The First Draft of Cultural History
Lena Dunham’s new memoir is a fascinating primary source of Hollywood in the 2010s.
What To Read
If You Want a Better World, Act Like You Live in It
We’ve had Henry David Thoreau the environmentalist, the libertarian, the life coach. To understand his influence, think of him first as a dissident.
The Publishing Mystery That No One Wants to Talk About
A minimally speaking autistic man just wrote a best-selling book. Or did he?
The Paradox of Modern Medicine
Testing has become so advanced that doctors now miss important elements of diagnosis.
Fortunes
A short story
The Honor of the Layward Brothers
A short story
We Are Not One
A short story
Diseducators
A short story
Motherhood’s Impossible, All-Consuming Demands
Works that meditate on the struggle to maintain an independent sense of self after having children: Your weekly guide to the best in books
The Allure of the Campus Novel
Why schools provide such fertile ground for fiction: Your weekly guide to the best in books
As the Climate Changes, So Does Fiction
Planetary warming is no longer the sole province of “climate fiction.” It’s creeping into all kinds of writing.
The Messy Line Between Faith and Reason
When we notice the overlap between the divine and the secular, we can see how nuanced human belief is: Your weekly guide to the best in books
And How Do These Books Make You Feel?
These seven books analyze what really happens between therapist and patient.
What a Nanny Knows
A nanny—fully immersed in the most intimate details of a family’s life, yet with an outsider’s point of view—can be the perfect protagonist: Your weekly guide to the best in books
The Inner Lives of Animals
Writers wonder if animals have minds like ours—and how important that question is: Your weekly guide to the best in books
How to Make Change, Slowly
Making a difference is not just about charismatic leaders and huge protests. As these books show, social and political shifts are usually the result of sustained, unseen work.
Keeping a Diary at the End of the World
The urge to document our lives during crisis is widely shared among writers: Your weekly guide to the best in books
Nine Books That Came to Fame Slowly
Translation allowed these works to become popular all over again in English.