NYT Books

In Maggie Su’s funny debut novel, a Frankenstein-like monster turns on his flailing creator.

Two very different books examine the reigns and legacies of Victoria and Elizabeth II.

For the three Latino kids transported to 1862 Mexico in Emma Otheguy’s latest novel, the outcome of the American Civil War hangs in the balance.

In “Bright Circle,” Randall Fuller shines a light on the women behind — and before — the male philosophers of 19th-century Massachusetts.

A new book by the British cultural journalist Dorian Lynskey chronicles our centuries-old obsession with doomsday scenarios.

In “Dark Laboratory,” Tao Leigh Goffe traces the origins of global environmental collapse to the explorer’s conquest of the Caribbean.

Mischa Berlinski’s shrewd comic novel finds a veteran actress reconnecting with her deposed mentor while facing the challenge of playing Cleopatra.

In a vibrant collection of “essays on the future that never was,” Colette Shade takes a cold look at the cheery promise of the 2000s.

Details are in Caleb Femi’s new poetry collection, “The Wickedest.”

“Somewhere Toward Freedom” tells the story of Sherman’s March to the Sea from the perspective of the formerly enslaved.