Did you catch Joseph Bernstein’s great article in The Times Magazine last month about Benjamin B. Bolger, the man who couldn’t stop going to college? “I love learning,” Bolger told Bernstein by way of explaining his 14 advanced degrees, a quote that led to one of my favorite lines in the profile: “Many of us love learning, too, but we don’t do what Bolger has done; we listen to history podcasts on our commutes or pick our way through long books in the minutes before sleep.”
If you prefer to do your learning through books rather than lecture courses, we have some that might do the trick: Our recommended books this week include new biographies of Harriet Tubman and the poet Thom Gunn, along with a memoir by a longtime federal appellate court judge and a history of folk magic in England. In fiction, we recommend new novels by Rufi Thorpe and Alison Esbach. Happy reading. — Gregory Cowles
Harriet Tubman’s extraordinary life has been recounted in many forms — documentaries and feature films, scholarly biographies, volumes for children. Miles calls her book a “faith biography,” emphasizing Tubman’s spirituality along with her ecological awareness, expressed as a profound attentiveness to the natural world.
Thorpe’s artful and enormously entertaining fourth book follows a young mother who drops out of college to take care of her fatherless child, struggling to make ends meet until the arrival of her historically absent, ex-wrestler father and a promising career on OnlyFans.
William Morrow | $28
A woman who has recently left her husband in St. Louis to, shall we say, sort some things out seeks refuge at an inn in Rhode Island, only to find herself consumed by a stranger’s wedding festivities in Espach’s witty, warm novel.
Holt | $28.99
There are two basic types of poetic biography: the critical study with biographical elements and the complete life for scholarly posterity. Nott’s is the latter, with an emphasis on “complete.” After reading it, you’ll see that however many roles Gunn inhabited — precocious poet, conscientious teacher, accomplished barfly — this prize-bedecked iconoclast was always and utterly the real thing.
Farrar, Straus & Giroux | $45
Despite an eventual government crackdown on the dark arts, between the 14th and 17th centuries folk magic stayed very much alive across England, according to this rich and lively account. Everyone from courtiers to peasants secretly consulted diviners, astrologers, charm makers and healers. How effective were they? It’s impossible to know, but fun to speculate.
Bloomsbury | $29.99
With modesty and wit, this winning memoir recounts the remarkable career of a civil rights lawyer who succeeded Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit — the nation’s second most powerful court — all while battling a disease that left him blind. His book is at once a meditation on his vision of equality under the law and a memorial for it.
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