7 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
June 12, 2025
Lapham’s Quarterly Will Begin Its Revival with Website and Podcast
Now attached to Bard College, the literary journal is about to publish new commentary and a popular historical feature. Next year: the print magazine.
June 12, 2025
Going Deep Into the World of D.I.Y. Submarine Builders
In “Submersed,” Matthew Gavin Frank takes on the undersea universe of amateur submarine enthusiasts — and one obsession turned deadly.
June 12, 2025
Wally Lamb’s Guilty Pleasure Is a History of Mad Magazine
His go-to classic is by Joseph Campbell, and he admires “Brothers and Keepers” and “The New Jim Crow” on incarceration. “The River Is Waiting” is his new novel.
June 12, 2025
The Best Romance Novels of the Year So Far
Looking for a swoony, feel-good read? Our romance columnist will be updating this list all year.
June 12, 2025
The Joy of Reading One Poem in Many Different Translations
Poetry and translation are both about picking the just-right word. But reading multiple translations makes an implicit case for celebrating abundance and variety.
June 11, 2025
The Book Nearly Died With Him in the Amazon. But the Story Endured.
Killed in the rainforest he hoped to help save, the journalist Dom Phillips left behind an unfinished manuscript. Those who knew him carried it forward.
June 11, 2025
Barbara Holdridge, Whose Record Label Foretold Audiobooks, Dies at 95
Beginning with a reading by Dylan Thomas, she and a friend found unlikely commercial success in the 1950s with recordings of famous writers reciting their work.
June 10, 2025
Answer 4 Questions. Leave With a Summer Read You’ll Love.
Tell us a few things about what you like, and we'll give you a spot-on recommendation.
June 10, 2025
He Was in the Pack Swarming Britney Spears. Now He’s Ready to Tell All.
In a scrappy new memoir, Jeff Weiss blurs fact and fancy as he recounts his stint as a bit player in the celebrity-industrial complex.
June 10, 2025
A Thrilling Lesbian Vampire Novel You’ll Want to Sink Your Teeth Into
In V.E. Schwab’s “Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil,” three women turned into vampires are thrown into a centuries-long drama of love, power and hunger.
June 10, 2025
A Maestro of Crime Fiction Returns With a High-Octane Thriller
In S.A. Cosby’s new book, “King of Ashes,” an investment banker returns home to protect his family from a local gang.
June 10, 2025
Frederick Forsyth, Master of the Geopolitical Thriller, Dies at 86
He wrote best-sellers like “The Day of the Jackal” and “The Dogs of War,” often using material from his earlier life as a reporter and spy.
June 9, 2025
Can You Match These Literary Quotes to Their Sources?
Try this short quiz to see how many memorable lines from great books have stuck with you over the years.
June 9, 2025
How a Gay Neocon Writer Survived New York in the ’80s and ’90s
Thomas Mallon looks back on the AIDS crisis, the heyday of magazines and an exhilarating city in “The Very Heart of It.”
June 9, 2025
Mafalda, Argentina’s Very Opinionated Cartoon Heroine, Is Coming to America
A collection of Quino’s translated works will provide new audiences a taste of the satirical comic compared to “Charlie Brown with socialism.”
June 9, 2025
Our Favorite Books for Every Type of Dad
Looking for a Father’s Day gift? Try one of these recent releases.
June 9, 2025
How a Hate Crime in a Southern City Foretold the Rise of the Far Right
In “Charlottesville: An American Story,” Deborah Baker retraces the events leading up to the violent Unite the Right rally in 2017 and its political aftermath.
June 8, 2025
For Abby Jimenez, Being a No. 1 Best Seller Is the Icing on the Cake
She’s the author of “Say You’ll Remember Me” and six other romance novels. She owns three bakeries. She’s also really tired.
June 8, 2025
Serial Killers of the Pacific Northwest: Did Toxins Make Them Do It?
“Murderland,” by the Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Fraser, considers possible links between the region’s industrial pollution and its most infamous murderers.
June 8, 2025
John Hancock Was More Than Just a Pretty Signature
A new biography by Willard Sterne Randall shows how 18th-century Boston’s most popular businessman put his mark on the American Revolution.
June 7, 2025
A Major Writer Remembers the ‘Nonreading Family’ That Shaped Him
In a new memoir, Geoff Dyer reflects how seemingly trivial moments and objects of childhood end up playing an outsize role in our lives.
June 7, 2025
A Witty Caper Starring Gun-Toting Christians in Rural Washington
In Jess Walter’s new novel, “So Far Gone,” a retired environmentalist turned recluse comes out of isolation to find his grandchildren.
June 7, 2025
These Fantasy Novels Breathe New Life Into Old Myths
Drawing on folklore traditions from around the world, these thrilling and entertaining books put fresh spins on classic tales.
June 7, 2025
Paul Durcan, Irish Poet of Tortured and Tender Souls, Is Dead at 80
He survived electroshock treatments and the threat of lobotomy to become one of Ireland’s most popular poets. The Irish Times called him a “literary phenomenon.”
June 6, 2025
S.A. Cosby on the Appeal of Small-Town Crime Stories
In “King of Ashes,” the novelist again returns to rural Virginia as a setting, with a hero who has to face the family he once fled.
June 6, 2025
A Chronicle of the Rich Getting Richer, Crasser and More Obscene
In “The Haves and Have-Yachts,” the New Yorker writer Evan Osnos presents an urbane set of profiles in excess.
June 6, 2025
Worried the World Is Falling Apart? That’s OK. It’s Happened Before.
In “The Once and Future World Order,” by Amitav Acharya, and “The Golden Road,” by William Dalrymple, our best hope might be that history repeats itself.
June 6, 2025
Crime Fiction Filled With Dark Passages and Dark Hearts
Our columnist on the month’s most notable releases.
June 6, 2025
Mine! Mine! Mine! Children’s Books About Greed
In the novel “Peachaloo in Bloom,” the selfishness belongs to one man. In the picture book “The Wanting Monster,” it belongs to us all.
June 6, 2025
Philippe Labro Dies at 88; Restless Chronicler of the French Condition
As an author (often blurring the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction), a film director, a lyricist and a host of TV and radio shows, he sought to capture his epoch.
June 5, 2025
10 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
June 5, 2025
Susan Choi: ‘I Feel I’ve Read Nothing but Great Books Recently’
The list includes “Heartwood,” “Other Worlds,” “The Wall” and “The Fact Checker.” Her own new novel is “Flashlight.”
June 5, 2025
A Biotech Start-Up Promises Immortality. Is It All a Fraud?
In Austin Taylor’s novel “Notes on Infinity,” the speed of success prevents undergraduate founders from reflecting on, let alone fixing, an original sin.
June 5, 2025
‘The Cole Porter of Literature’: Writers and Artists Remember Edmund White
In these reflections, colleagues, friends and admirers recall his risk-taking, his generosity and his insatiable taste for gossip.
June 5, 2025
Edmund White, Pioneer of Gay Literature, Is Dead at 85
He mined his own varied catalog of sexual experiences in more than 30 books of fiction and explicitly candid memoirs.
June 4, 2025
Britain’s Premier Nature Writer Cries Us a River
“Is a River Alive?,” the new book by Robert Macfarlane, is gorgeously written but also windy and sentimental.
June 4, 2025
He Went to Fight Megafires, and Ended Up Respecting Them
In “When It All Burns,” Jordan Thomas brings an anthropologist’s eye to the life-or-death struggle with fire.
June 4, 2025
A History of Gay Marriage and Migration, Told Through One Relationship
In “Deep House,” Jeremy Atherton Lin uses the story of his own life as a catalyst for a kaleidoscopic survey of legal flash points regarding gay rights and immigration.
June 4, 2025
The Best Thrillers of the Year (So Far)
Our columnist on the twisty, suspense-laden books that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
June 4, 2025
Pierre Nora, 93, Who Probed Role of Memory in the Writing of History, Dies
A renowned French scholar and publishing figure, he looked at what societies choose to honor — and forget — in telling their stories.
June 3, 2025
A Palestinian American Memoir of Motherhood, War and Exile
In “I’ll Tell You When I’m Home,” the Palestinian American writer Hala Alyan draws on her life experiences and her family’s multiple displacements across generations.
June 3, 2025
A Fantasy Novel Inspired By Real History, When U.S. Hotels Housed Nazis
“The Listeners” follows a resort manager forced to shelter Axis diplomats, who threaten to disturb the magical springs that make the property a success.
June 3, 2025
The Risky, Reality-Bending Thriller You Need This Summer
In “The Catch,” struggling twin sisters are forced to rethink their lives after the reappearance of their mother, presumed dead for decades.
June 3, 2025
The Man Who Turned Right-Wing Politics Into Entertainment
An expansive new biography of William F. Buckley Jr. traces the eventful life of the conservative activist who intuitively grasped the media’s centrality to politics.
June 3, 2025
Alice Notley, Poet Celebrated for ‘Restless Reinvention,’ Dies at 79
Once called “our present-day Homer” for her sprawling, experimental epics, she was honored with prizes and was a finalist for the Pulitzer in 1999.
June 2, 2025
Holmes Rolston III, Pioneer of Environmental Ethics, Dies at 92
He began his career as a pastor. But he was forced out of his congregation in 1965, which led to a new life pondering the value of nature.
June 2, 2025
Before They Were Famous: Do You Know the Early Jobs of These Authors?
Try this quiz on how five authors made a living before their literary careers took off.
June 2, 2025
Alasdair MacIntyre, Philosopher Who Saw a ‘New Dark Ages,’ Dies at 96
A Marxist-turned-Catholic who denounced individualism, he provoked and inspired fellow thinkers and gained a degree of popularity unusual for a moral philosopher.
June 2, 2025
A Novel Highlights a Dark Korean History and a Shattered Family’s
“Flashlight,” by Susan Choi, spans several decades and nations to tell a story of exile in its multiple forms.
June 2, 2025
Charles Sumner Was More Than Just a Guy Who Got Caned on the Senate Floor
A new biography of the Republican legislator details his legal mind and his personal struggles.
June 2, 2025
Novels Inspired by Opinion Polls? They’re Here, and They’re Weird
For “People’s Choice Literature,” Tom Comitta wrote two books based on the likes and dislikes of American readers.
June 2, 2025
What Is Wrong With Men? Let Michael Douglas Explain.
In a sharp new book, Jessa Crispin uses the actor’s career to explore, and complicate, the “crisis of masculinity.”
June 1, 2025
Thrillers That Capture the Dark Side of Small-Town Life
Our columnist on the month’s best new releases.
June 1, 2025
A Soaring History of Mother Emanuel, the Church That Endured a Massacre
Kevin Sack chronicles the Charleston, S.C., congregation that was the target of a brutal 2015 hate crime, and the church’s central role in the larger saga of the South.
June 1, 2025
These Queer Fantasy Novels Make TJ Klune Feel Seen
The author of “The House in the Cerulean Sea” recommends captivating books that cast L.G.B.T.Q. people as the heroes, the villains and everything in between.
June 1, 2025
Lynn Freed, South African Writer With a Wry Style, Dies at 79
In seven novels, dozens of essays and a collection of short stories, she explored her Jewish upbringing during apartheid and the ways women negotiate sexual desire.
May 31, 2025
2 Books About Hotel Life
The Ritz Carlton; a decidedly unwhimsical Turkish inn.
May 31, 2025
The Apocalypse Is Here, and It’s One Big Cult
In “Culture Creep,” Alice Bolin considers the connections between corporate thought control, femininity, pop culture and the computer age.
May 31, 2025
Which Came First, Mean Girls or ‘Mean Girls’?
Bruce Handy’s history of teen movies ranges from Andy Hardy and James Dean to “Beach Blanket Bingo,” John Hughes, John Singleton and Katniss Everdeen.
May 31, 2025
A Memoir of Divorce and Xenophobia, Narrated by a Clam
Anelise Chen’s genre-bending book “Clam Down” sees an insightful metaphor in a text message typo.
