Book Reviews

A behind-the-scenes look at a diplomat's life of service.

TRAVELS WITH HERODOTUS.By Ryszard Kapuscinski.Knopf.288 pp. $25

NIXON AND KISSINGER:Partners in Power.By Robert Dallek.HarperCollins. 740 pp. $32.50

LAND OF LINCOLN:Adventures in Abe’s America.By Andrew Ferguson.Atlantic Monthly Press.279 pp. $24

SHAKESPEARETHE THINKER.By A. D. Nuttall.Yale Univ. Press.428 pp. $30

THE LIFE OF KINGSLEY AMIS.By Zachary Leader.Pantheon.996 pp. $39.95

THE N WORD:Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t, and Why.By Jabari Asim.Houghton Mifflin.278 pp. $26

UNTAPPED:The Scramble for Africa’s Oil.By John Ghazvinian.Harcourt.320 pp. $25

GERTRUDE BELL:Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations.By Georgina Howell.Farrar, Straus & Giroux.481 pp. $27.50

HOW DOCTORS THINK.By Jerome Groopman.Houghton Mifflin.307 pp. $26

Pages