In Soma Mei Sheng Frazier’s debut novel, “Off the Books,” a Chinese American college student chauffeurs a handsome and suspicious client from California to New York.
Our columnist on vacation-ready reads.
She wrote two books about multiple generations of her forebears, including her mother, Lena Horne.
Patricia Highsmith’s classic thriller mixes glamour, betrayal, self-invention and murder. What’s not to love?
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.
Recommended reading from the Book Review, including titles by Safiya Sinclair, Michael Cunningham, Tasha Sylva and more.
“Tree. Table. Book” and “Not Nothing” feature young people whose friendships with the very old unlock fading memories.
Our columnist reviews July’s horror releases.
To be drawn into the past is to experience it anew.
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
Most record companies didn’t think “The First Family,” which he and his writing partner created, was a good idea. It became the fastest-selling album of the pre-Beatles era.
Nearly lost, Mary Sully’s discovered drawings riff on Modernist geometries and Dakota Sioux beadwork and quilting. Our critic calls it “symphonically bicultural.”
“It’s nice to work with faculty without that inbuilt prejudice against genre,” says the author of “I Was a Teenage Slasher.” “Or, I’m a little bit tall, so it’s tricky to look down your nose at me.”
One of the great joys of a long marriage is how the personal and pragmatic moosh together.
Born into a patrician family, he used Harper’s and later his own Lapham’s Quarterly to denounce what he saw as the hypocrisies and injustices of a spoiled United States.
The mayor of Nashville, Freddie O’Connell, asked the police to investigate three bombings after a book said that the attacks were tied to racist terrorism.
In a new memoir, Fred C. Trump III claims his uncle, Donald J. Trump, made cruel and racist comments.
Readers object to Republican actions against migrants. Also: “Unpromising” students; romance fiction; sleep and longevity; scaffolding in New York.
The author of humorous short stories finds emotional connections in tales that engage with tech. But he’s more interested in the ties between humans.
“The Secret Lives of Numbers,” by Kate Kitagawa and Timothy Revell, highlights overlooked contributions to the field by ancient thinkers, non-Westerners and women.
The group worked for decades to build the profile of the genre and its writers. Now romance fiction is booming — but the R.W.A. has filed for bankruptcy. What happened?
Colorful primers, inspirational biographies and books by former champions will get kids excited for the Paris Games — and teach valuable lessons along the way.
In “A Hunger to Kill,” the former homicide detective Kim Mager recalls a career-defining investigation.
Misery makes for good company in Shalom Auslander’s second memoir, which finds him self-deprecating, drug-dabbling, envious and, oy, middle-aged.
La primera vez que Camila Sosa Villada adoptó una voz femenina fue en los cuentos que escribía en la infancia y mantenía en secreto. Ahora, sus libros están traducidos en más de 20 idiomas y adaptados al cine.
He brought to his writing a sharp sense of humor, honed in stand-up comedy clubs, and never pulled punches even though he was an unabashed Democrat.
Camila Sosa Villada, an Argentine transgender author, first inhabited a female voice in stories she wrote as a child. Now her novels are translated in more than 20 languages and being adapted for the screen.
Bibliophiles and film fans leafed through hundreds of books that once belonged to the eminent editor Robert Gottlieb.
Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s fiction debut, “Catalina,” brings readers into the life and struggles of a blue-collar brainiac from Ecuador.
A true-crime case that could only happen in Florida is at the heart of Mikita Brottman’s “Guilty Creatures.”
In the memoir “Desperately Seeking Something,” Susan Seidelman’s life is as full of twists, charm and happy endings as one of her iconic movies.
The aggrieved wife who narrates Sarah Manguso’s novel “Liars” may or may not be a reliable source about her monster of a husband.
In “The Quiet Damage,” Jesselyn Cook traces the effects of the conspiracy theory on the spouses, children and siblings of believers.
The first in a series of conversations with authors appearing on our “Best Books of the 21st Century” list.
Por qué los adultos deberían leerse en voz alta y algunas recomendaciones para empezar a hacerlo.
The simple pleasures keep coming in this keenly observed collection by the Argentinian writer Hebe Uhart.
This bustling borough of New York City has been the setting for many novels — including the books in this short quiz.
