Set in 2050, after its author has died, “A Previous Life” is a metafictional comedy about literature and sex.
The author of “Chemistry” returns with a wry and awkward heroine who prefers the company of machines to her fellow humans.
In “Lost in the Valley of Death,” Harley Rustad follows the long and winding road that led Justin Alexander Shetler to India’s Parvati Valley.
Daphne Merkin examines her complicated feelings about Joan Didion’s writing, iconic status and legacy.
In “The Book of All Books,” the great Italian polymath offers his interpretation of biblical stories.
In the historian Jing Tsu’s “Kingdom of Characters,” the evolution of Chinese writing tells the story of the country’s past, present — and future.
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
Gottlieb talks about his own new biography and the work of Sinclair Lewis, and Carl Bernstein discusses “Chasing History.”
“I was really disappointed when I read ‘Slaughterhouse-Five,’” says the author of “The Making of Incarnation” and other novels. “But then I read his ‘Mother Night,’ and thought it was brilliant.”
Sequoia Nagamatsu’s debut novel, “How High We Go in the Dark,” is an expansive mosaic set in the wake of a devastating virus.
David Sanchez’ debut novel, “All Day Is a Long Time,” paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of life with addiction.
“Most Dope,” a biography by Paul Cantor, offers a tender remembrance of a precocious talent.
“Just Pursuit,” by Laura Coates, a former federal prosecutor, and “The Rage of Innocence,” by Kristin Henning, a longtime juvenile defense lawyer, detail the moral quandaries and bias they encountered in their work.
Jing Tsu talks about “Kingdom of Characters,” and Kathryn Schulz discusses “Lost and Found.”
“Loyalty” and “The Counterclockwise Heart” — set in 1774 Boston and a fairy-tale kingdom divided against itself — explore how misinformation stokes fear and incites violence.
Stephen Hunter’s new novel, “Targeted,” features the retired Marine sniper Bob Lee Swagger — who’s still a crack shot — in his 12th adventure.
Fiction by Mina Seçkin, Lisa Harding, Neel Patel and Renée Branum tells of transnational family and loss.
Six new paperbacks to check out this week.
James R. Gaines’s “The Fifties” describes a decade when opposition to a stifling national consensus was costly and courageous.
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
What do Jacqueline Woodson and Elizabeth George have in common? They’re both veteran authors whose books fly off the shelves.
In “The Hard Sell,” the journalist Evan Hughes tells the story of the rise and fall of Insys Therapeutics — and the larger pharmaceutical industry.
“The Transcendentalists and Their World,” by Robert A. Gross, focuses on Concord, Mass.
Rosemary Salomone’s “The Rise of English” looks at the economic, social and cultural impact of English around the world.
Two books, “How Civil Wars Start,” by Barbara F. Walter, and “The Next Civil War,” by Stephen Marche, examine if the United States is facing upheaval.
