Book Reviews

Nazi Purge Sent Big Brains to U.S., Drove Science: Lewis Lapham Adolf Hitler came to power in January, 1933, and by spring, he had enacted a law called “The Restoration of the Professional Civil Service” to purge Jews from university jobs. By the end of October, Albert Einstein arrived in the United States, a refugee from Nazi Germany.

Michael Lewis Slams Bonuses, Fuld, Hails Regulation: Interview The loner with a glass eye, a medical degree and Asperger’s who makes millions betting against the subprime mortgage-bond market is just one of the unlikely heroes in Michael Lewis’s “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine.

The Rich Get Away With Murder in Lipsyte’s Funny, Vicious ‘Ask’ You get fed up, you mouth off to the wrong person, you’re out of a job. That covers the first chapter of “The Ask,” Sam Lipsyte’s funny, vicious fourth book.

Savage Henry VIII, Freaky Elizabeth I Appall in Lively History Henry VIII and daughter Elizabeth are just two of the sadists animating the lively new history by G.J. Meyer, “The Tudors: The Complete Story of England’s Most Notorious Dynasty.”

Wall Street ‘Generosity Coach’ Stresses Focus, How to Say ‘No’ Kathy LeMay lives in the college town of Northampton, Massachusetts, with a mortgage and a 2005 Honda Accord hybrid that she’s paying off mainly by counseling billionaires and others on how to give away their money.

Spitzer Tell-All Reveals Late Plan to Survive Hookergate: Books At 10:37 p.m. on March 9, 2008, Lloyd Constantine was contacted by a weepy New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, who told him, “I have been involved with prostitutes -- I can’t continue as governor and must resign.”

Lewis Faults ‘Short-Term Greedy,’ Cites Goldman: Interview Michael Lewis made a name for himself on Wall Street by writing about it. His 1989 book, “Liar’s Poker,” exposed the inner workings of Salomon Brothers, a firm then at the peak of its power, and described his improbable run as a bond salesman there.

Glutton Fights Global Warming, Womanizes in McEwan Farce: Books To take global warming seriously would mean thinking about it all the time, says a character in Ian McEwan’s new novel. And that’s impossible, she adds: “Daily life would not allow it.”