The shameless presence of white supremacists here tells us something about the similarity between the politics of the past and our political moment.
A new book by Susannah Gibson spotlights the 18th-century Bluestockings, who aspired to have their writings and ideas accorded the same respect as men’s.
Our crime columnist on four new novels.
Harry Crews, Barry Hannah and Larry Brown were part of a Southern writers’ movement that centered dissidents and outsiders. They’re still worth reading.
Less than two years after her release from a Russian penal colony, the W.N.B.A. center and two-time Olympic gold medal winner said that her son was born on July 8.
Elizabeth Stromme’s noir about a writer for hire; Karen Tei Yamashita’s magic realist dystopia.
A partial lexicon of modern Republicanism.
In “Autocracy, Inc.,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian takes account of the financial institutions and trade deals that have helped spread tyranny across the world.
Clare Pollard’s novel “The Modern Fairies” reanimates 25 classic tales through a contemporary lens.
Immerse yourself in tales of Machiavellian statecraft, Depression-era scandal and emotional turmoil on an R.A.F. air base.
To keep it from Russian forces, a writer hid his last manuscript under a cherry tree. Its rediscovery became part of a flowering of interest in Ukrainian literature.
The novelist discusses his latest book, “The Bright Sword,” in which Arthur has died but Excalibur lives on with a band of misfit knights.
This week's selection includes titles by Jess Row, Dasha Kiper, Rachel Louise Martin and more.
In a new memoir, the marine biologist Jasmin Graham reflects on her passion for studying sharks and the barriers she refused to let stop her.
Bruce Handy, Lisk Feng and Cat Min present shadows for what they are: the non-nefarious interplay of light and dark.
Three new books document obstacles to gender equality that, in the era that brought us #MeToo, Taylor Swift and the ‘girlboss,’ we thought we’d left behind.
Betty Gordon came to New York to become an actress (and have a good time). But her greatest talent may have been helping others.
He’s a “populist” who holds contempt for the working class.
Even before the Republican vice-presidential nominee aligned himself with Donald Trump, contradiction was central to his rags-to-riches biography.
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
She played a crucial role in fixing the ozone hole, and has thoughts on climate change.
The people have spoken. Here are the books they voted for.
What if the star of “The Matrix” worked with a sci-fi novelist to tell the story of an 80,000-year-old warrior who can rip people’s arms off but struggles with loneliness?
Alexander Lefebvre’s new book is a ‘call to action about what we are trying to defend, and why,’ says the head of PEN America, which has been pummeled with disputes about speech, activism and Israel.
In “Women in the Valley of the Kings,” Kathleen Sheppard introduces us to a group of 19th-century archaeologists who changed the field forever.
These stories of relationship dramas and evolving partnerships will fill the “Couples Therapy”-sized hole in your life with wisdom, schadenfreude and humor — and sometimes all of the above.
They wanted to know where the poetry and the genre fiction were — and they also wanted to let us know which books were missing.
Exactly what the vice-presidential candidate has renounced in exchange for power is in the public record for all to see.
A new novel from the author of “Fleishman Is in Trouble.”
An unlovable heroine, a cyborg in search of missing parts, the restoration of a classic work and a series that is always worth the wait highlight four new volumes.
“Revolution is the job of poets and artists,” says Ko Maung Saungkha, leader of a rebel militia fighting the Myanmar dictatorship. He is not the only poet commander in a country with a strong tradition of political verse.
His best seller about Marines in Iraq, members of a “disposable generation,” was made into an HBO mini-series. He focused on subjects outside mainstream media coverage.
In Lev Grossman’s new book, “The Bright Sword,” an eager adventurer stumbles into a Camelot that has fallen into hopelessness and disarray after the death of the king.
Thousands of poetry fans and practitioners took the ferry out over the weekend to absorb one another’s work at the annual New York City Poetry Festival.
Our critic talks to Edward P. Jones about how he imagined “The Known World,” recently voted the best work of fiction by an American writer in the 21st century.
Jesse Katz’s true-crime narrative, “The Rent Collectors,” delivers a nuanced portrait of a community racked by poverty and violence and deprived of opportunities to get ahead.
