Weekend picks for book lovers

What should you read this weekend? Paste BN's picks for book lovers include a short story collection from Wolf Hall author Hilary Mantel, and a new biography of Tennessee Williams.

Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh by John Lahr; Norton, 604 pp.; non-fiction

Tennessee Williams was not one to hide his demons, in art or life.

Links between the playwright's personal and creative paths have been explored before, in works including his own Memoirs. But it is hard to imagine an account infused with more wit, insight or clear-eyed devotion than John Lahr's new biography.

Lahr's portrait of Williams is one of a blazing candle who on many levels foresaw his own extinguishment, but never made peace with it.

We first meet Williams at 34, on the brink of his breakthrough success in 1945 with the autobiographical The Glass Menagerie, one of several of his plays featuring roles inspired by Williams' domineering mother, Edwina, and his damaged elder sister, Rose.

Paste BN **** out of four. "Rigorously detailed, sumptuously written… should be required reading for all theater fans."

The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel; Henry Holt, 242 pp.; fiction

A story collection by the author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.

Paste BN says ****. "A book of (Mantel's) short stories is like a little sweet treat. OK, it's not sweet — as if the title weren't the first clue."

The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis; Knopf, 320 pp.; fiction

Satirical Holocaust novel told from various points of view, including that of swinish Nazi Paul Doll, who struggles to rout endless trainloads of "evacuees" at Auschwitz.

Paste BN says ***½. "Bravely nuanced … a powerful inquisition into the Nazi sensibility."

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters; Riverhead, 576 pp.; fiction

It's 1922, and Frances Wray and her mother, of the declining upper crust, have been forced to take in renters of the "clerk class" at their home in the London suburbs. Trouble looms.

Paste BN says ****. "Volcanically sexy, sizzingly smart, plenty bloody and just plain irresistible."

Off the Leash: A Year at the Dog Park by Matthew Gilbert; St. Martin's Press, 227 pp.; non-fiction

Chronicles the author's indoctrination into the world of dog parks and their eclectic inhabitants after he becomes co-parent to a feisty yellow Lab named Toby.

Paste BN says ***. "A delightful romp … endearing and entertaining."

Contributing reviewers: Elysa Gardner, Martha T. Moore, Matt Damsker, Jocelyn McClurg, Mary Cadden