May 31, 2025
Her Famous Mother Was Always Inaccessible. Then She Developed Dementia.
In the memoir “How to Lose Your Mother,” Molly Jong-Fast recalls a tumultuous upbringing as the only child of the feminist writer Erica Jong.
May 31, 2025
Even the Cowboys Are Bigger in Texas
In “The Gunfighters,” the journalist Bryan Burrough offers a lively look at the legends and myths of the Wild West.
May 31, 2025
Book Club: Let’s Talk About ‘The Safekeep’
Yael van der Wouden’s novel, shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, is the topic of this month’s discussion.
May 30, 2025
Book Club: Read ‘Mrs. Dalloway,’ by Virginia Woolf, with the Book Review
In June, the Book Review Book Club will read and discuss “Mrs. Dalloway,” Virginia Woolf’s classic novel about one day in the life of an London woman in 1923.
May 30, 2025
Smart, Splendid New Historical Fiction
Our columnist on the month’s best new releases.
May 30, 2025
Creepy Noises, Cold Rooms and Looming Ravens
Our columnist on this month’s horror novels.
May 30, 2025
A Memoir of Family Dysfunction Awash in Liquor and Leafy Greens
In “The Spinach King,” John Seabrook recounts how his grandfather turned a family farm into an industrial behemoth, and exposes the greed and malfeasance behind the prosperous facade.
May 30, 2025
The New York Times’s Summer Reading Bucket List
Read along with the Book Review this summer: Can you check off five items before fall arrives?
May 30, 2025
Summer Reading Challenges Aren’t Just for Kids
Riding a wave of growing enthusiasm for reading, many bookstores and libraries have expanded their programming to let grown-ups in on the literary fun.
May 30, 2025
Two New Picture Books About the Transformative Power of Language
A boy unearths a treasure trove of adjectives, and a strange word discovered by a scholar becomes an overnight sensation.
May 30, 2025
New Romance Novels Brimming With Unhinged Wish Fulfillment
Our columnist on the month’s best new releases.
May 29, 2025
10 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
May 29, 2025
Taylor Jenkins Reid Wants to Turn You On to Her Favorite Regency Romances
“Plenty of people have heard of Sophie Irwin but many, many more people should,” says the author of “Daisy Jones & the Six” and, now, “Atmosphere.”
May 29, 2025
Everything You Need to Know About Taylor Jenkins Reid
The best-selling author of “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” and “Daisy Jones and the Six” takes to the skies for her latest novel.
May 29, 2025
Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Writer Who Condemned Colonists and Elites, Dies at 87
Mr. Ngugi composed the first modern novel in the Gikuyu language on prison toilet paper while being held by Kenyan authorities. He spent many prolific years in exile.
May 29, 2025
A Splendid New Biography of Gauguin Separates the Man From the Myth
In “Wild Thing,” Sue Prideaux draws on recently discovered source material, delivering an enthralling account of an artist whose life was as inventive as his art.
May 28, 2025
24 Books Coming in June
Fiction by Taylor Jenkins Reid and V.E. Schwab; a memoir of a year without sex; new thrillers from James Patterson and S.A. Cosby; and more.
May 28, 2025
In the Wake of Domestic Violence, a Mother Learns to Breathe Again
In “Deep Breath,” by the Hungarian novelist Rita Halász, a woman flees her abusive husband in order to slowly regain her sanity, and her self.
May 28, 2025
Do You Know Where in the World These Books Are Set?
Canada has a rich literary culture and many of its recent novelists have achieved international acclaim. See if you can match these five books to locations set within the country.
May 27, 2025
Vietnam Made Him a Writer. His Anger Still Burns on the Page.
A new biography of Tim O’Brien examines his formative time at war and the esteemed literary career that followed.
May 27, 2025
A New Stephen King Novel Asks, Does the World Have Heroes Anymore?
“Never Flinch” is a tale of stalkers and serial killers, with a strong dose of social critique.
May 27, 2025
Magic, Conspiracy and a Down-on-His-Luck Detective
In “Harmattan Season,” the search for a missing woman uncovers a scheme that could change the fate of an occupied city in West Africa.
May 27, 2025
Dispatches From the Psych Ward Fuel This Ebullient Novel
Edward St. Aubyn returns with a wide-ranging narrative anchored by a schizophrenic patient.
May 26, 2025
Kidnapped by Corsican Rebels, a Rich Girl Joins the Revolution
In Darrow Farr’s novel, “The Bombshell,” a spoiled French teenager comes to realize her social-justice-minded captors have a point.
May 26, 2025
Want More of ‘The Last of Us’? Read These Books Next.
If HBO’s zombie drama has you craving more postapocalyptic action, these books have got you covered.
May 26, 2025
One Steamy Month Charged With Forbidden Longing
In “The South,” a Malaysian man recalls the life-changing period he spent on his family’s dilapidated farm when he was a teenager.
May 26, 2025
How Sex and Religion Collided in 1980s Culture
Madonna, Scorsese, Warhol and “Piss Christ” play roles in Paul Elie’s maybe-too-comprehensive look at how divisive expressions of faith came to the fore.
May 25, 2025
1 Writing Class, 35 Years, 113 Deals, 95 Books
For three decades at Columbia Journalism School, Sam Freedman has encouraged students to try long-form narratives. His brand of tough love has paid dividends.
May 25, 2025
Stories for When Real Life Feels Like a Dream (or Nightmare)
In a new collection, Etgar Keret offers tales of humanity in the strangest of circumstances.
May 25, 2025
The Essential Terry Pratchett
The prolific fantasy author, best known for his Discworld series, infused his writing with empathy and humor. Here’s where to start.
May 25, 2025
Susan Brownmiller, Who Reshaped Views About Rape, Dies at 90
Her book “Against Our Will” argued that rape was a crime of power and violence, not passion; it led to laws that made it easier to prosecute rapists.
May 25, 2025
2 Novels of America at Particular, Peculiar Moments
Florida in the early 1960s; California in the mid-1980s.
May 24, 2025
Separated as Toddlers, Raised on Opposite Sides of the World
In her entrancing, disturbing “Daughters of the Bamboo Grove,” Barbara Demick traces the wildly divergent paths of twins born in China under the one-child rule.
May 24, 2025
Conversations With Emotionally Stunted Friends
Abandoned by both her mother and a really bad ex, the 25-year-old narrator of “Gingko Season” avoids her own traumas by focusing on grand historical ones.
May 24, 2025
A Rom-Com Heroine Wonders, What Is the Price of Love?
In the novel “Consider Yourself Kissed,” a wife and mother faces many of the same hurdles in 2016 that women did decades ago.
May 24, 2025
‘We Must Start Dreaming Again’: An Angolan Writer Sees Magic in Everyday Life
In his latest novel, “The Living and the Rest,” José Eduardo Agualusa takes readers to a literary festival in Africa where novelists’ characters come to life.
May 24, 2025
Leslie Epstein, Writer Who Mastered Both Doing and Teaching, Dies at 87
His Holocaust novel “King of the Jews” was widely praised. He also wrote about his show-business family and taught writing at Boston University.
May 24, 2025
Alison Bechdel Is Finally at Peace Mixing Fiction and Memoir
The lauded cartoonist talks about the process behind her autobiographical new graphic novel, “Spent.”
May 23, 2025
Why Silicon Valley’s Most Powerful People Are So Obsessed With Hobbits
Tech power players and the global far-right are learning all the wrong lessons from “The Lord of the Rings.”
May 23, 2025
Sex, Money and Death in Connecticut? We Ate It Up.
In “Murder in the Dollhouse,” Rich Cohen tells the story of Jennifer Dulos — and our queasy fascination.
May 23, 2025
The Summer’s Best Beach Reads
You don’t need to be on the sand to enjoy these novels. You just need a certain willingness to be swiftly transported.
May 23, 2025
The Beauty of Imperfect Children’s Book Art
In the work of artists I admire, all the training and discipline come out in an act of letting go: a splotch of ink, a wayward wash of color.
May 23, 2025
9 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
May 22, 2025
4 Summer Books We’re Looking Forward To
Gilbert Cruz, the editor of The New York Times Book Review, previews four books we’re anticipating this summer.
May 22, 2025
The Best Crime Novels of the Year (So Far)
Looking for some fictional murder and mayhem? Our columnist is keeping track of the best crime novels of 2025.
May 22, 2025
Christopher Moore Gives Out ‘Cannery Row’ to Convert Steinbeck Haters
“My favorite novel of all time” is an antidote to “Of Mice and Men,” he promises. His new book, “Anima Rising,” is a playful visit to 1911 Vienna.
May 22, 2025
31 Novels Coming This Summer
Taylor Jenkins Reid heads to space, Megan Abbott climbs a pyramid (scheme) and Gary Shteyngart channels a 10-year-old. Plus queer vampires, a professor in hell and an actress’s revenge.
May 22, 2025
21 Nonfiction Books Coming This Summer
How did streetwear become high fashion? Why are there so many serial killers in the Pacific Northwest? Prize-winning writers tackle these questions, while memoirists consider celibacy, spycraft and Erica Jong.
May 22, 2025
Murder, Lust and Obscene Wealth in a City on Edge
In Chris Pavone’s new novel, “The Doorman,” the real world closes in on residents of a luxury apartment building.
May 21, 2025
Axed and Answered: Deep Cuts From a History of Gruesome Crimes
In “Whack Job,” Rachel McCarthy James finds a connection between self-reliance and brutality. And for the record, she has questions about Lizzie Borden.
May 21, 2025
How a Manga Megastar Makes Such Terrifying Work
Junji Ito’s art may feel eerily familiar, even if you’ve never read his books. His latest, “The Liminal Zone,” scares readers in all new ways.
May 21, 2025
In Her Follow-Up to ‘American Dirt,’ Jeanine Cummins Turns to Puerto Rico
In the novel “Speak to Me of Home,” three generations of women in one family grapple with their identities.
May 21, 2025
The Best Small-Town Romance Novels
The romance author Ashley Poston recommends books bursting with quaint charm, sizzling banter and plenty of heart.
May 21, 2025
In a First, a Story Collection Wins the International Booker Prize
Banu Mushtaq’s “Heart Lamp,” translated by Deepa Bhasthi, had received little notice in Britain or the United States before Tuesday. Now, it’s won the major award for translated fiction.
May 20, 2025
They Moved to Honduras to Do Good. That Meant Getting Their Hands Dirty.
In “Bear Witness,” Ross Halperin tells the story of two men who went from idealists to pragmatists.
May 20, 2025
These Boomer Radicals in Vermont Just Want to Be ‘Good Progressives’
Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel, “Spent,” is a domestic comedy about ethical consumption under capitalism.
May 20, 2025
A Father and Daughter Caught in the No Man’s Land of Migration
Madeleine Thien’s time-warping historical novel “The Book of Records” collapses centuries and geographies in an ambitious family saga.
May 20, 2025
A Brilliantly Offbeat Novel of Art and Women’s Wrestling in 1970s New York
First published in 1972, Rosalyn Drexler’s “To Smithereens” throws two vivid subcultures — and two unlikely lovers — into the ring.
May 20, 2025
14 Million Books Later, Jim Butcher Thinks His Wizard Detective Needs a Hug
Now in its 25th year, The Dresden Files and its author have survived the darkness, fictional and otherwise.
May 19, 2025
Do You Know These Novels and Their Screen Adaptations?
So many books have inspired British costume dramas and this quiz gives you a chance to show how many you recognize.
May 19, 2025
4 Audiobooks To Listen To Now
Lauren Christensen, an editor at the New York Times Book Review, recommends four of her favorite audiobooks.
May 19, 2025
Dave Barry Is 77 and Still a Clown, Here to Amuse You
The beloved humor columnist looks back on a long career of wit and wisdom in a new memoir.
May 19, 2025
Hey ChatGPT, Which One of These Is the Real Sam Altman?
Two journalists explore the artificial intelligence company OpenAI and present complementary portraits of its notorious co-founder.
