Two Books About Grit and Grime

A Hollywood memoir; a call-girl novel

Leah Greenblatt | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Plagiarist or Master? The Tortured Legacy of Yambo Ouologuem

Five decades ago, an award-winning Malian author disappeared from public life after being accused of plagiarism. Now, his ambiguous novel is being released, and evaluated, in new light.

Elian Peltier | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

‘Germany 1923’: When Democracy Held Nazism at Bay

In his latest book, the German historian Volker Ullrich describes a nation buffeted by poverty, hyperinflation and political extremism, but managing — for the moment — to thwart Hitler’s ascent.

Jennifer Szalai | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

The Black and White Southerners Who Changed the North

As autoworkers strike across the country, “Hillbilly Highway” and “Black Folk” offer two views of the search for a better life by working-class migrants in the middle of the 20th century.

Arlie Russell Hochschild | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

To Truly Understand the Climate Crisis, Ask the Animals

“The End of Eden” is Adam Welz’s moving, chilling elegy for biodiversity as we know it.

Adam Nicolson | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Jayne Anne Phillips Finds Anguish and Asylum in Civil War America

Her new novel, “Night Watch,” is a mother-daughter story set in a West Virginia mental institution.

Dwight Garner | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

In Defense of Men? Caitlin Moran’s Answer Will Surprise You.

A prolific feminist turns her sights to the opposite sex.

Jessica Bennett | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

In Her Fiction, Ayana Mathis Refuses to Ignore Black History

Her second novel, “The Unsettled,” follows three generations in a family divided between the North and the South in 1980s America.

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Kerry Washington Goes Deep

In her memoir, “Thicker Than Water,” the famously private “Scandal” star opens up about the family secret that made her question whether she was playing the lead role in her own life.

Elisabeth Egan | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Books About Elites That Elites Will Probably Enjoy

The Substack pundit Fredrik deBoer and the political scientist Yascha Mounk feel that liberal ideologues and “woke” pretenders have marred American life.

Sam Tanenhaus | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Kerry Washington Goes Deep

In her memoir, “Thicker Than Water,” the famously private “Scandal” star opens up about the family secret that made her question whether she was playing the lead role in her own life.

Elisabeth Egan | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

A Beach Read and a Book Purge

Answering reader mail with a recommended crime series and a book about architecture.

Sadie Stein | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Otherworldly Horrors Envelop a Scripted Ghost-Hunting Reality TV Show

In Nora Fussner’s new novel, the jaded producers of “Searching For … the Invisible World” are pulled into a haunted story they initially refuse to believe.

Jennifer Harlan | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

They Came, They Shaped, They Shredded

A book of photographs by Jimmy Metyko documents a fertile period of surf history.

Molly Young | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

How a Gun Made for Combat Found Its Way Into Millions of Homes

“American Gun,” by Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson, recounts the grim history of the AR-15 rifle in unvarnished detail.

Mike Spies | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Do Some Men Love Ancient Rome for the Wrong Reasons?

In two new books, the historians Adrian Goldsworthy and Tom Holland portray an empire that knew how to hold back from a fight and make room for upstarts.

David Potter | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Workers’ Movements or Tantrums Against Technology?

Brian Merchant’s “Blood in the Machine” compares the labor struggles of the Industrial Revolution to today’s abusive gig economy.

Gavin Mueller | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Lawrence Wright Sees Books as ‘Creatures of Their Time’

“I often look back on a book I thought was wonderful and inspiring and found it to be maudlin and flowery or have some other defect of character I overlooked,” says the journalist, whose new book is the novel “Mr. Texas.” “It could be that literary fashions have changed or I’ve gotten older, and of course both are true.”

Unknown Author | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Not All Heroes Wear Capes. Some Prefer Lab Coats.

In “Foreign Bodies,” Simon Schama studies pandemics past and present, and how much — and little — we have learned.

Simon Winchester | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

6 Great Y.A. Books That Open Up Conversations About Teen Mental Health

Nic Stone, the author of “Dear Martin,” “Chaos Theory” and more, recommends some of her favorite young adult books about mental health.

Nic Stone | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

The Story of a House and Its Occupants Over 3 Centuries

Daniel Mason’s novel “North Woods” is a survey of American history told in a hodgepodge of forms and genres.

Rand Richards Cooper | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Enough About the Serial Killer. Let’s Talk About His Victims.

In her new novel, “Bright Young Women,” Jessica Knoll shifts our attention from a notorious criminal to the women who died by his hand.

Patton Oswalt | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Can You Match These Novels to Their Settings in the Great Plains?

All or parts of 10 U.S. states make up this sprawling middle section of the country — can you connect five recent novels to their locations there?

