In her latest review of the New York Times Book Review, Intern Alexis realizes that editor Sam Tanenhaus has hit puberty and, as such, the Review has morphed into an intolerably loquacious circle jerk starring Jonathan Lethem. When the normally manic Alexis requires prescription amphetamines just to read for another time that Nicole Krauss is Jonathan Safran Foer's wife, you know there's a problem. After the jump, she rides the snake.

Sundays are for drinking! So once again we've outsourced our coverage of the New York Times Book Review to Intern Alexis. This week, the memoirs are closer than they appear as Maureen Dowd reviews Jane Fonda's autobiography, My Life So Far, which comes three weeks after the paper's original review (but at least this one doesn't mention Fonda's "vagina foyer" which has popped up in every other article, derailing appetites everywhere). There's the inevitable article on how anyone can be a writer these days (the hell you say!). Also, hilariously, Sex and the City writer Cindy Chupack wants to know why guys just aren't that into her. —NH

In her weekly dissection of the Times Book Review, Intern Alexis discovers midwestern commoners on the Letters page! And they're talking about pachyderm poo! No doubt crippled by the overwhelming sense of shame and guilt that comes from reading about elephant dung, Alexis cleans her conscience the only way she can: With a dab of Henry James and a dash of Bach. After the beloved jump, her highbrow review.

There's nothing that gets Intern Alexis more excited than a good ol' examination of deadly epidemics, so this week's New York Times Book Review was sure to delight. After relishing the double-fisted coverage of polio, Alexis looks into the NYTBR's Vanity Fair/blogger hivemind and finally confesses her illiteracy. Her weekly review follows.

In her weekly study of the Times Book Review, Alexis finds herself relieved to see that the Letters finally say what she's been thinking all along: gossip, elitism, and books just don't mix. (Oh? Fuck.) After the jump, Alexis smacks down the Foer smackdown, picks up on the NYTBR's new embrace of Seth Cohenisms, and immerses herself in the wreckage that is the review.

In this week's edition of the New York Times Book Review, things seem a little...tame? No anal, no huffy Queenan, no sexed-up Safran Foer — just a big bucket of letters, Harvard musings, and a dash of Paglia. After the jump, Intern Alexis (also known as the East Village punkin who wants to blog about bedbugs) gives her weekly report.

In this week's New York Times Book Review: Hollywood Edition, Intern Alexis is forced to care about that great, golden city to the West and its ever-important entertainment industry. Sharon Waxman gets ripped a new one while her new book gets a beaten to a bloody pulp, and we're treated to more Eisner analysis than you can shake a stick at — all served with a side of traditional Queenan bitchiness. After the jump, Alexis' weekly review.

In her weekly analysis of the latest New York Times Book Review, Intern Alexis stumbles upon a disconcerting discovery: Sir Harold Evans, arm candy of one Tina Brown, has made a mistake. In the paper of the record, no less. Meta-tragic! Alexis soldiers on, however, to cover the annoying trends and tasteless references in the latest Review, all after the jump.

In this week's review of the New York Times Book Review, Intern Alexis discovers the joy of avuncular old men, the pain of old literary feuds, and muses on why, God, why the book review lacks many actual reviews. (Instead, the staff recommends Nickel and Dimed. Better late than never?) Because the review portion of the review is so sparse, there's room for Op-Ed columnist Frank Rich's spawn, Nathaniel, to tackle liberal white hypocrisy — he did, after all, learn about it at Dalton.

In this week's coverage of the New York Times Book Review, Intern Alexis delves into the Jewtastic world of letters, taking time to tackle Gore Vidal while pointing out the NYTBR's new punk rock take on things. In a week without any mentions of the Jonathans Lethem or Foer, Alexis finds there's plenty of room to take down androgynous hipsterbot JT LeRoy. After the jump, her weekly dive into the bookish abyss.

You know how it is: a three-day weekend, a hacked Sidekick, a nasty K-hole, and suddenly your schedule is fucked. Intern Alexis, unfortunately, is no exception. It took us a few days to realize she was missing, but once we did, we conducted an exhaustive search — only to find her in a waxing room at Completely Bare, lying in the fetal position, stoned, and babbling about kittens in mittens. We got her cleaned up, of course, and put her right back to work. After the jump, her weekly coverage of the New York Times book review, in all of its sobering glory.

This week, the NYTBR sexes things up a bit with something we can all appreciate: Iranian hummers (politically sensitive and V-day appropriate)! Once Intern Alexis took a cold shower, she tackled the rest of the review, only to find that white-collar beasts have rendered the pages inaccessible to pleb readers. After the jump, her fight for class justice and musings on the evil of Jonathan Lethem.

In response to Alexis the Intern's Reading About Reading: Big Cat Edition, a reader points out:

This week in her always fascinating look at The New York Times Book Review, Intern Alexis responds to the letters, recalls her Parisian girlhood, and gets excited about a Barbara Ehrenreich's son. Oh, and did we mention she wants to eat Christopher Hitchens? Read on...

This week in her guide to the Times' Book Review, Intern Alexis fights the pleasure-delaying effects of poor page design to report that writing can get you laid, Tina Brown's hubby Harold Evans does indeed write books, and Pepperidge Farm's legal team is no fun. After the jump, her insight on these very important matters, plus some magical trivia to make any Times geek love you to death.

In this late edition (our fault, we slept through yesterday) of her coverage of the New York Times Book Review, Intern Alexis wedges herself amongst David Brooks, Malcom Gladwell, and Stanley Crouch—and it's every bit as hot as it sounds. After the jump, Alexis presents her weekly guide to staying one step ahead of Oprah's Book Club.

In this week's cheatsheet to sounding like you know all the hott books, Intern Alexis gets all randy over Abraham Lincoln and the Asian version of Jonathan Safran Foer. Oh, and she reveals this week's essayist, William Deresiewicz, is also a Yale professor casually known amongst his students as Cockmaster D. This and other forms of enlightenment after the jump.

It's only fitting that the NYTBR would use its first edition of the new year to point the spotlight on Sam Tanenhaus with his weekly column explaining that week's book review. While we could go on and on about how it's not necessarily a good sign if you feel compelled to elucidate forthcoming material before one reads the material itself, Intern Alexis is just happy for some much needed clarification. After the jump she gives thanks to Tanenhaus and puts Jersey in its place, all in her weekly guide to sounding like you'd know a book if you saw one.

This week, Intern Alexis goes to work on a cryptic and ultimately lazy edition of the New York Times Book Review. Since the Times is clearly phoning it in for the holidays, we were going to let Alexis off the hook—but she actually found this edition of the Review to be rather enjoyable after we gave her some Christmas crack. Once she was tweaked, we couldn't stop her from writing if we tried. After the jump, Alexis' weekly analysis of what you should pretend to be reading.

Now that the New York Times s red-headed stepchild, the Arts & Ideas section, has died, what are the editors to do with all those upper-level think pieces that aren t quite appropriate for the Arts & Leisure section, the Magazine, the Week in Review, or Eating Out? Why, just plop them in the jack-of-all-trades that is the New York Times' Book Review of course! This week s NYTBR was heavy on the random essays that vaguely had something to do with literature, and light on the book reviews. After the jump, Intern Alexis wonders what it all means.