NYT Books

John S. Jacobs was a fugitive, an abolitionist — and the brother of the canonical author Harriet Jacobs. Now, his own fierce autobiography has re-emerged.

In “The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt,” Edward F. O’Keefe explores the informal kitchen cabinet that helped Roosevelt, the 26th president, speak softly and carry a big stick.

“The Devil’s Best Trick,” Randall Sullivan’s in-depth occult investigation, is not for the easily frightened.

She believed the bond between adults was as sustaining as that between parent and child, and developed a therapy to strengthen and repair broken relationships.

In David Nicholls’s “You Are Here,” a boggy trek through the English countryside becomes an unlikely impetus for midlife romance.

In “A Walk in the Park,” Kevin Fedarko recounts a trek-of-a-lifetime that becomes a nightmare in one of America’s most stunning sites. At least he can laugh about it.

How do you bring an almost plotless book of elliptical fragments to the stage? The director Katie Mitchell has tried with three actors, four screens and three bottles of whiskey.

Chigozie Obioma, the fifth of 12 children in a Nigerian family, dreamed of following in Maradona’s footsteps. Bouts of malaria drove him to books — and changed his life.

With her collaborator, Elaine Mazlish, she wrote “How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk” and other books that have endured as parenting bibles.

A new biography of the performer, writer and director Elaine May has the intensity to match its subject.