New & Noteworthy
What to read this month
Book Review
"Our Saint, Our Umpire"
An appreciation of Mary McCarthy, whose literary and political writing is well represented in a new anthology
Political Animals
A new book asks all the right questions about animal rights, even if it doesn't canvass all the possible answers
A Seventeenth-century Modern
Samuel Pepys did not, in fact, tell us everything
New & Noteworthy
The best bets in a crowded autumn field
Tragedy in Ireland
William Trevor's thirteenth novel tells perhaps his saddest story yet
The Misfortune of Poetry
Byron's dramatic life has become indissoluble from his work
The Mother Load
Many of today's working mothers have upper-middle class lifestyles but middle-class aspirations
New & Noteworthy
A cautionary classic; the subject of motherhood made new and fine; Ambrose Bierce's Civil War
Home Alone
It's all too easy to deride Martha Stewart, but the attacks on her often point up how much there is to admire