He saw the origins of modern America in the years between 1815 and 1848, when revolutions in technology and media transformed a nation of isolated farms.
His 1968 book, “Chariots of the Gods,” sold hundreds of thousands of copies, but one critic called it a “warped parody of reasoning.”
Sara Levine’s “The Hitch” is a winningly zany portrait of a know-it-all whose beliefs are tested by a supernatural intrusion at a family visit.
Born into exceptional privilege, Belle Burden had it all: love, money, family. Then her marriage fell apart.
Belle Burden shook off her natural reserve to turn her viral divorce essay into “Strangers,” a bracing memoir.
The celebrated author on the challenges of being kind, the benefits of meditation and the reality check of death.
Ante la desgarradora fragilidad de nuestra existencia, son las palabras, las películas, los libros quienes nos extienden una mano salvadora.
The author and the actors Emily Bader and Tom Blyth explain why the movie differs from the novel and raise the possibility of spinoffs.
In “The Cradle of Citizenship,” the journalist James Traub finds that the biggest crisis in education is not what kids are learning, but whether they’re learning anything at all.
“The Old Fire,” an atmospheric new novel by Elisa Shua Dusapin, evokes unresolved family history with subtle heat.
Some members of the group are awaiting trial; some are serving short sentences. In the meantime, with little else to do, they have intense discussions about literature.
The copy of Action Comics No. 1, published in 1938, was stolen from the actor Nicolas Cage in 2000 and recovered more than a decade later.
He was an official in the revolutionary government, then, after the country won independence from France, was imprisoned and eventually wrote from exile.
Despite a ceaseless battle against government censors, he was celebrated as one of his country’s greatest auteurs, winning praise from luminaries like Martin Scorsese.
When not guiding students in a compassionate approach to patient care, he led a tiny publishing imprint that put out a much-rejected debut novel that won a surprise Pulitzer Prize.
Evans’s epistolary tale, about a retired lawyer who spends her days writing to a series of pen pals, became one of last year’s sleeper hits.
In a trilogy of novellas, a writer explores lives haunted by colonialism and slavery.
For Pico Iyer, making his acting debut in the hit movie “Marty Supreme” was the latest journey in a life full of unexpected voyages.
Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense,” published 250 years ago this week, ignited the drive for American independence. That was hardly the end of his strange and winding story.
Jennifer Harlan, an editor at The New York Times Book Review, recommends three books to read before their film adaptation releases this year.
Pioneered by Edward Steichen, Lewis W. Hine and Tana Hoban, photographically illustrated “concept” books have never had a more potentially receptive audience.
In “Sheer,” the novelist Vanessa Lawrence imagines the improbable rise and inglorious fall of a self-made Gen X beauty mogul.
Swoony reads will transport you from the doldrums of winter to a Caribbean resort, a Hamptons beach, the streets of Paris and more.
Reading recommendations from critics and editors at The New York Times.
Starring in the 1992 film adaptation helped launch an eclectic career. “Ongoing” is the book that accompanies a retrospective on her work.
“I’m writing for the kid I used to be,” says Dav Pilkey, who defied expectations to create three blockbuster graphic-novel series.
Trying new things can help boost cognitive reserve. Today, we’ll challenge you with a game.
Abel Ferrara, an icon of down-and-dirty New York cinema who has a key role in ‘Marty Supreme,’ tells the story of his wild career in a frank memoir.
We asked psychologists, researchers and executive coaches for their top recommendations.
Memoirs by Sylvester Stallone and the founder of Barstool Sports; essays from celebrated novelists Jesmyn Ward and Jayne Anne Phillips; and more.
Tayari Jones, Ann Patchett, George Saunders and Veronica Roth return with new novels; Jennette McCurdy makes her fiction debut; and more.
The Shakespearean monologue that is featured twice in “Hamnet” has long informed the movies, often in surprising ways that can make us rethink the words.
“The Freedom Manifesto,” by María Corina Machado, will lay out the Nobel laureate’s vision for a “new era,” its publisher said.
In his enthralling “The Spy in the Archive,” Gordon Corera tells the story of an unlikely hero embedded within the heart of the agency.
