NYT Books

Looking for some fictional murder and mayhem? Our columnist is keeping track of the best crime novels of 2025.

Tech power players and the global far-right are learning all the wrong lessons from “The Lord of the Rings.”

In the work of artists I admire, all the training and discipline come out in an act of letting go: a splotch of ink, a wayward wash of color.

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

Taylor Jenkins Reid heads to space, Megan Abbott climbs a pyramid (scheme) and Gary Shteyngart channels a 10-year-old. Plus queer vampires, a professor in hell and an actress’s revenge.

Gilbert Cruz, the editor of The New York Times Book Review, previews four books we’re anticipating this summer.

“My favorite novel of all time” is an antidote to “Of Mice and Men,” he promises. His new book, “Anima Rising,” is a playful visit to 1911 Vienna.

Banu Mushtaq’s “Heart Lamp,” translated by Deepa Bhasthi, had received little notice in Britain or the United States before Tuesday. Now, it’s won the major award for translated fiction.

In the novel “Speak to Me of Home,” three generations of women in one family grapple with their identities.

In “Whack Job,” Rachel McCarthy James finds a connection between self-reliance and brutality. And for the record, she has questions about Lizzie Borden.