"My Life and Hard Times," by James Thurber (Harper Perennial, $11) ...more

October 26, 2008

My husband called it first. Then, a brilliant, 75-year-old scholar and raconteur confessed to me over wine: "I'm sexually attracted to her. I don't care that she knows nothing." ...more

October 25, 2008

More than 16 years ago, the Bombshell of the Balkans and I flew to Las Vegas and there, at the Little Chapel of the Bells, we were married by a minister who was something of a cross between an Elvis impersonator-in-training and a poor man's televangelizing Jimmy Swaggart. ...more

October 23, 2008

"The Forever War," by Dexter Filkins (Knopf, $25) ...more

October 19, 2008

WASHINGTON - A telecommunications lobbyist who became part of an explosive story early this year about John McCain has broken months of silence to deny the main subtext of the account - that she was suspected of being romantically involved with the Republican presidential candidate. "I did not have a sexual relationship with Senator McCain," Vicky Iseman told the National Journal magazine. ...more

October 16, 2008

Columnist David Brooks is the sort of writer who passes for a conservative. ...more

October 15, 2008

Paul Krugman, a Princeton University scholar, New York Times columnist and unabashed liberal, won the Nobel Prize in economics Monday for his analysis of how economies of scale can affect international trade patterns. ...more

October 14, 2008

Unimpressed by Charles de Gaulle's droll observation that the graveyards are full of indispensable men, Michael Bloomberg, New York City's 108th mayor, has decided that he is indispensable. So the law limiting mayors to two terms must be revised to allow three terms. ...more

October 12, 2008