May 19, 2025
3 Nerve-Shredding New Thrillers
Our critic on the month’s best releases.
May 19, 2025
An Undocumented Life, With Recipes
In the searing “Dirty Kitchen,” Jill Damatac tells the story of a fight for survival and culture in America.
May 18, 2025
Writing Into the Abyss After the Death of Two Sons
In “Things in Nature Merely Grow,” the novelist Yiyun Li endures the aftermath of unthinkable loss.
May 18, 2025
2 Books to Bring Key West to Life
A poet’s letters; a collection of reminiscences.
May 17, 2025
A Heroine of the French Resistance Gets Her Own Portrait
In “The Art Spy,” Michelle Young shines new light on the heroic French curator Rose Valland.
May 17, 2025
A Noirish Tale of an Irish Town on Edge, Told in 21 Voices
Donal Ryan’s new novel focuses on a small community trying to leave behind years of economic woes.
May 17, 2025
What Ron Chernow Loves About Mark Twain
The Pulitzer-winning presidential biographer discusses his new book about the life of a literary founding father.
May 16, 2025
‘I Don’t Ever Want to Be Free From the Pain of Missing My Children’
Only by writing could the acclaimed novelist Yiyun Li grapple with the suicides of her two sons. But her new book is no ordinary grief memoir.
May 16, 2025
Now We Know. Does Barry Diller Have More to Say?
Beyond disclosures about his sexuality and marriage, the media mogul’s memoir mostly serves up goodies for fans of Hollywood name-dropping and infighting.
May 16, 2025
Ibram X. Kendi Introduces Malcolm X to a New Generation
The National Book Award-winning author shows young readers a humane political philosophy that many adults still fail to appreciate.
May 16, 2025
Apple Used China to Make a Profit. What China Got in Return Is Scarier.
In “Apple in China,” Patrick McGee argues that by training an army of manufacturers in a “ruthless authoritarian state,” the company has created an existential vulnerability for the entire world.
May 15, 2025
6 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
May 15, 2025
He’s Made a Home at the World’s Most Popular Cemetery
In a new book, Benoît Gallot explains what it takes to run Père-Lachaise, where he lives with his wife, children and, he insists, no ghosts.
May 15, 2025
Ed Helms Read ‘Moby-Dick’ on His Phone. On the New York Subway.
With one hand, while standing. It’s the kind of accomplishment that would never make it into his new book, “Snafu: The Definitive Guide to History’s Greatest Screwups.”
May 15, 2025
Nahid Rachlin, Novelist Who Explored the Iranian Psyche, Dies at 85
One of the first Iranian novelists to write in English, she examined the clash between East and West. Her debut novel, “Foreigner,” provided insight into pre-revolutionary Iran.
May 14, 2025
The ‘American Dirt’ Backlash Nearly Stopped Jeanine Cummins From Writing
Five years later, she has a new novel, “Speak to Me of Home,” which draws directly from her family’s history in Puerto Rico and the Midwest.
May 14, 2025
250 Years of Capitalism: Soulless, Exploitative and All but Unstoppable
A new book by the New Yorker staff writer John Cassidy plumbs more than two centuries’ worth of grievances about our global financial order.
May 14, 2025
Restaurant Critic Confidential
Besha Rodell’s memoir, “Hunger Like a Thirst,” is also a fascinating capsule history of restaurant criticism.
May 14, 2025
A Damning Portrait of an Enfeebled Biden Protected by His Inner Circle
“Original Sin,” by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, depicts an aging president whose family and aides enabled his quixotic campaign for a second term.
May 13, 2025
A New Biography of Mark Twain Doesn’t Have Much of What Made Him Great
Ron Chernow traces the life of a profound, unpredictable and irascibly witty writer.
May 13, 2025
Putin’s Shadow Armies Have Set Their Sights Beyond Ukraine
As President Trump pushes to end the Russian invasion, two books look at the paramilitary Wagner Group and consider the shape of global conflict today.
May 13, 2025
In This Queer Sports Novel, Basketball Is Both Desire and Destruction
In “A Sharp Endless Need,” two female high school athletes get lost in a vortex of passion while grappling with deeper wounds.
May 13, 2025
These 4 People Had Never Met. Now They’re on a Road Trip to Find Dad.
In Kevin Wilson’s novel “Run for the Hills,” half siblings drive cross-country searching for the father who abandoned them.
May 13, 2025
Can You Match These Famous Quotes to Their Novels?
Certain lines in classic novels stand out. See how many you remember in this short quiz.
May 12, 2025
Dark Money, White Power and Colorful Weirdos in Carl Hiaasen’s Latest
“Fever Beach” is a wacky blend of Floridian farce and the perverse politics of our time.
May 12, 2025
Odd Couple Roommates, Bonded by Pills and Precarity
A college dropout becomes caretaker to a Lithuanian widow in Ocean Vuong’s florid new novel, which seeks to find the dignity in dead-end jobs.
May 11, 2025
Is the Trillion-Dollar Wellness Industry a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?
Amy Larocca’s book “How to Be Well” dives deep into the global obsession with so-called health, and the companies that have profited from creating it.
May 11, 2025
Did Andy Warhol Exploit His Superstars? A New Book Says Yes.
Laurence Leamer, the author of “Capote’s Women” and “Hitchcock’s Blondes,” takes the measure of another powerful man and his female muses.
May 10, 2025
In This Novel, Most Abortions Are Illegal. A Clinic Worker Fights Back.
In Hilary Plum’s novel “State Champ,” a mediocre receptionist goes on a hunger strike — only to question the purpose of protest.
May 10, 2025
New Crime Novels With Unexpected Twists
Our columnist on the month’s best releases.
May 10, 2025
A Jewish Promised Land in … Texas? Rachel Cockerell Had to Know More.
Discovering the ways her great-grandfather’s rich life intersected with the hidden history of Zionism led to an unusually crafted new book, “Melting Point.”
May 9, 2025
The Summer Books We’re Looking Forward To
It’s not too early to think about the season’s most anticipated titles.
May 9, 2025
How to Raise Super-Achievers? Hint: It’s Not the Cereal.
In “The Family Dynamic,” Susan Dominus examines what makes some families “exceptional.”
May 9, 2025
Pick Up This Book and Be Spirited Away
“The Village Beyond the Mist” may or may not have inspired the Studio Ghibli masterpiece, but it’s transporting nonetheless.
May 9, 2025
When Childhood Trauma Gives Way to Adult Ambivalence
“Sleep,” the debut novel by Honor Jones, moves back and forth in time between a 35-year-old mother’s present and her disturbing, unresolved past.
May 9, 2025
8 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
May 8, 2025
These Romance Novels Have Big, Dark Secrets
The best-selling romance author Carley Fortune recommends books whose high stakes and buried traumas make their love stories all the more satisfying.
May 8, 2025
José Andrés Picked a Bad Time to Give His Daughter ‘Charlotte’s Web’
“Good choice, Daddy. Very nice,” she said sarcastically, given what he was making for dinner. The chef and humanitarian’s new book is “Change the Recipe.”
May 8, 2025
‘Taking Her Voice’: Hilaria Baldwin Revisits Her Accent Controversy
In a memoir that tries to wrest control of her story, Ms. Baldwin says she was “canceled” via online sleuths who looked for inconsistencies in her Spanish accent.
May 7, 2025
Our Favorite Books for Every Type of Mom
Need a last-minute Mother’s Day gift? Try one of these recent releases.
May 7, 2025
For Women Migrants in the Arabian Peninsula, Work Often Means Violence
Mo Ogrodnik’s novel, “Gulf,” follows characters from different countries and classes confronting the region’s forced stratification into oppressor and oppressed.
May 7, 2025
The Story of Globalization, as Told Through One Big Barge
A new book by the historian Ian Kumekawa tracks the varied career of a gigantic boat in an era of profound economic change.
May 7, 2025
The Best Books of the Year (So Far)
The nonfiction and novels we can’t stop thinking about.
May 7, 2025
Raising a Kid in 2025? There’s an App for That.
As seen through the gimlet eye of the New York Times cultural critic Amanda Hess, millennial parenting is anything but natural.
May 7, 2025
‘James’ Won the Pulitzer, but Not Without Complications
In an unusual but not unprecedented move, the prize board chose a fourth option after it couldn’t agree on the three less-heralded finalists.
May 6, 2025
Was No. 10 Rillington Place the Deadliest Address in London?
In “The Peepshow,” Kate Summerscale tells the stranger-than-fiction story of a sensational murder case that rocked 1950s London.
May 6, 2025
Wildfires, and an Unlikely Romance, Light Up a Lost Paradise
In Franziska Gänsler’s novel, “Eternal Summer,” a tenuous bond forms between strangers stranded in a hotel as the world burns.
May 6, 2025
Two Ambitious Sisters Are Each Other’s Biggest Supporters — and Saboteurs
In “The Original Daughter,” the debut novel by Jemimah Wei, a Singaporean family craters under the weight of ambition, jealousy and things left unsaid.
May 6, 2025
Regrets Aren’t the Only Thing Haunting This Grieving Family
In “The Manor of Dreams,” two sets of women navigate both a contested inheritance and paranormal activity after a devastating death.
May 6, 2025
How to Make Art Under the Nazis (Without Losing Your Soul)
A new novel considers the perplexing life and times of G.W. Pabst, the Austrian filmmaker who worked in the shadow of the Reich.
May 6, 2025
Pulitzer Prizes 2025: A Guide to the Winning Books and Finalists
“James,” by Percival Everett won the fiction prize, and Jason Roberts received the biography prize for “Every Living Thing.”
May 5, 2025
Modern American Poetry: A Starter Pack
Our poetry editor recommends collections that revel in nature, family life, hard work and language.
May 5, 2025
How Well Do You Know the Life and Works of Mark Twain?
Test your memory of this prolific American author and his era.
May 5, 2025
MrBeast’s Latest Challenge: Writing a Novel With James Patterson
Jimmy Donaldson, known to his social media fans as MrBeast, is teaming up with the mega-best-selling thriller author.
May 5, 2025
In Multilevel Marketing, Sleight of Hand Is Simply the Rule of Doing Business
Bridget Read’s “Little Bosses Everywhere” exposes the deceptions of direct-selling companies that make their profit not off customers but off their own sales force.
May 5, 2025
They Were Identical ‘Twinnies’ Who Charmed Orwell, Camus and More
In “The Dazzling Paget Sisters,” Ariane Bankes unearths the writings of her high-society mother and aunt, getting glimpses at the 20th-century figures with whom they cavorted.
May 4, 2025
José Cuervo: The Man, the Legend, the Equine Tequila Shots
In a new history, Ted Genoways explores the dramatic life of an enigmatic figure who revolutionized his country’s spirits industry.
May 4, 2025
You’ve Attended the Tale of Sweeney Todd. Now Hear Mrs. Lovett’s Story.
A new novel, “The Butcher’s Daughter,” imagines the haunting past of Mrs. Lovett, the infamous baker who assisted the serial killer Sweeney Todd.
May 4, 2025
2 Books to Read Instead of Meditating
A gentle and clever comic novel; a poetic and tender essay on addiction.
May 3, 2025
Survivors of War and Disaster, Seeking Refuge in Math
In “The Deserters,” Mathias Énard weaves the story of a lone soldier with that of a brilliant scholar.
May 3, 2025
An Ojibwe Writer Refuses to Let Her Mother’s Trauma Be in Vain
In “Medicine River,” Mary Annette Pember recounts what happened to her mother, and many like her, who were abused in Indian boarding schools.
May 3, 2025
An Archive of Black Resistance, in Dispatches From Bookstores
Katie Mitchell’s photo book “Prose to the People” visits stores around the United States, from the 19th century to today.
May 2, 2025
A Boy Moves Mountains of Grief as He Climbs All 46 Adirondack High Peaks
Through an arduous summer of hiking, 13-year-old Finn Connelly finds common ground with his late firefighter father in Kate Messner’s new verse novel.
