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The Angel of Death Has Some Reservations About His Job
Joy Williams distills much learning — from philosophy, religion and history — into 99 stories about the guy who takes your soul.
By Dwight Garner
Joy Williams distills much learning — from philosophy, religion and history — into 99 stories about the guy who takes your soul.
By Dwight Garner
The journalist Richard Behar communicated extensively with the disgraced financier. His rigorous if irreverent book acknowledges his subject’s humanity.
By Alexandra Jacobs
A brisk new biography by the National Book Award-winning historian Tiya Miles aims to restore the iconic freedom fighter to human scale.
By Jennifer Szalai
In “The Material,” Camille Bordas imagines the anxious hotbed where the perils of being a college student and the perils of being funny meet.
By Alexandra Jacobs
In a frank but measured memoir, “On Call,” the physician looks back at a career bookended by two public health crises: AIDS and Covid-19.
By Alexandra Jacobs
As a new book by Ramin Setoodeh shows, Donald Trump brought the vulgar theatrics he honed on TV to his life in politics.
By Jennifer Szalai
In “When the Clock Broke,” John Ganz shows how a decade remembered as one of placid consensus was roiled by resentment, unrest and the rise of the radical right.
By Jennifer Szalai
Her new novel, “Parade,” considers the perplexity and solipsism of the creative life.
By Dwight Garner
In his memoir “The Friday Afternoon Club,” the Hollywood hyphenate Griffin Dunne, best known for his role in Martin Scorsese’s “After Hours,” recounts his privileged upbringing.
By Alexandra Jacobs
In a new book, the journalist and science fiction writer Annalee Newitz shows how we have used narrative to manipulate and coerce.
By Jennifer Szalai
In “When Women Ran Fifth Avenue,” Julie Satow celebrates the savvy leaders who made Bonwit, Bendel’s and Lord & Taylor into retail meccas of their moment.
By Alexandra Jacobs
A new biography of the performer, writer and director Elaine May has the intensity to match its subject.
By Dwight Garner
In “The Editor,” Sara B. Franklin argues that Judith Jones was a “publishing legend,” transcending industry sexism to champion cookbooks — and Anne Frank.
By Alexandra Jacobs
In Garth Risk Hallberg’s new novel, a teenage rebel and her father reconnect amid a sea of their own troubles.
By Dwight Garner
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R.O. Kwon’s second novel, “Exhibit,” sees two Korean American women finding pleasure in a bond that knits creative expression and sadomasochism.
By Alexandra Jacobs
In a new book, the historian Kim A. Wagner investigates the slaughter by U.S. troops of nearly 1,000 people in the Philippines in 1906 — an atrocity long overlooked in this country.
By Jennifer Szalai
The professor and social commentator Glenn Loury opens up about his vices in a candid new memoir.
By Dwight Garner
An anxious artist’s road trip stops short for a torrid affair at a tired motel. In “All Fours,” the desire for change is familiar. How to satisfy it isn’t.
By Alexandra Jacobs
The economist and philosopher Daniel Chandler thinks so. In “Free and Equal,” he makes a vigorous case for adopting the liberal political framework laid out by John Rawls in the 1970s.
By Jennifer Szalai
Hari Kunzru examines the ties between art and wealth in a new novel, “Blue Ruin.”
By Dwight Garner
Caroline Crampton shares her own worries in “A Body Made of Glass,” a history of hypochondria that wonders whether newfangled technology drives us crazier.
By Alexandra Jacobs
“I Just Keep Talking,” a collection of essays and artwork by the historian Nell Irvin Painter, captures her wide-ranging interests and original mind.
By Jennifer Szalai
The best stories in Honor Levy’s “My First Book” capture the quiet desperation of today’s smart set. But there is such a thing as publishing too soon.
By Dwight Garner
“Finish What We Started,” by the journalist Isaac Arnsdorf, reports from the front lines of the right-wing movement’s strategy to gain power, from the local level on up.
By Jennifer Szalai
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Slim and precious, “Somehow: Thoughts on Love” doesn’t measure up to her best nonfiction.
By Alexandra Jacobs
“In the Shadow of Liberty,” by the historian Ana Raquel Minian, chronicles America’s often brutal treatment of noncitizens, including locking them up without charge.
By Jennifer Szalai
“Knife” is an account of the writer’s brush with death in 2022, and the long recovery that followed.
By Dwight Garner
As he struggled with writing and illness, the “Alienist” author found comfort in the feline companions he recalls in a new memoir, “My Beloved Monster.”
