Spring Breakers
A new book of photographs evokes the sun-and-booze-soaked days of British holidayers in southern Spain during the 60s and beyond
All That Is Solid Melts into Theory
How did a once obscure academic notion called “gender identity” triumph over material reality? Credit—or blame—Judith Butler
A Touch of Smut
Wayne Koestenbaum has been writing seriously salacious poetry for decades. A new collection about New York and its denizens gets down and dirty
Reaching for the Starman
How a stylist went from cutting David Bowie’s mother’s hair to joining the rockstar’s rollicking Ziggy Stardust tour
Murder, They Wrote
Revenge—served hot, cold, and everywhere in between—dominates this month’s new mystery books
A Mission from God
How an epic friendship born out of quaaludes, comedy, and a shared love of R&B paved the way for The Blues Brothers
Plot Twist
Six years after his blockbuster debut thriller—and a scandal about his credibility—A. J. Finn publishes his much-anticipated follow-up novel
The Beginning of Everything
Polo, parties, and the American Dream … how my grandfather inspired Fitzgerald’s Gatsby
Hitting the Ceiling
While Michelangelo’s St. Peter’s Basilica is remembered as a Renaissance masterpiece, the drama around the construction nearly stopped the project
Sister Act
How the McLaughlin twins broke the glass ceiling of the male-dominated photography industry during the golden age of magazines
(Mid-)20th-Century Women
Ruth Orkin’s postwar photographs, collected in a new book, offer a snapshot of the modern woman navigating life in the big city
Liar’s Poker, London–Style
How I went from the mean streets of East London to becoming the most profitable trader in the world
Drumming Up Sympathy
A new biography of rock legend Jim Gordon reveals how the music scene ignored his mental health struggles, then abandoned him when he snapped
Romantasy Addicts
It’s unadulterated escapism. It’s junk food for the mind. Suddenly, sales of fiction classed as both fantasy and romance are booming