Meet the Queen Bee of Victorian Abortionists

The notorious Madame Restell lived large and fearlessly in a century not so far, far away.

BY JOANNA SCUTTS | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Meet the Electrome. It Can Turn You Into an Assassin.

In “We Are Electric,” Sally Adee explores the body’s capacity for electricity; the results can be shocking.

BY SIMON WINCHESTER | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

All of Life’s Griefs and Joys, in 4 Generations of Women

Donal Ryan’s new novel, “The Queen of Dirt Island,” follows an Irish family through several tumultuous decades.

BY AMY BLOOM | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

A Sister’s Murder and the Language of Violence

In “Liliana’s Invincible Summer,” Cristina Rivera Garza interrogates her sister’s death to reshape the conversation about femicide.

BY KATHERINE DYKSTRA | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Frozen Poop Chisels and Amputated Toes: A Life of Arctic Adventure

“Wanderlust,” Reid Mitenbuler’s biography of the early-20th-century Danish explorer Peter Freuchen, examines a man drawn to some of the most isolated places on Earth.

BY W. M. AKERS | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

For Thomas Mann, the World’s Chaos Is Inside the House

A newly translated story by the German master explores a father’s feelings for his children in a time of fierce social change.

BY COLM TOIBIN | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Unlikely Rebels With a Very Good Cause

Kate Zernike’s “The Exceptions” tells the infuriating, inspiring story of the sexism faced by female scientists at M.I.T. — and how they fought back.

BY BONNIE GARMUS | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Exploring the Wilds: Magical Marshlands, Nascent Planets

New books by Frances Hardinge, Annalee Newitz and Freya Marske.

BY AMAL EL-MOHTAR | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Sizzling Hot Books for Cold Winter Days

Cozy up with one of the four new books recommended by our romance columnist.

BY OLIVIA WAITE | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Grief, Pain and the Lingering Impact of Trauma on Black Women’s Bodies

In her new novel, “An Autobiography of Skin,” Lakiesha Carr tells the stories of three contemporary Black women, each struggling with different manifestations of trauma.

BY LADEE HUBBARD | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Newly Published, From Press Freedom to the History of Ignorance

A selection of recently published books.

Unknown Author | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

A Poet Whose Tone Was Personal and Whose Vision Was Vast

“True Life,” a collection of verse by the Polish poet Adam Zagajewski, arrives in English translation almost exactly two years after his death.

BY ROBERT PINSKY | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

An Extraordinary Memoir of a Black American Boyhood

Joseph Earl Thomas’s remarkable debut, “Sink,” recounts the coming-of-age of a young man for whom poverty, violence, drug abuse and racism were simply facts of daily life.

BY BRYAN WASHINGTON | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

QAnon and the Fear and Loathing of an American Conspiracy Theory

“Trust the Plan,” by Will Sommer, tracks the emergence of a bizarre movement from the wastewaters of the internet.

BY DWIGHT GARNER | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

A Podcaster Goes Back to School, Ready to Listen

In “I Have Some Questions for You,” Rebecca Makkai dispatches her protagonist to a remote campus to teach — and seek justice.

BY HAMILTON CAIN | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Marriage on the Alaskan Frontier? Not for the Faint of Heart.

In her debut novel, “Homestead,” Melinda Moustakis follows a stoic pair as they build a life on unfamiliar, unforgiving soil.

BY CLAIRE LUCHETTE | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Even a Mother Can’t Body-Block Mental Illness

In her memoir, “Zig-Zag Boy,” Tanya Frank looks back on her son’s epic struggle with schizoaffective disorder.

BY BETH MACY | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Public Libraries, and Profiling Paul Harding

A celebration of community libraries and their expanding role, and a look at the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Paul Harding.

Unknown Author | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Walter Mosley’s New York: Classes Divided, Races at War

His new novel, “Every Man a King,” is a hard-boiled tale of billionaires, white nationalists and a detective with a complicated past.

BY DANIEL NIEH | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Is the Marriage Between Democracy and Capitalism on the Rocks?

Never easy, the relationship between the vaunted political system and economic order appears to be in crisis. New books by historians and economists sound the alarm.

BY JENNIFER SZALAI | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Read Your Way Through São Paulo

Brazil’s ultra urban megacity overwhelms the landscape and the imagination. Paulo Scott recommends books that peel back its layers.