In the Goncourt winner “Watching Over Her,” Jean-Baptiste Andrea traces the personal and political entanglements of a sculptor whose swagger belies his physical stature.
In “Advance Britannia,” Alan Allport shows the fighting from the perspective of England and its colonies.
Javier Moro’s new novel focuses on a 19th-century architect who left an indelible imprint on the city.
Try this short quiz to see how many locations you remember from your reading.
“This Is Where the Serpent Lives,” by Daniyal Mueenuddin, recalls the power of Russian classics.
We turn to art to make sense of a life that is heartbreakingly fragile.
“People We Meet on Vacation,” “Wuthering Heights” and “Project Hail Mary” are some of this year’s most anticipated adaptations.
In a useful entry in the growing canon of “quit lit,” Charles Knowles blends science and memoir to persuade readers to cut down on alcohol.
In “Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump,” he argued that focusing on identity obscured a more fundamental injustice: economic inequality.
She stole the show in “And Just Like That …,” but theater is where the actress’s heart lies.
She hand-painted around 80 illustrations for the Rider-Waite deck, which is still used around the world to predict destinies.
He was a founder of More, which skewered the foibles of the press in the 1970s, and later wrote a critical biography of the psychoanalyst Bruno Bettelheim.
Readings that the podcast’s guests say shaped their thinking.
In “American Reich,” the former New York Times journalist Eric Lichtblau dissects the culture of hate that led to the death of a gay man in Southern California.
In “Marjorie Prime” and other works, Jordan Harrison delivers sweet-bitter anatomies of human connection mediated through technology destined to supersede us.
A new graphic novel both celebrates and demystifies the colorful frontier icon, while also correcting some of her taller tales.
Reading recommendations from critics and editors at The New York Times.
How did we get here? I don’t want to know.
“Fingers crossed she isn’t racist — it was a different time,” says the author of “My Sister, the Serial Killer” and the recent “Cursed Daughters.”
After nearly a decade, a second season to the popular spy show is out this month. The showrunners explain how they created a sequel without a novel to draw from this time.
These novels usher readers into fascinating, long-ago worlds.
Lola Lafon’s book “When You Listen to This Song” is a hit in its native France. Now in English, it explores identity, loss and memory in wholly new ways.
Readers find a classroom trend of assigning shorter texts “troubling.” Also: Reaction to President Trump’s naming of a special envoy to Greenland.
Omri Boehm’s new book argues that both the left and the right must abandon divisive identity politics and embrace the transformative power of Enlightenment ideals.
“Grand Rapids,” by Natasha Stagg, is an unassuming portrait of a Midwestern teenager’s grief and transformation.
Fiction by George Saunders, Karl Ove Knausgaard and Laura Dave; a bracingly honest divorce memoir; Jennette McCurdy’s debut novel; and more.
Nonfiction and Y.A. are hurting, but genre fiction and the Good Book are booming. Here’s how book sales looked in 2025.
Need something to read (or watch) this New Year’s week? This quiz brings the love.
Nuestra editora de cultura y estilo de vida repasa los mejores momentos de la cultura pop del año.
Our culture and lifestyle editor looks back at the year’s top pop culture moments.
A Q & A with N.T. Wright about why Jesus entered into human history.
Consider that every book you have is a story of who you are.
Two artists spent 30 years cataloging how people dress and learned a lot about humanity in the process.
A middle-age man fighting illness and marital woe heads west in Ben Markovits’s poignant new novel, a Booker Prize finalist.
This week, we close out the year with your best advice of 2025.
In a world filled with digital distractions, these shows will help you indulge, develop or rekindle a love for reading.
Our columnist has recommendations.
Ian McEwan’s latest novel, one of the Book Review’s 100 Notable Books of 2025, is a literary mystery about a scholar’s search for a long-lost poem.
In the final week of the 100th anniversary of “The Great Gatsby,” Wesley Morris, the host of ‘Cannonball,’ talks to the novelist Min Jin Lee and Gilbert Cruz, editor of The New York Times Book Review, about why all three of them have found themselves in a decades-long relationship with this book.
