NYT Books

In “The Sea Captain’s Wife,” Tilar J. Mazzeo tells the thrilling story of Mary Ann Patten, the first female captain of a merchant clipper ship.

The notebooks of Albert Camus, the French philosopher and novelist, have been collected in a single volume for the first time.

This season’s bounty includes volumes on far-out artists, unusual cats and enviable gardens.

Lauren Rothery’s “Television” finds an action star and two writers dazed by the changing rules of the entertainment industry.

As told in Tarpley Hitt’s rollicking “Barbieland,” the rise of America’s doll alter ego is much messier and more interesting than any movie.

Raised in a large chaotic family outside Boston, the journalist Janice Page recalls an eventful childhood and the love story that brought her to China and back again.

“Flagrant, Self-Destructive Gestures,” a new biography of Denis Johnson, traces the life of a brilliant nonconformist.

In “Casanova 20,” a young Adonis and a renowned painter are forced to navigate Covid-19.

“American Canto,” published amid a scandal over the journalist’s alleged romantic entanglements with politicians she covered, offers many scenes but little sense.

Maggie O’Farrell’s historical novel, one of the Book Review’s 10 Best Books of 2020, has just been adapted for film, making now a perfect time to revisit this story of family, grief and Shakespeare.