Books

On the sets of “Taxi,” “Cheers,” “Friends” and other hit comedies, James Burrows saw each episode as a moment of theater.

Andrew Jackson’s pugnacious presidency, baseball’s record runner, how trust won the war in the Pacific and more highlights from this month in books.

War, plague, revolt, a king in decline: By necessity, John of Gaunt became a pillar of England’s regime. The Bard immortalized him.

Our reviewers report on their travels through the worlds of history, fiction, sports, mystery, nature and more in this week’s double-sized section.

Andrew Jackson’s career is a study in contradictions, but he always relished a good fight.

Into the wild, on foot and wing, in company with three memorable writers.

With these recommendations for vacation-worthy fiction and nonfiction, you’ll want to pack more than one.

As he led the naval struggle to defeat Japan, Adm. Chester Nimitz had a secret weapon: the power of trust.

In Dennis Hopper and Brooke Hayward’s Hollywood home, a Los Angeles counterculture flowered.

The unclassifiable artist developed in his last decades a method of painting in which tiny changes accumulated to strange new effect.

Seeing the horrific disfigurement suffered by soldiers in World War I, a surgeon set out to master the art of reconstructing faces.

The question of the relationship between island and Continent has given Britons an existential headache for millenia.

The letters of the great lyricist reveal a mind as devoted to the inner workings of the theater as it was to the words sung on stage.

A tale of time travel that might help you forget the stresses of the present, plus three more vacation-ready novels.

An outsize personality, a rivalry between two modern titans and the memories of a life spent obsessed with the game.

Can vegetables supply the char-roasted thrills of ribs and burgers? These writers make the case.

‘Days Like This,’ ‘A Day for Sandcastles,’ ‘Children of the Forest,’ ‘The Queen in the Cave’ and ‘Old Wood Boat.’

A history of the machine’s evolution, a dive into the thrills of bicycle racing and a meditation on the two-wheeled life.

James D. Hornfischer was an indispensable historian of the Navy, curious about both strategy and sailors.

Alan Parks’s ‘May God Forgive,’ Liam McIlvanney’s ‘The Heretic’ and Richard O’Rawe’s ‘Goering’s Gold.’