NYT Books

In “The Paris Novel,” Ruth Reichl is a glutton for wish fulfillment.

In “Habsburgs on the Rio Grande,” Raymond Jonas’s story of French-backed nation building in Mexico foreshadows the proxy battles of the Cold War.

In her 60s, she set off on a hulking Harley-Davidson and found a new area of anthropological research: bikers, and in particular, female bikers.

In “The Sorrow Apartments,” Andrea Cohen’s signature maneuver is a kind of twist that shifts a poem away from the ending that seems to be coming.

A new photo book reorients dusty notions of a classic American pastime.

Harvard’s recent decision to remove the binding of a notorious volume in its library has thrown fresh light on a shadowy corner of the rare book world.

Three books describe the work of government investigators who want to uncover or bury the truth.

Jamaica Kincaid and Kara Walker unearth botany’s buried history.

Two hundred years after his death, this Romantic poet is still worth reading.

Three decades after his death, his work is still sold on products and in stores. But his concept of public art is most powerfully preserved on the street.