Books of The Times
Review: Rachel Cusk’s ‘Transit’ Offers Transcendent Reflections
Honesty is like pollen as the narrator moves from person to person in this novel, which bears down on topics like power, freedom, fate and love.
Highlights
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Photo CreditDoug Mills/The New York Times Critic's Notebook
Obama’s Secret to Surviving the White House Years: Books
In an interview seven days before leaving office, Mr. Obama talked about the role books have played during his presidency and throughout his life.
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Photo CreditDoug Mills/The New York Times Transcript: President Obama on What Books Mean to Him
Michiko Kakutani, our chief book critic, met with Mr. Obama to discuss the books and writers that have influenced his life and presidency.
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Photo CreditGabriela Herman for The New York Times. Benjamin Tice Smith. Bryan Bedder, via Getty Images. Heidi Ross. Zadie Smith and Michael Chabon Among National Book Critics Circle Finalists
Jane Mayer and Ann Patchett are also among the 30 finalists in six categories.
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Books of The Times
Photo CreditPatricia Wall/The New York Times ‘Class’ Takes Satirical Aim at Brooklyn Grade-School Parents
The heroine of Lucinda Rosenfeld’s stiletto-sharp novel tries to do the right thing about race, class, nutrition, poverty, parenthood and plastics.
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The Long View
Photo CreditKeystone-France and Gamma-Rapho, via Getty Images We’ve Been Here Before: Jon Meacham on the Literature of Our Discontent
Some fiction from our chaotic past repays attention as we seek our bearings now.
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Essay
Photo CreditUniversal History Archive/UIG, via Getty Images Reading the Classic Novel That Predicted Trump
The protagonist of Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 novel “It Can’t Happen Here” sees something dark brewing in American politics.
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Reader's Notebook
Photo CreditBettmann, via Getty Images Lie to Me: Fiction in the Post-Truth Era
Like reality-TV fans and some Donald J. Trump supporters, today’s novel readers may recognize the artifice before them but form a bond of “shared culpability.”
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Best Sellers
Photo Credit Best-Seller Lists for Jan. 22, 2017
All the lists: print, e-books, fiction, nonfiction, children’s books and more.
Books of The Times
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Books of The Times
Photo CreditSonny Figueroa/The New York Times Review: ‘The Most Dangerous Place on Earth,’ Just Seconds Away
Lindsey Lee Johnson’s debut novel gets inside the heads of a group of Marin County teenagers who have sharpened their claws on social media.
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Books of The Times
Photo CreditSonny Figueroa/The New York Times Review: ‘A Really Good Day,’ Ayelet Waldman’s Better Living Through LSD
Ms. Waldman’s memoir recounts how very small doses of a psychedelic drug have helped her mood, her marriage and the rest of her life.
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Books of The Times
Photo CreditSonny Figueroa/The New York Times Review: ‘Nicotine,’ the Stuff of Burning Desire
Gregor Hens’s book is part memoir, part philosophical lament. He sees it as a chance to finally put the urge behind him and remain a vicarious smoker.
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Books of The Times
Photo CreditSonny Figueroa/The New York Times ‘The Dry,’ a Page-Turner of a Mystery Set in a Parched Australia
Jane Harper’s fleet novel about a triple killing is packed with sneaky moves and teasing possibilities that keep the reader guessing.
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Books of The Times
Photo CreditPatricia Wall/The New York Times Review: ‘How to Be Bored’ Looks at How to Deal With the Blahs
Eva Hoffman’s latest explores the problem with a plenitude of options, and how to make the most of downtime without the help of digital devices.
