In China, Xi Embraces Mao’s Radical Legacy

Book Reviews

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  Geek-Friendly Books to Read This Spring

  Curious how to camp comfortably, calculate improbable coincidences or commandeer a drone? Check out these reviews of “A Woman’s Guide to the Wild,” ‘‘Fluke: The Math & Myth of Coincidence” and “The Drone Pilot’s Handbook.”

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  The Season’s Most Exciting Fiction Reads

  Several new releases by up-and-coming authors are vying for top billing on summer reading lists (including two that earned their first-time authors a hefty advance). With such quality offerings, fiction fans can bank on a season of exceptional reading.

• What to Read This Spring

  Batman vs. the Batfans; being a Vanderbilt; behind the scenes at ‘Hamilton;’ a missing Velázquez and much more

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  Left at the Mercy of the Mullahs

  Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent, should have become a cause célèbre after he was seized in Iran in 2007. Washington did next to nothing. Reuel Marc Gerecht reviews “Missing Man: The American Spy Who Vanished in Iran” by Barry Meier.

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  The Original Instagram

  Purists grumbled that Polaroids were ephemeral, but Ansel Adams created some of his most enduring photographs using the camera. Patrick Cooke reviews “The Camera Does the Rest: How Polaroid Changed Photography” by Peter Buse.

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  Two Suns Rising in the East

  China’s stunning growth has bolstered the belief that autocracy beats democracy. More likely than democracy, the author says, is revolution. Mark Moyar reviews “This Brave New World: India, China, and the United States” by Anja Manuel.

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  Fighting Archie Moore, Pitching to Willie Mays and Quarterbacking the Lions

  Wearing number 00, George Plimpton stopped six out of seven Flyers shots
  for the Boston Bruins. Edward Kosner reviews reissues of “Paper Lion” and six other books.

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  America’s Savior and Its Judas

  George Washington and Benedict Arnold shared many bonds and admired each other. Stephen Brumwell reviews “Valiant Ambition” by Nathaniel Philbrick.

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  The Savage War in the West

  The Apache armies did not go gently. They went down in an exceptional spasm of violence.

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  Siddhartha Mukherjee’s Biography of the Gene

  No sooner was a new gene-editing technique devised than scientists themselves called for a moratorium. Nicholas Wade reviews “The Gene” by Siddhartha Mukherjee.

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  The Stories We Tell About the Universe

  The author doesn’t believe in God, but presumably believes in a parallel universe in which he does. Andrew Crumey reviews “The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself” by Sean Carroll.

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  The First Battle for the Airwaves

  As head of RCA, Sarnoff championed radio, color television and satellites—and helped create NBC. Howard Schneider reviews “The Network” by Scott Woolley.

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  Tom Nolan on the Best New Mysteries

  After meeting a powerful gangster in prison, a man is given a penthouse and cash—and an assignment.

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  Sam Sacks on the Best New Fiction

  Childbirth is the most ubiquitous of human dramas. Why is it so rarely depicted in fiction?

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  Proof You Can Touch a Baby Bird

  In “Baby Birds,” Julie Zickefoose, like Leonardo in his notebooks, uses art as an instrument of scientific inquiry and science as an occasion for art. In “One Wild Bird at a Time,” Bernd Heinrich, one of the country’s most distinguished writer-naturalists, examines the lives of 17 birds.

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  When Fossil-Finding Was a Contact Sport

  The discovery of a toothed bird made news in the 1870s. A century later, so did feathered dinosaurs. Jennie Erin Smith reviews “House of Lost Worlds: Dinosaurs, Dynasties, and the Story of Life on Earth” by Richard Conniff.

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  The Most Famous Slave in History

  Spartacus’s life before he was enslaved is a mystery. He may even have been a Thracian tribal chief. Allan Massie reviews “The Risen” by David Anthony Durham.

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  Five Best: Kevin Rennie

  Kevin Rennie on political conventions

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  Meghan Cox Gurdon on the Best New Children’s Books

  Witches and wolves enjoy a candlelit supper, change into pajamas and brush their fangs.

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  Washington Experts Are Hopelessly in the Tank

  Have think tanks ignored the public good by adhering to ‘tribal’ loyalties rather than providing disinterested recommendations? Leslie Lenkowsky reviews “Right Moves” by Jason Stahl.

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  Mark Twain at Sea

  Desperate to pay off his debts, the writer spent 1895-96 on a round-the-world performance tour, performing 122 shows in 71 different cities. Ben Downing reviews “Chasing the Last Laugh” by Richard Zacks.

