All Books
- Banning books: Protecting kids or erasing humanity?
The most banned titles this school year include “Tricks” by Ellen Hopkins, “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, and “Looking For Alaska” by John Green.
- Amy Palanjian on feeding kids and laughing more at the dinner table
From planning meals to managing different tastes, feeding kids is a monumental challenge for many families. A new book, "Dinnertime SOS," tries to ease the load.
- Going medieval: A novelist discovers her muse
Nicola Griffith talks about writing a fictionalized account of the woman who emerged from violent, war-torn, seventh-century Britain to become St. Hilda of Whitby.
- Difference MakerChildren need to see themselves in books. Enter Young, Black & Lit.
What if you went to the bookstore and saw no one on the shelves who looked like you? One couple is addressing that deficit for young Black children, supporting literacy and identity.
- CommentaryWhy do they hate us? Lehane’s latest novel helped me answer that.
Often, community involves a sense of belonging. But our contributor sees in Dennis Lehane’s new novel, “Small Mercies,” that belonging can become a trap if not tempered by openness to others.
- Truth, forgiveness, and exploration: 10 best September reads
In our favorite books for this month, characters discover much about themselves through their relationships – along with quests for truth.
- To explain Jerusalem’s conflicts, she wrote a young adult novel
Journalist Ruth Marks Eglash talks about her debut novel, “Parallel Lines,” a poignant account of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict told through the eyes of three teenage girls.
- In two memoirs, authors of color meditate on birding and identity
Two authors, one Black and one Native American, explore the complex ways their love for birding is mediated by racial identity.
- If you map it, they will come: The effort to chart the seafloor
Journalist Laura Trethewey plunges into the intense race to map the oceans – and the potential for exploitation of one of the planet’s few remaining frontiers.
- The fall of Saigon split families apart. Hers was among them.
Beth Nguyen was separated from her mother when the family left Vietnam. In “Owner of a Lonely Heart,” she grapples with the question: Does the pain of absence ease with time?
- Looking for a mystery this fall? These whodunits will charm.
Solving crimes, righting wrongs, and finding community are on the docket in our roundup of mystery novels this fall.
- Hometown help: What one author discovered about racial equity in schools
Do efforts to racially integrate cities help schools with equity as well? In “Dream Town,” reporter Laura Meckler examines her Ohio hometown’s tenacious push to help students.
- ‘The Fraud’ pokes at Victorian-era biases – and our own
A notorious 1870s legal case gives novelist Zadie Smith the perfect setting to explore the biases that make people cling to lies and half-truths.
- ‘Peanuts,’ Charles Schulz, and the state that started it all
What more is there to learn about Charlie Brown’s football and Woodstock’s birdbath? An exhibit about cartoonist Charles Schulz offers a unique window into his inspiration: the Midwest.
- Transition and renewal: The 10 best books of August
Our book picks this month touch on themes of change and renewal. They include a memoir about embracing a truer identity, a report on one Ohio town’s struggle toward racial equity, and a novel about pursuing the American dream.
- How the Cultural Revolution shapes Chinese families decades later
In her book “Red Memory,” journalist Tania Branigan offers a candid look at China’s Cultural Revolution and illuminates the relevance of that decade of chaos in deciphering China today.
- How the Cultural Revolution shapes Chinese families decades later
In her book “Red Memory,” journalist Tania Branigan offers a candid look at China’s Cultural Revolution and illuminates the relevance of that decade of chaos in deciphering China today.
- Making ‘Necessary Trouble’: A historian rises above her roots
Drew Gilpin Faust, former Harvard University president, discusses her memoir “Necessary Trouble,” about her rebellion against sexist and racist strictures of 1950s Virginia.
- Two to tango: Mark Billingham mystery explores partnership
Dropping us into a rainy town, the novel “The Last Dance” gives readers a gripping protagonist, deadpan humor, and thoughtful attention to love and loss.
- ‘Narcas’ sheds light on the women who run drug smuggling cartels
A Q&A with author Deborah Bonello dives into her new book “Narcas” and how women work behind the scenes, and at the top, of the Latin American drug trade.