Jim Kelly

1 week ago | airmail.news | Jim Kelly

This week, don’t miss a mountain climber’s account of sailing from Maine to Alaska, an examination of the air we breathe, and a look back at J.F.K. and Nikita Khrushchev’s Cold War–era diplomacy Into the Ice: The Northwest Passage, the Polar Sun, and a 175-Year-Old Mystery by Mark Synnott What an adventure this book is! There are those who love danger—the more extreme the better—and those whose idea of peril is taking the subway instead of an Uber.

2 weeks ago | airmail.news | Jim Kelly

This week, don’t miss a history of Russian espionage, a window into the world of snakes, and a curated guide to the best of international cinema The Illegals: Russia’s Most Audacious Spies and Their Century-Long Mission to Infiltrate the West by Shaun Walker No matter how many true espionage tales you have read, you will be captivated by Shaun Walker’s crackerjack The Illegals, which focuses on how Russia for decades has dispatched its citizens abroad as deep-cover spies, posing as others...

2 weeks ago | airmail.news | Jim Kelly

READ The Fricks Collect The Frick Collection is one of New York’s gems, now more than ever, as it prepares to reopen its Fifth Avenue mansion after an extensive and acclaimed renovation. The story of how Henry Clay Frick and his daughter accumulated such European treasures is compellingly told in The Fricks Collect, a handsome volume with a foreword written by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes.

3 weeks ago | airmail.news | Jim Kelly |Clay Risen |Binnie Kirshenbaum |Jerry Brotton

Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America by Clay Risen Given today’s headlines, are you feeling nostalgic for a previous time, say, the 1950s, a period that for many too young to have lived through it may think the TV sitcom Happy Days captured the decade?

3 weeks ago | airmail.news | Jim Kelly

How does one interview their boss and friend of 47 years? Very carefully, unless your boss is Graydon Carter, whose gift for irreverence and self-deprecation is almost as legendary as his hair. His new memoir, When the Going Was Good (written with guidance from the wonderful James Fox), chronicles his life so far, which includes stints as co-creator of Spy magazine and, for a quarter of a century, as editor of Vanity Fair.