A Quarter-Life Crisis Handled With Grace and Guts

In “Maame,” a young woman strives for independence while carrying the weight of her family’s world.

BY ELISABETH EGAN | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Demon Dolls, Lonely Dolls and Sex Dolls

An editor recommends old and new books.

BY SADIE STEIN | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

In These Stories, Everyone Wants to Be Somewhere Else

The characters in “The Faraway World” seek connection in a disconnected world. Patricia Engel provides it in her own clever way.

BY LEIGH NEWMAN | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

How Well Do You Know Novels Set in New Orleans?

In addition to great music and a magnificent Mardi Gras celebration, the Crescent City is the setting for many classic and award-winning novels. Can you guess the five books featured in this week’s quiz?

BY J. D. BIERSDORFER | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

New York City and Its Discontents, in 3 New Books

“The Sense of Wonder,” “Vintage Contemporaries” and “All the Beauty in the World” take on the many dramas of Gotham.

BY TOBIAS CARROLL | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

6 New Paperbacks to Read This Week

This week’s roundup includes titles from Miriam Toews, Ibram X. Kendi, Lawrence Wright’s and more.

BY MIGUEL SALAZAR | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Pamela Anderson Tells All, Again

Her second memoir — about her small-town coming-of-age, her multiple traumas and Hollywood escapades — is an attempt to set the record straight.

BY JESSICA PRESSLER | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Small-Town Affairs

These romance novels brim with coziness and cupcake bakeries.

BY OLIVIA WAITE | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

R.F. Kuang Is Curious About Something …

The author of “Babel” likes to raise questions that bother her — ones she hopes will bother her readers too.

BY ELISABETH EGAN | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

It Took Nearly 30 Years. Is America Ready for Ben Okri Now?

The acclaimed Nigerian British writer is resonating with American readers in a moment of national crisis. “Maybe nations go through a time when they just can’t hear certain kinds of voices,” he said.

BY ANDERSON TEPPER | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Patricia Engel’s Enduring Friendships Always Include Books

“It touches me when people ask me to read a book because it’s special to them,” says the fiction writer, whose new book is the story collection “The Faraway World.” “It’s like being granted permission to peek inside their soul.”

Unknown Author | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Newly Published, From Bottled Wishes to Norman Mailer

A selection of recently published books.

Unknown Author | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Globalization’s Discontents Were Baked In From the Beginning

In “Against the World,” the historian Tara Zahra examines the promise of liberal internationalism in its early days — and the resentments and suffering it continues to incite.

BY JENNIFER SZALAI | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

The Thrill of Plot or the Richness of Detail? Try Both.

Laurent Mauvignier’s “The Birthday Party” is a thriller with an intense focus on its characters’ interior worlds.

BY MARTIN RIKER | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

John Maynard Keynes Can’t Save You Now

Martin Riker’s novel “The Guest Lecture” details a tortured night inside the head of a young economist.

BY DWIGHT GARNER | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Paul Harding Captures the Quiet Side of Calamity

It took the author a decade, and some luck, to publish his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Tinkers.” He’s back with another devastating tale, “This Other Eden.”

BY MJ FRANKLIN | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Tsitsi Dangarembga Turns From Fiction to Polemic

The essays in “Black and Female” recount the Zimbabwean novelist and filmmaker’s life in the context of colonialism and its aftermaths.

BY ISMAIL MUHAMMAD | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Closing the Book on Promises to Myself

This year’s resolution: No more worrying about all the volumes I know I’ll never read.

BY SADIE STEIN | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Aleksandar Hemon Sets a Gay Love Story Amid the Great War

In the postmodernist novel “The World and All That It Holds,” a Sephardi pharmacist falls in love with a Bosnian soldier as war breaks out in Sarajevo and beyond.

BY ADAM MARS-JONES | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

When $20,000 Gets You Exploited in America

In “The Great Escape,” Saket Soni, a labor organizer, recounts the ordeal faced by hundreds of Indian workers who were lured to this country on false promises of green cards and sorely mistreated.

BY FARAH STOCKMAN | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

6 New Paperbacks to Read This Week

Our picks this week include Bob Woodward’s third book about the Trump administration.

BY MIGUEL SALAZAR | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

‘Vile,’ ‘Deplorable,’ ‘Full of Lies’: Aleksandar Hemon Is No Fan of Philip Roth

“Roth’s steadfast commitment to the many privileges of male whiteness reliably repels me,” says Hemon, whose new novel is “The World and All That It Holds.” “I also dislike a lot of recent books, but I don’t wish to name them.”

Unknown Author | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Newly Published, From Myriad Hats to an Iraqi Pomegranate Tree

A selection of recently published books.

Unknown Author | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Can the Country Come to Terms With Its Original Sin?

In Edward J. Larson’s “American Inheritance,” the Pulitzer-winning historian attempts to insert reason into a passionate public conversation.

BY JON MEACHAM | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Money Can’t Buy Happiness. It Can’t Even Buy Status, a New Book Says.

In “The Status Revolution,” Chuck Thompson argues that class signifiers have flipped, so that what was once luxurious is now out and what was once lowbrow is now in.

BY DOUGLAS WOLK | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Boston’s ‘Rough Sleepers’ and the Doctor Who Treats Them

The new book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tracy Kidder chronicles the work of Dr. Jim O’Connell, who has dedicated his career to caring for homeless patients.

