cooper series, a new book reexamines the historical Buddha, are we getting lonelier a new memoir asks, a Nobel Prize-winner delivers a masterful novel, and Richard Holmes’ stunning account of when poets and scientists inspired each other.
Hell Gateby Linda Fairstein
The intense, gripping new installment in the Alexandra Cooper series.
With Hell Gate, Linda Fairstein adds a superb 12th book to her bestselling Alexandra Cooper series, which draws on Fairstein’s years of experience as the chief of the Sex Crimes Unit in the Manhattan district attorney’s office. Based on her knowledge of the city’s darkest stories, Fairstein expertly places Cooper in the messy world of New York politics as she connects the dots between two seemingly separate cases, a ship found to be carrying human cargo and an up-and-coming New York congressman facing a major sex scandal. As Cooper begins to investigate the centuries-old problem of human trafficking, she realizes that her own life hangs in the balance. Fairstein creates a frighteningly realistic mystery, and Publisher’s Weekly said, “readers seeking a realistic depiction of law-enforcement work will be more than satisfied.”
Confession of a Buddhist Atheistby Stephen Batchelor
A thoughtful and critical look at just what Buddhism is all about.
Stephen Batchelor has had some of the most traditional Buddhist training in the world, but holds some of the most controversial views on the religion. During his time at a Zen Buddhist monastery and later studies with the Dalai Lama, Batchelor developed a skeptical view on modern Buddhism, and in Confession of a Buddhist Atheist argues that the religion has departed from the original ideas of the Buddha, who Batchelor believes had little interest in the strictures of karma and reincarnation. Following up on his seminal Buddhism Without Beliefs, Batchelor has put together a meticulous and unconventional historical look at the Buddha. His fellow author (and vocal atheist) Christopher Hitchens said, “In this honest and serious book of self-examination and critical scrutiny, Stephen Batcehlor adds the universe of Buddhism to the many fields in which received truth and blind faith are now giving way to ethical and scientific humanism, in which lies our only real hope.”
Lonely: A Memoirby Emily White
A woman investigates how loneliness has become a major problem.
Emily White was a successful lawyer in her 30s with many friends, and yet she was haunted by chronic loneliness, a condition distinct from depression and, despite stereotypes, not limited to the weird, the predatory, or the crazy cat lady. White decided to examine loneliness, interviewing researchers and doctors about the condition for her “ groundbreaking” new book Lonely: A Memoir. What she found was that while it’s easier than ever to connect with people thanks to cellphones and social-networking sites, we’re all becoming lonelier. We have fewer friends than a few decades ago. We have fewer people in our households. White captures how lonely people get trapped in a vicious circle, shunning social events because being alone is more comfortable. Lonely people are more likely to be unhealthy, to have impaired cognitive skills, and to die sooner—but stigmatized, to the point that White would lie when people asked what she was writing about.
The Changelingby Kenzaburo Oe
A Nobel Prize-winning author’s stunning return to form.
With The Changeling, Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kenzaburo Oe has returned to the autobiographical style that has earned him so much praise. Kogito Choko, modeled on Oe, becomes obsessed with tapes made by his lifelong friend before he committed suicide. Kogito comes to see the tapes as a kind of portal through which he can speak to his dead friend and solve the puzzle of what drove him to his death. Oe explores themes of nationalism and post-war Japan, as well as the complex relationship between friends. A “richly imagined, complex story full of the oddity, irony, and existential angst that have long been at the heart of Oe's writing,” the Los Angeles Times says, The Changeling “offers evidence that the Japanese master has regained his footing.”
The Age of Wonderby Richard Holmes
One of the most acclaimed biographies of recent years.
Richard Holmes is one of the great biographers working today and when he choose a subject the reader had better pay attention. His most recent book, The Age of Wonder, was hailed as one of the best books of the year by everyone from The New York Times to The Washington Post. Now out in paperback, Holmes’ superb work captures how Romantic poets were inspired by and in turn inspired the scientific discoveries of Joseph Banks, William Herschel, and Humphry Davy. Holmes captures the audacious experiments of these men (and women) and how they infused their age with a sense of discovery, wonder, and learning. Reading this book will convince anyone that there should be no separation between the humanities and the sciences. As The New York Review of books said, “ The Age of Wonder is popular history at its best, racy, readable, and well documented.”
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