Good and Mad
The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger
The author of “All the Single Ladies” pays tribute to female rage with a look at the history of women who got things done by publicly expressing their indignation, from the suffragettes to the #MeToo activists who put Harvey Weinstein (among others) out of a job. Of course, society has a complicated relationship with female anger, and Traister delves into that, too, particularly the double standards surrounding our collective acceptance of male aggression. Simon & Schuster
Review: Why women’s rage is healthy, rational and necessary for America
The Library Book
The New Yorker writer and author of “The Orchid Thief” has written another winner with a narrative that revolves around the devastating Los Angeles library fire that ruined or damaged 1 million books in 1986. But what starts out as a masterfully written tale of true crime turns into a sprawling look at the Los Angeles library system before pivoting into a heartfelt tribute to libraries as institutions devoted to making life better. In other words, it’s every bookworm’s dream read. Simon & Schuster
Review: Everybody who loves books should check out ‘The Library Book’
The Line Becomes a River
Dispatches from the Border
In lyrical prose, Cantú captures his nightmare-inducing experience as a Border Patrol agent in the American Southwest. Even his mother can’t understand why her son, whose grandfather was Mexican, would want to join such an organization, but Cantú can’t be dissuaded. After four years on the job, Cantú leaves it in 2012, but he finds it does not leave him. “It’s like I’m still a part of this thing that crushes,” he tells his mother. Riverhead
Review: Who gets to dream? America's immigration battles go beyond walls and borders.
The Maze at Windermere
This complex novel takes place in one location – Newport, R.I. – though it also covers some ground with five different narratives spanning three centuries. Those range from the tale of a womanizing tennis player to the writer Henry James as he ponders his creative process. Smith’s talents transcend his ability to interweave these stories in ways that brilliantly echo one another. He also captures with stunning accuracy voices as disparate as a 17th-century Quaker girl and a British officer during the American Revolution. Viking
Review: What was it like to live in a world both more formal and more brutal than our own?
On Desperate Ground
The Marines at The Reservoir, the Korean War's Greatest Battle
Sides’s meticulously researched account of unlikely survival amid horrifying carnage during the Korean War also serves as a cautionary tale for what happens when an egocentric and paranoid leader refuses to acknowledge reality. In this case, it was Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who remained willfully ignorant when he was tactically outmaneuvered, leaving his men exposed – both to the harsh elements in the Korean mountains and to an onslaught of Chinese soldiers the five-star general should have seen coming. Doubleday
Review: MacArthur’s narcissistic failures on the battlefield of the Korean War
One Person, No Vote
How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy
In a kind of sequel to her book “White Rage,” Anderson examines voter suppression tactics since the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that, she argues, account for the precipitous decline of black voters in the 2016 election. According to the Emory professor, that drop-off was not a one-time anomaly but rather evidence of a systemic hijacking of our democracy that involved purging voters, gerrymandering, instituting voter ID laws, closing polling places and preventing felons from voting. Her bleak conclusion: “In short, we’re in trouble.” Bloomsbury
The Overstory
Powers, who won a National Book Award for “The Echo Maker,” delivers a poignant and urgent ode to trees through the tales of an expansive cast of characters, from a fighter pilot who owes his life to a banyan to a scientist convinced that a forest’s leafy inhabitants are communicating. The plants in this environmental epic aren’t mere window dressing. They’re as sympathetic as the people, which proves to be powerfully galvanizing – and not a moment too soon. W.W. Norton & Co.
Review: The most exciting novel about trees you’ll ever read
A Place For Us
What initially set Mirza’s first novel apart was that it launched Sarah Jessica Parker’s new imprint. As it turns out, the actress has great taste. Those who picked up the book found a beautifully crafted story that begins with the return of a prodigal son, then shifts into an exploration of the dynamics within a Muslim family living in California. Mirza’s book is a promising debut, yes, but that ultimately undersells such a mature examination of what it means to belong. SJP for Hogarth
Review: Sarah Jessica Parker thinks she knows what you should read. She’s right.
There There
This shattering debut by a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes pulls together divergent tales of modern-day Native Americans in and around Oakland, Calif., to examine the thorny issue of identity – and all the shame and pride it inspires. As characters prepare to converge on a powwow at the Oakland Coliseum – some with nefarious aims – it becomes clear that there’s no single Native American experience, even if so many of those experiences feel informed by a legacy of subjugation. Knopf
Review: What does it mean to be Native American? A new novel offers a bracing answer.
Washington Black
In Edugyan’s third novel, a young slave escapes a brutal existence on a Barbados sugar plantation by hot air balloon, but this isn’t simply a fantastical fairy tale. The story kicks into gear when “Wash” Black floats away with his master’s brother – inventor of the lighter-than-air contraption – but goes on to explore the pair’s freighted dynamic as they travel the world and discover that injustice can never be truly escaped. Knopf
Review: In ‘Washington Black,’ a 19th-century slave escapes on a balloon
More of 2018 Best Books
50 notable works of nonfiction in 2018
White House exposés, moving memoirs and real-life spy stories.
50 notable works of fiction in 2018
Novels that will break your heart, plus a few that will put it back together.
The biggest book news of the year
Surprise bestsellers, unexpected award winners and a record-setting National Book Festival.
The 10 best book adaptations to hit screens in 2018
From Oscar bait to feel-good Netflix fare.
The 10 best graphic novels of 2018
Including the first graphic novel to be longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
The best children’s books of 2018
Jason Reynolds weighs in with his favorites.
The 5 best audiobooks of 2018
Great writing gets an added boost from exceptional narration.
The 5 best poetry collections of 2018
From the late Ursula K. Le Guin to Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith.
