Tolstoy Was Wrong About Happy Families
In Loved and Missed, Susie Boyt presents the story of a woman raising a child, and the surprising reality of just how pleasurable it all is.
Nixon Between the Lines
Alone in his study, ballpoint pen in hand, the president revealed himself in the margins of his books.
The Overlooked Danger That’s Massacring Wildlife
A new book argues that there’s nothing worse for wild animals than cars.
All Our Pretty Sons
A poem for Sunday
The Undoing of a Great American Band
Sly and the Family Stone suggested new possibilities in music and life—until it all fell apart.
This Week in Books: Should We Still Read Uncle Tom’s Cabin?
A conversation with Clint Smith on the moral complexity in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s famous book
Why Are Women Freezing Their Eggs? Look to the Men.
A new book explores the “mating gap” and why women are struggling to find a male co-parent.
Rainbow Queen Encyclopedia
A poem for Wednesday
Lauren Groff Has Written a New Gospel
In her new novel, The Vaster Wilds, the writer tells the story of a girl escaping a colonial outpost and finding herself enveloped in the natural world.
From Feminist to Right-Wing Conspiracist
What Naomi Wolf’s odyssey can teach us about seeing patterns where they don’t exist
This Week in Books: Sylvia Plath Continues to Fascinate
Her life is still being unpacked 60 years after her death.
The Man Who Became Uncle Tom
Harriet Beecher Stowe said that Josiah Henson’s life had inspired her most famous character. But Henson longed to be recognized by his own name, and for his own achievements.
Why Would Anyone Become a Politician?
Rory Stewart’s new memoir about his life in politics details his dawning realization that the game was not worth the effort.
George Eliot’s Subversive Vision of Marriage
Unlike Jane Austen, the novelist was most interested in what happens after “I do.”
The Novel That Helped Me Understand American Culture
The Bell Jar provided an emotional context for a country I found alluring as a teenager growing up abroad.
Fiction on Trial
Zadie Smith’s ambitious new novel asks: Do we expect the genre to do too much?
Some Have Yoga. I Have Montaigne.
The philosopher will always be among the writers I reread; his words provide one of the best anchors for one’s ever-changing mind.
Little Rock
A poem for Sunday
This Week in Books: Could AI Ever Write Like Stephen King and Margaret Atwood?
Two authors respond to the revelation that their work is being used to train artificial intelligence.
Six Books to Read When You Want to Feel Closer to Others
The following six titles are correctives to isolation.