Two exuberant new books chronicle the heyday of New York City’s criminal underworld on the Lower East Side.
In Halle Butler’s new book, “Banal Nightmare,” a 30-something woman returns to her hometown to get out of a rut and reassess her life after a bad breakup.
Set among the fevered residents of a remote Australian town, Ruby Todd’s debut novel considers how grief can draw people to extreme beliefs.
Our columnist on three riveting new reads.
Our critic traces J.D. Vance’s shift from bootstrap memoirist to vice-presidential candidate.
He once called Donald Trump “cultural heroin” and said he feared he could be “America’s Hitler.” But over an eight-year transformation, the Ohio senator became one of his most ardent supporters.
Try this short quiz on modern films that drew their inspiration from classic works written for the stage hundreds of years ago.
Sex educators, counselors and coaches recommend their favorites.
Peter Schjeldahl’s final book collects the essays and reviews he wrote in the years after a cancer diagnosis.
The good news: Our “Best Books of the 21st Century” list showed surprising affection for works in translation. But where are Sally Rooney, Ayad Akhtar and others “explaining how we live now”?
In “Rat City,” Jon Adams and Edmund Ramsden explore the life, times and influence of the scientific Pied Piper, John Bumpass Calhoun.
Boris Akunin, the creator of a hugely popular detective series, hopes that fomenting a vibrant Russian culture abroad might undermine President Vladimir V. Putin’s government at home.
Try this wide-ranging quiz on the best books and the big events from recent years.
In a new telling of the Macedonian leader’s final years, Rachel Kousser shows what happened when dreams of conquest met reality.
Alisa Alering’s debut novel, “Smothermoss,” is an Appalachian mystery tangled with wild magic, queer coming-of-age and sisterly bonds.
After rising to fame in the 1980s, Ruth Westheimer, known as Dr. Ruth, mingled with celebrities, wrote dozens of books and was named as New York’s “loneliness ambassador.”
A contempt for compromise. An expansive vision of executive power. Both owe much to Carl Schmitt.
The Ethiopian American novelist also talks aesthetics and the inspiration behind his most recent novel, “Someone Like Us.”
In Stephen Graham Jones’s new novel, a young outcast is forced to become a murderer fated to enact gory revenge.
From music and snacks to a backup plan if it rains, here’s everything you need for a blissful day in the sand.
A roundtable of Book Review editors discuss what surprised them, what delighted them, what will send them back to their own shelves.
The novel became the beach read of the summer, with the shark at its center embodying the unease of an era of political and social upheaval.
To mark the first 25 years of the century, The New York Times Book Review sent a survey to hundreds of literary luminaries, asking them to name the 10 best books published since Jan. 1, 2000. Gilbert Cruz, editor of the Book Review, gives some hig...
Including titles by Rachel Louise Snyder, Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi, Michael McGarrity and more.
An exhibition in Atlanta aims to capture the complexities of the sprawling Southern saga and its legacy in the space where it was written.
Sometimes we forget that moving is not just about goodbyes. It’s also about hellos.
There’s no getting around the fact that the list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century is… daunting. Want to start reading a new book right away? We can help.
In his picaresque memoir, “My Glorious Defeats,” the Anonymous-movement activist Barrett Brown takes us on a journey of pure, joyous solipsism.
The pseudonymous Italian author has become a worldwide phenomenon. But speculation about who she really is has followed her for years.
Dwight Garner writes that voters, who “seemed to want a break from contemporary social reportage,” looked for immersive reads.
The problem with identity politics becoming our moral system is that it undermines democracy.
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
A muckraking journalist, he helped write a revisionist account of Rudolph Giuliani’s role as mayor before and after the terrorist attacks.
Arthur, the former publisher of Knopf, is joining Hachette Book Group to start and run a new imprint.
The Biden campaign has attacked Donald J. Trump’s ties to the conservative policy plan that would amass power in the executive branch, though it is not his official platform.
In Yasmin Zaher’s “The Coin,” a rich, chic Palestinian schoolteacher in New York City grapples with displacement and American consumerism.
The architect who designed some of the 20th century’s great buildings kept a notebook with intimate glimpses into his creative vision. Now it’s his daughter’s final goodbye.
