What you're doing with your eyes and brain right now is a lot more interesting than you realize. Read more...

The author of All Souls Rising bases his latest novel on the Civil War career of one of the Confederacy's most controversial figures. Read more...

Caroline Alexander journeys back to the mother of all battles. Read more...

One of the defining creators of contemporary short fiction suggests she has new territories in sight. Read more...

A wide-ranging collection of essays on topics that range from the nature of British comedy to the orations of Barack Obama. Read more...

The wizard of fiction's unfinished novel is published, and the Vladimir Nabokov's magic cabinet is unlocked for our perusal. Read more...

Former National Book Award judge Tom LeClair takes a close look at this year’s fiction finalists. Read more...

Veronique de Turenne explores the novelist's ambitious Invisible. Read more...

The remarkable career of Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia. Read more...

A adventures of a Zelig-like figure are the center of the new novel from the author of The Poisonwood Bible. Read more...

A brash, revealing, and sometimes dishy chronicle of a gay writer's life in a bygone Manhattan. Read more...

A town's mysterious encapsulation yields a nightmarish turn toward the brutal. Read more...

"As the ramp went down we were getting direct fire right into our craft," wrote a soldier in the 116th on the western part of Omaha. "My three squad leaders in front and others were hit. Some men climbed over the side. Two sailors got hit." Read more...

The new memoir from the author of The Liars' Club charts life as an addict, poet, and survivor. Read more...

Do we really need another book about Google? Read more...

Ezra Klein measures a sequel’s unintended consequences. Read more...

How a deck of cards gave birth to a legendary pastime that has come to stand for part of the American character. Read more...

An actor prepares for his climactic appearance. Read more...

Mary Shelley's most famous creation mingles with his maker and her circle. Read more...

The author of The Secret Life of Bees and her daughter pen an unusual memoir of travel and self-discovery. Read more...

A tale of human trafficking and revenge, seen through multiple perspectives. Read more...

A childhood seen through the high-precision lens of Asperger's syndrome. Read more...

The editor of Granta looks at messages from Morse to Microsoft Outlook -- and sees the rise of an implacable electronic tide threatens to overwhelm us. Read more...

A new collection of longer and shorter works from the award-winning novelist and poet trades in heartfelt sorrow and wicked humor. Read more...

A boy's life in a famed Tudor castle -- haunted by spirits of the past, and the present. Read more...

The youngest general in the Continental Army was also an inventive schemer who nearly engineered the breakup of the fledgling Union. Read more...

Ralph Nader's public-policy fantasia pits noble tycoons against mega-corporations in what the author calls a "practical utopia." Read more...

A portrait of the auteur, through the lens of conversation. Read more...

A murderous accident is the departure for one woman’s surprising journey to something like redemption. Read more...

A reading list that may form a textual inoculation for viral anxiety. Read more...