BY LINDA WINER Newsday “DROPPED NAMES: FAMOUS MEN AND WOMEN AS I KNEW THEM” By Frank Langella Harper 356 pages, $25.99 Much has been written about Frank Langella’s voice — a sonorous, plummy seducer that suggests both sophistication and unnerving ambiguity. So we shouldn’t be surprised, perhaps, that the actor writes with a voice just […]

BY MARY MCNAMARA Los Angeles Times “THE BEGINNER’S GOODBYE” By Anne Tyler Alfred A. Knopf 208 pages, $24.95 When you pick up a novel by Anne Tyler, you can expect certain things. It will be set in Baltimore. It will follow families populated by out-of-step characters ranging from the slightly odd to the wildly eccentric, […]

Dear Annie: I have been married to “Ellen” for seven years, and we recently moved back to her hometown. Apparently, she left behind an old boyfriend. They were teenagers “in love.” Ellen was repeatedly unfaithful, and the boyfriend tried to break things off; but Ellen always manipulated him into saying he would love her forever. At some point, he gave her a promise ring.