Books Briefing
Our culture editors’ weekly guide to the best in books. Sign up for the newsletter here.
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Maria Vasilyevna Yakunchikova / Fine Art Images / … The Powerful, Unpredictable Nature of Fear
Halloween is the perfect time to think more deeply about the role it plays in our lives.
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Bettmann / Getty The Thrill of a Great Sports Book
Reading about athletic feats can make watching them even better.
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Otto Mueller / Bridgeman Images The Fans Who Made Alchemised a Hit
The fastest-selling adult debut novel of the past two decades is a romance that isn’t particularly sexy or upbeat—but has a devoted community.
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Malcolm Drummond / Bonhams London / Bridgeman Images A Half Century of American Book Banning
In the 21st century, censorship of work like Judy Blume’s has evolved into a broader attack on books.
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Eylul Aslan A Rupture in One’s Sense of Self
In Patricia Lockwood’s new novel, the main character gets so ill that she wonders whether she’s become a different person.
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Illustration by The Atlantic Publishing’s New Microgenre
This year, dozens of books are principally concerned with AI.
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Jonathan Knowles / Getty A Raw Depiction of What Panic Feels Like
Lee Lai’s Cannon builds up to an earthshaking moment when its protagonist’s anxiety can no longer be contained.
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Vano Shlamov / AFP / Getty The ‘Remarkable Ability’ Many Dissidents Share
The novelist Lauren Grodstein visited Tbilisi, Georgia, in 2023, and the protests she witnessed made her think differently about perseverance.
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Andrew Francis Wallace / Toronto Star / Getty Why Miriam Toews Writes
The Canadian novelist’s new memoir reckons with the deaths of her father and sister—and examines the forces that made her an author.
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Photograph by Takako Kido for The Atlantic In Search of an 11th-Century Novelist in Kyoto
For some, including the author Lauren Groff, travel remains a spiritual endeavor.
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Evening Standard / Hulton Archive / Getty What Muriel Spark Knew About Childhood
The author was realistic about the effect a particularly magnetic figure can have on a young, impressionable person.
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Photo-illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Maximum Film / … Reading Mrs. Dalloway Again and Again
A century after its publication, the book rewards revisiting at various stages of life.
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Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani / The Atlantic Turning a Hobby Into a Habit
A casual pastime, when practiced consistently, can change a life.
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Photograph by Alice Zoo for The Atlantic What John le Carré Learned in Corfu
For authors, travel can generate new understandings of their characters—and themselves.
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Josh Lawton / Boulder Daily Camera / Getty What Andrea Gibson Understood About Very Simple Poetry
Gibson, who died this week, valued live performance and emotionally resonant language.
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Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani / The Atlantic. … Is America Really Exceptional?
What happens anywhere—including moves toward authoritarianism—can also happen here.
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Millennium Images / Gallery Stock A Philosophy That Sees ‘Women as Doers’
What if function, not form, dictated what was in fashion?
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Jack Mitchell / Getty Toni Morrison’s Definition of a Legacy
As a writer and an editor, she put humanity plainly on the page, where it would outlast her and her critics alike.
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Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty. How a Book Can Change a Graduate’s Life
After I finished college, Leslie Jamison’s The Empathy Exams won my allegiance immediately and forever.
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Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty. The Benefits of Refusing
Melissa Febos’s The Dry Season made me wonder what narrow portals I’m looking through in my life, and what I might see if I turn away from them.
