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    NONFICTION: Lynne Olson's ninth book of history profiles a fiery Egyptologist who led an international campaign. "Empress of the Nile" by Lynne Olson; Random House (406 pages, $32) ——— As "Empress of the Nile" begins, Christiane Desroches is pulled from a train in 1940 by a Nazi SS officer, who didn't believe this 27-year-old could possibly be the Louvre's acting curator of Egyptian ...

      The Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr. lives just outside Justice. This has been true his whole life. In the geographic sense, he has lived in Summit, Illinois (or the subdivision of Argo, annexed long ago into Summit), for most of his 83 years. Summit ambles alongside the Des Plaines River, a bit north of the village of Justice. In a more poetic sense, though, Parker has also lived outside justice since ...

        Don't Miss "We Should Not Be Friends" by Will Schwalbe; Alfred A. Knopf (314 pages, $29) ——— In his new memoir, Will Schwalbe, author of "The End of Your Life Book Club," writes about his 30-year friendship with a guy named Chris Maxey. (Don't worry — neither of them is dying, or dead. It's not that kind of memoir.) The two met at Yale, thrown together through a secret organization that ...

          The Plot Thickens Announced earlier this winter, the Edgars — named, natch, for Edgar Allan Poe — are presented annually by the Mystery Writers of America and are now in their 77th year. For those who love crime fiction (and nonfiction), the Edgars are a great way to discover new authors or get reacquainted with old ones. Among this year's nominees were several books I enjoyed last year: Nita ...

            FICTION: A Jewish grandmother revisits her youth among Hollywood émigrés — including an interlude with Greta Garbo — during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Künstlers in Paradise" by Cathleen Schine; Holt (272 pages, $27.99) ——— Time is a funny thing. The year 2020 — those months of confinement, fear, frustration and isolation — feels as if it happened ages ago and simultaneously as ...

              ATLANTA — Jamar Perry sold thousands of copies of his first children’s book, “Cameron Battle and the Hidden Kingdoms.” So when Perry launched a nationwide tour to promote the latest installment in the Cameron Battle series, the Decatur, Georgia, bookstore Little Shop of Stories eagerly invited him to be part of a two-author panel discussion. The invitation was a bit unusual for Perry, who ...

                When I contact Mona Simpson about setting up an interview timed to the publication of her new novel, "Commitment," she replies in what can only be described as an extraordinary way. She suggests we meet in Glendale, not far from where I live and very far from her Westside home. Simpson, whose 1986 debut novel, "Anywhere but Here," launched both a notable career and a refreshingly clear-eyed ...

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