NYT Books

In his novel “Beyond the Door of No Return,” David Diop explores the secret life of Michel Adanson, who cataloged the natural world during the Enlightenment.

A Mexican American family heads to Jalisco in their Winnebago and a “bruja” from Puerto Rico steps out of a cab in Brooklyn.

“Taming the Street,” by Diana B. Henriques, and “The Problem of Twelve,” by John Coates, tell the story of America’s powerful and unwieldy financial institutions.

In a group portrait of America’s first female astronauts, Loren Grush details the basics of training and the challenges of sexism without lionizing her heroines.

In Diana Evans’s new novel, “A House for Alice,” a woman who immigrated to Britain for marriage must decide whether or not to return to her country of origin after her husband dies.

Walter Isaacson’s biography of the billionaire entrepreneur depicts a mercurial “man-child” with grandiose ambitions and an ego to match.

In a new book, Cara Fitzpatrick traces the rise of the movement to expand public funding for privately operated institutions.

In her new memoir, “Exit Interview,” Kristi Coulter details her time working at the company, connecting her experience to the larger history of women’s employment struggles.

In her nifty “Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close,” Hannah Carlson unbuttons the politics behind who gets to hide their belongings, and where.

In “Crossings,” Ben Goldfarb shows that our dependence on highways and freeways is an environmental concern as well as a social one.