Laura Miller
Books
After the Bad BoyThe wife and daughter Lord Byron left behind spent their entire lives dealing with his fame.
Books
“One Gets Into the Habit of Being Oneself”A new Tana French novel broadens her inquiry into the greatest mystery of all: who we are.
Brow Beat
In Her Memoir, Stormy Daniels Trumps the PresidentThe actress and director offers Full Disclosure about more than their sexual encounters.
Relationships
Among All the Other Problems With Jian Ghomeshi’s NYRB Piece, It’s a Terrible Personal EssayAn exercise in bland soul-searching, misdirection, and hand-waving.
Books
Just Read the Book AlreadyDigital culture doesn’t have to make you a shallow reader. But you have to do something about it.
Books
Errol Morris Refutes It ThusThe filmmaker’s new book continues an argument with the philosopher Thomas Kuhn begun in 1972.
Brow Beat
The Long Shadow of the “Billion-Footed Beast”Tom Wolfe helped ignite an explosion in 21st-century fiction. It just wasn’t his novels that did it.
Books
All Women Are SpiesA menial office worker gets wrapped up in espionage in Kate Atkinson’s new novel.
Books
Can Human Beings Ever Give Up Identity?Gender, creed, country, color, class, and culture. Why do they matter?
Brow Beat
The “Real” McCainDavid Foster Wallace’s essay didn’t reveal the true John McCain. It revealed the limits of the writer’s worldview.
Wide Angle
What Made Altamont Go Bad?A new book explores the deadly concert and the documentary that cemented its infamy.
Books
What Philosophy Can Teach Us About Trump’s America—and What It Can’tMartha Nussbaum’s new book diagnoses our political crisis but fails to offer a practical cure.
Culture Gabfest
The Culture Gabfest “Unkindest Cut of All” EditionSlate’s Culture Gabfest on Hereditary, The Staircase, and Lend Me Your Ears.
Wide Angle
The Mystery of CaliphateThe New York Times podcast focuses on a charismatic detective—but what case is she solving?
Books
The Trip of a LifetimeMichael Pollan explores what LSD and other psychedelics can do for the no longer young.
Books
Ginned UpLeslie Jamison’s 500-page exploration of recovery gets trapped in the thin tropes of the addiction memoir.
Downtime
Ready Critic OneIn real life, I’m a middle-aged writer living in an apartment crammed with books. In my gaming life, I’m allowed to be someone else.