In Search of Lost Whimsy
In a new coffee-table book, the eccentric Italian artist and designer Gaetano Pesce looks back on his life and career, and reflects on his longtime enemy: coherence
Viva Venini!
A dazzling new coffee-table book offers a survey of the unparalleled lighting designs of Venini, the Italian glass firm that elevated Murano to new heights
Safe Haven
Outside of Washington and Manhattan, John F. Kennedy Jr. had a rich, little-explored life on Cape Cod, his sanctuary from childhood up until his death
Act of Faith
Serving as a pilot in World War I, Hans Christian Adamson was staunchly agnostic. After he survived a plane’s crash landing, a religious medal took on new meaning
Dance with the Devil
The debut novel from Melanie Hamrick, a former ballerina and the partner of Mick Jagger, explores the brutal world of professional dance
Old-School
A new book looks at the persistent inequality at Clinton High School, the first all-white school ordered to de-segregate in the 1950s
Bad Girls’ Book Club
Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert cancels her latest novel because it’s set in Siberia. What’s next? Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky removed from our libraries?
Freedom, According to Azzedine Alaïa and Arthur Elgort
A dazzling new book celebrates the joyful, lively collaboration of a legendary designer and a master photographer
Face Value
Inside South Korea’s booming plastic-surgery district, where hundreds of faces and bodies are tweaked every day
Life in the Fast Lange
The first full-length biography of Jessica Lange reveals how the actress’s bohemian 1960s lifestyle paved the way for her acting career
Murder, They Wrote
This month in mystery books, we recommend reading former F.B.I. director James Comey’s crime-fiction debut, which draws from a lengthy career in and out of the courtroom
A Charmed Life
Poet, human-rights activist, world traveler, wife of the Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist William Styron—a new memoir chronicles the many sides of Rose Styron
The Bard of Berkshire
Best-selling novelist Robert Harris—his books have sold more than 10 million copies—still writes 800 words a day. Just don’t expect any sex scenes