NYT Books

An incisive new book, “How Sondheim Can Change Your Life,” examines the extraordinary career of the master of the musical.

The New York City writer and painter Joe Brainard comes alive in a new collection of letters.

Patrick Hutchison left city life to live an urbanite’s rural dream. The rest is funny, philosophical, chainsaw-wielding history.

The South Korean writer Gu Byeong-Mo’s novel “Apartment Women” imagines a commune of young families with a short fuse.

Julia Armfield’s “Private Rites” is a contemporary reimagining of the Shakespearean tragedy, set in a flooded London.

In “The Miraculous From the Material,” the best-selling author Alan Lightman examines the science behind the wonder.

“The New India,” by Rahul Bhatia, combines personal history and investigative journalism to account for his country’s turn to militant Hindu nationalism.

In “The White Ladder,” the British writer Daniel Light explores the heroes, villains and dramas of early mountaineering.

In an eye-opening collection, Emily Mester considers why she, and we, seek satisfaction by obsessively choosing, buying and rating the objects we desire.

Henri Bergson enjoyed a cult following on both sides of the Atlantic in the early 20th century. A new biography explains what the fuss was about.