Plague erased social, gender and personal differences. Shakespeare responded by emphasizing people’s unique and inerasable difference. His work is a narrative vaccine.
Ariana Neumann’s father had nightmares and an ID card in a different name. In her memoir, “When Time Stopped,” she unspools the past he kept hidden for so long.
In “Dragon Hoops,” Gene Luen Yang intercuts the thrilling wins and crushing losses of one high school team with basketball’s own turbulent history.
When Covid-19 struck, Stanford closed its classrooms. The novelist Daniel Mason turned his students’ last assignment into an exercise for staying well.
With stores temporarily shut down and other industry disruptions, some of the most anticipated titles of the spring are being pushed back to later in the year.
Whitehead discusses “The Underground Railroad,” and Toobin talks about “American Heiress.”
Worley, who wrote Omaha the Cat Dancer, about a feline stripper, “injected a woman’s point of view” that helped the comic stand out from others in the 1980s.
Helped by a raft of strong women, the heroine of Kate Messner’s “Chirp” reclaims the parts of her childhood she’s not ready to leave behind.
The journalist’s new thriller is eerily prescient. Too bad our leaders lack his foresight.
Faced with the cancellation of her book tour, a writer turns to books that evoke a sense of place — and recommends 8 books that might take you somewhere, too.
Seeing some of our childhood favorites in a brand-new, contemporary light.
Allen’s “Apropos of Nothing,” recently released after being canceled by its original publisher, covers his childhood in Brooklyn, his career and the abuse allegations against him.
An influential art historian, he called out racism in the museum world, and in the broader culture as well.
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
Audra McDonald, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Joe Mantello on a versatile collaborator who came to know “he didn’t have to repeat himself.”
His books on Kennedy, Nixon, Clinton and others could be as unsparing as his syndicated column. He was also a familiar face on PBS public-affairs programs.
In Rob Doyle’s novel, a character of the same name drifts, from Paris to Thailand, Croatia and Sicily, doing drugs, mourning his heroes and avoiding writing.
Concerned that female directors and playwrights were underrepresented in New York theaters, she founded Women’s Project in 1978 to cultivate their work.
He shepherded more than 300 books into print, including James Baldwin’s “If Beale Street Could Talk” and Robert Ludlum’s “The Bourne Identity.”
Julia Alvarez’s first new novel in 14 years, an overview of conservative thought, “Notes From an Apocalypse” and more.
As schools close during the coronavirus crisis, sales of reading and writing workbooks, flash cards and activity books have skyrocketed.
At Christie’s in London, he essentially created the notion that wine could be auctioned like furniture or art. He was also an influential wine writer.
An excerpt from “The City We Became,” by N.K. Jemisin
“How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.”
An excerpt from “The Glass Hotel,” by Emily St. John Mandel
Arcade Publishing released “Apropos of Nothing” on Monday. The book had ignited a backlash earlier this month, after its original publisher, Hachette, canceled its plans to release the book.
Increased testing is revealing how quickly the coronavirus has spread in the state.
Matt Jones drove through each of his state’s 120 counties to understand why Mitch McConnell polls so poorly there yet is serving his sixth full term in the Senate.
How two sets of twins, scrambled at birth, had their lives changed in an instant.
In her new novel, the author revisits some of the techniques she used in “Station Eleven.”
A scholar and historian, he amassed an invaluable trove of interviews and other material with his wife, the filmmaker Camille Billops.
Marilyn Stasio finds the latest crime novels filled with gristle, gore and guts.
Playing, dreaming, speaking up, absolutely not going to sleep: New books from Colin Meloy, Jillian Tamaki and more open vistas for little readers.
The acclaimed biographer of Lyndon Johnson and Robert Moses talks about “Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing.”
Her father robbed 11 banks in and around Detroit when she was a teenager to pay off debts. But his sprees were just the jumping off point for her unsparing memoir.
