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The FTC’s noncompete clause rule goes too far

The next global crisis could come from the sun. We should prepare now.

The crisis Biden and Trump don’t want to deal with

Postal worker finds WWII-era letters, drives 5 hours to deliver them

Strangers help Sesame Street puppeteer after heirloom necklace was stolen

Teen grabs wheel when driver passes out and school bus veers into traffic

RFK Jr’s ‘history lesson’ on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine flunks the fact test

The Trump-Biden battle over the 2017 tax cut

That time football legend, rig-driving eligible bachelor Biden was arrested

France tries to shed its rude reputation ahead of the Olympics

Don’t be a jerk at the airport: A guide for headphones

The new cure-all for vacation excess: the IV drip 

Middle East conflict live updates: WHO says health services in south Gaza will run out of fuel in three days

Commerce Department revokes more export licenses to China’s Huawei

U.S. signals optimism for Gaza cease-fire as Israel moves into Rafah 

‘Look at the U.S.A.’: A photographer’s reflection on post-9/11 conflict

How Trump’s allies amplify his Truth Social messages to the wider world

In photos: The scene after tornadoes struck Michigan and Oklahoma 

Social Security has to be fixed. But you still need your own savings.

An I bond is now at 4.28 percent. Are they still a good deal?

Use these 6 points to say no to a college you and your kid can’t afford

Nats go over .500 the hard way by beating the O’s and Corbin Burnes

A look at what has changed since the Nationals were last above .500

Baseball can crush rookies. Why hasn’t it crushed Trey Lipscomb?

Ask Amy: I want to be closer with my brother. He never reaches out to me.

Miss Manners: I’m offended by a golfer’s skirt choice

Carolyn Hax: Family pushes siblings to ‘make amends’ after their mother’s death

Election 2024 latest news: Biden back in the battleground state of Wisconsin

In court, Stormy Daniels pulled a Trump on Trump 

In Arizona, election workers trained with deepfakes to prepare for 2024

A college professor wants to use Section 230 against Big Tech

Apple plays up AI potential in new iPads

US-VOTE-POLITICS-ECONOMY-BIDEN

Grand Central Publishing; Simon and Schuster; W.W. Norton

Of the dozens of books we’ve reviewed so far in 2022, these are the titles our critics liked best.

Soho Syndicate

“50 Years of Dave Brandstetter Mysteries,” by Joseph Hansen

Crime fiction fans who don’t know Hansen’s work are in for a treat. These 12 pioneering novels, newly reissued, follow a comfortably gay World War II vet and L.A. insurance investigator.

5 great new thrillers and mysteries for your 2022 TBR pile

“Ain’t Burned All the Bright,” by Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin

The newest young adult book by the best-selling author of “Long Way Down” consists of three sentences that unfold over the course of 300 illustrated pages. Their brevity speaks volumes about a world in crisis.

A masterful collage of words and images about race and (in)justice in America

“Defenestrate,” by Renée Branum

A stylish, shimmering debut, this novel about a couple of twins haunted by a family curse is broken into fragments, some only a paragraph long, that examine our hard-wired fear of falling.

‘Defenestrate’ is a stylish debut that brims with suspense

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/01/06/5-great-new-thrillers-mysteries-your-2022-tbr-pile/" target=_blank>Burke’s latest novel</a>, about a woman who might have killed a man before losing her memory in a car accident, has a nice Hitchcockian feel.

“Fiona and Jane,” by Jean Chen Ho

In this short story collection, Taiwanese American childhood friends swing away from each other only to cross paths again and again as they exemplify the realities of messy millennial womanhood.

Jean Chen Ho’s ‘Fiona and Jane’ is all about the journey

“Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History,” by Lea Ypi

Ypi, who was 11 when communist rule ended in her native Albania, has written a brilliant personal history of disorientation and of what happens when the guardrails of everyday life suddenly fall away.

When communism crumbled, so did an 11-year-old’s reality

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

“Last Resort,” by Andrew Lipstein

An aspiring writer’s manuscript could make him the next big thing. The only hiccup: He secretly stole the plot from an old friend’s personal history.

