Is the LRB the best magazine in the world? (2014)

Their game is this: ostensibly the articles are book reviews. But not quite. Sometimes two books are reviewed in the same article. Sometimes you'll have to read two thousand words until the book "reviewed" is first mentioned.

The book is basically the back story, a hook to the author writing his own longform article on the same issue. Informed by the book, sure, but no "the author then argues that..." recapitulation.