You don’t need to be on the sand to enjoy these novels. You just need a certain willingness to be swiftly transported.
In the work of artists I admire, all the training and discipline come out in an act of letting go: a splotch of ink, a wayward wash of color.
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
Looking for some fictional murder and mayhem? Our columnist is keeping track of the best crime novels of 2025.
Gilbert Cruz, the editor of The New York Times Book Review, previews four books we’re anticipating this summer.
“My favorite novel of all time” is an antidote to “Of Mice and Men,” he promises. His new book, “Anima Rising,” is a playful visit to 1911 Vienna.
Taylor Jenkins Reid heads to space, Megan Abbott climbs a pyramid (scheme) and Gary Shteyngart channels a 10-year-old. Plus queer vampires, a professor in hell and an actress’s revenge.
How did streetwear become high fashion? Why are there so many serial killers in the Pacific Northwest? Prize-winning writers tackle these questions, while memoirists consider celibacy, spycraft and Erica Jong.
“This World of Tomorrow,” based on the actor’s 2017 short story collection, is scheduled to begin performances in October at the Shed.
In Chris Pavone’s new novel, “The Doorman,” the real world closes in on residents of a luxury apartment building.
In “Whack Job,” Rachel McCarthy James finds a connection between self-reliance and brutality. And for the record, she’s not so sure Lizzie Borden did it.
In the novel “Speak to Me of Home,” three generations of women in one family grapple with their identities.
The romance author Ashley Poston recommends books bursting with quaint charm, sizzling banter and plenty of heart.
Banu Mushtaq’s “Heart Lamp,” translated by Deepa Bhasthi, had received little notice in Britain or the United States before Tuesday. Now, it’s won the major award for translated fiction.
A neoconservative who fervidly opposed Communism and the fundamentalist regime in Iran, he wrote many books and articles, some of whose theories were later discredited.
In “Bear Witness,” Ross Halperin tells the story of two men who went from idealists to pragmatists.
Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel, “Spent,” is a domestic comedy about ethical consumption under capitalism.
Madeleine Thien’s time-warping historical novel “The Book of Records” collapses centuries and geographies in an ambitious family saga.
First published in 1972, Rosalyn Drexler’s “To Smithereens” throws two vivid subcultures — and two unlikely lovers — into the ring.
Now in its 25th year, The Dresden Files and its author have survived the darkness, fictional and otherwise.
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