A Brookings Institution scholar, he advised presidents and wrote books on the media (assessing reporters in one) and government (including a study of beleaguered press officers).
Hollywood used to be vexed by political debates. These days it turns both sides into frothy, cartoonish entertainment.
Our columnist read “The Everlasting” too late to put it on her Best of 2025 list. She’s sorry!
Two new books trace an arc from the notorious Bernie Goetz case to the spread of vigilantism today.
Fantasy epics, pastoral classics and family dramas provide something to sink your teeth into on cold evenings.
Renowned in his field, he counted among his clients five Nobel laureates, including Elie Wiesel, and eight Pulitzer winners as well as the estates of Tennessee Williams and Aldous Huxley.
See how many novels you can connect with phrases from the plays of William Shakespeare.
In “Two Women Living Together,” the authors reflect on the joys of platonic cohabitation.
Two new books return to the ’80s-era saga of Bernie Goetz to consider the 21st-century intersections of race, crime and sensationalism.
In “The Flower Bearers,” Rachel Eliza Griffiths addresses her starry, tragedy-marred marriage but also a life steeped in art, poetry and deep friendships.
In Emanuela Anechoum’s novel, “Tangerinn,” an Italian Moroccan woman examines her family’s legacy of immigration, and tries to find a place in the world.
“Eating Ashes,” by Brenda Navarro, dispenses with familiar portrayals of mourning in a tale of migration, loss and memory.
In her debut, Angela Tomaski puts a quirky spin on Gothic storytelling.
Julian Barnes writes about illness and love in “Departure(s),” which he claims is his last novel.
At the request of Thompson’s widow, the Colorado authorities are re-examining his death. “The whole Hunter world is buzzing,” a lawyer said.
In “Nothing Random,” her rousing biography of Bennett Cerf, Gayle Feldman conjures an era when a glamorous publishing figure could be a household name.
Jennette McCurdy follows “I’m Glad My Mom Died” with “Half His Age,” a debut novel that confirms her gift as a chronicler of disaffected girlhood.
For one writer, the story of a Washington man keeping an old craft alive struck something personal.
The author of the memoir “I’m Glad My Mom Died” hopes her debut novel, about a teen’s sexual relationship with her teacher, will make readers uncomfortable.
Gabriel Tallent’s new book, “Crux,” is a rowdy and poignant novel about two high school seniors trying to transcend the hard circumstances of their lives.
In her new book, Jeanette Winterson attempts to frame modern-day issues within a classic storytelling text.
Even as some instructors remain fervently opposed to chatbots, other writing and English professors are trying to improve them.
Three Book Review editors on what titles they’re most excited about this winter.
William Blake’s “The Clod & the Pebble” is a dialogue on tenderness and cruelty in three short stanzas. Read it with our critic A.O. Scott, and then play a game to memorize it.
When the writer Lamorna Ash set out to explore young people’s relationship to faith and religion, she found herself questioning her own.
Steamy love stories starring athletes and top-notch yearners will tide you over until your next trip to the cottage.
Born into exceptional privilege, Belle Burden had it all: love, money, family. Then her marriage fell apart.
The author of the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series shares a handful of titles that have helped shape his sense of humor.
In a new book, Nicolas Niarchos traces the mineral supply chain for lithium-ion batteries, exposing their considerable human and environmental costs.
Reading recommendations from critics and editors at The New York Times.
How a simple catchphrase sums up the president’s theory of executive power.
Jung Chang’s 1991 memoir, “Wild Swans,” sold millions. Its follow-up delves further into a complex personal and political history.
“It’s my comfort book,” she says of the comic novel about a busted marriage. Her own new thriller is a sequel to “The Last Thing He Told Me.”
In decades of correspondence, the author gave her friend, JoBeth McDaniel, a mix of opinions, advice on writing and insight into the impact of the Civil Rights movement.
“Call Me Ishmaelle,” by Xiaolu Guo, audaciously revises Herman Melville’s American classic.
Several of the past year’s films center on confused, bumbling protagonists — surrounded by women who are anything but.
A complicated mother-son relationship reaches a turning point in this coming-of-age novel.
Senator John Kennedy, a garrulous rank-and-file Republican from Louisiana, has struck a nerve with a new book that provides an insider account of Congress and its dysfunction.
Organizers said her presence was not “culturally sensitive” after a mass shooting that targeted Jewish Australians. Nearly 200 other writers withdrew in protest.
A semi-estranged midlife couple and their three precocious daughters form the center of Madeline Cash’s satirical novel, “Lost Lambs.”
The fourth novel in his Morning Star series follows an ambitious young photographer in 1985 London.
In a new book, C. Thi Nguyen looks to his personal passions — from video games to yo-yoing — to illuminate the downside of our increasingly gamified world.
The Norwegian writer is known for his sprawling, brutally candid autofiction and speculative epics. Here’s where to start.
“Miracle Children” details how a Louisiana school exploited the demand for stories of Black trauma.
Responses to an essay by Roger Rosenblatt about keeping and tossing old books. Also: A.I. and human identity; new heights for Stephen Colbert.
Ancient legends from thousands of years ago often find fresh audiences in new books. Test your memory of recent titles with this short quiz.
In “Catapult,” an impulsive project between two friends leads to reflections on human nature and conflict.
In “The Revolutionists,” the Guardian journalist Jason Burke explores how leftist militants gave way to Islamist ones in the Middle East.
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.
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.