Books

From 2011: Author Amy Chua on the evils of sleepovers, the benefits of practising and how discipline builds self-esteem

Chua explains how her extreme mothering got results

Plus, adventures of a prison librarian, a new novel by Andrew Pyper, a composer on his autistic twin sister, Annie Proulx’s dream home and one amazing dame

Author Joan B. Wolf in conversation

All sorts of people admit to reading over strangers’ shoulders. How annoying is that?

An academic who is ‘not serving the interests of any faith’ derides self-serving portrayals of Christ

Plus, Julia Child’s letters, a child transplanted from the Kalahari, the epic story of the black exodus from the American South, a chambermaid’s tale, and how objects reveal the world’s history

Here are the books we really loved this year

Plus, why Cleopatra got a raw deal, the man who killed Pluto, Keith Richards on Mick Jagger, Louisa May Alcott’s revenge, and the vanishing ski bum

Three recent books tackle the spiritual and emotional challenges of pilgrimages