For nearly four decades, Michiko Kakutani (The Death of Truth) dispensed incisive, erudite, sometimes wry literary criticism for the New York Times. In Ex Libris, Kakutani offers brief essays on roughly 100 books she has found worthwhile and enjoyable, accompanied by Dana Tanamachi's striking jewel-toned illustrations.
Writing "less as a critic than as an enthusiast," Kakutani shares her love of books from all across her shelves: from A Wrinkle in Time to The Sixth Extinction, Dr. Seuss to Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad. There are novels, memoirs and highly varied nonfiction: books on vocation, foreign policy, even a few Muhammad Ali biographies. Each book gets Kakutani's signature sharp-eyed treatment, but there's joy here, too. This collection celebrates what it also contains: the deep pleasure of reading books that entertain, educate and edify. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams