NYT Books

“People feel differently about their bookstore than they do about their grocery store or electronics store,” writes Evan Friss, in praise of a retail ritual battered by the internet.

Since 2016, the renowned actress has also worked in publishing, bringing her name and love of books to imprints at two companies. In this episode, she discusses what that work has meant to her.

In “Unspeakable Home,” Ismet Prcic writes about a broken writer named Izzy Prcic, who is working on a book about his immigration, displacement and life struggles.

In a world worth exploring, our reviewer argues, an occasional spill is the price of admission.

In Helen Phillips’s near-future novel, “Hum,” a family’s dream vacation away from technology devolves into a misadventure with major consequences.

‘By admitting that, I fear I will be drummed out of the Novelists’ Corps,’ she says. ‘The Black Bird Oracle,’ the latest in her best-selling ‘All Souls’ series, is just out.

A screenwriter’s daughter, she grew up in the glittering world of privilege and its contradictions, which became rich material for her memoirs and novels.

Musical adaptations of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” and “The Lord of the Rings” as well as a new Samuel D. Hunter play were on our critic’s itinerary.

In August, the Book Review Book Club will read and discuss “My Brilliant Friend,” the first book in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet.

A new biography surveys the prolific and pioneering career of the filmmaker Agnès Varda.