In the final week of the 100th anniversary of “The Great Gatsby,” Wesley Morris, the host of ‘Cannonball,’ talks to the novelist Min Jin Lee and Gilbert Cruz, editor of The New York Times Book Review, about why all three of them have found themselves in a decades-long relationship with this book.
A mother’s grief is well depicted in “Hamnet” and “The Correspondent.”
In the final week of the 100th anniversary of “The Great Gatsby,” Wesley Morris, the host of ‘Cannonball,’ talks to the novelist Min Jin Lee and Gilbert Cruz, editor of The New York Times Book Review, about why all three of them have found themselves in a decades-long relationship with this book.
Here are the best nonfiction essays of the year, according to me.
In January, the Book Review Book Club will read and discuss Xenobe Purvis’s debut novel, about a small English village grappling with a dangerous rumor.
Two books center on small acts of grit and valor, from a bold little onion to an orphaned boy carrying messages for the French Resistance.
Our columnist on three novels worth your time.
An Oxford professor and renowned critic, he was pugnacious, fearless and disdainful of the received wisdom of his intellectual milieu.
The nonfiction spy thriller “The Falcon and the Snowman,” which became a film, grew out of his work as a journalist covering the West Coast for The Times.
There’s been a lot said on the book’s 100th anniversary. But there’s a lot to say.
Brendan Costello was a cleareyed writer who might have found this article a bit treacly. Such is the cost of being a good guy.
Such as: A shrewd move by George Washington. Why Gauguin wore a 10-gallon hat. And the benefits of breathing through your nose
Her 1960 essay about the frustrations of educated women prefigured Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique.” She later wrote books on John Quincy Adams and others.
Few things can calm a savage heart like being genuinely listened to.
Our columnist on seven terrific mysteries deservedly back in print.
Expertos en salud mental comparten los títulos que más sugieren a quienes atraviesan el final de una relación.
In “Captives and Companions,” Justin Marozzi traces the stories of the eunuchs, harem women and forced laborers who underwrote empires in Asia and North Africa.
Why do men find it so hard to connect with other people, and their own emotions?
These days, most best sellers are written by authors with household names. Not these five breakout books.
Tanto por intención como por providencia, Tolkien escribió un mundo que es bello porque está tan roto como el nuestro.
Try this short quiz to see how many fun facts about authors and books you can recall.
An actor at the Dickens Museum in London is delivering dramatic performances of the classic holiday tale, just like the writer himself once did for sold-out crowds.
Betty Fussell’s new memoir offers insights on aging, stories about love and a recipe for coyote pie.
The teen detectives and alien enigmas of the Nova Scotia-set “Hobtown Mystery Stories” return for a third supernatural outing.
The screenwriter and producer created several television hits about law enforcement. He made one of the first police dramas to star two main characters of color.
On the joys of having stories in my ears — and yes, listening counts.
After this Booker Prize finalist became seriously ill, everything seemed very real, and everything seemed to matter.
Today, your highly personal, delightfully specific bests of 2025.
An eminent New Testament scholar recounts what he says was the message of Jesus that transformed the West.
He was a foremost authority on the president, tracing his career in unvarnished accounts from his time as California governor through his years in the White House.
His Pulitzer-nominated book “Graven Images” inspired a reassessment of Puritan art, challenging the belief that imagery carved on headstones was meaningless.
Thanks to a steamy television adaptation, Rachel Reid’s romance novels about closeted hockey players have become mainstream best-sellers.
“Some of us feel exhausted, some of us feel energized.” The Book Review looks back on the year’s biggest stories and trends in the publishing industry.
The couple are gearing up for the Broadway opening of “Bug,” about a descent into paranoia and psychosis in a squalid motel room.
Rare recordings of E.E. Cummings, Mary Oliver and more offer a tour through literary history led by authors in their own words — and voices. Take a listen.
“Emily in Paris” may have moved to Rome, but a prestigious award and a new book show the series has left a stylish mark on the City of Light. Plus, a fashion innovator on A.I.
How providence and loss helped shape “The Lord of the Rings.”
The author of the City Spies series chooses 7 crime novels that invite young readers to discover the culprit before the characters do.
See how well you know the television, movie, music and literary figures of 2025 with The New York Times Faces Quiz.
