John McAlley
John McAlley is the editor of NPR.org's Books We Like series. A longtime top editor at Harper's Bazaar, InStyle, Us and Entertainment Weekly, McAlley has written for GQ, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, Spin and NPR.org's Monkey See blog. He has worked as a photo editor at Rolling Stone and been a contributor to Aperture. He lives in Dallas, Texas.
-
Geoff Dyer's entertainingly cranky new book chronicles the two weeks he spent as a writer-in-residence aboard the USS George H.W. Bush, amid the buzzing activity of an aircraft carrier on the job.
-
Gift books should be special: arrestingly visual, deeply felt, quirky, comprehensive, important. We've combed the shelves to bring you several such suggestions, guaranteed to put a sparkle in the eyes of any big reader. -
There's a difference between great books and great gift books, and these are the books to put bows on. Critic John McAlley presents 20 titles that span Harry Potter, Alexander McQueen, Annie Leibovitz, Mickey Mouse, the periodic table elements and the dictionary — something for everyone on your list. -
Even in a year notable for economic bust and an e-reader boom, big art books, lush photo retrospectives and other gems both quirky and collectible continue to roam the earth. Here are gift-book suggestions for every taste and budget.
-
Over a 40-year career, the star of Splendor in the Grass, Bonnie and Clyde, Shampoo and Bugsy seduced audiences, not to mention many of his co-stars. Peter Biskind's new biography casts Beatty as a ladies' man whose ambitions and neuroses aided his meteoric rise and his eventual fade. -
Reviewer John McAlley selects gems from the worlds of fine art, fashion, photography, science, lit-crit and cartoons. These luxe volumes will be gracing coffee tables long after the lights and wrapping paper are gone.
-
Reviled in 1959, Robert Frank's gritty, poetic The Americans now ranks among photography's most pivotal works. An ambitious edition marking the book's 50th anniversary shines new light on Frank's achievement. -
True to its original structure and subtitle — A Gourmet Guide to Lovemaking — the updated sex manual remains a smorgasbord of stimulating ideas and images.
-
Artists and athletes, celebrities and scribes, the talented and the tainted promiscuously link arms and promenade in this exuberant collection of portraits from the Vanity Fair archives.
-
Photographer Jona Frank's portraits of the Patrick Henry College student body reveal a group of kids for whom the Abercrombie & Fitch catalog is the work of sinners and a game of sloppy beer pong immoral.
