Entertainment
6 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
Longtime readers of The New York Times may recognize the name Margalit Fox from the byline of some of our most memorable obituaries. But Fox (who worked at the Book Review before she started reporting on dead people, and who retired from The Times in 2018) has also written five books, on topics ranging from linguistics to true crime; her latest, “The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum,” explains how a 19th-century Jewish immigrant worked her way up from street peddler to mastermind of a vast criminal enterprise that made her one of America’s first mob bosses. That’s one of our recommended books this week. Maybe read it with Dan Slater’s “The Incorruptibles,” which takes the story of Jewish organized crime in New York into the 20th century?
Also up: a surprisingly fascinating look at the science of keeping things cold, and new novels from Lev Grossman, Claire Lombardo and Liz Moore. Happy reading. — Gregory Cowles
FROSTBITE:
How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves
Nicola Twilley
In this absorbing exploration of the vast network of refrigerated trucks, rail cars and shipping containers that bring us bananas and avocados all year round, Twilley illuminates the impact on our food as well as the colorful characters who keep the system going.
Credit…“Engrossing. … Combines lucid history, science and a thoughtful consideration of how daily life today is both dependent on and deformed by this matrix of artificial cold.”
From Sallie Tisdale’s review
Penguin Press | $30
THE BRIGHT SWORD:
A Novel of King Arthur
Lev Grossman
Grossman’s latest is a winning dive into the world of King Arthur. The novel follows a knight who dreams of joining the Round Table, but when he arrives, the king is dead. Disappointed but not defeated, he embarks on a quest with the remaining knights to figure out the future of Camelot.