May 2, 2025
The Poetry Challenge Day 5: We’ve learned a poem this week. Now it’s yours.
We’ve reached the last stanza of our adventure in verse. Now it’s time to show off what you’ve learned. As a bonus: our critic on why memorizing a poem is as much about what you forget.
May 2, 2025
7 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
May 1, 2025
Geena Davis Can’t Count How Many Times She’s Reread Zola
Among her other favorites: “Backlash” and a Charles Laughton biography. The Oscar-winning actress just wrote — and illustrated — her first children’s book.
May 1, 2025
The Dirty Little Secret Hiding in Your Garbage Can
In “Waste Wars,” Alexander Clapp shows us in depressing detail just what our Big Junk industry is doing to the rest of the world.
May 1, 2025
The Poetry Challenge Day 4: This poem is about staying up all night. Use it to greet the day.
One day remains to memorize this week’s poem. (You probably already know more than you realize!) Let’s stay merry.
May 1, 2025
Andrew Gross, Best-Selling Writer of Thrillers, Is Dead at 72
A successful New York apparel executive, he switched gears in midlife and became a novelist, writing numerous best sellers, including five with James Patterson.
April 30, 2025
Just Because You Can Prove It Doesn’t Make It True
In a new book, the mathematical epidemiologist Adam Kucharski explains how certainty, even in math, can be an illusion.
April 30, 2025
How Pop Culture Betrayed Millennial Women
In “Girl on Girl,” Sophie Gilbert makes a searing case that trends from the 1990s and 2000s, online and off, damaged young women in deep, dark ways.
April 30, 2025
In a Nazi-Era Filmmaker’s Compromises, a Novelist Finds Reasons to Fear
Daniel Kehlmann wrote “The Director” only to realize how loudly the moral quandaries faced by G.W. Pabst would resonate today.
April 30, 2025
24 Books Coming in May
Novels by Stephen King and Ocean Vuong, Ron Chernow’s latest blockbuster biography, a new graphic novel by Alison Bechdel and more.
April 30, 2025
Swoony Romance Novels That Will Upend Your World
Our columnist on the month’s best new releases.
April 30, 2025
Lush, Luminous New Historical Fiction
Our critic on the month’s best releases.
April 30, 2025
The Poetry Challenge Day 3: This is a New York poem. Once you learn it, you can take it anywhere.
You can take a poem with you anywhere, but knowing its origins can help make it yours. Practice by playing our poetry emoji game.
April 30, 2025
The Unsentimental, Acerbic and Deeply Compassionate Fiction of Jane Gardam
The British author, best known for her “Old Filth” trilogy, never paid much attention to literary fashion, and her 22 novels range widely in genre, tone and style.
April 29, 2025
Jane Gardam, Witty Novelist of a Waning British Empire, Dies at 96
“The Queen of the Tambourine,” “Old Filth” and other fiction vividly captured both working-class and aristocratic Britain in the last years of the colonial era.
April 29, 2025
A Graphic Novelist Digs Up His Childhood, One Ginseng Root at a Time
Craig Thompson’s new book revisits his upbringing on a farm in rural Wisconsin, and the farmers — both American-born and not — who made up his community.
April 29, 2025
Healing the Scars Left by America’s Indian Boarding Schools
In “Medicine River,” Mary Annette Pember examines a national shame — and the trauma it wrought in her own family.
April 29, 2025
Rick Atkinson Makes the American Revolution Come Brilliantly Alive
The second installment of the Pulitzer Prize winner’s trilogy about the war animates an entire world — from battlefields and commanders to sounds and smells.
April 29, 2025
Immigration Has Always Been Complex. Just Ask the People Who Built U.S. Railroads.
In “Strangers in the Land,” Michael Luo tells the story of the Chinese workers lured to the United States and expelled when 19th-century politicians turned against them.
April 29, 2025
The Poetry Challenge Day 2: How rhythm and rhyme make a poem memorable.
Today, we help you pay attention to the sound and feel of this week’s poem. Play our game to see how much you’ve already learned.
April 29, 2025
Peter Lovesey, a Master of British Whodunits, Is Dead at 88
He wrote a series of witty police procedurals set in Victorian England and then turned to the present, introducing a cantankerous and technology-averse detective.
April 28, 2025
Fill in the Blank: Which U.S. Cities Are in These Book Titles?
Try this short literary geography quiz.
April 28, 2025
The Brash, Working-Class Londoner Who Redefined New York’s Restaurants
Keith McNally tracks his staggering successes — and failures — in his new memoir, “I Regret Almost Everything.”
April 28, 2025
The Poetry Challenge Day 1: Learn a poem with us this week. Keep it for a lifetime.
Starting today, we’ll have a week of games, videos and essays to help you along the way. First up: readings by Ina Garten, Ethan Hawke and Ada Limón.
April 28, 2025
A Hollywood Memoir Spiked With Drama and Melancholy
In “The Golden Hour,” Matthew Specktor ponders, among others, the father who succeeded in a punishing business now in its waning glory.
April 27, 2025
In TikToks and a Memoir, a Nun Makes the Unexpected Case for Convent Life
Though she long felt a calling, Sister Monica Clare tried Hollywood first. Her book, and a visit, confirm the warmth — and fragility — of her new community.
April 27, 2025
2 Books for Cluttered Minds
A spare elegy; a weird journey.
April 26, 2025
3 New Horror Novels About the Haunting Power of Family
Our columnist reviews this month’s releases.
April 26, 2025
At 13, Charlotte Brontë Already Knew How Good a Writer She Would Be
An anthology of her teenage poetry, published for the first time, shows ambition, even if the verse isn’t perfect.
April 25, 2025
Book Club: Let’s Talk About Adam Ross’s ‘Playworld’
This off-kilter coming-of-age novel about one boy growing up in New York in the 1980s is detailed, digressive and capable of tracking the most minute shifts in emotional weather.
April 25, 2025
Book Club: Read ‘The Safekeep,’ by Yael van der Wouden, With the Book Review
In May, the Book Review Book Club will read and discuss “The Safekeep,” Yael van der Wouden’s novel about a woman wrapped up in a historical drama and a forbidden romance.
April 25, 2025
I’ve Read ‘Strega Nona’ 100 Times. Now I Feel Sorry for Her Sidekick.
As Tomie dePaola’s classic approaches a milestone birthday, Big Anthony is long overdue for a bit of sympathy.
April 25, 2025
Sign Up for the Book Review’s First-Ever Challenge
(It’s about poetry. And you’ll love it.)
April 24, 2025
7 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
April 24, 2025
A Dark Fairy Tale of a Young Princess and Her Horrible Husband
In her sprightly new biography, “The Rebel Romanov,” Helen Rappaport introduces us to the enigmatic Julie of Saxe-Coburg.
April 24, 2025
3 Books About Tech, Politics and Big Business
Experts tell the stories of entrepreneurs and executives who have inched closer and closer to their governments.
April 24, 2025
Rick Atkinson Doesn’t Want to Stand on a Soapbox
Being a storyteller is just fine with the journalist turned historian. “The Fate of the Day,” the second volume in his American Revolution trilogy, is out this month.
April 24, 2025
Go to Mars, Never Die and Other Big Tech Pipe Dreams
In “More Everything Forever,” the science journalist Adam Becker subjects Silicon Valley’s “ideology of technological salvation” to critical scrutiny.
April 23, 2025
Poems That Lean Into Calm and Joy Amid Life’s Chaos
In four new collections, a frank look at disability, a celebration of domestic life (and dogs), a gathering of hushed moments and a clutch of myth-inflected reveries.
April 23, 2025
Being Married to Timothy Leary Was Tough. It Helped to Be High.
Susannah Cahalan traces the life of Rosemary Woodruff Leary, who made her husband’s coffee, tripped with him and helped break him out of jail.
April 23, 2025
At a Murder Mystery Party, the (Pretend) Killer Ends Up (Actually) Dead
Louise Hegarty’s novel, “Fair Play,” nods to classic 1920s detective fiction, with a twist.
April 22, 2025
The Marriage, and Ménage à Trois, That Changed Art History
“Gabriële” considers a writer and pivotal figure of the 20th-century avant-garde who nurtured the talents of others.
April 22, 2025
An Engrossing Biography Resurrects an Evangelist Shrouded in Scandal
In “Sister, Sinner,” Claire Hoffman tells the stranger-than-fiction story of Aimee Semple McPherson, whose mysterious life made headlines in the 1920s.
April 22, 2025
Herbert J. Gans, 97, Dies; Upended Myths of Urban and Suburban Life
A leading sociologist, he explored American society up close — living in a Levittown at one point — to gain insight into issues of race, class, the media and even the Yankees.
April 21, 2025
Do You Know These Books That Became Disaster Movies?
Many blockbuster films were inspired by literature and this short quiz tests your knowledge about five of them.
April 21, 2025
Stories That Show How Modern Liberals Have Lost Their Way
In a new collection, Lydia Millet casts a satirical eye on left-wing culture and its array of character types.
April 21, 2025
Peeking Into Joan Didion’s Years of Psychological Thinking
Drawn from her previously unpublished reflections on sessions with a therapist, “Notes to John” is at once slightly sordid and utterly fascinating.
April 21, 2025
A Cartoonist Who Tapped His Own Psyche and Found America’s Unruly Id
R. Crumb’s underground comics were instrumental in shaping the counterculture of the 1960s and beyond, Dan Nadel shows in an exemplary new biography.
April 20, 2025
Why R. Crumb Worked With a Biographer: ‘I Guess I Felt Sorry For You’
Dan Nadel’s “Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life” takes on the good, the bad, the ugly and the weird. Over punk rock vegetarian food, subject and writer compared notes.
April 20, 2025
The Best Forced Proximity Romance Novels
The romance author Beth O’Leary recommends books that show off the trope at its best — playful, knowing, original and deliciously satisfying.
April 20, 2025
2 Memoirs by Rock ’n’ Roll Muses Who Were So Much More
Marianne Faithfull was a star in her own right; Peggy Caserta was a hippie tastemaker. Their memoirs are riveting.
April 19, 2025
Four ‘Eminent Jews’ Walk Into a Book
In his paean to another age, David Denby studies four icons who defined American culture in the second half of the 20th century.
April 19, 2025
Journaling Her Way Through Cancer for the Third Time
Suleika Jaouad’s new book provides a master class in personal writing. Here’s why it’s a worthwhile habit — for everyone, not just English majors.
April 19, 2025
Hauntings Include: Dead Parents, Bad Sex and a Weird Painting of Cher
The stories in Marie-Helene Bertino’s new collection, “Exit Zero,” frolic in the nether zone between fantasy and reality.
April 19, 2025
What It Was Like to Edit the ‘Wolf Hall’ Books
The final novel in Hilary Mantel’s great trilogy has been adapted for TV. Her editor joins us this week to discuss working with Mantel on the books.
April 18, 2025
There’s No People Like Show People
In a new book, the Broadway photographer Jenny Anderson captures the craft and camaraderie of making theater.
April 18, 2025
Swimming to a Mythical Island Called California
Pam Muñoz Ryan’s “El Niño” combines magical realism, climate fiction and coming-of-age sports tales.
April 18, 2025
Everything You Need to Know About Emily Henry
Her best-selling romances have made her a new standard-bearer of the genre.
April 18, 2025
8 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
April 17, 2025
Would Joan Didion Have Wanted the World to See Her Notes on Therapy?
Readers can decide when “Notes to John,” which shows the writer grappling with guilt and vulnerability, is published next week.
April 17, 2025
In 1917, 3 Portuguese Children Saw the Virgin. The Rest Is Top-Secret.
In his personal, engaging new book, “Sorrowful Mysteries,” the novelist and journalist Stephen Harrigan explores the enduring power of the Virgin of Fatima.
April 17, 2025
The Russian Spies Who Lived Among Us — in New Jersey
In his new book, “The Illegals,” Shaun Walker studies the Russian agents who worked deep undercover as Americans for decades.
