NYT Books

With “Context Collapse,” Ryan Ruby aims to explain poetry’s origins and its waves of innovation all the way to the present.

“I’m like one of those deranged soldiers they find on some remote island still fighting a war that’s ended decades ago,” he says. “A Shimmering, Serrated Monster!” is his collection of comic fiction.

Leanne Morgan went from helping her husband sell mobile homes to sudden success in her 50s.

In “Ira Gershwin: A Life in Words,” Michael Owen offers a sympathetic portrait of the lyricist, overshadowed in a life that had him tending the legacy of his younger sibling George.

In Ella Baxter’s novel “Woo Woo,” a feminist performance artist starts to question herself on the eve of a provocative solo exhibition.

Our columnist on the month’s best new releases.

Walter Mosley talks about how his fictional hero frees himself from wage labor through America’s favorite side hustle: landlording.

In “Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife” the historian Hetta Howes seeks to relate to figures of the past.

You don’t have to know an orc from a Mumakil to enjoy the new animated adventure, though it’ll certainly help.

Chicago is a city of bookish abundance, home to countless literary giants past and present. The author Rebecca Makkai recommends works that capture its spirit.