Critic’s Take: Understanding Poetry Is More Straightforward Than You Think
In school, the poet Matthew Zapruder writes, we are taught that poetry is inherently “difficult.” Focusing on one interesting word can change that.
Nonfiction: A Jane Austen Fit for the Age of Brexit
Helena Kelly’s “Jane Austen: The Secret Radical” argues that Austen opposed 19th-century England’s assumptions about the social and political order.
Inside the List: On Diversity in Publishing, a Young Star Warns: Get It Right
Angie Thomas, whose debut novel, “The Hate U Give,” is No. 1 on the young adult list, has advice for authors writing about marginalized figures.
Bookends: Do Grants, Professorships and Other Forms of Institutional Support Help Writers but Hurt Writing?
Siddhartha Deb and Benjamin Moser discuss the intersection of writing, academia and funding.
Open Book: Alcoholism in America
“The fight against addiction is one of America’s great liberation movements,” Christopher M. Finan writes in his introduction to “Drunks: An American History.”
The Book Review Podcast: The History of the London Zoo
Isobel Charman talks about “The Zoo,” and R. L. Stine discusses scary stories for children.
Paperback Row
Six new paperbacks to check out this week.
Fiction: A Debut Novel Asks, What if His First Wife Was the One?
In “Standard Deviation” by Katherine Heiny, a stuffy banker reconsiders his bubbly second wife.
Nonfiction: A New History of the Donner Party and the Dark Side of Manifest Destiny
Michael Wallis’s “The Best Land Under Heaven” tells the story of the mythic Donner Party.
The Shortlist: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Four books grapple with the politics and culture of gentrification.
Letters to the Editor
Readers respond to the history of the iPhone, David Oshinsky’s review of “The Color of Law” and more.
Fiction: An Architect Turns His Genius to Scheming in an Isaac-Abraham Reboot
“The Doorposts of Your House and on Your Gates” by Jacob Bacharach is a tragicomic Isaac-Abraham reboot.
Crime: In the Best New Crime, Lethal Lasagna, Honor Killings and Nanny Cams
Marilyn Stasio’s mystery column investigates honor killings and prostitution in Britain, then takes readers on crime sprees in Paris and New York.
Essay: Thoreau’s Wilderness Legacy, Beyond the Shores of Walden Pond
To honor Thoreau on his 200th birthday, pay homage to all the outdoor temples his “in wildness” declaration helped protect.
Words by Numbers: The Word Choices That Explain Why Jane Austen Endures
There’s a way to measure the acute emotional intelligence that has never gone out of style.
Editors' Choice: 12 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
Newsbook: As Travel Ban Takes Effect, 3 Books That Delve Into the Immigration Debate
What does a country owe to outsiders? One book attempts to answer this question — and others further explore the complexity of the immigration debate.
Nonfiction: Insights Into the Brain, in a Book You’ll Wish You Had in College
In “Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst,” Robert M. Sapolsky serves up his neurobiology with a big dose of hipster humor.
By the Book: A. Scott Berg: By the Book
The biographer and consulting producer of Amazon’s “The Last Tycoon” might have been a doctor — “if only that didn’t require courses in biology, physics and organic chemistry. Oh…and med school.”
Fiction: Affluent Idlers Find a Just Cause in a Refugee Swept Ashore
For the wealthy foreigners on a Greek island in Lawrence Osborne’s “Beautiful Animals,” a deeply compromised act of charity has dreadful consequences.
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