Book Review

By the Book

For Comfort Reading, Susan Minot Turns to Comic Writers

“Being funny is not only hard but perhaps the most powerful thing of all.”

Inside the List

Fredrik Backman Walked Into A Potential Future Home. What He Found Surprised Him.

Some of us are struck by aspiration when we’re touring a staged property. For this best-selling author, the lightbulb moment was more productive.

Fiction

Stories of Everyday Strangeness, in the Midwest and Beyond

“Life Among the Terranauts,” by Caitlin Horrocks, offers vivid, often fantastical portraits of life.

Nonfiction

A Memoir That Sees Only the Tip of the Melting Iceberg

In “Unsolaced,” Gretel Ehrlich tells a story of personal discovery against the backdrop of the climate crisis.

New & Noteworthy, From ‘Faust’ to Life in Lockdown

A selection of recent titles of interest; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading.

Fiction

Two ‘Disappeared’ Argentine Exiles Fall in Love. One Is Already Dead.

With his debut novel, “Hades, Argentina,” Daniel Loedel pays homage to lost family.

Fiction

Kevin Barry’s Stories of Yearning Swing Between Pathos and Humor

“That Old Country Music” is a showcase of the Irish writer’s style, a nervy mix of high poetry and low comedy.

nonfiction

Was the Constitution a Pro-Slavery Document?

In “The Crooked Path to Abolition,” James Oakes shows how Abraham Lincoln relied on America’s founding texts to chart a path to abolition.

Nonfiction

The Joys of Approaching Life as an Amateur

In “Beginners,” the author Tom Vanderbilt tries to acquire a number of skills, from chess playing to surfing, in order to explore how the mind learns.

Nonfiction

A Bereaved Daughter Delves Into Her Mother’s Secrets

Justine Cowan discovered that her mother, an exacting Bay Area grande dame, had grown up in a bleak institution for “foundlings.”