J. D. Biersdorfer | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Jhumpa Lahiri and Me

Like many Indian American fiction writers working in the shadow of Jhumpa Lahiri, I had to learn that my stories could be different — in part because America was different, too.

Vauhini Vara | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

‘The Box’ Is a Modernist Puzzle in the Vein of Kafka and Joyce

Mandy-Suzanne Wong’s new novel follows a white paper box on a disorienting journey through many hands — none of which can open it.

David Szalay | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

The Man Who Wrote Everything

In “Bartleby and Me,” Gay Talese recalls ink-stained colleagues, shares trade secrets and digs through the ruins of a truly explosive Manhattan marriage.

Alexandra Jacobs | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Nathan Hill’s ‘Wellness’ Satirizes the Modern Condition — Kind Of

The second novel by the author of “The Nix” follows a young Chicago couple’s trajectory from pre-internet optimism to 21st-century ennui.

Andrew Martin | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

For America’s ‘Wild Girls,’ the Natural World Meant Freedom

In her new book, the historian Tiya Miles shows how formative outdoor experiences helped diverse women — from Harriet Tubman to Indigenous athletes — transcend prescribed social and gender roles.

Jill Watts | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Karl Ove Knausgaard’s Novel for Our Precarious Times

“The Wolves of Eternity” wrestles with conflicting worldviews in a tale of intersecting lives.

Sven Birkerts | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Elon Musk and Naomi Klein Are Complicated

Our critic Jennifer Szalai discusses Walter Isaacson’s biography of the billionaire entrepreneur along with her recent profile of Klein, the Canadian writer and activist.

Unknown Author | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Dwelling in the Past, in the Literary Sense

From the dark heart of a misguided follower to the young hand of a diarist whose words outlived her, these novels encompass the full spectrum of humanity.

Alida Becker | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Pulitzer Prizes Expand Eligibility to Noncitizens

The jury for the memoir category had raised concerns that the citizenship requirement was excluding a large part of American culture.

Alexandra Alter | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

The Ins, Outs, Ups and Downs of One Woman’s 12-Year Amazon Career

In her new memoir, “Exit Interview,” Kristi Coulter details her time working at the company, connecting her experience to the larger history of women’s employment struggles.

Leah Reich | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Millie Bobby Brown Writes About a Real-Life Wartime Mystery

In her debut novel, the British actor elaborates on a story told to her by her grandmother.

Jessica Francis Kane | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

An Electric Novel About Space, a Poignant Story About Loss

In her new novel, “Digging Stars,” Novuyo Rosa Tshuma explores science, identity and grief through a young astronomer who immigrates to America after her father dies mysteriously.

Weike Wang | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

In This Dark Fairy Tale, the Beauty Industry Is the Villain

Mona Awad’s new novel, “Rouge,” indicts the quest to be fairest of them all.

Megan O’Grady | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Stephen King Explains Why He’s a Mystery Writer Not So Big on Mystery

The author discusses his new novel, “Holly,” his views on writing and life, and his own influence on younger generations. And we look at September books.

Unknown Author | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Sarah Young, 77, Dies; Created an Empire Around a Christian Devotional

Her book “Jesus Calling,” written in the voice of Jesus Christ, rose to the top of the Christian publishing best-seller lists. Sequels and spinoffs followed.

Clay Risen | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Books Recommended With Uncommon Wisdom and Tender Care

Five yearning Tokyo readers get life advice with their borrowed volumes in Michiko Aoyama’s “What You Are Looking For Is in the Library.”

Robin Sloan | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Edith Grossman, Who Elevated the Art of Translation, Dies at 87

“You are my voice in English,” Gabriel García Márquez told her. She insisted that her name appear on the covers of books she translated, including with that of Cervantes.

Rebecca Chace | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

New Novels Brimming With Murder, Jazz and Sumptuous Sweets

Our crime columnist recommends four September books.

Sarah Weinman | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

New Novels Brimming With Murder, Jazz and Sumptuous Sweets

Our crime columnist recommends four September books.

Sarah Weinman | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Conjuring a 17th-Century Witch Hunt, With Echoes of Our Own Day

Inspired by events in East Anglia, England, in 1645, “The Witching Tide,” by Margaret Meyer, evokes the climate of fear and accusation that grips a town with the arrival of a “witchfinder.”

Elizabeth Graver | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

In Chile, a Quest for Truth Driven by Survivor’s Guilt

Ariel Dorfman’s novel “The Suicide Museum” uses the controversy around a president’s death to examine personal and collective grief.

Lily Meyer | NYTimes Books | Disclosure