Book Review

The protagonist of Madison Newbound’s debut novel, “Misrecognition,” returns to her hometown after a breakup with her power-imbalanced polycule.

By Justin Taylor

The second in a series of conversations with authors appearing on our “Best Books of the 21st Century” list.

Try this short quiz about the vibrant cultural movement that came together a century ago — and continues to be influential.

By J. D. Biersdorfer

On the centennial of James Baldwin’s birth, a look at this revolutionary work that was a playwriting milestone for him.

By Anna Venarchik

Discussion about what books children should access has diminished on the national stage. But most rules pertaining to schools and libraries are made at the state and local level.

By Elizabeth A. Harris

In influential books, he questioned top-down government programs and extolled the power of the powerless, embracing a form of anarchism.

By Trip Gabriel

A screenwriter’s daughter, she grew up in the glittering world of privilege and its contradictions, which became rich material for her memoirs and novels.

By Penelope Green

Her novels and short stories often explored the lives of willful women who loved men who were crass, unfaithful or already married.

By Anthony DePalma

An infamous 1993 siege provides the backdrop for Bret Anthony Johnston’s novel about star-crossed lovers.

By John Wray

A late-life fantasia; a surviving twin’s breakthrough.

In Soma Mei Sheng Frazier’s debut novel, “Off the Books,” a Chinese American college student chauffeurs a handsome and suspicious client from California to New York.

By Tammy Tarng

Our columnist on vacation-ready reads.

By Olivia Waite

She wrote two books about multiple generations of her forebears, including her mother, Lena Horne.

By Richard Sandomir

Patricia Highsmith’s classic thriller mixes glamour, betrayal, self-invention and murder. What’s not to love?

Loren Long has illustrated books by Barack Obama, Madonna and Amanda Gorman. His No. 1 best seller, “The Yellow Bus,” took him in a different direction — one that required time, patience and toothpicks.

By Elisabeth Egan

Recommended reading from the Book Review, including titles by Safiya Sinclair, Michael Cunningham, Tasha Sylva and more.

By Shreya Chattopadhyay

“Tree. Table. Book” and “Not Nothing” feature young people whose friendships with the very old unlock fading memories.

By Jennifer Howard

Our columnist reviews July’s horror releases.

By Gabino Iglesias

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

Born into a patrician family, he used Harper’s and later his own Lapham’s Quarterly to denounce what he saw as the hypocrisies and injustices of a spoiled United States.

By Robert D. McFadden

She was, she said, unable to cook a basic meal into her mid-20s. But she went on to a successful career as a restaurateur and an authority on Asian cuisine.

By Alex Williams

The author of humorous short stories finds emotional connections in tales that engage with tech. But he’s more interested in the ties between humans.

By Jason Zinoman

“The Secret Lives of Numbers,” by Kate Kitagawa and Timothy Revell, highlights overlooked contributions to the field by ancient thinkers, non-Westerners and women.

By Alec Wilkinson

The group worked for decades to build the profile of the genre and its writers. Now romance fiction is booming — but the R.W.A. has filed for bankruptcy. What happened?

By Robert Ito

Colorful primers, inspirational biographies and books by former champions will get kids excited for the Paris Games — and teach valuable lessons along the way.

By Jennifer Harlan

In “A Hunger to Kill,” the former homicide detective Kim Mager recalls a career-defining investigation.

By Joe Pompeo

He brought to his writing a sharp sense of humor, honed in stand-up comedy clubs, and never pulled punches even though he was an unabashed Democrat.

By Sam Roberts

Camila Sosa Villada, an Argentine transgender author, first inhabited a female voice in stories she wrote as a child. Now her novels are translated in more than 20 languages and being adapted for the screen.

By Natalie Alcoba

Bibliophiles and film fans leafed through hundreds of books that once belonged to the eminent editor Robert Gottlieb.

By Alex Vadukul

A true-crime case that could only happen in Florida is at the heart of Mikita Brottman’s “Guilty Creatures.”

By Kelly McMasters

In the memoir “Desperately Seeking Something,” Susan Seidelman’s life is as full of twists, charm and happy endings as one of her iconic movies.

By W. M. Akers

The aggrieved wife who narrates Sarah Manguso’s novel “Liars” may or may not be a reliable source about her monster of a husband.

By Brian Dillon

In “The Quiet Damage,” Jesselyn Cook traces the effects of the conspiracy theory on the spouses, children and siblings of believers.

By Roxanna Asgarian

This bustling borough of New York City has been the setting for many novels — including the books in this short quiz.

By J. D. Biersdorfer

A new book by Susannah Gibson spotlights the 18th-century Bluestockings, who aspired to have their writings and ideas accorded the same respect as men’s.

