Book Review

Highlights

  1. fiction

    When Your Mom Is Famous for Hating Motherhood

    In Heidi Reimer’s novel, “The Mother Act,” a daughter grapples with being parented (or not) by an actress who happily mines her life for material.

     By

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  2. 17 New Books Coming in May

    New novels from R.O. Kwon, Kevin Kwan and Miranda July; a reappraisal of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy; memoirs from Brittney Griner and Kathleen Hanna — and more.

     

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    1. The Fashion Influencers of the French Revolution

      “Liberty Equality Fashion” explores radical shifts in fashion that embodied the ideas of the French Revolution and the women who led the charge.

       By

      The discovery of a rare set of fashion plates from a French Revolution-era magazine gave Anne Higonnet insight into a time when women’s clothing became a force of cultural and social change.
      The discovery of a rare set of fashion plates from a French Revolution-era magazine gave Anne Higonnet insight into a time when women’s clothing became a force of cultural and social change.
      CreditJames Estrin/The New York Times
    2. The Book Review’s Best Books Since 2000

      Looking for your next great read? We’ve got 3,228. Explore the best fiction and nonfiction from 2000 - 2023 chosen by our editors.

       By

      CreditThe New York Times; Photo by naphtalina/Getty Images
  1. Young, Cool, Coddled and Raised on the Internet

    The best stories in Honor Levy’s “My First Book” capture the quiet desperation of today’s smart set. But there is such a thing as publishing too soon.

     By

    Honor Levy is a Bennington graduate who has published work in The New Yorker and New York Tyrant.
    CreditOlivia Parker and Parker Hao
    Books of the Times
  2. These Books Might Make You Happier

    Three new arrivals help readers make sense of our mental health crisis. They also offer solidarity.

     By

    CreditNishant Choksi
    Self-Help
  3. The Complicated Artist Behind the Moomins

    The Finnish artist and writer Tove Jansson had a love-hate relationship with her most famous creations.

     By

    Published and received as children’s books, the Moomin series appealed equally to adults.
    CreditTT News Agency/Alamy
    nonfiction
  4. What Are Americans So Ticked Off About, Anyway?

    In “The Age of Grievance,” the New York Times opinion writer Frank Bruni chronicles the nation’s descent into constant kvetching.

     By

    From left: the crowd at a rally for Joe Biden in Pennsylvania, in May 2019; and at a rally for Donald Trump in Iowa, in January 2024.
    CreditFrom left: Drew Angerer/Getty Images; Doug Mills, via The New York Times
    Nonfiction
  5. Inside Mexico’s Brutal Drug Rehabs for the Poor

    In a new book, an anthropologist investigates the makeshift treatment centers that have proliferated during the country’s war on drugs.

     By

    A Mexico City drug rehab center for low-income residents, photographed in 2009.
    Creditvia Reuters
    Nonfiction

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Books of The Times

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  1. Inside MAGA’s Plan to Take Over America

    “Finish What We Started,” by the journalist Isaac Arnsdorf, reports from the front lines of the right-wing movement’s strategy to gain power, from the local level on up.

     By

    Steve Bannon recording his podcast “War Room” from his basement in Washington, D.C., in October 2023. Bannon has been an influential promoter of the MAGA movement’s “precinct strategy.”
    CreditErin Schaff/The New York Times
  2. Anne Lamott Has Written Classics. This Is Not One of Them.

    Slim and precious, “Somehow: Thoughts on Love” doesn’t measure up to her best nonfiction.

     By

    CreditLourenço Providência
  3. Long Before Trump, Immigrant Detention Was Arbitrary and Cruel

    “In the Shadow of Liberty,” by the historian Ana Raquel Minian, chronicles America’s often brutal treatment of noncitizens, including locking them up without charge.

     By

    The South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, was built in 2014 to house up to 2,400 undocumented women and children.
    CreditIlana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times
  4. Salman Rushdie Reflects on His Stabbing in a New Memoir

    “Knife” is an account of the writer’s brush with death in 2022, and the long recovery that followed.

     By

    CreditClément Pascal for The New York Times
  5. For Caleb Carr, Salvation Arrived on Little Cat’s Feet

    As he struggled with writing and illness, the “Alienist” author found comfort in the feline companions he recalls in a new memoir, “My Beloved Monster.”

     By

    Masha, the cat at the heart of Caleb Carr’s memoir, enjoys classical music, hankers to wander free and “eats like a barbarian queen,” he writes.
    CreditGabrielle Lamontagne
  1.  
  2. The Book Review’s Best Books Since 2000

    Looking for your next great read? We’ve got 3,228. Explore the best fiction and nonfiction from 2000 - 2023 chosen by our editors.

    By The New York Times Books Staff

     
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