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On the Cover of the Sunday Book Review 'The Dark Side' By JANE MAYER Reviewed by ALAN BRINKLEY This powerful, brilliantly researched and deeply unsettling book recounts the emergence of the widespread use of torture as a central tool in the fight against terrorism. Book News & More Reviews » ADVERTISEMENT Also in This Week's Book Review 'Reading the OED' By AMMON SHEA Reviewed by NICHOLSON BAKER Ammon Shea spends a year plowing through the entire Oxford English Dictionary -- and lives to write about it. Paper Cuts Blog: Every Word 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?' By LEE ISRAEL Reviewed by THOMAS MALLON A New York writer recalls how she created and sold hundreds of fake letters “by” celebrities such as Noël Coward and the silent-film star Louise Brooks. Slide Show: Letters Forged by Lee Israel A Profile of Lee Israel 'Iron Fists: Branding the 20th-Century Totalitarian State' By STEVEN HELLER Reviewed by CHRISTOPHER BENFEY How Hitler, Mussolini, Lenin, Stalin and Mao so effectively spread their messages to the masses. 'Alive in Necropolis' By DOUG DORST Reviewed by MARK COSTELLO Patrolling a city of cemeteries, a police officer can see some strange things. 'The Three of Us' By JULIA BLACKBURN Reviewed by LIESL SCHILLINGER Julia Blackburn’s memoir of her monstrously self-involved, catastrophically unfit parents manages to be completely distinct yet hauntingly familiar. 'Bad Money' By KEVIN PHILLIPS Reviewed by DANIEL GROSS Kevin Phillips argues that America’s monomaniacal focus on finance is hurting us in the diverse global economy. 'The Story of Edgar Sawtelle' By DAVID WROBLEWSKI Reviewed by MIKE PEED This first novel, a modern twist on “Hamlet,” revolves around a mute boy in a family of dog trainers. A Profile of David Wroblewski 'The House on First Street' By JULIA REED Reviewed by BLAKE BAILEY Julia Reed’s Hurricane Katrina memoir describes how she fell in love with New Orleans. 'America Between the Wars' By DEREK CHOLLET and JAMES GOLDGEIER Reviewed by NICHOLAS THOMPSON A new look at the 12 years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11, an era with no catastrophe to brand it. 'Black and White and Dead All Over' By JOHN DARNTON Reviewed by JOSHUA HAMMER John Darnton’s thriller is set in the office of a major metropolitan newspaper that sounds a lot like The Times. 'Steer Toward Rock' By FAE MYENNE NG Reviewed by LIGAYA MISHAN In this novel, an immigrant laborer defies a gangster and enters the U.S. government’s Chinese Confession Program.