“Plain and Simple,” her best-selling 1989 book, was a go-to text of the anti-materialist movement known as voluntary simplicity.
To capture Jane Austen’s brief life and enormous impact, editors at The New York Times Book Review assembled a sampling of the wealth, wonder and weirdness she has brought to our lives.
Thrillers, literary fiction, history, memoirs and more: Here are the most popular books you saved to your reading lists.
It’s the day the “Animal Goncourt” is awarded. “Who better,” a judge says, “to talk about the fabulous relationship between animals and men than writers and philosophers?”
The novelist and musician is a voracious reader of books in translation. In “This Year,” he annotates the literary lyrics to 365 of his own songs.
Tracy K. Smith, a former U.S. poet laureate, makes the case in a new book of criticism.
The novelist Dinaw Mengestu will lead the literary group at a time of escalating threats to free expression at home and abroad.
“Furious Minds,” by Laura K. Field, traces the ascendancy of hard-right thinkers whose contempt for liberal democracy is shaping American politics.
Thomas Paine published “Common Sense” in 1776 as an argument for independence. Americans across the political spectrum have been citing it ever since.
En manos de Rob, mi novela más autobiográfica sonó auténtica.
After attending James Baldwin’s funeral, Thomas Sayers Ellis was inspired to create a collective for Black artists.
Audiobook excerpts from our picks for the top fiction and nonfiction of 2025.
In Rob’s hands, “Stand by Me,” my most autobiographical novel, rang true.
A recent spate of books highlights the presence of a new category, one well suited to our time: the grievance memoir.
This 12-question challenge will test your knowledge of all things Austen.
Welcome to our Regency Thunderdome, where we will endeavor to answer this question once and for all.
To capture the writer’s brief life and enormous impact, we assembled a sampling of the wealth, wonder and weirdness she has brought to our lives.
What A.I. imperils is not human creativity itself but the ability to make a living from creative endeavor.
Nuestros críticos literarios repasan los títulos más memorables que leyeron y reseñaron durante el 2025.
Early access to high-quality books can transform lives, improve educational outcomes and help create the next generation of curious and informed citizens.
As costs are rising and wallets are hurting, these books explore the promises and pitfalls of the U.S. economy.
Her picture books found models of perseverance and imagination in figures like Emily Dickinson, Georgia O’Keeffe and Benny Goodman.
Crafting The New York Times Book Review’s annual list involves arguments, politicking and, every once in a while, a rare consensus.
A Book Review art director selects the book jackets that surprised him, delighted him and stayed with him this year.
Here are the year’s most notable picture and middle grade books, selected by our children’s books editor.
If you’re a writer or filmmaker hoping to create a hell on earth, might as well start with the most famous city in the world.
That’s often not been the case in recent years.
An interim U.S. attorney is demanding information about the selection of research articles and the role of N.I.H. Experts worry this will have a chilling effect on publications.
In “Air-Borne,” his detailed and gripping account of aerobiology, Carl Zimmer uncovers the mysteries filling our lungs.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer talks about burnout from covering the pandemic and how bird-watching gave him a new sense of hope.
Why invoking a public health crisis too often can lead society astray.
In his memoir, “Unleashed,” the former prime minister is “optimistic” about the possibility that Donald J. Trump could regain the White House.
El libro del periodista Bob Woodward también relata que Donald Trump envió en secreto a Vladimir Putin lo que entonces eran raras máquinas de prueba COVID-19 para uso personal del líder ruso.
The journalist Bob Woodward cited an unnamed aide saying that Donald J. Trump had spoken to Vladimir V. Putin as many as seven times since leaving office. Multiple sources say they cannot confirm that report.
After our series on how artists have been affected by loss, we asked readers what helped them when they experienced it. These are 15 of their answers.
The justice talks about everything from his indictment of the regulatory state to the rights of Native Americans.
Loren Long has illustrated books by Barack Obama, Madonna and Amanda Gorman. His No. 1 best seller, “The Yellow Bus,” took him in a different direction — one that required time, patience and toothpicks.
Progressive publications have quoted extensively from Dr. Fauci’s new book, heralding him as a hero for his work during the pandemic. Conservative outlets have cast him as a villain.