April 17, 2025
Meghan Daum Has a Plan for Replacing Books Destroyed in the L.A. Fires
She is one of many authors who lost their homes in January. “Surely,” she says, “readers would love nothing more than to send their favorite books to their favorite writers.”
April 17, 2025
Tim Mohr, Berlin D.J. Turned Award-Winning Translator, Dies at 55
An American who had lived abroad, he sought out books by up-and-coming German writers, while ghostwriting memoirs for rock stars like Paul Stanley.
April 16, 2025
Inside a New York City Museum: Flirting, Fund-Raising and Fraud
Heather McGowan’s novel “Friends of the Museum” takes place over a single, chaotic day in the lead-up to a Met-inspired costume gala.
April 16, 2025
A Bold New History Highlights Latin America’s Humanist Ideals
A new book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Greg Grandin offers a fresh account of the region as an incubator of internationalism and commitment to the common good.
April 16, 2025
An Audacious Novelist, Ahead of Her Time, Is Now Getting Her Due
Nettie Jones made a splash in 1984 with her shockingly erotic novel “Fish Tales,” then fell into obscurity. A new edition has put her back in the spotlight.
April 16, 2025
He’s in Love With His Best Friend, but Does His Friend Love Him Back?
In Sean Hewitt’s novel, “Open, Heaven,” two isolated boys develop an intense, undefined relationship.
April 16, 2025
This Global Warming Book Is a Token From Another World
“What’s Left,” by Malcolm Harris, arrives at a particularly difficult time to consider anything beyond our immediate turmoil.
April 15, 2025
The Centuries-Long Struggle to Make English Words Behave
Two new books examine efforts to standardize English orthography and the pronouns at the heart of our culture wars, finding that spelling and usage have never conformed to any rules.
April 15, 2025
A Novel That Takes On Life’s Greatest Mystery: Our Parents
In “The Imagined Life,” a writer searches his home state and his buried memories for answers about his long-lost father.
April 15, 2025
A Personal Ad Saved His Father From the Nazis. That Was Just the Start.
In “I Seek a Kind Person,” Julian Borger tells the riveting story of seven children who escaped wartime Austria thanks to a British newspaper.
April 15, 2025
Can You Uncover the Hidden Titles of a Dozen Recent Best Sellers?
Test your knowledge of the best-selling books (so far) in 2025 and build a reading list along the way.
April 14, 2025
A Memoir of What A.I. Giveth, and What It Taketh Away
“Searches,” by Vauhini Vara, is both a memoir and a critical study of our digital selves.
April 14, 2025
2,000 Years Later, Christians Are Still Worrying About Sex
In “Lower Than the Angels,” the historian Diarmaid MacCulloch traces two millenniums of libidinal frustration.
April 14, 2025
It’s a Mystery. No, It’s a Campus Novel. No, It’s Autofiction.
“The Proof of My Innocence” starts as a political whodunit but soon expands into a collage of literary genres.
April 14, 2025
An Absurd Dystopia Asks, What Happens to Families When Sex Is Taboo?
Sayaka Murata’s novel “Vanishing World” envisions an alternate universe where artificial insemination is the global norm, and sex takes a back seat.
April 14, 2025
Farewell to the Last Writer of the Latin American Boom
The Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa was the world’s savviest and most accomplished political novelist.
April 14, 2025
Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel-Winning Peruvian Novelist, Dies at 89
Mr. Vargas Llosa, who ran for Peru’s presidency in 1990 and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010, transformed episodes from his personal life into books that reverberated far beyond the borders of his native country.
April 14, 2025
He Can Get the Details Right, Except in His Own Messy Life
Austin Kelley gently lampoons high-minded magazines and the fragile men who work at them in his debut novel, “The Fact Checker.”
April 13, 2025
The Long Struggle of Jewish Americans Over Their Country’s Crises
In the midst of ongoing war and protest, politicians and journalists explore the complexities of Jewish American responses to global and national conflicts.
April 13, 2025
Murder, Medicis and Old Masters in a Historical Whodunit
Laurent Binet’s novel “Perspective(s)” begins with an artist lying dead in a Florentine chapel.
April 12, 2025
‘The Great Gatsby’ Is 100, and as Fresh as Ever
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece has left an enduring mark on American culture.
April 11, 2025
Grace Lin’s Long-Awaited New Fantasy Novel Stars Her First Animal Protagonist
A mythical lion cub stuck in the modern world must harness the power of stories to save his family and return home.
April 11, 2025
A Graphic Memoir With the Volume Turned All the Way Up
In “Precious Rubbish,” Kayla E. turns to midcentury children’s comics to help tell her shattering story.
April 11, 2025
He Won a Nobel. These Poems Show Him Finding His Voice.
“Poet in the New World” introduces readers to the often overlooked early work of the Polish master Czeslaw Milosz.
April 11, 2025
8 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
April 10, 2025
Fantasy Novels for People Who Think They Don’t Like Fantasy
Interested in dipping your toe into the genre? The author Leigh Bardugo recommends books that can get you started.
April 10, 2025
All Politics Is Local. In This Novel, It’s Incestuous.
Jon Hickey’s book imagines a cutthroat campaign for control of a Native American reservation.
April 10, 2025
The Forgotten Story of 6 Immigrants Saved From the Titanic
In “The Six,” Steven Schwankert tells an amazing story of survival, slander and mystery.
April 10, 2025
A Tale of Bloodshed and Lost Love in China’s Turbulent Past
“City of Fiction,” a novel by Yu Hua, follows a man on a search for his missing wife amid bandits and warlords.
April 10, 2025
Graydon Carter Thinks ‘Hollywood Wives’ Waylaid His Magazine Career
He bounced back big time with editorships at Spy and Vanity Fair, a glamorous life he details in a new memoir.
April 10, 2025
Vietnamese Americans Are Swept Into Detention Camps in this Comic (Yes) Novel
Four half siblings balance the mundane (internships) and the terrifying (internment) in Kevin Nguyen’s “Mỹ Documents.”
April 10, 2025
A New Thomas Pynchon Novel Is Coming This Fall
Featuring a Depression-era private eye, “Shadow Ticket” will be the 87-year-old writer’s first book since 2013.
April 9, 2025
Faced With Death, He Did the Only Thing He Could: Take Notes
Peter Godwin, who has seen death up close a few times over the course of his life, examines grief and belonging in a new memoir, “Exit Wounds.”
April 9, 2025
The Far Right’s Love-Hate Relationship With Globalization
A new book by the historian Quinn Slobodian examines right-wing figures who have positioned themselves as populist critics of neoliberalism while weaponizing some of its founders’ ideas.
April 9, 2025
Want to Be a Better Friend? Read These Books.
In an era of loneliness, friends are more important than ever. How do we find, and keep, these connections?
April 9, 2025
Criminally Good New Murder Mysteries
Our columnist on the month’s best releases.
April 9, 2025
International Booker Prize Shortlist: 6 Books to Talk About
The nominees for the translated fiction award “don’t shut down debate, they generate it,” said the author Max Porter, who leads the judging panel.
April 8, 2025
The Critic Who Turned the Hate Read Into High Art
“Authority,” a new collection of reviews and essays by the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Andrea Long Chu, showcases her smarts, humor and contempt.
April 8, 2025
When a High School Fight Tears a Community Apart
In “Our Beautiful Boys,” Sameer Pandya uses an altercation at a teen party to stage an urgent conversation about race, gender, parenthood and more.
April 8, 2025
Who Was Jesus? The World May Never Know.
In her new book, “Miracles and Wonder,” Elaine Pagels tries to find the man behind the faith.
April 8, 2025
Buffy Slayed. Their Marriage Didn’t Survive.
In a fizzy joint memoir, Jenny Owen Youngs and Kristin Russo capture what it was like to create a popular podcast for fellow superfans — and how they kept it going even after breaking up.
April 8, 2025
Jennifer Weiner Goes Behind the Music in a Tale of Estranged Sisters
In this affectionate if sometimes off-key novel, a would-be rock star confronts the family drama behind her mother’s brief, blazing career.
April 8, 2025
How Much Do You Know About the History of Books?
Try this short quiz on the material side of reading.
April 7, 2025
Could This Be the Funniest Book Ever Written?
J.P. Donleavy clocks the absurdities of human conduct in his satirical advice guide, “The Unexpurgated Code.”
April 7, 2025
Craving More of ‘The White Lotus’? Read These Books Next
From scathing satires of wealth to murder mysteries set at luxe resorts, these novels are sure to scratch that Mike White itch.
April 7, 2025
Why Did Democrats Let Biden Keep Running in 2024?
Chris Whipple offers an insiders’ account of a disastrous political campaign.
April 7, 2025
Is He a Stranger, Her Son, Her Lover or All Three?
Katie Kitamura’s thrilling new novel, “Audition,” examines the performances we put on for others — and exposes the shams that underpin them.
April 7, 2025
Edward Countryman, Student of the American Revolution, Dies at 80
He wrote influential books exploring the dramatic changes wrought by independence, bringing in overlooked perspectives — what he called “a collision of histories.”
April 6, 2025
Dear Armchair Mountaineers: A Cherished Literary Classic Awaits
Nan Shepherd’s meditative book on the great outdoors is an inspiring guide to stepping away from comforts and routine.
April 6, 2025
Can These Endlessly Complicated Siblings Reunite After Their Mother’s Death?
In Lynn Steger Strong’s new novel, “The Float Test,” one semi-estranged family is forced to come back together amid a crisis.
April 6, 2025
Wordplay, Weirdness and a Guest Appearance by Clint Eastwood
“Thrilled to Death” collects many of Lynne Tillman’s spiky short stories, where dreams tell the truth and glamour mingles with the mundane.
April 6, 2025
2 Books to Keep You Pleasantly Diverted
A collection of autobiographical sketches; a complicated Japanese mystery.
April 5, 2025
How Video Games Ushered In the A.I. Revolution
In “The Thinking Machine,” the journalist Stephen Witt tries to figure out what the Nvidia C.E.O. Jensen Huang sees in the future of artificial intelligence.
April 5, 2025
A Stunning, Hallucinatory Retelling of Greek Myth
In “Tongues,” Anders Nilsen takes the story of Prometheus and sets it in the modern world.
April 5, 2025
Thrillers Suffused With a Dark Sense of Dread
Our critic on the month’s best releases.
April 5, 2025
Frustrated With Dating? These Novels Are for You.
“Liquid: A Love Story” and “Paradise Logic” follow young women searching for love, while commenting on the state of modern romance.
April 5, 2025
Jean Van Leeuwen, 87, Dies; Wrote ‘Oliver Pig’ Series of Children’s Books
She wrote for many ages, from picture books to young adult fiction. Her children led her to create a series of books about two pigs named Oliver and Amanda.
April 4, 2025
Colum McCann on the Surprising Drama of Undersea Cables
The Irish writer’s new novel, “Twist,” is a shipboard adventure about the ragtag crews who repair ruptured information cables deep in the ocean.
April 4, 2025
Sam Keen, Philosopher of the Men’s Movement, Is Dead at 93
“Only men understand the secret fears that go with the territory of masculinity,” he wrote. His message resonated: His book “Fire in the Belly” was a best seller.
April 4, 2025
A Subversive Family Memoir Tinged With Tragedy and Mustard Gas
In “Children of Radium,” Joe Dunthorne explores the absurdity of family histories and his own clan’s complicated past.
April 4, 2025
Childhood Memories of Connecting Through Cartooning
Mine came flooding back as I read Raina Telgemeier and Scott McCloud’s “The Cartoonists Club” and Jerry Craft and Kwame Alexander’s “J vs. K.”
April 4, 2025
30 Years Ago, This Book Saw the Coming Backlash Against Elites
Christopher Lasch’s “The Revolt of the Elites” anticipated the resentments of ordinary Americans that have led inexorably to Trumpism.