BY WES ENZINNA | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Fleeing Slavery in a Top Hat and Cravat

“Master Slave Husband Wife,” by Ilyon Woo, relates the daring escape from bondage in Georgia to freedom in the North by an enslaved couple disguised as a wealthy planter and his property.

BY W. CALEB MCDANIEL | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

A Writer Collapses. As He Recovers, His Dispatches Captivate Readers

Hanif Kureishi lost use of his arms and legs. In tweets dictated to family members, he narrates the drama, and muses about writing and art, love and patience. He’s also quite funny.

Unknown Author | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Life and Much Death in the Amazon

In “Masters of the Lost Land,” Heriberto Araujo investigates a region where land and people are routinely sacrificed to greed and corruption.

BY JOSHUA HAMMER | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Bret Easton Ellis Is Back to His Regularly Scheduled Programming

In his latest novel, “The Shards,” the author returns to his old tropes: gruesome murder, lonely teenagers and 1980s Los Angeles.

BY MELISSA BRODER | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Overlooked Black History, in Three New Novels

A collection of debut novels — “In the Upper Country,” by Kai Thomas, “Moonrise Over New Jessup,” by Jamila Minnicks, and “Wade in the Water,” by Nyani Nkrumah — explore the historical experiences of Black North Americans.

BY ALYSSA COLE | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Jon Meacham Grew Up With Civil War Bullets in His Backyard

The presidential biographer was raised on a battlefield, so when he was dispirited by the state of the union, it made sense to look to Lincoln.

BY ELISABETH EGAN | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Patrick Modiano Says Good Books Make Good People

“A book that profoundly moves or thrills you makes you a more sensitive person, and therefore a better one,” says the 2014 Nobel laureate, whose new book is “Scene of the Crime.” “That is its moral function.”

Unknown Author | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Newly Published, From Y.A. Novels to Sharks and More

A selection of recently published books.

Unknown Author | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Prince Harry Learns to Cry, and Takes No Prisoners, in ‘Spare’

At once emotional and embittered, the royal memoir is mired in a paradox: drawing endless attention in an effort to renounce fame.

BY ALEXANDRA JACOBS | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

A New Novel Confronts the Scale and Gravity of Climate Change

As catastrophe approaches, Stephen Markley’s “The Deluge” considers its many facets.

BY HAMILTON CAIN | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

A Debut Novel Explores the Complexities of Sudan’s Civil War

“Ghost Season,” by Fatin Abbas, follows five characters in a border town surrounded by conflict.

BY SULAIMAN ADDONIA | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Think Screens Stole Our Attention? Medieval Monks Were Distracted Too.

In “The Wandering Mind,” the historian Jamie Kreiner shows that the struggle to focus is not just a digital-age blight but afflicted even those who spent their lives in seclusion and prayer.

BY JENNIFER SZALAI | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

When Downtrodden Women Turn to Murder

In Parini Shroff’s debut novel, “The Bandit Queens,” a group of wives get the ultimate revenge on their no-good husbands.

BY CHANDLER BAKER | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Where Adventurous, Curious Women Rule

In three new historical novels, female protagonists defy odds and push limits.

BY ALIDA BECKER | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Floods, Fires and Humidity: How Climate Change Affects Book Preservation

As extreme weather events become more common, archivists and conservators are scrambling to protect their collections.

BY EMMETT LINDNER | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

How Does a Family Change After Losing a Child?

In her new novel, “Small World,” Laura Zigman explores the long shadows cast by grief.

BY ELISABETH EGAN | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

6 New Paperbacks to Read This Week

This week's titles include sweeping accounts covering the histories of games, clothes and humanity, Jonathan Evison's latest novel and more.

BY MIGUEL SALAZAR | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Leigh Bardugo Is Wary of Imposing Limits on Young Readers

“I think they actually have a pretty good barometer of what they can handle,” says the fantasy novelist, whose new book is “Hell Bent,” “and will happily set a book aside when it starts to go places they don’t want to go.”

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Read Your Way Through Tokyo

Hiromi Kawakami, one of Japan’s most popular contemporary novelists, travels with books that help her immerse herself in her destination. Here, she suggests reading for those coming to her hometown, Tokyo.

BY HIROMI KAWAKAMI AND TRANSLATED BY ALLISON MARKIN POWELL | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Newly Published, From Triptych Poems to Boston’s Black Workers

A selection of recently published books.

Unknown Author | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

This Is Girlhood, Warts and All

In “Sam,” Allegra Goodman provides a sweeping yet intimate view of the challenges and triumphs of growing up.

BY MARY POLS | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

In the ‘Cozy Catastrophe’ Novel, the End of the World Is Not So Bad

Originally published in 1939, “The Hopkins Manuscript,” by the British writer R.C. Sherriff, inaugurated a genre of post-apocalyptic fiction in which a resourceful hero survives unthinkable cataclysm.

BY ALEC NEVALA-LEE | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

‘Terrorist’ — to Whom?

V.V. Ganeshananthan’s novel “Brotherless Night” reveals the moral nuances of violence, ever belied by black-and-white terminology.

BY OMAR EL AKKAD | NYTimes Books | Disclosure