Book Reviews

The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606

James Shapiro. Simon & Schuster, 2015. 384 pages. $30.00.

The End of Karma: Hope and Fury Among India’s Young

Somini Sengupta. W.W. Norton & Company, 2016. 244 pages. $26.95.

The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life

John Le Carré. Viking, 2016. 310 pages. $28.00.

A House Full of Daughters: A Memoir of Seven Generations

Juliet Nicolson. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2016. 336 pages. $26.00.

The Philosopher: A History in Six Types

Justin E.H. Smith. Princeton University Press, 2016. 288 pages. $27.95.

Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space

Janna Levin. Knopf, 2016. 231 pages. $26.95.

The Brothers Vonnegut: Science and Fiction in the House of Magic

Ginger Strand. Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2015. 305 pages. $27.00.

The Capitalist and the Critic: J.P. Morgan, Roger Fry, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Charles Molesworth. University of Texas Press, 2016. 244 pages. $29.95.

Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad

Eric Foner. W.W. Norton & Company, 2015. 275 pages. $26.95.

The Parthenon Enigma: A New Understanding of the West’s Most Iconic Building and the People Who Made It

Joan Breton Connelly. Alfred A. Knopf, 2014. 485 pages. $35.00.

The Meaning of Human Existence

Edward O. Wilson. W.W. Norton/Liveright, 2014. 208 pages. $23.95.

The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt’s New World

Andrea Wulf. Alfred A. Knopf, 2016. 473 pages. $30.00.