In his new book, ex-Republican Kevin Phillips writes less a work of history than a screed and a lament. He hasn’t changed; the GOP has.

Writing about the West is trickier than it looks -- and Annie Proulx, in her new collection of stories, carries it off without a hitch.

Benjamin Franklin, genius and rake, the first American superstar, proves more than a match for Walter Isaacson in a new biography.

The Russian Debutante's Handbook
By Gary Shteyngart.

New York deserves a more prominent place in America’s creation saga. Two new books will help.

Firehouse
By David Halberstam

Marilynne Robinson’s demanding novel confines characters— and readers—to Christian doctrine.

Steven Watson’s excellent new history of Warhol in the sixties shows him as a highly permissive father in a Manhattan avant-garde sitcom.

Jonathan Safran Foer channels the horror of 9/11 through the eyes of a child.