THE ART SPY: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland, by Michelle Young In 1980, while living in Belgium, the historian Lynn H. Nicholas read an obituary in The International Herald Tribune of the art curator Rose Valland, a French Army captain who had received the Legion D’Honneur for recovering more than … Read more
This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times. Flickering among the major figures of postwar art — the Minimalist sculptor Dan Flavin, the avant-garde artist Pierre Alechinsky, the abstract painter Sam Francis and others — is the radiant shadow of … Read more
The Rev. David Tracy, a leading liberal Catholic theologian who open-sourced his understanding of God, borrowing from Jews, Buddhists and great works of art and literature, and who rejected Rome as the sole authority on how to be a good Christian, died on April 29 in Chicago. He was 86. His death, in a hospital, … Read more
In some ways, Li’s memoir is a radical rebuke of the conventions surrounding grieving. Early on, she warns those who expect a narrative of healing or solace to stop reading: This is not a story about overcoming loss or moving on. “I don’t ever want to be free from the pain of missing my children,” … Read more
MALCOLM LIVES! The Official Biography of Malcolm X for Young Readers, by Ibram X. Kendi In my suburban, largely Black high school in 1980s New Jersey, we sang “Life Every Voice and Sing” at assemblies. We decorated the walls with wheat sheafs during Kwanzaa. And what seemed like every year, we read “The Autobiography of … Read more
WHO KNEW, by Barry Diller The yachterati’s worst-kept secret is now billowing in the wind. Barry Diller is gay, and yet also married — like, really married — to Diane von Furstenberg, a woman. After the carefully meted-out release of this news, is there still value in paying $30 for Diller’s memoir, “Who Knew”? I … Read more
APPLE IN CHINA: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company, by Patrick McGee A little more than a decade ago, foreign journalists living in Beijing, including myself, met for a long chat with a top Chinese diplomat. Those were different days, when high-ranking Chinese officials were still meeting with members of the Western press corps. … Read more
Our recommended books this week tilt heavily toward investigations and exposés — they include a study of the wellness industry, an account of Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, a skeptical history of capitalism and a look at Russia’s private armies. But we also make room for an amiable road trip novel (Kevin Wilson’s “Run for the … Read more
No two days are the same for Benoît Gallot, whose title since 2018 has been “curator” at the storied Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, the resting place of choice for the great and good of France and those who love them. He might manage a team meeting, negotiate the sale of a family plot, supervise a … Read more
CAPITALISM AND ITS CRITICS: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI, by John Cassidy Given how reliably Americans tend to favor promises of plenty, it has been curious to see a president inherit a humming economy and then proceed to gut the federal work force, start a chaotic trade war and celebrate the scarcity … Read more
