Books

Upon the unsealing of a collection of T.S. Eliot's letters to his muse Emily Hale, the poet posthumously released a letter sharing his side of the story.

Theodore Gioia samples the American restaurant review at present and offers a recipe for the future.

The 27 works, moments and objects that define the best — and worst — of the past decade.

A voracious reader and an instinctive decision maker, Mr. Mehta could spot great books and, coming from a paperback world, had no qualms about pushing them.

Eight board members and the former president of the organization have resigned amid outcry over how it handled a member's criticism of another member's book.

Two related events shaped the last 10 years in science fiction and fantasy — the most transformative we've seen in the history of the genres.

"It's not just that 'The Mister' is bad. It's that it's bad in ways that seem to cause the space-time continuum itself to wobble, slightly, as the words on the page rearrange themselves into kaleidoscopic fragments of repetition and product placement."

Robert Harrison speaks to Werner Herzog about his devotion to books.

Ten books that sparked debate, started conversations, and launched movements in the past ten years—and what to read next

In "The Great Pretender," Susannah Cahalan explores a landmark study that helped to change the way we judge sanity.

Looking back at the year in literature: your 2019 guide to the best in books.

The author dismissed her famous book — the subject of a new film hitting theaters Christmas Day — as "dull" and "moral pap for the young."

The best-selling book of the last decade in the United States was — no suprrises here — E. L. James' publishing phenomenon "Fifty Shades of Grey," which which sold 15.2 million copies from 2010 through 2019.

Drawn into the tech world, a 20-something wonders why she — and the rest of us — didn't wise up to the grandiose myopia sooner.

The youngest sister from Louisa May Alcott's novel remains as spoiled as ever in the latest film adaptation. But she's finally afforded the depth that's missing from previous movies.

Once a mighty villain, the bookstore chain looks different in the age of Amazon.

There are two things to worry about: the first involves the author's alcoholism, and the second concerns his sexuality as it shadows forth in the pages of his work.

I received an email from an unfamiliar sender. In the subject line was the title of a story I wrote five years ago. He wanted to know if I was aware of the recent plagiarism scandal involving a young Nigerian author.

Horny times have us thirsting for the bitchy old man in "A Christmas Carol."

Thirty-five years after its initial publication, "Heartburn" feels fresh not because of its plot, but because of Ephron's prose — incandescent, seething, quippy.

The great novels of the 1960s remain enjoyable because they got everything wrong.

How the correspondence between Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick gave rise to a scandal about the ethics of turning life into art.

"There are more writers and artists like you and me than there are like Pablo Neruda and Stephen King."

Sparse lines about heartbreak in faux-typewriter font are still the style du jour, but the men of Poetry Instagram are more sincere (and self-aware) than you'd think.

From Martin Luther to "The Nutcracker," Germany's original national nightmare was a tangled knot of writhing rats.

As you may have noticed, over the past few weeks, we're been looking back at the best books from the decade, from novels to poetry to nonfiction. As a sort of

About a decade ago, I was in Paris with a gathering of French translators and editors, talking about Gary Lutz's work. Several of them had, at one time or another, tried to translate him, and all of them — some after months of trying — had found this to be impossible.

Today, we're taking a deeper dive into some second-tier fables that didn't make it to the Disney drawing boards.

"I'm fascinated by stories of how the various plant specimens we take for granted today were originally discovered."

My mother grew up knowing that her father had wanted to be a writer — and, along with the red hair and the freckles, she inherited those aspirations. So did I.

Massachusetts-based translator Ken Liu has done more than anyone to bridge the gap between Chinese science fiction and American readers.

Which of the "Little Women" girls is your favorite is the reigning feminine litmus test, perhaps not for the kind of girl you are but for the kind of woman you'd like to become.

Dexter Palmer's third novel, about a fantastical medical hoax, doubles as an exploration of the age-old desire to believe the unbelievable.

Ian McKellen owes an extraordinary debt to Ronald — or J.R.R. — Tolkien.

The things Margaret Atwood makes up keep on coming true: environmental catastrophe, state surveillance, the diminishment of reproductive autonomy. What's next?

Coates's writing has cemented his status as a writer through whose eyes many Americans have come to understand the modern era.

Almost everything you think you know about Aladdin is wrong.

A week after it was published, Donald Trump Jr.'s book "Triggered" landed on the top of the New York Times non-fiction best-seller list. With a small caveat.

It's beginning to seem as though anywhere there is a book that millennials widely fell in love with in their childhoods, Jack Thorne is out there too, adapting that beloved book for a new medium.

She wants to lead a youth movement, but her first book says more about a media ecosystem that helped produce her than radical action.

Susan Choi and Sarah M. Broom are among the big winners at the 2019 National Book Awards.

A lovely countercultural invitation to savor the unpurchasable joys with which the world is strewn.

On top of the usual audio horror stories queued up for the month of October, there were stories of love, whimsy, daring, and all the forms they take.

"[In] my very vague high school memories...there was no discussion of the fact that this book is just rape after rape after rape."

"Tequila Mockingbird." "Are You There God? It's Me, Margarita." When will it end?

Books have a curious number chain written on their copyright pages. What does it mean?

Strong antitrust enforcement is politically more complex than we know.

An oral history of the writer's journey from student poet to cultural prophet.

It's time to celebrate the writers who illuminate, investigate, and make sense of the world we live in.

Brooke Nelson, a graduate student studying online harassment, told Vulture the quote the authors took issue with had been taken out of context.

I wanted to learn why a beloved science fiction writer fell into obscurity after his death. I didn't expect that I would help bring his books back to life.

A new book reveals the billion-dollar industry that deals in your secondhand stuff.

Former speechwriter Adam Frankel on what it was like to write for a uniquely writerly president.

Screenwriter Jack Thorne discusses his work bringing Philip Pullman's classic fantasy trilogy to HBO.

"My time in 12-step recovery offered the radical (to me) idea that profundity wasn't predicated solely on dysfunction."

A femme fatale harbors a secret pain or experienced a traumatic childhood loss. As a result, she has garnered a reputation for danger.

An interview with Andrea Long Chu on her new book "Females" and her core question: what if gender is not a matter of "who one is, but of what one wants?"

A search for the mysterious author of a counterculture classic led to someone else entirely. Or did it?

AI is transforming life as we know it in unprecedented ways — but it turns out science fiction has predicted this all along.

The movie, which hits theaters this week, comes with a stamp of approval not just from Stephen King, but the Stanley Kubrick estate too.