What happens on page 76 in three of this season’s books, as envisioned by the artist Marcus Jahmal.
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
In “The Red Lotus,” Chris Bohjalian strikes a fine balance between disclosure and secrecy.
The scholars Joseph P. Reidy and Lizabeth Cohen have won the prize, one of the most prestigious honors in the field of American history.
The Pulitzer Prize winners Lynn Nottage and Annie Baker are among those who said they had been asked to give back advances because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Looking for a respite from the news? You might find solace in reading.
Does it matter that you may never know his side of the story?
“We’re going to operate like a pizza takeout place,” one independent bookstore owner said.
He wrote colorful books based on his time in exile in New York. His politics were just as colorful.
Yes, experts say. Equal parts transit alternative and therapy, contemplative strolls are helping people’s mental and physical health. Just stay six feet apart.
The retailer is trying to do two contradictory things: Ban hate literature but allow free speech.
Artists, actors, dancers and authors search for a silver lining as openings are disrupted by the virus outbreak.
In “Thinking Inside the Box,” Adrienne Raphel offers a cultural and personal history of America’s favorite word puzzle.
The award from the New-York Historical Society honors the first installment of his planned trilogy about the American Revolution, which emphasizes the conflict’s costs and uncertainties.
An excerpt from “Faster: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler’s Best,” by Neal Bascomb
An excerpt from “Nobody Will Tell You This but Me: A True (as Told to Me) Story,” by Bess Kalb
Meena Kandasamy’s second novel, “When I Hit You,” contains echoes of her own experience with domestic violence.
Publishers, bookstores and authors are struggling to confront and limit the financial fallout from the unfolding coronavirus crisis.
“The Elements of a Home” by Amy Azzarito looks at the histories behind some of the objects we use every day.
Writers Bloc, a Los Angeles reading series now in its 24th year, has become increasingly important for political authors.
El COVID-19 nos ha recordado que el ser humano no es el centro del mundo. Varias novelas y ensayos recientes han empezado a representarnos en unas proporciones más adecuadas y más éticas, en consonancia con el reto de no acabar de destruir el planeta.
In her new novel, “Beheld,” TaraShea Nesbit uses the death of Dorothy Bradford to look at what life was like for women in the Plymouth Colony.
In “The Dairy Restaurant,” Ben Katchor writes (and draws) an encyclopedic ode to establishments that began to flourish in New York City and elsewhere in the 19th century.
Ms. Byars’s award-winning children’s books, including “The Summer of the Swans” and “The Night Swimmers,” often dealt with abandonment.
Paul Lisicky, author of “Later: My Life at the Edge of the World,” talks about Provincetown, the challenges of memoir and learning not to suppress anger.
Her novel ‘The Last Man’ predicted the political causes of and collective solutions for global plague.
An appraiser and archivist, he bought the celebrated mid-Manhattan shop in 1967 from its founder, Frances Steloff and ran it for 40 years.
Lewis discusses “The Fifth Risk,” and French talks about “The Witch Elm.”
It isn’t about avoiding work; it’s about avoiding negative emotions.
What one artist learned when she sat down to talk with Lynda Barry.
In these books, demons infest an elderly tutor, a ghost roams an opera house and a doctor embalms some very strange and horrible things.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author reflects on what it’s like to see his fiction become reality.
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
Designers and artists who sought inspiration from the natural world are the subjects of recent books.
In “Pharma,” Gerald Posner tells the 150-year back story to the opioid crisis, a tale of addictive drugs and corrupt practices.
In “We Ride Upon Sticks,” Quan Barry transports readers to the heyday of leg warmers and hair spray.
For centuries, novelists and fiction writers have imagined what plagues and virus outbreaks could look like, and many readers are seeking these books out amid concerns about the coronavirus.
An opinionated take on the songwriter’s major works, from a delayed debut to a Pulitzer Prize-winning classic.
Now they have three best-sellers.