BY PAULO SCOTT | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

A Novel of ‘Dangerous Love’ in a Country Racked by Civil War

In his new book, the Booker Prize winner Ben Okri imagines a star-crossed romance in battle-scarred Nigeria.

BY ZACHARY LAZAR | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Can One City Be a Microcosm of Everything That’s Wrong?

In his new book, “Palo Alto,” Malcolm Harris makes the case that the story of his hometown represents way more than you might expect.

BY GARY KAMIYA | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Her Father Was a Drama Critic, Her Mother a Superstar Agent

In her memoir “The Critic’s Daughter,” Priscilla Gilman recounts her life with intensely intellectual — and very different — parents.

BY DWIGHT GARNER | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

The Man Who Caught Marilyn Monroe’s Skirt on Film

“The American Way,” by Helene Stapinski and Bonnie Siegler, tells the story of Siegler’s immigrant grandfather — who happened on the movie star while she was filming “The Seven Year Itch” — while delving into other colorful mid-20th-century American characters.

BY JULIE KLAM | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

A Writer’s Lament: The Better You Write, the More You Will Fail

The public sees writers only during their victories, but their lives are spent mainly in defeat.

BY STEPHEN MARCHE | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

In a Time of Endings, a Writer Finds Her Voice

Daisy Alpert Florin’s debut novel, “My Last Innocent Year,” is a coming-of-age novel set on a college campus near the close of the last century.

BY ELISABETH EGAN | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Jojo Moyes’s Grandmother Knew a Bookworm When She Saw One

“It wasn’t a compliment,” says the writer, whose latest novel is “Someone Else’s Shoes.” “My weekly visits to her were usually spent with my nose buried between the pages.”

Unknown Author | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Newly Published, From Hip Hop Style to Psychic Weapons

A selection of books published this week.

Unknown Author | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

A Cockeyed Optimist: Oscar Hammerstein Was No Stephen Sondheim

Laurie Winer’s new book, “Oscar Hammerstein II and the Invention of the Musical,” takes the measure of Sondheim’s mentor and spiritual godfather.

BY BRAD LEITHAUSER | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

When the Government Goes Top Secret, Who Can Write Its History?

In “The Declassification Engine,” Matthew Connelly traces the evolution of America’s obsession with secrecy and the alarming implications for our understanding of the past.

BY TIM WEINER | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue. For Poets in Love, Only Couplets Will Do.

Maggie Millner’s first book, “Couplets,” breathes new life into an old form to tell the story of a romance that catches its heroine off guard.

BY ADRIENNE RAPHEL | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

The Essential Colette

The author, considered by some to be the greatest French writer of her time, played with words and convention. Here’s where to start with her work.

BY SADIE STEIN | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Conversations With Friends, in a Russian Jail Cell

A debut novel from Kira Yarmysh, a longtime critic of Vladimir Putin, offers an intimate look at political imprisonment.

BY DWIGHT GARNER | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

A Novelist Bridges the Class Divide in Contemporary Nigeria

In Ayòbámi Adébáyò’s “A Spell of Good Things,” the lives of a working-class boy and a wealthy young doctor converge to expose the precarity of the social order.

BY AAMINA AHMAD | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

She Grabs the Wrong Gym Bag, and Carries It Into a New Life

In “Someone Else’s Shoes,” Jojo Moyes puts a fresh spin on the classic plot where characters swap circumstances.

BY MARSHALL HEYMAN | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

As Wallace Stevens Once Put It: Hi!

Poetic beginnings — first lines, or first poems in collections — do a lot of work in setting the tone and the reader’s expectations.

BY ELISA GABBERT | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Storming Normandy in 1346

“Essex Dogs,” the first novel in a projected trilogy by the historian Dan Jones, imagines a hard-bitten band of mercenaries hired to invade France on behalf of their English king.

BY IAN MCGUIRE | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

They Crossed Paths in Second Grade. Now They’re Best Sellers.

When “Master Slave Husband Wife” came out last month, Ilyon Woo teamed up with her old friend Imani Perry for her first book event.

BY ELISABETH EGAN | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Salman Rushdie’s Miracle City

His new novel is about a kingdom that is founded on pluralism but fails to live up to its ideals.

BY MICHAEL GORRA | NYTimes Books | Disclosure