Mira Ptacin spends time at Camp Etna and finds herself believing, at least, in the ideals of Spiritualism — emphasizing kindness, the importance of intuition, and the power of the unseen.
For October, our kids' books columnist Juanita Giles praises picture book author Todd Parr and his insight into the emotional needs of children who are dealing with loss, change — and other children.
Karina Sainz Borgo's novel follows a woman dealing with the death of her mother while trying to escape the violence and scarcity gripping Venezuela — an anarchy the book presents in shocking detail.
You won't get a full picture of Prince from this book, but it does manage to pierce through some of the mystery the renowned artist purposely cultivated around and about himself.
The anthology demonstrates that American women are just now at the starting line of exploring and understanding their anger; it's more about how they live with anger than about what makes them angry.
Surrealist writer and poet Silvina Ocampo has been called "the best kept secret of Argentine letters," and two new translations have beautifully captured her evocative prose style for new readers.
Ruta Sepetys' new young adult novel is set in Spain in the 1950s, during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. A teenaged American tourist in Madrid falls for a local, with eye-opening consequences.
Le Carré's latest novel presents an aging, embittered spy dealing with multiple claims on his loyalties — and a challenger to his supremacy at badminton, a sport le Carré himself played and loves.
More than a mere chronicler armed with facts and dates, Sam Roberts is a nonfiction writer with the heart of a novelist; he's writing about buildings — but he does so while telling engaging stories.
Kathy Iandoli goes far beyond hoisting her heroes upon a pedestal; in rendering them as conflicted, complicated artists struggling against sexism and patriarchy, she wields an illuminating fury.
Holly George-Warren's research, eye for detail, illuminating contextualization and clear delivery make for a far more rounded and convincing image of the musician's precocity than seen previously.
In her new novel, Jami Attenberg dives deep into the dark heart of one family over the course of one long day, as their abusive, angry patriarch lies dying in the hospital after a heart attack.
Holding the Line is the tell-all many wished Mattis' own Call Sign Chaos had been. But for all of Guy Snodgrass' in-the-room accounts, there are some unverifiable elements and inaccuracies.
Mimi Lok's debut story collection — a perceptive look at the connections we make and fail to make — doesn't read like a debut. Lok writes with the self-assuredness of a literary veteran.
David Shulkin's memoir, It Shouldn't Be This Hard to Serve Your Country, focuses on his time as veterans affairs secretary, tells of his fights against privatizing the VA — and settles some scores.
There's a victim-blamey tone in Brittany Kaiser's memoir Targeted, but what it offers over other look-backs is a more in-the-room account of what exactly, she alleges, was in the company's pitch deck.
As the October days shorten, it's a good time to curl up with a romance novel — this month, we're featuring stories about people who defy traditional expectations to find their happy-ever-afters.
Axton Betz-Hamilton was 12 when her family's mail began disappearing. Her memoir details what follows and, when she discovers the culprit, the painful process of collecting the pieces of her past.
Elizabeth Hand's new historical thriller has a compelling main character and vivid, carefully drawn settings — but its treatment of the story's murderous villain leaves an unpleasant aftertaste.
Legendary underground cartoonist Kim Deitch's new book is packed with monkeys, cartoon magpies, and even Jesus; it starts with an account of killing time after eye surgery and gets wilder from there.
Author Michael Newton waxes rhapsodic in his new book about a century of acting, with a special fondness for performances about performance; it's taken for granted how much we love movies.
Known for the punch of her columns, The New York Times' Gail Collins sprinkles conversational, sardonic asides throughout No Stopping Us Now in an effort to keep the decades-long hike spry.
As a teen, Adrienne Brodeur helped her mother keep a long-term affair a secret. In her memoir, she writes of realizing that being her mother's confidant didn't equal the unconditional love she sought.
Richard Bell's true tale details how even as the Underground Railroad ferried enslaved people north towards freedom, free black people vanished from northern cities to be sold into plantation slavery.
Ten years after her Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout returns to the town of Crosby, Maine, where ornery Olive is learning about compassion, connection, and her own self.