The historian treasures his first-edition copy of “The Jungle,” by Upton Sinclair: “This one gave us our pure food and drug laws.”
Her creation Blanche White was probably the first fictional black maid to solve a murder while working for a wealthy white family.
“Young Heroes of the Soviet Union,” by Alex Halberstadt, is a moving and often funny memoir about the author’s family and their history.
In James Shapiro’s “Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and Future,” the historical-tragical constantly muscles out the pastoral-comical.
A pre-eminent translator of contemporary Russian authors like Tatyana Tolstaya and Vladimir Sorokin, she won a prestigious prize for translation in 2016.
Lily King’s new book, “Writers & Lovers,” features an aspiring novelist coming into her own, artistically and romantically.
An excerpt from “Recollections of My Nonexistence,” By Rebecca Solnit
An excerpt from “My Dark Vanessa,” by Kate Elizabeth Russell
In his memoir, “Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother,” the director of “Men in Black” and “The Addams Family” tells both hilarious and harrowing stories.
Mary South’s debut collection, “You Will Not Be Forgotten,” scrolls through the many facets of our digital existence.
The narrator of Kevin Nguyen’s debut novel, “New Waves,” discovers his charismatic work wife was not what she seemed.
Three new books of short fiction — by Peter Kispert, Vanessa Hua and Leesa Cross-Smith — show characters of all races and sexual orientations deceiving others and themselves.
Frustrated by her stressful city life, Dionne Searcey moved her family to West Africa as the region’s bureau chief. “In Pursuit of Disobedient Women” is her chronicle of what she saw and learned.
In “Our Revolution,” Honor Moore sets out to understand her gifted, complicated mother and their relationship over time.
A selection of recent books of interest; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading.
Therese Anne Fowler’s new novel, “A Good Neighborhood,” explores volatile issues of race and class in a Southern community.
Jennifer Steinhauer’s “The Firsts” traces the experiences of the 35 women newly elected to Congress in 2018.
Andrew Altschul’s new novel, “The Gringa,” is based on the true story of Lori Berenson, a New Yorker-turned-leftist rebel.
“In Our Prime,” by Susan J. Douglas, argues that boomer feminists hold the keys to a better kingdom.
In “At the Center of All Beauty,” Fenton Johnson argues that solitude is absolutely essential to the creative life.
An excerpt from “MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammed Bin Salman,” by Ben Hubbard
Noé Álvarez’s debut memoir, “Spirit Run,” chronicles the 6,000-mile marathon he undertook to connect with his Indigenous heritage — and his American present.
The new book by Ben Hubbard, The New York Times’s Beirut bureau chief, draws on dozens of interviews to yield a disturbing portrait of unchecked ambition.
Madison Smartt Bell’s “Child of Light” is a sensitive and thorough biography of the author of “Dog Soldiers,” “A Flag for Sunrise” and other books.
Piketty’s latest book, “Capital and Ideology,” takes a global overview to inequality and other pressing economic issues of our time.
Guided by local residents, a correspondent discovered places full of poetry slams and restaurant birthday parties, art shows and surf contests, and mustardy grilled fish.
Christophe Girard, a deputy mayor of Paris, disavowed years of association with the writer and said he learned only recently of the author’s abuses.
Long before solo adventure travel became a trend among women, Sutherland was a pioneer, traveling around the world in her inflatable kayak.
McBride discuss his latest novel, and Rebecca Solnit talks about “Recollections of My Nonexistence.”
The publisher planned to release the filmmaker’s autobiography in April but reversed course after a protest by its own workers.
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s classic pioneer series is often called racially insensitive. With “Prairie Lotus,” a Korean-American author offers an alternative.
In her new memoir, “Recollections of My Nonexistence,” the admired author and activist recalls coming of age and acquiring confidence as a woman and a writer.
In her unsettling debut novel, “My Dark Vanessa,” Kate Russell juxtaposes a creepy account of abuse and a love story.