April 4, 2025
Beatlemania: A Penetrating New Book Celebrates Lennon and McCartney
T Bone Burnett reviews Ian Leslie’s “John & Paul,” which explores the partnership of “two extraordinarily gifted young men.”
April 3, 2025
7 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
April 3, 2025
A Pandemic Puppy Inspired Reginald Dwayne Betts’s New Book
It’s called “Doggerel” for a reason: “These are poems that speak to everyone, that pun and riff and make fun of themselves a bit as they reveal something about the world.”
April 3, 2025
Let Us Help You Find Your Next Book: Fantasy
Whether you're looking for a classic or the latest and greatest, start here.
April 2, 2025
The Alienated, Irresistible Man in a Novel Stripped to the Bones
In his new book, David Szalay offers unvarnished scenes from a lonely, rags-to-riches life.
April 2, 2025
Why Are We So Fascinated by Cults?
Two new books use divergent styles to look at mind control, brainwashing and the outer limits of influence.
April 2, 2025
After a Terminal Cancer Diagnosis, a Lawyer Seeks Revenge
In Ariel Courage’s novel, “Bad Nature,” a powerful career woman sets out on a road trip intending to kill her father.
April 1, 2025
In These Poems Life Is a Party, Complete With Designer Drugs
Alex Dimitrov’s fifth collection, “Ecstasy,” offers a rollicking paean to pleasure.
April 1, 2025
A Victim of Childhood Rape Close-Reads Her Past
In “Sad Tiger,” the French author Neige Sinno analyzes her memories of being abused as a child, alongside literature about incest and pedophilia.
April 1, 2025
Mum and Dad Won’t Toss the Rubbish. There’s a Llama in the Kitchen. Help!
In “The Usual Desire to Kill,” Camilla Barnes finds the humor in a daughter’s aggravating visits to her aging parents at their run-down home in rural France.
April 1, 2025
In Espionage and War, Secure Communication Is Key. Just Ask These Spies.
As Americans scrutinize the accidental leak of a high-level U.S. group chat, several books detail other mishaps in the annals of global conflict.
March 31, 2025
She Wrote Last Summer’s Hit Thriller. Naturally, TV Was Next.
Suddenly Liz Moore blazed, comet-like, onto small screens and best-seller lists. But her writing career has been a slow burn.
March 31, 2025
Do You Know Where These Jazz Age Novels Are Set?
Even though it’s been more than a century since some of these novels roared onto the literary scene, they all remain classics of the era. Try this short quiz to see how many you remember.
March 31, 2025
This Is Your Brain on Politics
A new book by the neuroscientist Leor Zmigrod explores the connections between brain biology and political beliefs.
March 31, 2025
20 Books Coming in April
A posthumous Joan Didion book, Emily Henry’s latest romance novel, Tina Knowles’s memoir and more.
March 31, 2025
When Cutting Ties Is the Best Thing a Child Can Do
In “The Power of Parting,” Eamon Dolan makes a persuasive case for eliminating contact with family members whose abusive behavior can’t be redeemed.
March 30, 2025
A Slow-Burn Thriller Set on the Appalachian Trail
In “Heartwood,” when an experienced hiker named Valerie vanishes, other women must crack the case.
March 30, 2025
Wife, Tigress, Influencer, Accountant, Nurse, Muse, Mystery
In Michèle Gerber Klein’s new biography, “Surreal,” Gala Dalí gets her due.
March 30, 2025
The Essential Tanith Lee
The eclectic, prolific author wrote more than 90 novels — primarily fantasy and science fiction, but also horror, erotica, mysteries and historical fiction. If you’ve never read her work, here’s where to start.
March 30, 2025
Molly Young on Space and Music
A Booker-winning novel; a rocking essay collection.
March 29, 2025
The Story of Crypto’s Rise: Tangled, Confusing and Frustrating
In “The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto,” Benjamin Wallace is hot on the trail of the person — or people — behind a financial revolution.
March 29, 2025
How Anarchists Helped Build Up Free Speech
As two recent books show, free speech protections were forged a century ago by people who fought for the rights of activists.
March 29, 2025
A Novel That Offers a Chilling Peek Into U.S. Intelligence
“The Snares,” by Rav Grewal-Kök, examines the perils and moral quandaries of clandestine service.
March 29, 2025
3 Horror Novels That Put an Extra-Terrifying Spin on Death
Our columnist reviews this month’s releases.
March 29, 2025
Book Club: Let’s Talk About Han Kang’s ‘We Do Not Part’
This Korean novel by the 2024 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature turns a pet-sitting mission into a haunting reflection on grief and memory.
March 28, 2025
The ‘Stuff’ of a New York Legend, From Skateboards to $12,000 Sweaters
A new book collects the Paper Magazine co-founder Kim Hastreiter’s most treasured belongings, and friends.
March 28, 2025
Book Club: Read ‘Playworld,’ by Adam Ross, With the Book Review
In April, the Book Review Book Club will read and discuss “Playworld,” Adam Ross’s off-kilter coming-of-age novel about one boy growing up in New York in the 1980s.
March 28, 2025
Historical Fantasy Novels Offer a Magical Escape Into the Past
The author of “The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi” recommends fantastical tales grounded in real history.
March 28, 2025
Thrilling, Lush New Historical Fiction
Our critic on the month’s best releases.
March 28, 2025
The American Picture Book’s Unsung Parent: Japan
Missing for decades from the Anglophile version of its origin story was another great visual narrative tradition, of the East.
March 28, 2025
It’s Gatsby’s World, We Just Live in It
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel turns 100 this year. What does its hero tell us about how we see ourselves?
March 27, 2025
8 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
March 27, 2025
The Truth About F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Drunken Brawl in Rome
Biographers took an account of a scuffle in “Tender Is the Night” as a record of a real-life event. But uncovered documents suggest Fitzgerald may have behaved worse than he wrote.
March 27, 2025
Maggie Smith Has Had to ‘Unlearn’ Her Identity as a Poet
“I’ve had to set that limiting belief aside,” she says, “in order to write other kinds of books without feeling like an interloper.” Her new guidebook is called “Dear Writer.”
March 27, 2025
4 Shattering Romance Novels With Glorious Payoffs
Our critic on the month’s best new releases.
March 26, 2025
L.J. Smith, Author of ‘Vampire Diaries’ Book Series, Dies at 66
She wrote seven books in a series that went on to be a hit TV show. After she was replaced by ghostwriters, she reclaimed her characters online in fan fiction.
March 26, 2025
Dennis McDougal, True-Crime Writer and Hollywood Muckraker, Dies at 77
The author of more than a dozen books and an award-winning documentary, he died in a car crash in Southern California.
March 26, 2025
For Joan Didion, Mementos of Her Daughter’s Childhood Became Material
The opening of the Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne archives in the New York Public Library reveals unseen aspects of their family life, and approach to writing.
March 26, 2025
Working While Homeless: In America, It’s All Too Common
A new book by the journalist Brian Goldstone puts a spotlight on people who have jobs but no homes, whose struggles remain largely invisible.
March 26, 2025
In This 1910 True Crime Story, the Victim Finally Gets Some Respect
Hallie Rubenhold’s “Story of a Murder” chronicles a killing, featuring sex, dentures and tightrope walkers.
March 25, 2025
Before QAnon and the Deep State, There Was Iron Mountain
A new book by Phil Tinline recounts the history of a 1967 hoax and its ongoing influence as source code for antigovernment conspiracy theories.
March 25, 2025
A Refugee Odyssey Unfolds in a Novel Full of Unknowns
Boris Fishman’s new book follows a family that leaves a war-torn country for a shot at asylum in the United States.
March 25, 2025
Dag Solstad, 83, Dies; His Novels of Alienation Delighted Norwegians
A winner of top awards in his country, he drew the attention of European and American critics. The prime minister said he “made us see Norway and the world in new ways.”
March 24, 2025
Do You Know the Classic Works That Inspired These Popular Family Movies?
Try this quiz on beloved literature that was memorably adapted for the screen.
March 24, 2025
Affirmative Action Is Gone. Can Class-Based Admissions Replace It?
Richard D. Kahlenberg has long argued for colleges to weigh socioeconomic status to promote diversity. His position is more relevant than ever.
March 24, 2025
One Exhilarating, Excruciating Night in Nell Zink’s Berlin
The city’s varied discontents skip into the spotlight in Zink’s new novel, “Sister Europe.”
March 24, 2025
Is This Mysterious Swedish Commune an Eden or a Nightmare?
Annika Norlin’s novel, “The Colony,” follows a group of misfits in a bucolic forest. The only thing its members share is a dark past.
March 24, 2025
8 Great Noir Thrillers
Sara Gran — whose 2003 novel of demonic possession, “Come Closer,” is a cult favorite — recommends her favorites.
March 24, 2025
9 Months Pregnant, and Navigating the Apocalypse
Emma Pattee’s debut novel, “Tilt,” takes place in the 24 hours after “the really big one” devastates the Pacific Northwest.
March 23, 2025
Yoko Ono, Demonized No Longer
David Sheff’s new biography convincingly argues for John Lennon’s widow as a feminist, activist, avant-garde artist and world-class sass.
March 23, 2025
A Novel Explores the Undersea Cables That Connect the World
The crew in Colum McCann’s new book makes complex repairs deep in the ocean. Human bonds prove harder to mend.
March 23, 2025
A Hare, a Fox, an Owl, a Snail: Animal Memoirs Are Going Wild
Books about writers’ dogs and cats are a literary staple. Now there’s a booming subset of memoirs about writers’ relationships with less domestic creatures.
March 23, 2025
What if We Select Ourselves Out of Existence?
Parents looking to promote health and intelligence in their children can pick and choose their embryos now. There could be more downsides than we think.
March 23, 2025
Thomas Hoobler, Half of a Prolific Writing Couple, Dies at 82
He and his wife, Dorothy Hoobler, wrote 103 books, most recently one about presidential love letters, “Are You Prepared for the Storm of Love Making?”
March 22, 2025
2 Books With Celebrity Cameos
A memoir of Greenwich Village; an Argentine story collection.
March 22, 2025
‘There but Not There’: A Husband’s Dementia Leaves His Wife Reeling
In the novel “Counting Backwards,” by Binnie Kirshenbaum, an artist grieves the loss of her husband to Lewy body disease.
March 22, 2025
Classic Private-Eye Detective Novels: A Starter Pack
Our crime columnist recommends books starring hard-boiled investigators who are ready to travel down the meanest streets to root out the darkest truths.
March 21, 2025
V.E. Schwab’s Favorite Cross-Genre Fantasy Novels
The author of “The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue” recommends books that weave the fantastical into mystery, horror, romance and more.
March 21, 2025
Life Isn’t Perfect. But This Poem Might Be.
“Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers,” by Adrienne Rich, is a blazing portrait of an artist and her work. Our critic A.O. Scott admires its craft — and its wildness.
March 21, 2025
A Servant Girl in 1776 Boston Fights Her Own Battle for Independence
Laurie Halse Anderson returns to the Revolutionary War era with a timely new novel for young readers.
March 21, 2025
Aleksei Navalny Among National Book Critics Circle Award Winners
Hisham Matar won the fiction prize, and Sandra Cisneros received the lifetime achievement award.
March 21, 2025
9 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
March 20, 2025
Robert E. Ginna Jr., Whose Article Bolstered U.F.O. Claims, Dies at 99
A founding editor of People, he also served as editor in chief of Little, Brown and produced films. But his public image was defined by a 1952 story for Life.
March 20, 2025
John Green Is Obsessed With Tuberculosis. His New Book Explains Why.
In a new nonfiction book, the Y.A. novelist describes the disease as a window into “the folly and brilliance and cruelty and compassion of humans.”
March 20, 2025
Nell Zink Couldn’t Have Written a Book Had She Stayed in the U.S.
Working to cover rent and insurance, “I turned out a two-page story every three months,” she says. “At that rate a novel would take 25 years.” She lives in Germany, the setting of her sixth, “Sister Europe.”
