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      Fill in the Blank: Which U.S. Cities Are in These Book Titles?

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      A strong sense of place can deeply influence a story, and in some cases, the setting can even feel like a character itself. This week’s literary geography quiz highlights fictional works with the names of real U.S. cities in their titles. To play, just make your selection in the multiple-choice list and the correct answer will be revealed. Links to the books will be listed at the end of the quiz if you’d like to do further reading. More

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      2 Books for Cluttered Minds

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      A spare elegy; a weird journey.Joel Saget/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesDear readers,I moved apartments recently, a task that made me sorely wish I had added even the breeziest treatise on D.I.Y. organizing to my reading list. How had the “life-changing magic” of decluttering so thoroughly passed me by?Perhaps one of those neat, cheerful manifestoes from Scandinavia or Japan could have taught me something about writing more tidily, too. In that arena, alas, as in home decor, minimalism is generally not my bag. Give me a lily and I will gild it; sing me a song of semicolons and fat, flamboyant sentences that wrap around corners like overgrown houseplants. Let my windy paragraphs, like my kitchen-drawer hoard of expired Covid tests and obsolete technologies (hello again, sweet BlackBerry), run free!In the cold light of a moving truck I eventually found some fortitude, consigning piles of personal flotsam and unread periodicals to the curb. Still, all actual houseplants survived the purge, and so did the works of two authors whose prose style evokes its own whiff of Swedish Death Cleaning: direct, purposeful, shorn of sentiment and curlicues. I like to think they both have gorgeous living rooms.—Leah“A Woman’s Story,” by Annie ErnauxNonfiction, 1988We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Book Club: Read ‘The Safekeep,’ by Yael van der Wouden, With the Book Review

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      In May, the Book Review Book Club will read and discuss “The Safekeep,” Yael van der Wouden’s novel about a woman wrapped up in a historical drama and a forbidden romance.Welcome to the Book Review Book Club! Every month, we select a book to discuss with our readers. Last month, we read “Playworld,” by Adam Ross. (You can also go back and listen to our episodes on “We Do Not Part,” “Orbital,” and “Our Evenings.”)Whenever I mention that I work in books, the next question I invariably get is: “Do you have a good book recommendation?” It’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer effectively on the spot. Tastes vary. The genres, tones and moods that I love may not be what someone else finds compelling. The trick becomes suggesting something that is excellent, that the inquirer likely hasn’t already read and that will appeal no matter what kind of reader I’m talking to.For the past few months, when faced with this query, I have had one go-to answer: “The Safekeep,” by Yael van der Wouden.A debut novel that was shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, “The Safekeep” is many things at once — a historical tale (sure, it’s set only 60 years ago, but it’s grappling with the baggage of a discreet, postwar era), a psychological thriller, a forbidden romance. It opens in the Netherlands in 1961. Isabel is a joyless loner who spends most of her time hiding in her deceased mother’s old country house. One night she goes out to dinner with her brothers, Hendrik and Louis. Surprisingly, Louis brings along a new girlfriend, Eva, and Isabel immediately senses something is amiss. On the surface Eva is silly and brash, but Isabel can detect that under Eva’s ditsy facade lurks a sharper, more dangerous disposition.When Louis has leaves for a work trip, he sends Eva to stay at the country house, much to Isabel’s chagrin. But Isabel doesn’t have a say; technically, the house was promised to Louis and he can do with it as he pleases. Forced together, Isabel and Eva form a charged and ever-evolving relationship that threatens to upend everything that Isabel thought she knew.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Overlooked Clue Sheds Light on Shakespeare’s Marriage

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      New research undermines the traditional view that Shakespeare was a distant, neglectful husband to his wife, Anne.Any clue about William Shakespeare’s life usually excites scholars, but one piece of evidence had been neglected for decades. Now, a new analysis of that overlooked document seems to shatter a longstanding narrative about the Bard’s bad marriage.Shakespeare was 18 in 1582 when he married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a family friend in Stratford-upon-Avon who was in her mid-20s and pregnant. For centuries, it was thought that the writer left his wife and children behind to lead a literary life in London, seeking to avoid “the humiliation of domestic feuds,” as one influential 19th-century essayist put it.This view of Shakespeare’s wife as a “distant encumbrance” suited scholars who thought “Shakespeare was far too interesting to be a married guy,” Matthew Steggle, a literature professor at the University of Bristol in England, said in an interview. The perception was bolstered by the fact that Shakespeare had famously bequeathed her his “second best bed” in his will.But Mr. Steggle’s new research, expected to be published this week in the journal Shakespeare, suggests that the writer was not detached from his marriage after all.The hint lies in a fragment of a 17th-century letter addressing a “Mrs Shakspaire,” found in the binding of a book published in 1608. The letter’s existence was noted in 1978 by an amateur historian, but it got minimal attention, even after the book was unbound in 2016, revealing what appeared to be part of a reply from Shakespeare’s wife, Mr. Steggle said.He was working on a Shakespeare biography when he learned of the 1978 find, and was surprised it wasn’t better known. Technological advances allowed him to track down people mentioned in the long-ago correspondence, along with other evidence indicating that it included the playwright’s wife, he said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      6 Books to Help You Deal With Difficult People

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      These six books can help ease tensions.Earlier in my career, I worked for a hot-tempered woman who, according to an office rumor, had thrown a shoe at one of my predecessors. Rattled by her blowups, I tiptoed and stammered around her, fearing the day when she’d wing a pump at me.Then a friend passed along “Coping With Difficult Bosses” by Robert M. Bramson, which was published in 1992. The book’s solid, seen-it-all advice helped me stop perseverating and find my spine. I learned from Dr. Bramson to stand tall when my boss exploded, to call her by her name (to humanize the relationship) and, if I couldn’t quite look her in the eye, to focus on her forehead — close enough that she couldn’t tell the difference.If you’re struggling with a difficult colleague, family member or friend, books can validate your experience and teach you helpful communication skills, said William Doherty, a professor emeritus of family social science at the University of Minnesota and a co-founder of Braver Angels, a nonpartisan nonprofit that facilitates conversations between people with differing political views.But, he added, be wary of books that give you “one large global theory” about whatever is wrong with the other person. Most relationship problems are caused by both parties, at least to some degree, he said, so books that encourage you to consider your part are generally more helpful.We asked therapists, psychologists and other workplace experts to recommend books that can help you get along with difficult people — or at least disagree with them more constructively. Here are six titles that rose to the top of the list.Simon & SchusterWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More