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Working On It

Self-help: Set aside one week to put your sleep issues to bed

“The Sleep Prescription: Seven Days to Unlocking Your Best Rest” is designed to help you diagnose and eliminate the obstacles to some satisfying Zs.

Charles Fuller, Pulitzer recipient for ‘A Soldier’s Play,’ dies at 83

Mr. Fuller was only the second Black playwright to win the Pulitzer for drama.

By age 15, she’d hosted a Netflix series and launched #1000BlackGirl Books. Now she’s a Harvard freshman.

Since age 10, Marley Dias has been pushing “authors, educators, and administrators to reconsider the messages they’re sending to children.”
BOOK REVIEW

A brief era of brutality and change in ‘American Midnight’

Between World War I and the glittery onset of the Roaring Twenties is a brutal chapter of American history almost always omitted from high-school textbooks and the standard history offerings at the nation’s universities. It is a story of betrayal of the country’s greatest values and of combat against some of its least powerful citizens.
BIBLIOPHILES

Linda Ronstadt can’t stand ‘boring writing’

Linda Ronstadt had a fantastically successful career though she often did what everyone told her not to: mix genres. The rock singer embraced a long list of musical styles, from traditional Mexican music to operetta. “Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderland,” her new book with co-author Lawrence Downes, follows a similar genre-defying path. She talked with us about what she's reading.
BOOK REVIEW

On the shimmering border between truth and fiction

Elizabeth McCracken’s characters reel you in with a joke, a wink, or a dry remark. They tremble with emotional vulnerability (or make you tremble in recognition). All the while, they retain a core of mystery, which is part of their charm. McCracken’s new novel, “The Hero of This Book,” has this same playful, mythic, and mysterious quality.

Here are the 20 new books we’re most excited to read this fall

As the summer of 2022 winds down, our attention turns to the books of fall. Here’s our list of 20 titles — from novels to memoirs, histories to biographies — you may want to check out.

Latest Headlines in Books

BOOK REVIEW

A dystopian America that feels close to home

In Ng’s heart-wrenching and brilliant novel, “Our Missing Hearts,” 12-year-old Bird Gardner doesn’t remember a time when all the books were still in the library. Before he was born, an economic downturn, known simply as “The Crisis,” upended society, shut down schools, and caused major unrest.

New England Literary News

New England Book Awards winners announced, a variety of events at the Maine Lit Fest, and two new independent bookstores

All the news of a bookish bent, from all around the region. Plus three hot book recommendations, and a bookseller pick of the week.

THE STORY BEHIND THE BOOK

An MIT philosophy professor examines the good life in hard times

Kieran Setiya’s "Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way" offers a road map for critical and cathartic thinking.

BOOKS

Local bestsellers for the week ended Sept. 25

Based on reporting from the independent booksellers of the New England Independent Booksellers Association and IndieBound.

BOOKINGS

Author readings around Boston Oct. 2-8

All author appearances are virtual and free unless otherwise noted.

Morgan Talty wins New England Book Award for ‘Night of the Living Rez’

The book is the debut story collection from the 31-year-old author, a member of the Penobscot Nation who teaches at the University of Maine.

BOOK BANNING

Libraries face increased attempts to ban books

As right-wing organizations mobilize to restrict access to titles they consider offensive, librarians in Rhode Island and around the country are finding themselves on the front lines of First Amendment freedoms.

Bibliophiles

Joshua Bennett on reading ‘to pursue astonishment’

In his new book, “The Study of Human Life,” Joshua Bennett blends poetry and speculative fiction to reimagine the world as it is and envision a world that could be. Bennett is the author of two previous poetry collections and one book of criticism. He talked with us about what he's reading, and why.