 | BEN JONSON: A Life, by Ian Donaldson (Oxford University, $39.95.) In his time, Jonson was as central to the development of British theater as Shakespeare was, if not more, Donaldson argues in this deeply researched but happily readable biography. . . . REVIEW. | ||||||||||||||||||
 | THAT’S DISGUSTING: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion, by Rachel Herz (Norton, $26.95.) A psychologist’s look at all things revolting describes how disgust evolved and how it works in our brains. . . . REVIEW. | ||||||||||||||||||
 | LIFE SENTENCES: Literary Judgments and Accounts, by William H. Gass (Knopf, $28.95.) At 87, Gass — novelist, philosopher, essayist — looks back on a lifelong attachment to literature. . . . REVIEW. | ||||||||||||||||||
 | BABEL NO MORE: The Search for the World’s Most Extraordinary Language Learners, by Michael Erard (Free Press, $25.99.) How can certain people accumulate a daunting number of languages? Erard’s entertaining, informative survey seeks the answer. . . . REVIEW. | ||||||||||||||||||
 | JUSTICE AND THE ENEMY: Nuremberg, 9/11, and the Trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, by William Shawcross (PublicAffairs, $26.99.) The role of military commissions in prosecuting war crimes. . . . REVIEW. | ||||||||||||||||||
 | THE QUALITY OF MERCY, by Barry Unsworth (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, $26.95.) This persuasive historical novel picks up where “Sacred Hunger” left off, as the owner of a slave ship battles an abolitionist. . . . REVIEW. | ||||||||||||||||||
 | HERGÉ, SON OF TINTIN, by Benoît Peeters. Translated by Tina A. Kover (Johns Hopkins University, $29.95.) The Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi emerges in three dimensions in Peeters’s biography. . . . REVIEW. | ||||||||||||||||||
 | THE FLIGHT OF GEMMA HARDY, by Margot Livesey (Harper/HarperCollins, $26.99.) An appealing novel about a young girl that recasts “Jane Eyre.” . . . REVIEW. | ||||||||||||||||||
 | ALL I DID WAS SHOOT MY MAN, by Walter Mosley (Riverhead, $26.95.) The hero of Mosley’s crime novel is a mob fixer who has gone straight. . . . REVIEW. | ||||||||||||||||||
The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: http://www.nyt.com/pages/books/index.html |
