Garth Greenwell's new story collection, "Cleanness," includes a raw account of an internet-initiated S&M hookup so minutely observed that readers seeking porn only will avert their eyes.
There's so much to appreciate in Tash Aw's new novel "We, the Survivors" that a deep plunge into its contents might overlook how remarkable the writing is.
"The Letters of Cole Porter" weighs in at over 650 pages with notes, but it's really meant to be read in toto only by scholars and Porter completists, so the general reader can feel okay about selective skipping.
A follow-up to Carly Simon's acclaimed 2015 memoir "Boys in the Trees," "Touched by the Sun: My Friendship with Jackie" (FSG) is an intimate, affectionate portrait of the singer-songwriter's comradeship with "Jackie" Bouvier Kennedy Onassis.
"We became inseparable," Robyn Crawford candidly admits in "A Song for You: My Life with Whitney Houston," even while her churlish mother Cissy, the most evil presence in the entire book, disapproved.
Each year it seems one faces greater challenges in finding the right thing for those on holiday gift lists. Books are a splendid solution to that dilemma. Superb choices abound.
Julie Andrews' "Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years" begins with her arrival in Hollywood in 1963 to make her screen debut in Disney's "Mary Poppins."
