NYT Books

“Open Space,” by David Ariosto, suggests there are few limits on human ingenuity that could prevent us from colonizing the cosmos.

In Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s novel “Almost Life,” a passionate love affair between two college women gives way to a lifetime of what-ifs.

A new book by Rhae Lynn Barnes examines how minstrelsy once occupied the center of the nation’s cultural life.

In “Playmakers,” Michael Kimmel traces, and celebrates, the immigrant roots of the American toy industry. (Batteries not included.)

As his new memoir demonstrates, he himself would achieve fame as a visual artist, filmmaker, TV host and formative tastemaker.

In “The Feather Wars,” James H. McCommons pays tribute to the nation’s first conservationists.

“Paradiso 17,” by Hannah Lillith Assadi, considers the toll of displacement through the tale of a Palestinian émigré.

Joshua Bennett’s two new collections, “We” and “The People Can Fly,” take different paths to the same destination.

A new book by the historian Christopher Clark chronicles a nearly 200-year-old scandal with echoes of the present day.

In “Chain of Ideas,” Ibram X. Kendi argues that a modern form of xenophobia has come to dominate conservative movements across the world.