The First New York Times Book Review Best-Seller List
The best-seller lists as we know them today have their roots in the Aug. 9, 1942, issue — but the Book Review has been tracking sales for much longer than that.
Review: ‘The Street,’ by Ann Petry
This classic story of a single mother’s struggle against poverty, published in 1946, would become the first novel by a Black woman to sell a million copies.
Review: ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities,’ by Jane Jacobs
This 1961 masterwork offered new, vibrant ways to think about how city neighborhoods ought to look.
Review: ‘The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book’
When Toklas — Gertrude Stein’s partner — published this cookbook, it was reviewed by Rex Stout, the creator of the food-loving detective Nero Wolfe.
Interview: Eudora Welty
“Really, don’t people know the first thing about the South?” Welty asked The Times in 1970, when her novel “Losing Battles” was published.
Review: ‘Hannibal,’ by Thomas Harris
Eleven years after “The Silence of the Lambs,” Hannibal Lecter returned. Stephen King called him “the great fictional monster of our time.”
Review: ‘Roots,’ by Alex Haley
James Baldwin, reviewing this headline-making novel in 1976, called it “a study of … how each generation helps to doom, or helps to liberate, the coming one.”
Questlove Looks at 50 Years of Modern Music — and Modern History
In “Music Is History,” the Roots’ frontman tells a story of America that begins in 1971, the year he was born.
Dave Grohl Has Some Writing Advice You Need to Hear
While he was working on his No. 1 best seller, “The Storyteller,” the iconic rocker found the common ground between music and books.
Book Review: ‘Midnight in Washington,’ by Adam Schiff
Schiff’s “Midnight in Washington” is that rare memoir by a politician that actually has something to say.
A Daughter Parses the Life of a Mother Prone to High Drama
“The Book of Mother,” a novel by the French writer Violaine Huisman, depicts a charismatic, unstable woman through her daughter’s eyes.
What George Orwell’s Roses Tell Us About His Politics
In “Orwell’s Roses,” Rebecca Solnit argues that the English writer was driven not merely by political rage but by a love of beauty and nature.
Book Review: ‘Everything and Less,’ by Mark McGurl
Mark McGurl’s “Everything and Less” examines the impact the tech giant has had on literature itself.
Book Review: ‘Unprotected,’ by Billy Porter
In his memoir “Unprotected,” Billy Porter recounts his lifelong struggle to heal the deep wounds buried under the sheen of his charismatic presence.
The Controversy Over Statues and How We Commemorate the Past
Alex von Tunzelmann’s “Fallen Idols” looks at the arguments surrounding 12 figures from history, and what they tell us about both the past and the present.
The 20-Year Contest to Crack the Code of the Rosetta Stone
“The Writing of the Gods,” by Edward Dolnick, offers a fresh account of the discovery in Egypt of the giant slab, and of the competition to decipher its symbols.
Elizabeth Strout Gets Meta in Her New Novel About Marriage
The protagonist of “Oh William!” is a famous author whose books have a lot in common with ones written by the creator of Lucy Barton.
New in Paperback: ‘Memorial’ and ‘Singular Sensation’
Six new paperbacks to check out this week.
Thomas Mallon on the Career of Jonathan Franzen
Mallon talks about Franzen’s “Crossroads,” and Joshua Ferris discusses “A Calling for Charlie Barnes.”
Fright Lite
Four new picture books draw in young readers with ghosts, ghouls and vampires — not to scare them but to amuse them.
Pages
Search this Site
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
