In their latest works, Azar Nafisi, Elena Ferrante, and Anna Quindlen vigorously assert that reading and writing can pull us out of our mess. In their hands, reading and writing are worth celebrating.
Author Scott Hershovitz sets out to prove that philosophy, like inquisitive, rowdy children, can offer illuminating insights — even when addressing complex subjects related to misbehavior.
Hernan Diaz's novel is constantly pulling a fast one on the reader. It opens with the saga of a Wall Street tycoon, but soon another narrative comes to upend the truth of everything that came before.
Novelist Ann Hood, whose Fly Girlpaints a picture of her time as a flight attendant, was a beneficiary of the fight by the women profiled in Nell McShane Wulfhart's book to be treated professionally.
The award-winning poet's new collection, The Hurting Kind, is a testament to the power of sensitivity and to the reality that the world is here to both guide us and lead us astray.
The playful and clever story pokes holes in pop culture assumptions about small towns from Hallmark movies to romance novels as two rivals in the publishing world find love far from the city lights.
Eric Orner's book isn't just a great story, it's an enveloping visual experience crafted by a terrific artist; even if one paged through it without looking at the words, it would be a good read.
Though winding at times, Sam Knight's book is thought-provoking and deeply researched, presenting the oddity of realized premonitions while allowing readers to come to their own conclusions.
E. Lockhart's prequel to We Were Liars works perfectly well, too, as a standalone coming-of-age novel about grief, addiction, young love, and learning to navigate the world.
At its best, Beth O'Leary's tender and fragmented narrative feels like a metaphor for experience — how we only ever know part of the story of our lives and control even less.
By exploring binaries such as imagination versus reality and surface versus depth — with their often blurred boundaries — Ali Smith's latest challenges readers to embrace the indeterminate.
By exploring binaries such as imagination versus reality and surface versus depth — with their often blurred boundaries — Ali Smith's latest challenges readers to embrace the indeterminate.
In this droll, emotionally wrenching and profound memoir, novelist Brian Morton attempts to see his mother as a whole person — not just in relation to him, or, God forbid, as an eccentric "character."
T. Kingfisher treats source material like a buffet; the result feels like a cozy but still perilous D&D adventure, full of found-family, second chances, and winks to the folklore that inspired it.