By Alexandra Jacobs
In “The Invention of Prehistory,” the historian Stefanos Geroulanos argues that many of our theories about our remote ancestors tell us more about us than them.
By Jennifer Szalai
A new omnibus compiles the poet’s books and unpublished work, including his two-part autobiographical masterpiece, “Genesis.”
By Dwight Garner
In her buzzy memoir, “Sociopath,” Patric Gagne shows herself more committed to revel in her naughtiness than to demystify the condition.
By Alexandra Jacobs
Judith Butler’s new book, “Who’s Afraid of Gender?,” tries to turn down the heat on an inflamed argument.
By Jennifer Szalai
Cynthia Carr’s compassionate biography chronicles the brief, poignant life of the transgender actress Candy Darling, whose “very existence was radical.”
By Alexandra Jacobs
Stephen Breyer means well. Why is his new book, “Reading the Constitution,” so exasperating?
By Jennifer Szalai
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After his partner, Molly Brodak, died by suicide, Blake Butler found painful truths in her journals and personal items.
By Dwight Garner
In Lisa Ko’s adventurous novel “Memory Piece,” youthful exploration takes a dark turn for an artist, an activist and a web developer.
By Alexandra Jacobs
In his latest book, the prolific British psychoanalyst Adam Phillips promotes curiosity, improvisation and conflict as antidotes to the deadening effects of absolute certainty.
By Jennifer Szalai
The private musings of Sonny Rollins reveal an artist devoted to the rigors of self-improvement.
By Dwight Garner
Her lucid memoir, “One Way Back,” describes life before, during and after she testified that Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her in high school.
By Alexandra Jacobs
In “Soldiers and Kings,” the anthropologist Jason De León interviews smugglers, arguing that they are victims of poverty and violence, even as they exploit the humans in their care.
By Jennifer Szalai
“James” takes Mark Twain’s classic tale and places the enslaved sidekick, Jim, at its center.
By Dwight Garner
A brief volume of Elspeth Barker’s writings shows off the late novelist’s ability to soothe, shock and find the humor in dark moments.
By Alexandra Jacobs
In his eighth book, the best-selling author Cal Newport offers life hacks for producing high-quality work while working less.
By Jennifer Szalai
In his thoroughly researched “Radiant,” Brad Gooch considers the short, blazing life of the ’80s artist, activist and man about downtown.
By Alexandra Jacobs
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Rita Bullwinkel’s debut novel, “Headshot,” spotlights eight boxers in a national tournament and the struggles of their inner lives.
By Dwight Garner
A new biography chronicles this essential American writer’s complicated love life, celebrated career and singular talents.
By Dwight Garner
In this collaboratively written novel, Lower East Side dwellers get through lockdown swapping colorful tales on the roof of their scruffy building.
By Alexandra Jacobs
Two new books about the platform chronicle its leadership under first Jack Dorsey and now Elon Musk, portraying a site reeling from user disaffection and gross mismanagement.
By Jennifer Szalai
A story collection from Diane Oliver, who died at 22, locates the strength in Black families surviving their separate but equal surroundings.
By Alexandra Jacobs
A devastating 2020 fire on the island of Lesbos is the springboard for a meditation on origin stories, borders and migration in Lauren Markham’s “A Map of Future Ruins.”
By Jennifer Szalai
“The Freaks Came Out to Write” is an oral history of America’s most important alternative weekly.
By Dwight Garner
With Burton and Taylor as stars and a writer and director feuding, adapting the scabrous play wasn’t easy. “Cocktails With George and Martha” pours out the details.
By Alexandra Jacobs
“Literary Theory for Robots,” by Dennis Yi Tenen, a software engineer turned literature professor, shows how the “intelligence” in artificial intelligence is irreducibly human.
By Jennifer Szalai
Lucy Sante recounts the trials and joys of her gender transition in the memoir “I Heard Her Call My Name.”
By Dwight Garner
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A new book by the historian Dan Stone seeks to amend — and expand — our understanding of the genocide.
By Jennifer Szalai
In her new book, the writer presents 10 years of her diaries in an unorthodox arrangement.
By Dwight Garner
Deborah Jowitt’s “Errand Into the Maze” revels in the artistry of the dance legend, while downplaying the messy choices in her marathon career.
Alexandra Jacobs
Calvin Trillin collects many of his inimitable profiles and essays about journalism in “The Lede.”
By Dwight Garner
Adam Shatz’s “The Rebel’s Clinic,” a new biography of the psychiatrist and revolutionary Frantz Fanon, aims to restore complexity to a man both revered and reviled for his militancy.
