Books rise to the level of enduring art, I believe, when their writers take something ordinary and reintroduce it in a way that radically transforms it. The right work can make a subject that’s never ...

Two fiction books about good friends coming from different circumstances. Two biographies of people whose influence on American culture is, arguably, still underrated. One Liza Minnelli memoir. These ...

Books ahoy! The new year promises adventures, escapes, and mind-bending delights for bibliophiles of all stripes. For fiction lovers, there’s George Saunders’ wild ride of a second novel, Ann Patchett ...

In a hard year—and when, recently, have we had one we’d consider easy?—books can be a lifeline and a balm, a place to retreat and regain our grounding. Among the many entertaining, delightful, ...

Buckeye is an historical novel set, as its title indicates, in Ohio. Stretching from pre-World War II to the close of the 20th century, the story focuses on two married couples whose lives intersect.

From “experimental archaeology” to the mysterious appeal of exploration, the wide-ranging subjects detailed in these titles captivated Smithsonian magazine’s science contributors this year Joe Spring, ...

Ruth, the impish narrator of Kate Riley’s debut novel, is born into a little and little-known Anabaptist sect in Michigan. Riley, drawing on her own experience, feels no rush to lay out the group’s ...

Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America. By Sam Tanenhaus. Random House; 1,040 pages; $40 and £33 A superb biography of William F. Buckley, the most influential American journalist ...

Banned Books Week has begun and new titles are dominating this year's top challenged list. Banned Books Week is Oct. 5-11 and this year's theme is, "Censorship Is so 1984. Read for Your Rights." The ...