NYT Books

James Van Der Zee’s baroque, carefully composed funeral home photos illuminate century-old ideals of mourning and ritual in Black culture.

Reading recommendations from critics and editors at The New York Times.

In the powerful new history “The Zorg,” Siddharth Kara tells a shocking story of mass killing, human baseness and the seeds of conscience.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s posthumous “Nobody’s Girl” doesn’t break political news, but might break your heart.

In “Morbidly Curious,” the behavioral scientist Coltan Scrivner takes a look at our addiction to the gory, the morbid and the grotesque.

The pop star’s ex-husband Kevin Federline had said in a new book that since her conservatorship ended, “It’s become impossible to pretend everything’s OK.”

“1929,” by the New York Times journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin, is a tale of greed, corruption and incompetence to shock the conscience.

Branching plots and dark humor animate “Eye of the Monkey,” set in an unnamed dystopian country.

In “Three or More Is a Riot,” the Columbia Journalism School dean Jelani Cobb collects his writings on race and culture for The New Yorker.

In “Devils’ Advocates,” the New York Times journalist Kenneth P. Vogel wades into the murky world of Washington lobbyists working for foreign interests.