By Francesca Wade

As a comic book series to honor the Turtles’ 40th anniversary debuts, here’s a look back at their milestones.

By George Gene Gustines

Our crime columnist on four new novels.

By Sarah Weinman

Elizabeth Stromme’s noir about a writer for hire; Karen Tei Yamashita’s magic realist dystopia.

A partial lexicon of modern Republicanism.

By A.O. Scott

In “Autocracy, Inc.,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian takes account of the financial institutions and trade deals that have helped spread tyranny across the world.

By Sam Adler-Bell

Clare Pollard’s novel “The Modern Fairies” reanimates 25 classic tales through a contemporary lens.

By S. Kirk Walsh

Immerse yourself in tales of Machiavellian statecraft, Depression-era scandal and emotional turmoil on an R.A.F. air base.

By Alida Becker

The novelist discusses his latest book, “The Bright Sword,” in which Arthur has died but Excalibur lives on with a band of misfit knights.

This week's selection includes titles by Jess Row, Dasha Kiper, Rachel Louise Martin and more.

By Shreya Chattopadhyay

In a new memoir, the marine biologist Jasmin Graham reflects on her passion for studying sharks and the barriers she refused to let stop her.

By Katrina Miller

Bruce Handy, Lisk Feng and Cat Min present shadows for what they are: the non-nefarious interplay of light and dark.

By Leigh Ann Henion

Three new books document obstacles to gender equality that, in the era that brought us #MeToo, Taylor Swift and the ‘girlboss,’ we thought we’d left behind.

By Emma Goldberg

Even before the Republican vice-presidential nominee aligned himself with Donald Trump, contradiction was central to his rags-to-riches biography.

By Mike McIntire

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

The people have spoken. Here are the books they voted for.

By The New York Times Books Staff

What if the star of “The Matrix” worked with a sci-fi novelist to tell the story of an 80,000-year-old warrior who can rip people’s arms off but struggles with loneliness?

By Alexandra Alter

Alexander Lefebvre’s new book is a ‘call to action about what we are trying to defend, and why,’ says the head of PEN America, which has been pummeled with disputes about speech, activism and Israel.

In “Women in the Valley of the Kings,” Kathleen Sheppard introduces us to a group of 19th-century archaeologists who changed the field forever.

By W. M. Akers

These stories of relationship dramas and evolving partnerships will fill the “Couples Therapy”-sized hole in your life with wisdom, schadenfreude and humor — and sometimes all of the above.

By Sadie Stein

They wanted to know where the poetry and the genre fiction were — and they also wanted to let us know which books were missing.

An unlovable heroine, a cyborg in search of missing parts, the restoration of a classic work and a series that is always worth the wait highlight four new volumes.

By Sam Thielman

“Revolution is the job of poets and artists,” says Ko Maung Saungkha, leader of a rebel militia fighting the Myanmar dictatorship. He is not the only poet commander in a country with a strong tradition of political verse.

By Hannah Beech and Daniel Berehulak

In Lev Grossman’s new book, “The Bright Sword,” an eager adventurer stumbles into a Camelot that has fallen into hopelessness and disarray after the death of the king.

By Kiersten White

Our critic talks to Edward P. Jones about how he imagined “The Known World,” recently voted the best work of fiction by an American writer in the 21st century.

By A.O. Scott

Jesse Katz’s true-crime narrative, “The Rent Collectors,” delivers a nuanced portrait of a community racked by poverty and violence and deprived of opportunities to get ahead.

By Ben Ehrenreich

Two exuberant new books chronicle the heyday of New York City’s criminal underworld on the Lower East Side.

By Debby Applegate

In Halle Butler’s new book, “Banal Nightmare,” a 30-something woman returns to her hometown to get out of a rut and reassess her life after a bad breakup.

By Amil Niazi

Set among the fevered residents of a remote Australian town, Ruby Todd’s debut novel considers how grief can draw people to extreme beliefs.

By Ivy Pochoda

Our columnist on three riveting new reads.

By Sarah Lyall

Our critic traces J.D. Vance’s shift from bootstrap memoirist to vice-presidential candidate.

By A.O. Scott

Try this short quiz on modern films that drew their inspiration from classic works written for the stage hundreds of years ago.

By J. D. Biersdorfer

The good news: Our “Best Books of the 21st Century” list showed surprising affection for works in translation. But where are Sally Rooney, Ayad Akhtar and others “explaining how we live now”?

In “Rat City,” Jon Adams and Edmund Ramsden explore the life, times and influence of the scientific Pied Piper, John Bumpass Calhoun.