March 20, 2025
After Years of Prescription Pills, She Is Unmedicated and Unapologetic
In “Unshrunk,” Laura Delano chronicles her struggles with mental illness — and the endless parade of pills meant to treat it.
March 20, 2025
A Dyslexic Comedian Walks Into a Recording Booth …
Writing a memoir was no laughing matter for Phil Hanley. Narrating the audiobook took 16 sessions, 64 hours and a supportive audience.
March 19, 2025
A Vivid, Engrossing Biography of an Art-World Contrarian
In “The Maverick’s Museum,” Blake Gopnik presents the contradictory, intriguing, infuriating man behind the Barnes Collection.
March 19, 2025
Every Breath You Take Is Loaded With Meaning
In a new book, the psychoanalyst Jamieson Webster considers how the air we share connects us to others.
March 19, 2025
This Paranormal Investigator’s Next Case: Cracking an Ancient Curse
In “The Haunting of Room 904,” a woman who can commune with spirits is pulled into a sweeping conspiracy tied to a Native American massacre.
March 19, 2025
J.F.K., Blown Away, What Else Do I Have to Say?
Why the newly released documents won’t put out the fire.
March 19, 2025
D.G. Hessayon, Author of Blockbuster Garden Guides, Dies at 96
His “Be Your Own House Plant Expert” and other best-selling manuals were a fixture of British life for half a century. Among his many fans was Margaret Thatcher.
March 18, 2025
A Propulsive, Brutal ‘Hunger Games’ Prequel Is Here. And It’s Great.
“Sunrise on the Reaping,” by Suzanne Collins, explores the devastating story of Haymitch Abernathy, a mentor in the original “Hunger Games” novels.
March 18, 2025
No Sense of an Ending: A Stale Offering From a Great Writer
In “Changing My Mind,” the novelist Julian Barnes presents an argument for the joys of flexibility.
March 18, 2025
Can Democrats Learn to Dream Big Again?
In “Abundance,” Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson prod fellow liberals to think beyond their despair over Trump’s return to power.
March 18, 2025
Revolution Freed Their Country, and Upended Their Lives
In the novel “Theft,” by the recent Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah, three characters navigate messy relationships in 1980s Tanzania.
March 18, 2025
From Welcoming New Life to Mourning Its Loss, in 22 Weeks
In the memoir “Firstborn,” Lauren Christensen writes about losing the daughter she was expecting.
March 17, 2025
Can You Uncover These 13 Hidden Book Titles?
See how many works of prose and poetry by popular Irish authors you can find in this short scene — and build a reading list along the way.
March 17, 2025
While Her Body Struggles to Stay Alive, Her Brain Writes Porn
Saou Ichikawa’s award-winning novel, “Hunchback,” is narrated by an heiress with a rare genetic disorder and a brilliant, cynical mind.
March 17, 2025
3 Heart-Pounding, High-Stakes New Thrillers
Our columnist on the month’s best releases.
March 17, 2025
So a Lesbian Clown and a 50-Something Magician Go on a Date
Kristen Arnett’s new novel, “Stop Me if You’ve Heard This One,” follows a woman grappling with grief and love while pursuing her true passion: clowning.
March 17, 2025
The Alternate Futures of a Family of Holocaust Survivors
In Stuart Nadler’s novel “Rooms for Vanishing,” four characters search for and grieve one another across separate timelines.
March 16, 2025
A Missing Child Washes Ashore After 20 Years. He Hasn’t Aged a Day.
In “The Fisherman’s Gift,” a man finds a lost child on a Scottish beach after a storm, a discovery that unlocks a town’s suppressed drama.
March 16, 2025
A Paper Where the News Really Is Fake, and That’s the Point
In “Funny Because It’s True,” Christine Wenc offers an idiosyncratic history of The Onion, the publication that made the media its chief satirical target.
March 16, 2025
She Survived Horror, and Then She Went to Space
In “Saving Five,” Amanda Nguyen tells a winding story of pain, justice and stratospheric accomplishment.
March 15, 2025
There’s a New ‘Hunger Games’ Novel. Here’s What You Need to Know.
“Sunrise on the Reaping” further expands the world of Panem, focusing on Haymitch Abernathy’s story.
March 15, 2025
He’s Undead, He’s Indigenous, and He Wants Revenge on America
In “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter,” a Blackfeet man becomes a vampire and seeks vengeance for the country’s sins.
March 15, 2025
2 Middle-Aged Couples, a Hot-Air Balloon Crash and Many Bad Decisions
Marcy Dermansky’s novel “Hot Air” plunges two couples — one old, one new; one rich, one not — into the deep end, together.
March 15, 2025
He Dreamed Up Bosch and the Lincoln Lawyer. It All Started With L.A.
For almost four decades, Michael Connelly has set his characters loose in a city of big dreams and lucky breaks. Now they’re facing an altered landscape. So is he.
March 15, 2025
Herman Graf, Who Helped Sell ‘Tropic of Cancer,’ Dies at 91
A major figure in independent publishing, he promoted Henry Miller’s once-banned book and helped make “A Confederacy of Dunces” a best seller after the author’s death.
March 14, 2025
Graydon Carter’s Memoir Evokes the Golden Age of New York City Media
The former Vanity Fair editor reflects on an era’s power moves and expense-account adventures in a new memoir.
March 14, 2025
Was She Crazy? Immoral? Menstruating? Or Just a Murderer?
When a woman shot her married lover in 1870s San Francisco, all of America took sides.
March 14, 2025
Making America Red-Scared Again
In “Red Scare,” Clay Risen shows how culture in the United States is still driven by the political paranoia of the 1950s.
March 14, 2025
What the Alluring ‘She-Wolf’ of Brazilian Literature Wanted Kids to See
In her children’s stories, Clarice Lispector disguised philosophical questions in cheerful, kooky fables about exuberant animals with places to be.
March 14, 2025
A Satire of the Expat’s Berlin: Utopian, Urbane, Unstable
Vincenzo Latronico’s novel “Perfection” explores the creative capital of Europe in its heyday.
March 14, 2025
Felice Picano, Champion of Gay Literature, Is Dead at 81
At a time when, in his words, “nobody was writing about gay life,” he produced groundbreaking novels and memoirs and published books by Harvey Fierstein and others.
March 13, 2025
John Feinstein, Who Wrote ‘A Season on the Brink,’ Dies at 69
A longtime columnist for The Washington Post, he also wrote dozens of books about basketball, baseball, tennis, football and the Olympics.
March 13, 2025
Jennifer Johnston, 95, Novelist Who Probed Ireland’s Fault Lines, Dies
She explored tensions among the social classes and within families in fiction that prompted Roddy Doyle to call her “Ireland’s greatest writer.”
March 13, 2025
8 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
March 13, 2025
2 Memoirs by Women of the Bad Boy Chef Era Leave a Bittersweet Taste
New accounts of working in a man’s world — and that world’s comeuppance — are long on boldface names and even longer on personality.
March 13, 2025
Tori Amos Saw a New Side to Baltimore Thanks to Russell Baker
His memoir “Growing Up” depicted her hometown “like a shining city on a hill.” Other authors who mean a lot to the musician (and now children’s book writer): Kevyn Aucoin and Hilary Mantel.
March 13, 2025
Sick, or Overthinking It? This Writer Will Be the Judge.
What started as a scholarly study becomes, in Will Rees’s hands, a freewheeling journey into our brains and souls.
March 13, 2025
24 Works of Fiction to Read This Spring
Watch for a new “Hunger Games” prequel; a quirky romance from Emily Henry; novels by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Ocean Vuong; and more.
March 12, 2025
21 Nonfiction Books to Read This Spring
A posthumous collection of Joan Didion’s diaries, biographies of Yoko Ono and Mark Twain, a history of The Onion — and plenty more.
March 12, 2025
Amid a Dust Storm and a Depression, 5 Pioneers Reap What They’ve Sown
Karen Russell’s “The Antidote” is set in 1930s Nebraska, when the promising days of the American frontier are over, and white settlers reckon with the consequences of overfarming.
March 12, 2025
I’ll Have the Psychedelic Dystopia With Everything on It
Fernando A. Flores’s new novel imagines a bleak world where books are illegal and deprivation is the norm. It’s a blast.
March 12, 2025
The Americans Who Ran Guns for the I.R.A.
“The Next One Is for You” chronicles the effects of the Troubles on both sides of the Atlantic.
March 11, 2025
NPR Has Always Been Fighting for Its Life
A new book by Steve Oney traces the public radio network’s turbulent history as it once again becomes a political target.
March 11, 2025
A Murder Mystery in the West Bank, With an Unlikely Duo on the Case
In Lawrence Wright’s new thriller, an Arab American F.B.I. agent and an Israeli cop take on an intractable conflict.
March 11, 2025
How the Movies Made Joan Didion a Great American Writer
A new book by Alissa Wilkinson argues that the iconic writer’s imagination and signature style were profoundly shaped by Hollywood.
March 11, 2025
Bookish Beefs: Do You Know the Great Author Feuds of Modern Literature?
Try this short quiz on writers who had very public spats with each other.
March 10, 2025
A Facebook Insider’s Exposé Alleges Bad Behavior at the Top
“Careless People,” a memoir by a former Facebook executive, portrays feckless company leaders cozying up to authoritarian regimes.
March 10, 2025
A Melancholy Yiddish Classic That Also Happens to Be Hilarious
“Sons and Daughters,” Chaim Grade’s serialized novel about Jewish life in 1930s Europe, has been published in English for the first time.
March 10, 2025
The Cops Thrashed Him. Madonna, Spike Lee and Toni Morrison Took Notice.
Elon Green’s telling of the life and death of the artist Michael Stewart is filled with heartbreaking echoes of the present.
March 10, 2025
Geoff Nicholson, Author of Darkly Comic Novels, Dies at 71
In more than a dozen books, he created characters who were obsessed with maps, urban walking, sexual fetishes and Volkswagen Beetles.
March 9, 2025
A Nanny on the Run With Someone Else’s Daughter
“The Tokyo Suite” explores class divisions in contemporary Brazil via the twinned stories of a high-powered TV executive and the desperate caretaker of her child.
March 9, 2025
For These Women, It’s Kill or Be Killed
Our critic on Deanna Raybourn’s “Kills Well With Others” and three more new books.
March 9, 2025
2 Books From Other Shores
A memoir of Italy; notes on Canada.
March 8, 2025
Take a Deep Breath. If You Dare.
In “Air-Borne,” his detailed and gripping account of aerobiology, Carl Zimmer uncovers the mysteries filling our lungs.
March 8, 2025
Think Gender Is Messy? Wait Until You Read These Stories.
In “Stag Dance,” Torrey Peters probes the complicated, evolving realities of queerness and trans life.
March 8, 2025
Uri Shulevitz, 89, Acclaimed Children’s Book Author and Illustrator, Dies
A Caldecott Medal winner, he turned childhood memories of fleeing the Nazis in Poland into magical stories.
March 7, 2025
Spring Preview: A Few Books We’re Excited For
Every season brings its share of books to look forward to, and this spring is no different. On this episode Gilbert Cruz and Joumana Khatib talk about a dozen or so titles that sound interesting in the months ahead.
March 7, 2025
The Author of ‘The Help’ Wrote a Second Novel. Yes, Following Up Was Daunting.
Fifteen years ago, Kathryn Stockett’s debut novel became a best seller, but was also heavily criticized for its portrayal of Black characters. Now, she has written second novel, “The Calamity Club.”
March 7, 2025
A Garden Writer’s Novel Bears Fruit
In Linda Joan Smith’s “The Peach Thief,” an orphaned girl posing as a boy raids an English Eden.
March 7, 2025
She Brings Diverse Voices to Book Publishing
Sally Kim, president and publisher at Little, Brown and Company, wants to give everyone a seat at the table.
March 7, 2025
After an Abortion and a Separation, a 30-Something Flails Toward Adulthood
The novel “Goddess Complex,” by Sanjena Sathian, takes a sharp turn from an existential crisis into a more literal one.
