Alexandra Jacobs

New York

Book Critic at The New York Times

Book critic at The New York Times; author of STILL HERE: The Madcap, Nervy, Singular Life of Elaine Stritch.

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Articles

They Were Identical ‘Twinnies’ Who Charmed Orwell, Camus and More

1 week ago | flipboard.com | Alexandra Jacobs

9 hours agoThe bestselling novelist Robert Harris says a conclave to select a new Pope has a similar dynamic to hit TV show The Traitors. The author of Conclave, which was last year turned into an Oscar-winning film adaptation, said the programme - in which "faithful" contestants are tasked with trying to work …
A Story of Family and Power in Hollywood,' by Matthew Specktor

2 weeks ago | nytimes.com | Alexandra Jacobs

In the unsentimental memoir "The Golden Hour," Matthew Specktor ponders, among others, the father who succeeded in a punishing business now in its waning glory. THE GOLDEN HOUR: A Story of Family and Power in Hollywood, by Matthew SpecktorThe French have l'heure bleue, that introspective, melancholy period of twilight invoked across multiple genres of literature. Hollywood prefers the golden hour, after which Matthew Specktor has titled his rich, atmospheric second memoir.
Peeking Into Joan Didion’s Years of Psychological Thinking

3 weeks ago | flipboard.com | Alexandra Jacobs

5 hours agoHere Are the 15 Books You Should Read in AprilApril showers bring new books that will make staying indoors a bit more appealing. This month’s most anticipated releases include The Wedding Date author Jasmine Guillory’s first foray into sapphic romance, the latest self-help book from celebrity psychic and healer Laura Day, and Kate Folk’s …4 days agoWould Joan Didion Have Wanted the World to See Her Notes on Therapy?
'Thrilled to Death,' by Lynne Tillman

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Alexandra Jacobs |Lynne Tillman

"Thrilled to Death" collects many of Lynne Tillman's spiky short stories, where dreams tell the truth and glamour mingles with the mundane. When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. THRILLED TO DEATH: Selected Stories, by Lynne TillmanLynne Tillman is an emissary from a vanishing literary culture that you want to describe as "downtown," regardless of where she actually lives.
Yoko Ono, Demonized No Longer

1 month ago | flipboard.com | Alexandra Jacobs

Paul McCartney makes shocking confession about The Beatles in secretly recorded chatWhen Paul McCartney and John Lennon met as teenagers, John assumed the leadership role in what would eventually become The Beatles. However, following …
A Paper Where the News Really Is Fake, and That’s the Point

1 month ago | flipboard.com | Alexandra Jacobs

Agencies thats have criticized the ruling BJP party have been targetedMerely a few months after the Constitution of India came into effect in 1949, …
How the 2000s Became Everything,' by Colette Shade

Jan 19, 2025 | nytimes.com | Alexandra Jacobs

Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything (Essays on the Future That Never Was), by Colette ShadeNow that cultural and political analysts have thoroughly dry-pulped the 1990s, it is time to consider more recent history. Y2K was the quaint-seeming, almost biblical fear that computer systems would be scrambled by the switch over from the 20th century to the 21st, causing planes to fall from the sky and banks to fail.
The Power of Perle Mesta, Washington's Most Famous Hostess,' by Meryl Gordon

Jan 11, 2025 | nytimes.com | Alexandra Jacobs

THE WOMAN WHO KNEW EVERYONE: The Power of Perle Mesta, Washington's Most Famous Hostess, by Meryl GordonThe iPhone can feel like a Oujia board. I typed "Perle Mesta" into a text message and the words were immediately rendered in ALL CAPS. Spooked, I tried again with a few other weirdly spelled proper names, but only hers produced this assertive autocorrect. Somewhere the spirit of Mesta, who died in 1975 at 92 (nine years older than what was widely reported), is chortling.
'Playworld,' by Adam Ross

Jan 4, 2025 | nytimes.com | Alexandra Jacobs

Aspiring to be a comic-book artist, Griffin escapes into an elaborate Dungeons & Dragons campaign, mapping a mythical Griffynweld that resembles his city and its environs, and fantasizes about having a girlfriend his own age, though with Naomi's auntish capacity to listen. It's not the play that's the thing in "Playworld" - a gorgeous cat's cradle of a book that sometimes unravels into shaggy-dog stories - but the lines, in every sense of the word.
The Year in Books

Dec 31, 2024 | nytimes.com | Melissa Kirsch |Gilbert Cruz |MJ Franklin |Jennifer Szalai |A.O. Scott |Sarah Lyall | +10 more