COLUMNS
Fighting Words
MEGAN K. STACK ON THE BATTLES OF A LEGENDARY REPORTER
Built to Last
ALEX ABRAMOVICH ON JOHN MCPHEE’S WAYS OF SEEING
MELANIE REHAK on BALZAC’S PAEAN TO COFFEE AND OTHER DELICIOUS VICES.
HELENA FITZGERALD: An interview with Heather Havrilesky
HOWARD HAMPTON on John Waters
BOOKFORUM CONTRIBUTORS on the season’s outstanding art books
SARAH WEINMAN on Tana French and the state of domestic suspense
LYNNE TILLMAN on why writers are drawn to tennis
THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
BECCA ROTHFELD: Uwe Johnson’s Anniversaries: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl
JENNIFER KRASINSKI: Olivia Laing’s Crudo
PAUL GRIMSTAD: Haruki Murakami’s Killing Commendatore
JOANNE O’LEARY: Lucia Berlin’s Welcome Home: A Memoir with Selected Photographs and Letters
LAUREN OYLER on Virginie Despentes
MAGGIE FOUCAULT: Leta Hong Fincher’s Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China
TOM CARSON: Tracy Daugherty’s Leaving the Gay Place: Billy Lee Brammer and the Great Society
ALBERT MOBILIO: Henry Taylor: The Only Portrait I Ever Painted of My Momma Was Stolen
SIDDHARTHA MITTER: Between Worlds: The Art of Bill Traylor
ED PARK: Hilary Spurling’s Anthony Powell: Dancing to the Music of Time
MELISSA ANDERSON: Lili Anolik’s Hollywood’s Eve: Eve Babitz and the Secret History of L.A.
MICHAEL ROBBINS: Elaine Pagels’s Why Religion? A Personal Story
ISMAIL MUHAMMAD: Casey Gerald’s There Will Be No Miracles Here
JESSE BARRON: Heike Geissler’s Seasonal Associate
BRIAN BLANCHFIELD: Kiese Laymon’s Heavy: An American Memoir
CHARLOTTE SHANE: Gemma Hartley’s Fed Up: Emotional Labor, Women, and the Way Forward
GREG AFINOGENOV: Tony Wood’s Russia Without Putin: Money, Power and the Myths of the New Cold War
FRANK GUAN: Francis Fukuyama’s Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment
GENE SEYMOUR: Arnold A. Offner’s Hubert Humphrey: The Conscience of the Country and Mick Caouette’s Hubert H. Humphrey: The Art of the Possible