Even after doing research in Montana, a draft of the book that became “The Heart in Winter” was “dead on the page,” he says. Back in Ireland, the runaway lovers now at its center “suddenly appeared to me.”
Some of their favorites didn’t make our “Best Books of the 21st Century” list — but these authors make a case for them anyway.
In books and articles he wrote about the militarization of space and believed that investing in exploration would ultimately “protect Earth and guarantee the survival of humanity.”
Her writing, from the late 1920s to the late ’40s, about sex, marriage, divorce, child rearing and work-life balance still resonates.
Henry Hoke’s 2023 novel, “Open Throat,” narrated by an animal in peril in the Hollywood Hills, is adapted for a staged reading.
Kevin Barry’s new novel follows a fugitive couple from Butte, Mont., in the late 19th century.
In her most recent book, “The Backyard Bird Chronicles,” the best-selling author revels in a newfound preoccupation with birds — and drawing.
Prague has survived wars and political strife — and through it all, its literary scene has thrived. Jaroslav Kalfar, the author of “Spaceman of Bohemia,” recommends books that connect readers to the city.
More than 500 writers and notable book lovers have shared their picks for the best books of the 21st century. Now it’s your turn.
The Michigan governor will not talk about running for president. But her new book, “True Gretch,” is full of details keeping the chatter alive.
Admirers said they were “blindsided” by revelations that Munro’s youngest daughter had been abused by her stepfather — and that Munro stayed with him even after she learned of it years later.
A fiction writer challenges an A.I. chatbot to a duel.
Stacey D’Erasmo’s exploration of sustained creativity, “The Long Run,” is poignant, exhilarating and full of wise advice from lives well lived.
In “The Anthropologists,” Aysegul Savas celebrates the “unremarkable grace” of a couple’s ordinary days. It’s enchanting.
Todgers, vampires and celebrity book clubs: It’s been quite a ride.
With “Husbands & Lovers,” Beatriz Williams delivers a multigenerational yarn and a memorable ending.
This week’s Title Search puzzle challenges you to find a dozen works of fiction that were published during the last years of the 20th century.
Andrea Skinner dijo en el Toronto Star que su padrastro abusó sexualmente de ella a los 9 años y que su madre se quedó con él tras enterarse.
We asked some literary luminaries to share their full ballots.
As voted on by 503 book lovers — with a little help from the staff of The New York Times Book Review.
Andrea Skinner said in The Toronto Star that her stepfather sexually abused her at age 9, and that her mother stayed with him after she learned of it.
“Long Island Compromise,” the new novel by the author of “Fleishman Is in Trouble,” fictionalizes a true story.
The arrival — and success — of brick-and-mortar romance stores.
Fifty years ago, my father’s friend was taken at gunpoint on Long Island. Then he went on with his life — and that’s the part that haunts me.
Bookstores once shunted romance novels to a shelf in the back. But with romance writers dominating the best-seller lists, a network of dedicated bookstores has sprung up around the country.
His moving and often painful free-verse observations on friends’ deaths, the Holocaust and other topics won him many devoted fans.
Legend says the Durandal sword had been stuck in a French hillside for nearly 1,300 years. When it went missing in June, an investigation to find France’s Excalibur began.
A philandering father; a literary affair.
The 1991 novel turns a private disturbance into bracing social commentary.
Laura van den Berg’s new book, “State of Paradise,” sends readers down surreal portals to ask: How do we distinguish reality from its opposite — whatever that might be?
Recommended reading from the Book Review, including titles by Jhumpa Lahiri, Kerry Howley, Djuna and more.
Starting on July 8, we’ll unveil a list of 100. Make sure you’re among the first to find out.
It can be thrillingly dangerous and profoundly comforting at the same time.
In “Private Revolutions,” Yuan Yang follows the lives of women in a rapidly changing modern superpower.
Lily Brett’s delight is bittersweet as “Too Many Men,” her story about traveling with her father, becomes a movie he did not live to see.
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
In New York’s art show of the summer, paint and prose meet in “The Swimmer,” a psychoanalysis of John Cheever’s suburban nightmare of 1964.
Our critic recommends three books to sink into this summer.