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BOOK REVIEW

Existing on the edge of extinction

With an accelerating climate crisis and a deteriorating social fabric, in order to survive until the end of the millennia, let alone for the next several million years, we’re going to have to adapt our behavior. Lydia Millet’s magnificent new novel, “Dinosaurs,” highlights our shortcomings in terms of how we treat each other and our environment, and subtly seeks to draw some lessons from the natural world.
BIBLIOPHILES

Sandra Cisneros on reading books to become a better writer

“Woman Without Shame” is Sandra Cisneros’s first poetry collection in 28 years. That may be because the best-selling author has been busy publishing novels, short story collections, and essays. She won prestigious awards and started foundations to nurture young writers. She talked with us about what she's been reading.
BOOK REVIEW

Life (and death) of the party in ‘Shrines of Gaiety’

Kate Atkinson’s latest fictional treat is set in London during a postwar world in which the pursuit of fun, frivolities, and other methods of dulling wartime experiences reigns supreme. It’s packed with intrigue and avid partygoers, all taking place in spaces where policemen, gangsters, bouncers, and dancing girls rub shoulders with ease — when they’re not actually rubbing each other out.
BOOK REVIEW

The raw material of a poetic life in ‘Jersey Breaks’

Robert Pinsky, professor of creative writing at Boston University, describes himself in a prologue as possessing a “bedeviled patriotism,” a “C-student’s distrust of worldly rewards and punishments,” and “an inward voice that spurs me to bring together disparate times, places and things.” That voice powers his vibrant new memoir.
New England Literary News

An enchanted debut, a new poetry collection, and the Concord Festival of Authors celebrates its 30th anniversary

Bookish news from around the region, including word of new titles to look out for, and a bookseller recommendation.
THE STORY BEHIND THE BOOK

Melissa Urban’s ‘Book of Boundaries’

The author of a new guide to setting limits talks about the importance of women addressing their own needs, not just everyone else’s.

Here are the 20 new books we’re most excited to read this fall

As the summer of 2022 winds down, our attention turns to the books of fall. Here’s our list of 20 titles — from novels to memoirs, histories to biographies — you may want to check out.

Latest Headlines in Books

BOOKINGS

Author readings around Boston Oct. 9-15

All author appearances are virtual and free unless otherwise noted.

BOOKS

Local bestsellers for the week ended Oct. 2

Based on reporting from the independent booksellers of the New England Independent Booksellers Association and IndieBound.

Working On It

Self-help: Set aside one week to put your sleep issues to bed

“The Sleep Prescription: Seven Days to Unlocking Your Best Rest” is designed to help you diagnose and eliminate the obstacles to some satisfying Zs.

Charles Fuller, Pulitzer recipient for ‘A Soldier’s Play,’ dies at 83

Mr. Fuller was only the second Black playwright to win the Pulitzer for drama.

By age 15, she’d hosted a Netflix series and launched #1000BlackGirl Books. Now she’s a Harvard freshman.

Since age 10, Marley Dias has been pushing “authors, educators, and administrators to reconsider the messages they’re sending to children.”

BOOK REVIEW

A brief era of brutality and change in ‘American Midnight’

Between World War I and the glittery onset of the Roaring Twenties is a brutal chapter of American history almost always omitted from high-school textbooks and the standard history offerings at the nation’s universities. It is a story of betrayal of the country’s greatest values and of combat against some of its least powerful citizens.

BIBLIOPHILES

Linda Ronstadt can’t stand ‘boring writing’

Linda Ronstadt had a fantastically successful career though she often did what everyone told her not to: mix genres. The rock singer embraced a long list of musical styles, from traditional Mexican music to operetta. “Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderland,” her new book with co-author Lawrence Downes, follows a similar genre-defying path. She talked with us about what she's reading.

BOOK REVIEW

On the shimmering border between truth and fiction

Elizabeth McCracken’s characters reel you in with a joke, a wink, or a dry remark. They tremble with emotional vulnerability (or make you tremble in recognition). All the while, they retain a core of mystery, which is part of their charm. McCracken’s new novel, “The Hero of This Book,” has this same playful, mythic, and mysterious quality.