The great flaw in American democracy has nothing to do with voting machines or lobbyists; it is the enormous tolerance for intellectual dishonesty.

David Margolick on David Mamet; Emily Nussbaum on Heidi Julavits; science fiction columnist Dave Itzkoff; and senior editor Dwight Garner on best sellers. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, is the host.

Paperback books of particular interest.

Recently reviewed books of particular interest.

David Kamp stands corrected; Nora Roberts?s new novel is guaranteed to be fresh.

?Politically, 2006 is definitely the Year of the Blogs,? says Michael Kinsley.

Gary Giddins recalls when he first saw an Orson Welles movie.

Leonard Maltin?s annual movie guide is the go-to choice for both film geeks and casual couch potatoes.

Recently reviewed books of particular interest.

Paperback books of particular interest.

Thomas McGuane?s West in these astonishing stories is a place of tonal aggression and tourist ?pull-offs,? of bad fences making bad neighbors.

What photographs of the attack on the World Trade Center can tell us, and what they can?t.

Dave Itzkoff reviews Julie Phillips?s biography of Alice B. Sheldon, a science fiction writer who published nearly all of her work under the name James Tiptree Jr.

Few writers have worked as hard as Mark Childress to pull in the eyeballs. Also, Nora Ephron?s first book in 23 years is new on the hardcover nonfiction list.

Recently reviewed books of particular interest.

Paperback books of particular interest.

Julie Phillips?s engrossing and endlessly revelatory biography allows the woman behind the alias to step into the spotlight.

Nora Ephron, chronicler of life's absurdities, laments the dirty tricks of aging.

Dexter Filkins, The New York Times reporter who reviews the 9/11 book on the cover this week, says “I’ve seen the whole arc of the story.”

An Ayn Rand disciple (Terry Goodkind, pictured) hits the top of the fiction list; Scott Smith researched his new horror novel using travel guides.