Woody Allen’s First Novel: Funny-ish, but Very Familiar

In “What’s With Baum?,” an anxious, jealous and thrice-married writer finds himself stranded in a culture that wants more “schmaltz,” less “wisdom.”

Alexandra Jacobs | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

She Modeled Her Whole Life on Godly Purity. Then She Woke Up.

In the new memoir “Awake,” the evangelical star Jen Hatmaker explores how the implosion of her 26-year marriage helped lead to a spiritual reckoning.

Alissa Wilkinson | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

8 New Books We Love This Week

Reading recommendations from critics and editors at The New York Times.

Unknown Author | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

In This Spanish Office, Work Is Hell. It’s Also Hilarious.

A young creative at a Madrid ad agency does her best to do the least in Beatriz Serrano’s darkly comic debut novel, “Discontent.”

Hilary Leichter | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Patricia Lockwood Craves an Easier Way to Eat While Reading

A hands-free “pulley system, or crumbs brought to me by little doves, or something,” would help. Her new novel is “Will There Ever Be Another You.”

Unknown Author | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Arthur Sze Will Be the Next U.S. Poet Laureate

An observational poet who focuses on imagery from nature, he taught at the Institute of American Indian Arts for more than 20 years.

Elizabeth A. Harris | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

What Abraham Lincoln Understood About the Founders.

In “Born Equal,” Akhil Reed Amar paints a sprawling portrait of 19th-century America in thrall to its founding moment.

Jeff Shesol | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Jill Lepore Thinks the U.S. Constitution Might Break America

In “We the People,” the Harvard historian worries that the glacial amendment process is leading the country to crisis.

Aziz Z. Huq | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

What Happened to the High-Tech Space Race?

In “Rocket Dreams,” Christian Davenport revels in the struggle between the billionaire moguls Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to leave the Earth behind.

Rebecca Boyle | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Page to Screen: Do You Know the Inspiration for These Adaptations?

Try this short quiz about cartoons and comic strips that found new life as moving pictures.

J. D. Biersdorfer | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Can One Novel Capture the Expanses of Human Thought?

The German writer Michael Lentz gives it a shot in “Schattenfroh,” stretching the limits of fiction in the process.

Dustin Illingworth | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Robert Louis Stevenson Was Ahead of His Time, Except When He Wasn’t

Leo Damrosch traces the life of an imperialist turned anti-imperialist who wrote several exceptional books and one groundbreaking masterpiece.

Francine Prose | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

An Edgy Comedy About Sex, Duty and Food Service

In Lee Lai’s “Cannon,” a lonely, repressed line cook allows herself to be taken advantage of by several people in her life, until she can’t stand it any longer.

Sam Thielman | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

21 Nonfiction Books Coming This Fall

Memoirs by Margaret Atwood, Elizabeth Gilbert and Lionel Richie; history from Jill Lepore and David Nasaw; and plenty more.

Miguel Salazar and Laura Thompson | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

She Won the Booker Prize. Then She Disappeared for 20 Years.

Kiran Desai has returned with her most ambitious novel yet: “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny,” a sprawling romance that was all-consuming to complete.

Alexandra Alter and Meghan Marin | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Rosalyn Drexler, a Modern-Day Renaissance Woman, Dies at 98

She wrote plays, novels and an Emmy-winning Lily Tomlin special. She was a painter, a sculptor and a nightclub singer. Oh, and she also wrestled professionally.

Anita Gates | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

100 Years Ago, Fictional Londoners Looked Up. They Saw Our Present Day.

Our critic A.O. Scott takes apart a scene from “Mrs. Dalloway,” Virginia Woolf’s 1925 masterpiece, and shows why the book is a must-read now.

A.O. Scott | NYTimes Books | Disclosure

Birds Who Help Humans, and Other Tales of Inter-Species Cooperation

In “The Call of the Honeyguide,” Rob Dunn explores how the natural and human worlds have helped each other through history — and can again.

Melissa L. Sevigny | NYTimes Books | Disclosure