123movies: Books Update: Requiem for a Dream

July 30, 2021

The amphitheater and giant sphere at Auroville.Nadia Loury

Dear Reader,

If you know anything about utopian societies, you know that things aren't always as rosy as they appear: Every Eden has its snake. We won't reveal the secrets within Akash Kapur's new book, "Better to Have Gone: Love, Death, and the Quest for Utopia in Auroville," but we will beckon you inside with Amy Waldman's cover review, which leaves some surprises for readers of Kapur's book to discover on their own.

Let's stay, for a moment, with the darker side of the bookshelf: We have a lineup of new thrillers reviewed by Sarah Lyall. We have the collected "Letters of Shirley Jackson," reviewed by Laura Miller. And Violet Kupersmith weaves a tale of ghosts and revenge in "Build Your House Around My Body."

Looking for light? Try "Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization" (a mixed bag, true). Or Jonathan Kozol's tribute to the late Eric Carle, whose hungry caterpillars, busy spiders, noisy crickets and moon-seeking children will live on in his wondrous books.

Please stay in touch and let us know what you think — whether it's about this newsletter, our reviews, our podcast, our literary calendar, our Instagram or what you're reading. We read and ponder all of it. I even write back, albeit belatedly. You can email me at books@nytimes.com.

Pamela Paul

Editor of The New York Times Book Review

@PamelaPaulNYT

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THE BOOK REVIEW PODCAST

Echoes of a Fairy Tale in a Devastating Novel

Omar El Akkad talks about "What Strange Paradise," and Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang talk about Facebook and "An Ugly Truth."

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NONFICTION

nonfiction

The Promise and Tragedy of a Utopian Community, as Seen by One of Its Own

"Better to Have Gone," by Akash Kapur, recounts the haunting, heartbreaking history of Auroville, an intentional community in southern India where he and his wife were raised.

By Amy Waldman

Nonfiction

The Alternating Identities of Shirley Jackson

A new collection of letters reveals a self divided between author and woman.

By Laura Miller

Nonfiction

A History of Getting Hammered, and Why Some of Us Should Keep Doing It

In "Drunk," Edward Slingerland plays devil's advocate for the pleasure and utility of Dionysian abandon.

By Zoë Lescaze

Nonfiction

Can Geometry Be as Soul-Stirring as Poetry?

In "Shape," Jordan Ellenberg argues for the importance of geometry as the underlying structure of reality.

By Matt Parker

nonfiction

How Jeffrey Epstein Got Away With It

In "Perversion of Justice," Julie K. Brown expands on her explosive 2018 series for The Miami Herald on the notorious financier to explore how he was able to avoid criminal prosecution for sex crimes for so long.

By David Enrich

Nonfiction

The 'Ugly Truth' About Facebook

A new, deeply reported book by the Times reporters Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang recounts the full story of the social media company's foibles.

By Sarah Frier

nonfiction

Pulling Back the Curtain on the Lincolns' Marriage

In "An American Marriage," Michael Burlingame portrays Abraham and Mary as being constantly at each other's throat.

By Amy S. Greenberg

nonfiction

How Ethel Rosenberg Offered Her Own Life as a Sacrifice

Anne Sebba's new biography tells the story of a fanatical Communist and loving mother who went to her death proclaiming her innocence.

By Joseph Dorman

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Nonfiction

A Black Scholar's Path From Drug Dealing to '30 Under 30'

In "Miseducated," Brandon P. Fleming recounts a childhood of abuse, neglect and crime, and how it led him to Harvard.

By Mychal Denzel Smith

Nonfiction

Meet the Pandemic's Newest Doctors, Who Quickly Became Pros

In "Life on the Line," Emma Goldberg takes readers behind the hospital curtains in New York City at the peak of the pandemic.

By Sandeep Jauhar

FICTION

Fiction

'What Strange Paradise' Explores Two Sides of a Migrant Crisis

Omar El Akkad's new novel follows a young refugee who survives a shipwreck and the girl who comes to his aid.

By Wendell Steavenson

Audiobooks

From Lin-Manuel to Pollan to St. Aubyn: Audiobooks for Every Attention Span

Fiction and nonfiction for the busiest, most distracted of listeners.

By Sebastian Modak

Thrillers

Repression, Obsession, Murder

Need a distraction? Three prickly, skin-crawling new thrillers will have you on the edge of your seat.

By Sarah Lyall

Fiction

In Violet Kupersmith's Novel, a Young Woman Disappears in Saigon

The heroine of "Build Your House Around My Body," a half-Vietnamese American in her 20s, languishes abroad.

By Alexis Schaitkin

Fiction

Ha Jin Considers the Cost of Freedom in 'A Song Everlasting'

Jin's new novel follows a Beijing opera singer who flees to the United States after he gets in trouble with the Chinese state.

By Jane Hu

The Shortlist

Debut Novels by Pik-Shuen Fung, Rahul Raina and Alex McElroy

New fiction ranges from a Chinese family divided across continents to the founding of a cult for rehabilitating toxic masculinity.

By Naomi Skwarna

Children's Books

In the anthology "Black Boy Joy," Kwame Mbalia and 16 author friends, including Jason Reynolds, Varian Johnson, Tochi Onyebuchi, Dean Atta and Jerry Craft, celebrate Black boyhood. Pierre-Antoine Louis reviews.
In "Maya and the Robot," by Eve L. Ewing, a shy brainiac finds, fixes and brings to life an artificially intelligent robot named Ralph. Pui-Wing Tam reviews.