Katy Waldman’s 10 Favorite Books of 2016
Slavery counterfactuals, death memoirs, and Ramon the cat.
Books
The Best Book Jackets of 2016From Margaret Atwood’s Hag-Seed to Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, the most eye-catching and imaginative cover art of the year.
Books
Our 10 Favorite Comics of 2016Dead superheroes, dissolute witches, dangerous trolls, lost lovers: the best in graphic storytelling.
Books
Laura Miller’s 10 Favorite Books of 2016A year when books broke out of the so-called filter bubble.
Books
“I Built My Own Power”Megyn Kelly’s memoir is an unsettling window into the forces behind her meteoric rise.
Books
The Scheherazade of the East BayMichael Chabon’s Moonglow is once again testament to the power of storytelling to cast a spell.
Books
Zadie Smith on Male Critics, Appropriation, and What Interests Her Novelistically About TrumpA wide-ranging conversation.
Books
The Brimming Heart of Zadie SmithAfter the departure of NW, Swing Time returns her to the clamorous, loving realism she does best.
Books
Island of the Blue Dolphins and the Dream of LonelinessHow the great children’s novel about a girl left alone on an island in the Pacific was written—and the real girl whose story inspired it.
Culturebox
The Throne Room Where It HappensShakespeare’s Prince Hal, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, and the art of the compromise.
Books
The Marvelous Order of the CityJane Jacobs knew what made cities tick. A new biography can’t do the same for her.
Books
Lonely HuntersEmily Witt’s Future Sex irresistibly explores the mournfulness and hopefulness of singledom today.
Books
The Last BattleDavid France’s remarkable history of the fight against AIDS is a chronicle of the recent past that sheds light on the fights to come.
Books
Two-Thousand Years of GrinchesHand-wringing over Christmas has been going on since the Christ child left the manger.
Culturebox
How Video Games Change UsShooters don’t necessarily make players more violent. But do they make us more cruel?
The Audio Book Club
The Audio Book Club Travels the Underground RailroadSlate critics discuss two novels that reimagine our racist past and present.
Books
Life Among the StarsBob Dylan, Meryl Streep, Leonard Cohen: Marni Jackson’s surreal fiction about real celebrities.
Books
The Great Dying That Is to ComeMichael McCarthy celebrates the natural world and mourns our implacable destruction of it.
The Audio Book Club
The Audio Book Club Gets ShrillSlate critics discuss Lindy West’s brash, funny memoir.