NYT Books

In “Where Tyranny Begins,” the journalist David Rohde reveals how former President Donald Trump tried to use the federal law enforcement agency to help himself and punish his foes.

Though it downplays unflattering details, Katherine Bucknell’s big biography hails the 20th-century writer as an early advocate for the “chosen family.”

In “To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause,” Benjamin Nathans takes stock of the generation of dissidents who helped loosen the bonds of tyranny in the Soviet Union.

The first novel in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet was just voted the best book of the 21st century. We like it too.

“Impossible Creatures” has prompted comparisons to Tolkien, Lewis and Pullman, but action, not awe, is Katherine Rundell’s strong suit.

“Survival Is a Promise,” a new biography by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, is an unabashed homage to the poet known for her political commitment and community building.

In “Prisoner of Lies,” Barry Werth tells the story of a young C.I.A. operative who spent two decades waiting out the postwar era in a Chinese jail cell.

In her engrossing book “A Wilder Shore,” Camille Peri tells the story of R.L.S. and his American wife, Fanny Van de Grift.

Priscilla Morris’s novel “Black Butterflies” makes the case for art in times of war.

Joshua Leifer’s “Tablets Shattered” is both a history of Judaism in America and a cri de coeur from a heartbroken member of the tribe.