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Book Review

In the corporate world, woke is the rage but greed is still king.

Three new books chronicle businesses where executive self-enrichment at the expense of workers — and sometimes the law — prevails.

By James B. Stewart

Kara Walker’s Favorite Literary Villain Is Scarlett O’Hara

Audiobooks have let the artist “stay invested in stories while working with my hands.” Her new project: illustrating Jamaica Kincaid’s “An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children.”

How Americans Learned to Be Kinder to (Some) Animals

“Our Kindred Creatures” details the rise, and contradictions, of the animal welfare movement.

By Andrew Graybill

Attitudes toward animals (including stray dogs, cute and otherwise) began to shift in the 19th century.

Bribing the Navy Is Easier (and More Entertaining) Than You Might Think

In “Fat Leonard,” Craig Whitlock investigates one of the worst corruption scandals in U.S. military history.

By Nicolas Niarchos

Rear Adm. Samuel Locklear III, left, pretending to lift Leonard Francis off the floor at a dinner party in 2003. Locklear has denied having any involvement in Francis’ misdeeds and was cleared of wrongdoing by the Navy.

The Scrappy World War II Pilots Who Took Flight for a Perilous Mission

In the riveting “Skies of Thunder,” Caroline Alexander considers what it took to get supplies to Allied ground troops in China.

By Elizabeth D. Samet

The Curtiss C-46 Commando aircraft, used to fly over “the Hump,” could carry a great deal of cargo, but was vulnerable to engine failure.

The Book Review’s Best Books Since 2000

Looking for your next great read? We’ve got 3,228. Explore the best fiction and nonfiction from 2000 - 2023 chosen by our editors.

By The New York Times Books Staff

17 New Books Coming in May

New novels from R.O. Kwon, Kevin Kwan and Miranda July; a reappraisal of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy; memoirs from Brittney Griner and Kathleen Hanna — and more.

Let Us Help You Find Your Next Book

Reading picks from Book Review editors, guaranteed to suit any mood.

Best-Seller Lists: May 26, 2024

All the lists: print, e-books, fiction, nonfiction, children’s books and more.

Books of The Times

The Massacre America Forgot

In a new book, the historian Kim A. Wagner investigates the slaughter by U.S. troops of nearly 1,000 people in the Philippines in 1906 — an atrocity long overlooked in this country.

By Jennifer Szalai

Sex, Drugs and Economics: The Double Life of a Conservative Gadfly

The professor and social commentator Glenn Loury opens up about his vices in a candid new memoir.

By Dwight Garner

Glenn Loury’s “Late Admissions” recounts his smash-and-grab life.

Adultery Gets Weird in Miranda July’s New Novel

An anxious artist’s road trip stops short for a torrid affair at a tired motel. In “All Fours,” the desire for change is familiar. How to satisfy it isn’t.

By Alexandra Jacobs

Can a 50-Year-Old Idea Save Democracy?

The economist and philosopher Daniel Chandler thinks so. In “Free and Equal,” he makes a vigorous case for adopting the liberal political framework laid out by John Rawls in the 1970s.

The political philosopher John Rawls in 1990. Rawls’s theory combined a liberal respect for individual rights and differences with an egalitarian emphasis on fairness.

A Portrait of the Art World Elite, Painted With a Heavy Hand

Hari Kunzru examines the ties between art and wealth in a new novel, “Blue Ruin.”

6 New Paperbacks to Read This Week

Recommended reading from the Book Review, including titles by Anne Berest, Brandon Taylor and more.

By Shreya Chattopadhyay

Whose Folk Tale Is It Anyway?

A comics collection’s sibling narrators and a graphic novel’s hapless heroine change their stories as they go along.

By Sabrina Orah Mark

After a Season of Protest, PEN America’s Literary Gala Goes Forward

The free-expression group has been engulfed by debate over its response to the Gaza war that forced the cancellation of its literary awards and annual festival.

By Jennifer Schuessler

6 New Books We Recommend This Week

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

Overlooked No More: Bill Hosokawa, Journalist Who Chronicled Japanese American History

He fought prejudice and incarceration during World War II to lead a successful career, becoming one of the first editors of color at a metropolitan newspaper.

By Jonathan van Harmelen and Greg Robinson

A Leading Free Expression Group Is Roiled by Dissent Over Gaza

As it cancels events amid criticism of its response to the Israel-Hamas war, PEN America faces questions about when an organization devoted to free speech for all should take sides.

A Modern Shakespeare Retelling Filled With Drugs, Sex and Trauma

Allen Bratton’s novel transforms the rise of Henry V into a contemporary story about a brash gay man grappling with abuse and guilt.

By Hugh Ryan

Alice Munro, a Literary Alchemist Who Made Great Fiction From Humble Lives

The Nobel Prize-winning author specialized in exacting short stories that were novelistic in scope, spanning decades with intimacy and precision.

By Gregory Cowles

Alice Munro, Nobel Laureate and Master of the Short Story, Dies at 92

Her stories were widely considered to be without equal, a mixture of ordinary people and extraordinary themes.

By Anthony DePalma

1907 Was a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

In “The Race to the Future,” Kassia St. Clair chronicles the 8,000-mile caper that helped change the landscape forever.

By Peter Sagal