By Ian Volner

On a family tour of Greece, the writer followed the small footsteps of some of ancient mythology’s biggest fans.

By Reif Larsen

In a new telling of the Macedonian leader’s final years, Rachel Kousser shows what happened when dreams of conquest met reality.

By Justin Marozzi

Try this wide-ranging quiz on the best books and the big events from recent years.

Written by THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOKS STAFF

Alisa Alering’s debut novel, “Smothermoss,” is an Appalachian mystery tangled with wild magic, queer coming-of-age and sisterly bonds.

By Lauren Beukes

A contempt for compromise. An expansive vision of executive power. Both owe much to Carl Schmitt.

By Jennifer Szalai

The Ethiopian American novelist also talks aesthetics and the inspiration behind his most recent novel, “Someone Like Us.”

By Anderson Tepper

In Stephen Graham Jones’s new novel, a young outcast is forced to become a murderer fated to enact gory revenge.

By Christopher Bollen

A roundtable of Book Review editors discuss what surprised them, what delighted them, what will send them back to their own shelves.

She was married to John Belushi until his fatal drug overdose in 1982. She went on to celebrate his comic talent in books and a documentary.

By Clay Risen

The novel became the beach read of the summer, with the shark at its center embodying the unease of an era of political and social upheaval.

By Brian Raftery

To mark the first 25 years of the century, The New York Times Book Review sent a survey to hundreds of literary luminaries, asking them to name the 10 best books published since Jan. 1, 2000. Gilbert Cruz, editor of the Book Review, gives some highlights from the list.

By Gilbert Cruz, Karen Hanley and Claire Hogan

Including titles by Rachel Louise Snyder, Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi, Michael McGarrity and more.

By Shreya Chattopadhyay

Sometimes we forget that moving is not just about goodbyes. It’s also about hellos.

By Jennifer Hubert Swan

There’s no getting around the fact that the list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century is… daunting. Want to start reading a new book right away? We can help.

By The New York Times Books Staff

In his picaresque memoir, “My Glorious Defeats,” the Anonymous-movement activist Barrett Brown takes us on a journey of pure, joyous solipsism.

By Kerry Howley

The pseudonymous Italian author has become a worldwide phenomenon. But speculation about who she really is has followed her for years.

By Joumana Khatib

Dwight Garner writes that voters, who “seemed to want a break from contemporary social reportage,” looked for immersive reads.

By Dwight Garner

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

A muckraking journalist, he helped write a revisionist account of Rudolph Giuliani’s role as mayor before and after the terrorist attacks.

By Sam Roberts

Arthur, the former publisher of Knopf, is joining Hachette Book Group to start and run a new imprint.

By Alexandra Alter

In Yasmin Zaher’s “The Coin,” a rich, chic Palestinian schoolteacher in New York City grapples with displacement and American consumerism.

By Lauren Christensen

Even after doing research in Montana, a draft of the book that became “The Heart in Winter” was “dead on the page,” he says. Back in Ireland, the runaway lovers now at its center “suddenly appeared to me.”

Some of their favorites didn’t make our “Best Books of the 21st Century” list — but these authors make a case for them anyway.

In books and articles he wrote about the militarization of space and believed that investing in exploration would ultimately “protect Earth and guarantee the survival of humanity.”

By Sam Roberts

Her writing, from the late 1920s to the late ’40s, about sex, marriage, divorce, child rearing and work-life balance still resonates.

By Marsha Gordon

Henry Hoke’s 2023 novel, “Open Throat,” narrated by an animal in peril in the Hollywood Hills, is adapted for a staged reading.

By Juan A. Ramírez

In her most recent book, “The Backyard Bird Chronicles,” the best-selling author revels in a newfound preoccupation with birds — and drawing.

By Margaret Roach

Prague has survived wars and political strife — and through it all, its literary scene has thrived. Jaroslav Kalfar, the author of “Spaceman of Bohemia,” recommends books that connect readers to the city.

By Jaroslav Kalfar

More than 500 writers and notable book lovers have shared their picks for the best books of the 21st century. Now it’s your turn.

By The New York Times Books Staff

Admirers said they were “blindsided” by revelations that Munro’s youngest daughter had been abused by her stepfather — and that Munro stayed with him even after she learned of it years later.

By Alexandra Alter, Elizabeth A. Harris and Vjosa Isai

Stacey D’Erasmo’s exploration of sustained creativity, “The Long Run,” is poignant, exhilarating and full of wise advice from lives well lived.

By Mary Gabriel

In “The Anthropologists,” Aysegul Savas celebrates the “unremarkable grace” of a couple’s ordinary days. It’s enchanting.

By MJ Franklin