Florence Knapp thanks her two book clubs in the acknowledgments of “The Names,” which seems especially appropriate because her debut novel has “book club” written all over it.

Specifically, it has my book club written all over it. “The Names” is the sort of novel that’s bound to create discussion about the events happening, what ...Read more

Samuel Langhorne Clemens may well have led a happier life if he had remained a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi. But then he never would have become Mark Twain — with all the heartache, frustration and dadgum bother (as he might put it) that job entailed.

It’s that dark side, usually cloaked beneath Twain’s legend, that dominates Ron ...Read more

One overcast Friday morning in 1973, a barrel containing a baby boy washes up on the shore of an Irish fishing town.

The new arrival quickly causes a stir among the residents of Killybegs (hometown of author Garrett Carr): “Any fresh baby represented possibility but here was one with no parents, no history, a child who was entirely future.”...Read more

A title can speak volumes.

Yale historian Greg Grandin’s panoramic, gorgeously crafted “America, América” announces its thesis in a repetition of a single word, with one subtle difference (check out the second “e”). That accent alludes to the fusion of capital and religion as European empires staked their flags in the New World, ...Read more

There is a lot of creepiness in “The Peepshow,” beginning with the ripped wallpaper on the cover of the book.

Initially, it may seem only as disturbing as any overly fussy, flocked 1940s wallpaper would — until you get to the part of “Peepshow” that describes how, having murdered (at least) four women, John Christie hid them behind ...Read more

Four new graphic novels cover a gamut of subjects, from a serious-minded study of Charles Schulz’s artistic legacy to the quiet, creatively turbulent life of Jane Austen and a pair of memoirs, one about a trauma-haunted love life and the other about growing up in Wisconsin’s ginseng capital.

Only What’s Necessary: Charles M. Schulz and ...Read more

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Michael Connelly, the Los Angeles crime-writing legend whose books include the Harry Bosch and Lincoln Lawyer series, announced on his Instagram Tuesday that he would be canceling dates and postponing his tour for his latest book, “Nightshade.”

Calling it “a medical issue that needs immediate attention and aftercare,�...Read more

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, May 3, compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide, powered by Circana BookScan © 2025 Circana.

(Reprinted from Publishers Weekly, published by PWxyz LLC. © 2025, PWxyz LLC.)

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. "Great Big ...Read more

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, April 26, compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide, powered by Circana BookScan © 2025 Circana.

(Reprinted from Publishers Weekly, published by PWxyz LLC. © 2025, PWxyz LLC.)

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. "Great Big ...Read more

Lydia Millet has published more than a dozen novels and two collections of stories; her latest, “Atavists,” is a bit of both — a novel in stories, a deliciously digestible and of-the-moment read.

Each chapter of the collection from the “Dinosaurs” novelist gives us a look into the lives of a group of neighbors in Southern California. ...Read more

Rare’s the author who invents her own literary language, but Jo Harkin has accomplished just that.

Her dazzling, jocular novel “The Pretender” recounts the journey of one John Collan, from his anonymous boyhood in a rural village to a claim, as Edward Plantagenet, on the English monarchy. Never has a peasant risen so far, so fast.

Set in...Read more

Seeking succor when the world seems to be closing in on you is a quintessentially human habit. Some people do it by gorging on comfort food like macaroni and cheese, others choose drink, or drugs, or gardening, or the warmth of a puppy.

I always know when I'm feeling blue, because I feel the gravitational pull of my long shelf of P.G. Wodehouse...Read more

Like a modern-day Henry David Thoreau, writer and self-reliance guru Tamara Dean set out early in this century to make a home in the country and to live simply there.

The acres of choice for her enviable homestead (strangers would pull over at random and ask to take a look around) were in the Driftless Area of southwest Wisconsin. There lies a ...Read more

May is seeming more like October, and that’s not about the drizzle or the chill.

The month is packed with potentially huge books, in a way we’d expect peak fall to be. That peak didn’t materialize last autumn because publishers were holding off on releasing promising titles in the heat of the election cycle. Apparently, they saved them ...Read more