New & Recommended

PATRICK FRENCH (JERRY BAUER)

The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul
By Patrick French
Naipaul's life, full of entanglements and opposing selves, is admirably drawn in this new work (Knopf, $30).

Seven Days in the Art World
By Sarah Thornton
Thornton thoughtfully examines the overlapping subcultures that make up the contemporary art world (Norton, $24.95).

Sea of Poppies
By Amitav Ghosh
A rich work of historical fiction that shows us the world in larger ways (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26).

The Wink of the Zenith: The Shaping of a Writer's Life
By Floyd Skloot
Memoirist and poet Skloot revisits his past for clues as to what made him a writer (University of Nebraska, $24.95).

Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief
By James M. McPherson
Yet another life of Lincoln, brimming with details and insight (Penguin, $35).

Selected from books recently reviewed in the Globe.