By Jennifer Szalai
Plato and Pushkin, Mickey Mouse and “The Simpsons” make (permissible) appearances in this surprisingly zippy history of copyright protection.
By Alexandra Jacobs
In a new book, Manjula Martin explores her accommodation to life in Northern California in an era of increasingly extreme weather.
By Jennifer Szalai
An experiment in digital disengagement prompts Kyle Chayka to consider how technology has narrowed our choices and dulled the culture.
By Alexandra Jacobs
Yaroslav Trofimov grew up in Kyiv. “Our Enemies Will Vanish” records his experience as a journalist for The Wall Street Journal assigned to cover the war.
By Jennifer Szalai
Álvaro Enrigue’s “You Dreamed of Empires” is a hallucinatory tale of the conquistadors’ arrival at Moctezuma’s gates.
By Dwight Garner
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In Marie-Helene Bertino’s remarkable funny-sad novel, the young visitor and her mother find the means to persevere in the aisles of a cosmetics store.
By Alexandra Jacobs
This bracing anthology of Christopher Hitchens’s work for The London Review of Books is just the ticket.
By Dwight Garner
In “Pure Wit,” Francesca Peacock makes a fresh case for the writer Margaret Cavendish’s place in the feminist canon.
By Alexandra Jacobs
Be wary of the recipes (all that glaze!), but there’s still delight in getting advice about etiquette, guest lists and fondue.
By Alexandra Jacobs
In a new memoir, the filmmaker and playwright shares his opinions on Hollywood past and present.
By Dwight Garner
Shahnaz Habib’s “irreverent history” takes a lively and sometimes ruthless look at who gets to go where and what gets papered over in their accounts.
By Alexandra Jacobs
A new biography sheds light on her humble beginnings and prolific, genre-defining career.
By Dwight Garner
In “Zero at the Bone,” Christian Wiman offers a welcome tonic: poetic and philosophical reminders of how to get through troubling times.
By Alexandra Jacobs
In his new book, “The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory,” the journalist Tim Alberta subjects his faith’s embrace of right-wing extremism to critical scrutiny.
By Jennifer Szalai
The new book by Lauren Elkin examines artists who’ve defied conventions and expectations, including Carolee Schneemann, Eva Hesse and Kara Walker.
By Jennifer Szalai
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“Among Friends” is a history of an industry transformed by consolidation and shifting tastes.
By Dwight Garner
In “Flight of the WASP,” the inveterate dirt-digger Michael Gross gives America’s elite families the white-glove treatment.
By Alexandra Jacobs
Ray Isle’s “The World in a Wineglass” is a broad survey of vintners with a focus on sustainability and organic methods.
By Dwight Garner
The new book by Jennifer Burns aims to bring fresh complexity to our understanding of the Nobel Prize-winning economist.
By Jennifer Szalai
A new biography resuscitates the colorful, tragic life of Mal Evans: roadie, confidant, procurer, cowbell player.
By Alexandra Jacobs
His book is a thrilling account of the conspiracy to steal the 2020 election, the attack on the Capitol, Tucker Carlson’s defenestration and more.
By Dwight Garner
The new book by Witold Szablowski features the chefs who were expected to prepare sumptuous meals for Russian leaders — and keep them from being poisoned.
By Jennifer Szalai
In a chatty and candid new memoir, Barbra Streisand talks about her early determination to be famous and tallies the hurdles and helpers she met along the way.
By Alexandra Jacobs
A flurry of new books highlights broad disagreements over how to address the problem.
By Jennifer Szalai
Mixing the medical and the personal, several memoirists find literary analogies the best way to capture unwelcome visits to “unimaginable lands.”
By Alexandra Jacobs
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Set during the pandemic, Sigrid Nunez’s new novel, “The Vulnerables,” is a story of unlikely companionship and personal reflection.
By Dwight Garner
The classicist Mary Beard examines the excesses and tedium of imperial rule, sorting fact from gossip and tall tales.
By Jennifer Szalai
In a new memoir, the rock luminary details his long career and the music that shaped him.
By Dwight Garner
Michael MacCambridge’s “The Big Time” rewinds to the ’70s, when showy personalities and compelling rivalries turned sports into mass entertainment.
By Alexandra Jacobs
The new book by the Philippine journalist Patricia Evangelista recounts her investigation into the campaign of extrajudicial murders under former President Rodrigo Duterte.
By Jennifer Szalai
Fuchsia Dunlop’s “Invitation to a Banquet” is a cultural investigation of an impossibly broad and often misunderstood cuisine.
By Dwight Garner
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