An ambitious PhD candidate must come up with a crafty plan when she realizes her mentor is trying to torpedo her career to keep her close to him.

'The Latinist' is the perfect suspense novel to kick off your reading year

“Lost &amp; Found,” by Kathryn Schulz

This memoir by the Pulitzer-winning New Yorker writer considers the emotional whiplash of a two-year span when her father died and she met the woman who would become her wife.

Life these days is a symphony of grief and celebration. Kathryn Schulz puts it into words.

“Mouth to Mouth,” by Antoine Wilson

An unreliable narrator tells a mesmerizing story — involving fateful encounters, hidden agendas, shrouded identities, adulterous betrayals and brushes with death — to an old college acquaintance who also happens to be an unreliable narrator.

In ‘Mouth to Mouth,’ a Tom Ripley-like storyteller spins a mesmerizing yarn

“No Land to Light On,” by Yara Zgheib

Zgheib’s second novel revisits the bad old days of 2017, delving beneath the headlines to tell a wrenching personal story, which traces the paths of two Syrian immigrants torn apart by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-changes-travel-ban-countries/2017/09/24/1fef7cfe-a140-11e7-ade1-76d061d56efa_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_2">the U.S. travel ban</a>.

In ‘No Land to Light On,’ a husband and wife are torn apart by the 2017 travel ban

“Olga Dies Dreaming,” by Xochitl Gonzalez

Don’t underestimate this new novelist: Her smart romantic comedy lures us in with laughter and keeps us hooked with a fantastically engaging story. A Hulu pilot is already in the works starring Aubrey Plaza, and given this source material, it should be terrific.

Say ‘I do’ to Xochitl Gonzalez’s ‘Olga Dies Dreaming’

“Putting the Rabbit in the Hat,” by Brian Cox

The “Succession” star’s memoir tracks his journey from embattled working-class lad in Dundee, Scotland, to, at age 75, improbable pop culture icon — and forfeits none of the spiky candor that got him there.

‘Succession’ star Brian Cox spares no one — including himself — in his new memoir

“The School for Good Mothers,” by Jessamine Chan

An instant bestseller and Today Show Book Club Pick, Chan’s dystopian debut finds a woman trying to win back custody of her daughter by completing a government-sponsored rehabilitation program.

In ‘The School for Good Mothers,’ parental mistakes have terrifying consequences

Catapult

“This Boy We Made: A Memoir of Motherhood, Genetics, and Facing the Unknown,” by Taylor Harris

Harris’s book describes her relentless, twisting quest to understand the genetics of why her gentle, dancing toddler comes to experience a maddening assortment of maladies and challenges over his young life.

A mother’s quest for genetic answers about her son’s mysterious ailments

“To Paradise,” by Hanya Yanagihara

The emotional impact of this novel is less visceral than Yanagihara’s best-selling “A Little Life,” but only because the author’s scope is now so vast and her dexterity so dazzling. Presented as a triptych of related novellas, “To Paradise” demonstrates the inexhaustible ingenuity of an author who keeps shattering expectations.

The remarkable worlds of Hanya Yanagihara’s ‘To Paradise’

“The Vanished Collection,” by Pauline Baer de Perignon; translated by Natasha Lehrer

Baer de Perignon’s nonfiction narrative reads like a detective story as she uncovers how her great-grandfather, once the owner of priceless works of art, became dispossessed of his cultural property, a fact obliterated from France’s communal memory after World War II.

Jewish families, Nazi plunder and cultural amnesia in France

“You Don’t Know Us Negroes,” by Zora Neale Hurston

This dazzling collection of work, edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Genevieve West, reveals the author of “Their Eyes Were Watching God” at the top of her game as an essayist, cultural critic, anthropologist and beat reporter.

Zora Neale Hurston was once forgotten. A new book reminds us why her voice must be heard.

University of Virginia, BA in poetry writing and Spanish

Columbia University, MS in journalism

Stephanie Merry works for the books section. She previously covered pop culture and wrote movie reviews. She joined The Washington Post in June 2008 after working on the business side at the Hill newspaper.

Stephanie Merry

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