March 7, 2025
How Do You Like Your History? With Imaginative Leaps or Grounded in Fact?
Novelized accounts of historical figures’ lives are hugely popular. But do we really want to draw back the curtain on history and find people talking and acting the way we do?
March 7, 2025
6 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
March 6, 2025
A New Novel After the Nobel? No Pressure, Says Abdulrazak Gurnah.
But a full calendar meant carving out time for “Theft,” his new book and first since winning the prize.
March 6, 2025
Answer 4 Questions. Leave With a Book That Will Get You to Spring.
Tell us a few things about what you like, and we'll give you a spot-on recommendation.
March 5, 2025
A Publisher Pulled a Romance Novel After Criticism From Early Readers
The novel, “Sparrow and Vine” by Sophie Lark, was due out in April from Bloom Books. Readers with advance copies criticized passages that they found racist — or that praised Elon Musk.
March 5, 2025
Pierre Joris, Translator of the ‘Impossible’ Paul Celan, Dies at 78
A notable poet in his own right, he was best known for rendering into English the words of a poet who reacted to the Holocaust by inventing a new version of German.
March 5, 2025
How a Shocking Act of Literary Vandalism Helped a Family Start Again
A cache of family documents led a journalist to discover the source of the wealth that allowed his family to remake life in Australia after surviving World War II in Europe.
March 5, 2025
Trump Is Changing America From the Top. These Groups Did It From the Bottom.
A new book by the historian Linda Gordon considers seven social movements that transformed the country — not all of them for the better.
March 5, 2025
This Writer Isn’t Afraid to Get Weird
In a new essay collection, A. Kendra Greene translates her experiences of our bizarre and marvelous world.
March 5, 2025
He Spent the Pandemic in a Coma. Can He Rebuild His Life?
Jinwoo Chong’s new novel, “I Leave It Up to You,” is a story of food, family and new beginnings after a tragedy.
March 5, 2025
Stories by Harper Lee to Appear for the First Time in a New Collection
Before she published “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Lee had written short stories in which she explored some of its themes and characters.
March 4, 2025
Inside a Sadistic Sisterhood at the End of the World
In Agustina Bazterrica’s new novel, “The Unworthy,” a dystopian future ravaged by climate change has stripped the world of food, water and human connection.
March 4, 2025
Why Putin Can’t Wait to Have McDonald’s Back in Moscow
As the Trump administration pushes for renewed business ties with Russia, a new book looks back at the companies that helped prop up illiberalism in the country.
March 4, 2025
The Archives Tried to Erase Her Family. She Tells Their Story.
A new memoir by the historian Martha S. Jones combines a trenchant analysis of race and the historical record with a homage to other Black women scholars.
March 4, 2025
What if Your Dreams Could Land You in Prison?
In Laila Lalami’s new novel, a woman finds herself trapped in a nightmarish system of surveillance and detention.
March 4, 2025
Laura Sessions Stepp, Who Reported on Teenage Sex, Dies at 73
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, she went on to write about “hookup culture” and young women’s sexual experiences for The Washington Post and in a best-selling book.
March 3, 2025
How Well Do You Know State Capitals? Or Books Set in Them?
If you still remember the 50 U.S. state capital cities from memorizing them in school, you’ll do well on this week’s literary quiz.
March 3, 2025
John Casey, Novelist of Salty, Rough-Hewn Characters, Dies at 86
He won a National Book Award for “Spartina,” beating out novels by Amy Tan and E.L. Doctorow. A longtime professor, he lived for a time without electricity on an island.
March 3, 2025
‘My 10,000 Hours’: The Diaries That Made Helen Garner a Writer
“How to End a Story” collects three volumes of the Australian novelist’s self-conscious, sometimes harrowing journals.
March 3, 2025
When ‘We’ Becomes ‘I’: The Case for Divorce
Two new memoirs show the commonalities — and differences — in the end of every marriage.
March 3, 2025
The 19th-Century Country Houses of Europe’s Jewish Elite
A lavish photo book collects images old and new of elaborate estates, manors, chateaus and Schlosses in the European countryside.
March 2, 2025
320 Years Before the Muppets, the English Took Manhattan
In “Taking Manhattan,” Russell Shorto pays close attention to the darker aspects of colonial life on the island at the center of the world.
March 2, 2025
4 Thriller Novels We Recommend
Sarah Lyall, who writes the monthly thrillers column for The New York Times Book Review, recommends four of her favorite thriller novels.
March 2, 2025
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Aims to ‘Write a Wrong’ in ‘Dream Count’
In her first novel since “Americanah,” she draws on a real-life assault case as she follows the lives of three Nigerian women and one of their former housekeepers.
March 2, 2025
His Pitch to Save His Career: A Podcast About His Dead Best Friend
In Jeremy Gordon’s novel, “See Friendship,” a journalist reinvestigates his past, only to discover the story he was told about his friend’s death wasn’t true.
March 2, 2025
A Turbulent Road Trip to Manhood, Loaded Gun in Tow
Two teenage boys set out north with few plans and plenty of frustrations in Vijay Khurana’s novel, “The Passenger Seat.”
March 2, 2025
2 Books for Jazz Age Enthusiasts
A Scott and Zelda roman à clef; a photo collection of 1920s Paris.
March 1, 2025
An Island Family Faces Rising Waters and an Unexpected Guest
In Charlotte McConaghy’s novel “Wild Dark Shore,” the caretakers of a remote research base brave an escalating crisis.
March 1, 2025
How Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Wrote Her Way Through Loss
When her father died, the author of “Americanah” produced a slim work of nonfiction. When her mother died, she poured her grief into a sprawling 416-page novel.
March 1, 2025
The Tiny Brown Hare Who Taught One Woman to Slow Down
In her memoir, “Raising Hare,” Chloe Dalton describes how a leveret changed her outlook on life during the pandemic and beyond.
March 1, 2025
Antonine Maillet, Writer Who Celebrated Her Native Acadia, Dies at 95
She gave voice to an overlooked French-speaking population in Canada, adapting an archaic language that had survived through oral tradition.
February 28, 2025
Book Club: Let’s Talk About Samantha Harvey’s ‘Orbital’
Harvey’s novel about six astronauts living and working on the International Space Station won the 2024 Booker Prize.
February 28, 2025
3 New Horror Books That Put a Fresh Spin on Old Tropes
Our columnist reviews three new horror books out this month.
February 28, 2025
Joseph Wambaugh, Author With a Cop’s-Eye View, Is Dead at 88
In novels like “The Glitter Dome” and nonfiction works like “The Onion Field,” he took a harsh, unglamorous look at the realities of law enforcement.
February 28, 2025
Book Club: Read ‘We Do Not Part,’ by Han Kang, With the Book Review
In March, the Book Review Book Club will read and discuss “We Do Not Part,” the Nobel laureate Han Kang’s novel about history, tragedy and the work of remembering.
February 28, 2025
Both Sides Now: Two New Takes on Joni Mitchell
Highly personal tributes by the writers Henry Alford and Paul Lisicky each view the singer’s life and artistry through their own prism.
February 28, 2025
21 Books Coming in March
Novels by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Karen Russell, nonfiction by Ezra Klein, new “Hunger Games” and “Wicked” prequels and more.
February 28, 2025
Earth to Young Readers: Take a Look at Me From Space
Leonard S. Marcus brings the wonder of a 1968 snapshot to a new generation.
February 28, 2025
Lose Yourself in Rich, Evocative New Historical Fiction
Our columnist on four standout releases.
February 28, 2025
9 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
February 27, 2025
Drawing the Same Woman for 40 Years: A Master Cartoonist Ages Alongside His Heroine
In “Love and Rockets,” Jaime Hernandez has been chronicling his alter-ego since 1982, telling a sprawling tale of life, love and broken relationships.
February 27, 2025
10 Books to Beat the Winter Cold
Scorching-hot westerns, seafaring adventures and steamy romances are an ideal way to stay toasty this season.
February 27, 2025
This History of a Swiss Bank Is a Dossier of Sleaze
In “Meltdown,” Duncan Mavin describes the grand rise and ignominious fall of a financial behemoth.
February 27, 2025
Don’t Tell, but Mark Greaney Is No Fan of ‘Goldfinger’
The author of the “Gray Man” espionage series grew up on James Bond, but that Ian Fleming novel has too much golf, too little “secret agenting.”
February 27, 2025
How ‘Right-Wing Women’ Found Their Place in the Manosphere
In a newly reissued 1983 book, the radical feminist Andrea Dworkin argued that conservative women understood the reality of male domination.
February 26, 2025
Queer Historical Romance Novels: A Starter Pack
Our columnist recommends books featuring centuries of L.G.B.T.Q. love stories that defy tragedy, laugh in the face of shame and lean into unabashed joy.
February 26, 2025
Trump and Putin Are Coming Together. The World Is Coming Apart.
Even before the new Trump administration began to erode U.S. influence on autocratic countries, a diverse array of experts started to rethink the future of global democracy.
February 26, 2025
A Polyamory Novel for Generation X
The narrator of Ada Calhoun’s autofictional “Crush” strives toward “holiness” — in an extramarital affair.
February 26, 2025
To the Point: Short Novels Dominate International Booker Prize Nominees
Only one of the 13 titles nominated for the prestigious award for fiction translated into English is more than 300 pages long. But it is the one favored by critics.
February 25, 2025
Solving a Head-Spinning Murder Mystery With Literary Analysis
In Cristina Rivera Garza’s novel “Death Takes Me,” a professor becomes both witness and suspect in a gruesome killing spree.
February 25, 2025
She Remembers Everything. Except What Happened to Her Yesterday.
In Karen Thompson Walker’s latest novel, “The Strange Case of Jane O.,” a patient’s unusual symptoms suggest metaphysical mysteries.
February 25, 2025
How Will the West Look Back on the Crisis in Gaza?
Omar El Akkad considers American and European responses to mass suffering in his new book.
February 25, 2025
A Discovery of Lost Pages Brings to Light a ‘Last Great Yiddish Novel’
Editors waited decades for the final manuscript of Chaim Grade’s “Sons and Daughters.” Its appearance shook the Yiddish literary world.
February 24, 2025
Do You Know These Popular Books That Were Adapted for the Screen?
Try this short quiz that highlights the film or television adaptations of novels and memoirs that often have a sharp comic edge.
February 24, 2025
The Banty, Blustering Genius of Earl Weaver
The famous Baltimore Orioles manager gets a vivid new biography, the book equivalent of “a screaming triple into the left field corner.”
February 24, 2025
Curtis Sittenfeld’s New Stories Revel in Life’s Delicious Mess
Her story collection is about the thorny conundrums of being alive.
February 24, 2025
These Books Are Absolutely Unreadable. That’s the Point.
A new exhibition at the Center for Book Arts in New York features a range of items — transistor radios, lanterns, cigarette lighters and more — designed to look like books.
February 23, 2025
Spicy, Sparkling New Romance Novels
Our columnist on the month’s new releases.
February 23, 2025
A Not-So-Straight Line From Little Richard to Bowie to ‘Saturday Night Fever’
In “The Secret Public,” Jon Savage traces how music helped popularize queer culture, from the 1950s through the heyday of disco.
February 23, 2025
2 Books Chock-Full of Worthwhile Ideas
A study of human fatigue; a cranky travel memoir.
February 22, 2025
He Fled the Nazis Before the War. He Came Back to Put His Country on Trial.
In “The Prosecutor,” Jack Fairweather tells the story of Fritz Bauer, the German jurist who helped find Eichmann in Argentina and brought Auschwitz guards to justice.
February 22, 2025
6 Thrilling Novels About Serial Killers
The mystery writer S.A. Cosby picks some of his favorite tales of the human monsters that wait for us in the dark.
February 22, 2025
The Election Just Ended and We Already Have a New Michael Wolff Book
In “All or Nothing,” the Trump biographer shows that he is his favorite subject’s perfect twin.
February 21, 2025