Three new books — by Jennifer Ackerman, Sarah Maslin Nir and Patrik Svensson — explore some familiar and some less known members of the animal kingdom.
In “Finding Freedom,” the veteran reporters Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand show how the British royal family’s fairy tale turned into a cautionary one.
In “Veritas” Ariel Sabar tells the madcap story of the professor who was tricked by a Florida fraudster into announcing an extraordinary religious discovery.
In “City at the Edge of Forever,” Peter Lunenfeld explores Los Angeles in a series of essays about the idiosyncrasies of a place that defies categories.
In the second installment of "The Americans," his series on overlooked or under-read writers, A.O. Scott considers the scrupulously documented, meticulously observed fiction of Edward P. Jones.