NYT Books

Alexandra Alter, who covers publishing industry news and writes Books features for The Times, is always on the hunt for the next Harry Potter.

After 26 years in character as the 19th-century transcendentalist writer, Richard Smith is hanging up his straw hat.

With “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,” Mason Bates, a.k.a. DJ Masonic, expands the sound world of the Metropolitan Opera.

Here are some of our staff’s favorites, for ages 0 to 2.

She put aside a bunch of projects, including a book about Walt Whitman, to publish “Taylor’s Version: The Poetic and Musical Genius of Taylor Swift.”

He investigated which city of Cuban immigrants might have created the celebrated sandwich, Tampa or Miami. His finding was not altogether surprising.

In “The Blood in Winter,” Jonathan Healey explores the many causes of the English Civil War.

“The Secret of Secrets,” the sixth installment in Dan Brown’s franchise about the symbologist Robert Langdon, brings the bookish hero back to a European capital to unravel a shocking conspiracy.

MJ Franklin, an editor at The New York Times Book Review, recommends three great books that came out this summer.

“Fresh Sets,” by Tembe Denton-Hurst, surveys some of the coolest contemporary designs from around the world.