Good Bones: Glorious Relics from the Age of Reading

by Brooke Allen

The heyday of reading is probably behind us, but in these shrewd and witty essays Brooke Allen examines the relics of the saints (and sinners) who made it what it was. Focused as much on literary lives as oeuvres, she excavates the glories of August Strindberg, George Sand, Patricia Highsmith, Anthony Powell, Truman Capote and even the great diarist Richard Burton (who also did some acting). There are 22 essays in all, and Allen offers delight and surprise on every page. If the age of reading isn’t yet behind you, get this book in front of you.

264 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 3, 2025

About the author

Brooke Allen's critical writings appear frequently in the New York Times Book Review, the Atlantic Monthly, The New Criterion, The Hudson Review, and The Nation. Her Twentieth-Century Attitudes was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her most recent book is Moral Minority: Our Skeptical Founding Fathers."