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  The Dissident’s Best Friend

  The publisher’s moral and practical support was exceptional and profoundly encouraging to those of us trapped behind the Iron Curtain. Natan Sharansky reviews “Speaking Freely” by Robert L. Bernstein.

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  Elitists for Revolution

  Franklin Roosevelt led America through depression and war. And weren’t the Founding Fathers limousine liberals avant la lettre? Daniel Akst reviews “The Limousine Liberal” by Steve Fraser.

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  ‘Waiting for Bojangles’: Great Expectations for a Novelist’s Debut

  French novelist Olivier Bourdeaut went from “complete failure” to celebrated author with “Waiting for Bojangles.”

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  Do We Need Less Democracy?

  A judge’s duty, argues the author, isn’t simply to defer to the legislature. He must inquire into whether the particular legislation is necessary. Adam J. White reviews “Our Republican Constitution” by Randy E. Barnett.

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  Did Allied Intelligence Have Any Effect on the War?

  Most World War II spies learned little of import—and those who did were invariably disbelieved. Stephen Budiansky reviews “The Secret War: Spies, Ciphers, and Guerrillas, 1939-1945” by Max Hastings.

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  Museums Shouldn’t Return Their Plundered Treasures

  In our age of contrition chic, returning artifacts is considered a necessary part of atonement. Henrik Bering reviews “Keeping Their Marbles” by Tiffany Jenkins.

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  The Hilltop Where 21st-Century Warfare Was Born

  A forgotten war in Lebanon anticipated America’s battles in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bret Stephens reviews “Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story” by Matti Friedman.

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  Julian Barnes Gets in Shostakovich’s Head

  If music was a source of anguish for Shostakovich, surely it was also a source of pleasure and joy. Christopher Carroll reviews “The Noise of Time,” a novel by Julian Barnes.

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  Sam Sacks on the Best New Fiction

  There’s not a boring page in Jennifer Haigh’s “Heat and Light”—a fittingly chaotic chronicle of our 21st-century oil rush.

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  Richard Russo Returns to North Bath

  The sequel to a beloved novel brings the return of favorite characters, but also inevitable repetitions. Mark Kamine “Everybody’s Fool” by Richard Russo.

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  Tom Nolan on the Best New Mysteries

  Tom Nolan reviews “Wilde Lake” by Laura Lippman.

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  The Original American Barbecue

  A native Louisianan sees the light in the form of vinegar-doused whole-hog Carolina barbecue. Terry Eastland reviews “The One True Barbecue: Fire, Smoke, and the Pitmasters Who Cook the Whole Hog” by Rien Fertel.

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  Barbra Streisand’s Favorite Person

  That voice was effortless, and she knew it could make her a star. But acting she was forced to work at. Rachel Shukert reviews “Barbra Streisand: Redefining Beauty, Femininity, and Power” by Neal Gabler.

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  John Coltrane and Black Holes

  Science benefits from the same kind of leaps of intuition that a sax player makes when soloing. Peter Pesic reviews “The Jazz of Physics” by Stephon Alexander.

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  Meghan Cox Gurdon on the Best New Children’s Books

  Meghan Cox Gurdon reviews “Megalopolis and the Visitor From Outer Space” by Clea Dieudonne; “Thunder Boy Jr.” by Sherman Alexie; “The Bell in the Bridge” by Barry Root; “The Airport Book” by Lisa Brown; and “The Thank You Book” by Mo Willems.

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  Five Best: John Colapinto

  The author, most recently, of “Undone: A Novel” on books about deceit.

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  When America Ran on Empty

  Farmers, wildcatters, truck drivers, pipeline operators and oil companies all prospered by using energy policy to their advantage. Marc Levinson reviews “Panic at the Pump” by Meg Jacobs.

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  The Cop on the Global Beat

  It’s true: Iraq wasn’t transformed into Denmark. But it’s also not true, as the author argues, that Bush achieved none of his goals there. Douglas J. Feith reviews “Mission Failure: America and the World in the Post-Cold War Era” by Michael Mandelbaum.

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  The Virtue of Hard Things

  A study of Ivy League undergraduates showed that the smarter the students were, as measured by SAT scores, the less they persevered. Emily Esfahani Smith reviews “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance” by Angela Duckworth.

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  The Scars of Mao’s Cultural Revolution

  His campaign for control killed millions and impoverished China. Peter Neville-Hadley reviews “The Cultural Revolution” by Frank Dikötter.

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  America Needs a Prime Minister

  Government is broken, and changing the type of people elected to Congress won’t make a difference. Amending the Constitution will. Thomas J. Main reviews “Relic” by William G. Howell and Terry M. Moe.