Book Reviews

Yakuza Bosses Sell Sex, Drugs, Finagle U.S. Liver Transplants For the opening scene of a book, it’s hard to beat a hardened gangster calmly threatening to liquidate the main character, who’s furiously smoking clove cigarettes as he ponders his strategy.

Top Five Novels, Connelly to Irving to Nabokov: The Muse List With so many books in the stores, we’re often asked for recommendations. Here’s a list of recent novels.

Berlusconi Escort Sought Favors, Not Money, New Memoir Says Patrizia D’Addario, the self- confessed escort who spent the night with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, said she didn’t get paid for her services, instead seeking help from the premier in unblocking a stalled family property development.

Marton Sees Family Secrets, Father’s Love in Cold War Spy File “Children cannot fully know their parents,” Kati Marton writes. She comes as close as a child ever can in her memoir “Enemies of the People” -- with the unexpected help of the Hungarian secret police.

Rhone Ranger’s Vinthology, Winemakers’ Profiles: Holiday Books I like to think that wine lovers are also book readers, at least to feed their oenophilia. So, for holiday gifts I can guarantee that the following books will make your drinking buddies very happy.

’Mary Poppins’ Writer Embraces Posh, Likes Hollywood Sucking Up Oscar-winning writer Julian Fellowes has found success late in life, and only after abandoning a modest acting career to chronicle the foibles of Britain’s upper class.

Beer-Brewing Women, Soused Workers Built Pyramids: Lewis Lapham “The mouth of a perfectly contented man is filled with beer,” according to the ancient Egyptians, and on that basis it was a happy society.

Barnes & Noble Delays Shipping of Nook, E-Book Reader (Update1) Barnes & Noble Inc., the largest U.S. bookstore chain, said Nook, its device for reading digital versions of books, sold out its initial production run and won’t ship new purchases until the week of Jan. 4.