Top 12+ Books We Read This Week

‘The Headache’: Of Migraines and Mystery

Billions of people worldwide suffer from headache disorders. Medical science continues to struggle with the difficulty of diagnosing their causes—and relieving the suffering. Review by Brandy Schillace

‘The CIA Book Club’: Typewriter Revolution

During the Cold War, the CIA may have had as much success with books and magazines as with gun-running and spies. Review by Gary Saul Morson

‘Thomas More’: A Persecutor and a Martyr

Henry VIII’s close adviser was resolute in upholding secular and spiritual authorities over individual judgment. When it came to his own conscience, he held a different view. Review by Jeffrey Collins

‘Nobody Sits Like the French’: The Chair That Charmed Paris

Over the course of seven Paris Expositions, new furnitures, foodstuffs and design ideas were introduced. Many are still part of the fabric of the modern city. Review by Tobias Grey

‘Collisions’: The Explosive Mind of Luis Alvarez

Walter and Luis Alvarez, ca. 1985.

The physicist Luis Alvarez was a wide-ranging thinker who contributed to the development of the atomic bomb and upended the scientific consensus about the fate of the dinosaurs. Review by John Banville

‘Émile Zola’: Mining France for Stories

The prolific novelist wanted to portray the workings of everyday life in France in an increasingly mechanized age. His mission was to expose the origins of social unease. Review by Timothy Farrington

‘Summers in Squid Tickle’: At Canada’s Eastern Edge

A Newfoundland fishing town proves a refuge of beauty and calm for a writer in search of solace. Review by Wayne Johnston

‘I Seek a Kind Person’: A Lifeline in the Classified Section

Robert Borger (bottom right) at the home of the Bingley family of Caernarfon, Wales, U.K., who fostered Robert during World War II.

After the Nazi takeover of Austria in the 1930s, some Jewish parents looked for foreign families who would take in their children. Review by Diane Cole

Mysteries: ‘Carved in Blood’ by Michael Bennett

Plus Camilla Trinchieri’s “Murder in Pitigliano.” Review by Anna Mundow

‘The Accidental Garden’: Cultivating Unexpected Beauty

Richard Mabey chronicles the sometimes undisciplined lives of the plants that share his property. Review by Danny Heitman

‘Who Will Rescue Us?’: The Children Who Escaped

Josepha Salmon arrives at Harwich, England as part of the ‘Kindertransport’ of refugees from Germany, in December 1938.

Humanitarian efforts to transport young refugees to safety during World War II faced bureaucratic and political hurdles. Many children were left behind. Review by Diane Cole

Five Best: Books on Forgiveness

Selected by Wally Lamb, the author, most recently, of the novel “The River Is Waiting.”