Jeanine Cummins, whose novel about a Mexican woman and her son ignited a backlash, heard from some of her detractors in an episode that Apple TV Plus began streaming Friday.
In “Stamped,” Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds team up to help teenagers understand — and combat — racism.
“You Call This Democracy?” shows the rising generation how our government falls short of its democratic ideals. And what they can do about it.
Marilyn Stasio finds much to like in the latest crop of crime novels.
The publisher’s announcement that it will publish the filmmaker’s memoir has drawn criticism, this time from its own employees.
The famous sidekick turns 80 on Friday. Many people have worn Robin’s costume over the years — and they were not all boy wonders.
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
Ms. Pollock pioneered the introduction of feminist thought in art history. The prize comes with an award of 6 million Norwegian kroner, or about $650,000.
Following history’s paper trail, she wrote about the failures of diplomacy and the period between the world wars.
Eccentricity and charm abound in this documentary about the rare book world.
An excerpt from “The Exhibition of Persephone Q,” by Jessi Jezewska Stevens
Her books, notably “The Village of Round and Square Houses,” set in Central Africa, introduced young readers to stories from different cultures.
Long emails and dense, difficult to decipher memos mean modern office communication goes ignored more often than it’s understood.
The publisher of Stephen King, Judy Blume and Hillary Clinton doesn’t fit with the plans of its parent, ViacomCBS, which has placed a big bet on digital video.
A selection of recent books of interest; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading.
In “Rebel Cinderella,” Adam Hochschild writes about the life of Rose Pastor Stokes, whose life and activism coincided with the roiling decades of the early 20th century.
The annual publishing event was scheduled to begin next week, with more than 25,000 expected to attend.
The author of “Catch and Kill,” which was published by a division of Hachette Book Group, said he wouldn’t work with the company again after it announced plans to publish his father’s memoir.
At the start of “The Mirror and the Light,” the concluding volume of a trilogy that began with “Wolf Hall,” Cromwell is 50 years old, rich beyond all his imagining and very much alone.
Living in a haunted nation, the 11-year-old hero of Pam Muñoz Ryan’s “Mañanaland” faces difficult questions about refugees and altruism.
In “Postcolonial Love Poem,” Natalie Diaz takes a traditional form and makes it her own, centering the experiences of queer women of color.
An excerpt from “Writers & Lovers,” by Lily King
The playwright Richard Greenberg has dedicated himself to chronicling urban elites. With his two new shows, he’s re-entering the theater in a heightened cultural moment.
An excerpt from “The Night Watchman,” by Louise Erdrich
There is a rising interest around the world in events that connect authors with bibliophiles.
Alice Notley’s new book-length epic, “For the Ride,” follows a figure struggling to figure out the terms of a strange new world.
Dennis Staples’s “This Town Sleeps,” Celia Laskey’s “Under the Rainbow” and Nana Oforiatta Ayim’s “The God Child” feature outsiders in unwelcome territory.
Prebble won the annual prize for female playwrights, for her work about a Russian assassination on British soil.
The narrator of Juli Delgado Lopera’s energetic novel closely observes the women in her family while dealing with the emergence of her own beliefs and sexuality.
In Lily King’s novel, a young woman searches for meaning.
In Lily King’s new novel, a young woman searches for meaning.
“There are grand gestures out there to be had, and no one is going for them. We’re drowning in timidity.”
One designer was independent, the other aligned with major houses. But new books show both had an outsize effect on fashion.
The National Book Award-winning author’s deeply felt new novel is an American crime story, just not the kind on TV.
David Enrich discusses “Dark Towers,” and Kiran Millwood Hargrave talks about “The Mercies.”
In Cynthia L. Copeland’s graphic memoir “Cub,” an awkward seventh grader finds deliverance as a reporter for her local newspaper.
In Sara Pennypacker’s “Here in the Real World,” an 11-year-old skips out on the horrors of noisy summer “Rec” to build a secret kingdom in an abandoned lot.