NYT Books

As told in Tarpley Hitt’s rollicking “Barbieland,” the rise of America’s doll alter ego is much messier and more interesting than any movie.

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

Raised in a large chaotic family outside Boston, the journalist Janice Page recalls an eventful childhood and the love story that brought her to China and back again.

“Flagrant, Self-Destructive Gestures,” a new biography of Denis Johnson, traces the life of a brilliant nonconformist.

In “Casanova 20,” a young Adonis and a renowned painter are forced to navigate Covid-19.

“American Canto,” published amid a scandal over the journalist’s alleged romantic entanglements with politicians she covered, offers many scenes but little sense.

Maggie O’Farrell’s historical novel, one of the Book Review’s 10 Best Books of 2020, has just been adapted for film, making now a perfect time to revisit this story of family, grief and Shakespeare.

In “Girls Play Dead,” Jen Percy examines the ways women respond to sexual trauma.

For the obsessed protagonist of Marisa Kashino’s darkly comic debut novel, “Best Offer Wins,” real estate is blood sport.

Olga Tokarczuk’s “House of Day, House of Night” brings together a constellation of characters and legends in a Polish border region.