New York Times Book Reviews

“The culture I grew up in is a very individualistic one, but for understandable reasons,” says Sarah Smarsh.

Three new books explore the concepts of liberalism, democracy and nationalism.

Readers respond to recent issues of the Sunday Book Review.

Michele Gelfand’s “Rule Makers, Rule Breakers” takes a look at the differences in various human societies and chalks them up to how strictly they follow norms.

Corey Brettschneider’s “The Oath and the Office” offers advice to presidents on their constitutional duties.

Alice Mattison’s “Conscience” traces the damaging effect of a novel based on the real lives of three people involved in radical politics.

Dan Kaufman’s “The Fall of Wisconsin” traces how a state that was a liberal bastion came to vote for Donald Trump in 2016.

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Leadership in Turbulent Times” looks at Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.

Eric Klinenberg’s “Palaces for the People” explores the civic value of social infrastructure, those public spaces that allow for human connection.

David Levering Lewis’s “The Improbable Wendell Willkie” describes a political shooting star who left an outsize legacy.

Immigrants, artists and inventors imagine liberation in gorgeous new books by Yuyi Morales, Il Sung Na, Juan Felipe Herrera and more.

Marilyn Stasio’s mystery roundup takes readers to World War I Britain and France, then dips into two psychological combat zones in modern America.

Six new paperbacks to check out this week.

Hints of her wildlife research — particularly the study of brown hyenas — can be seen in her debut novel, “Where the Crawdads Sing.”

Miriam Pawel’s “The Browns of California” describes a political dynasty that has dominated the state across 60 years.

Illustrated by Dan Williams, “Sea Prayer” relates a message of universal human despair, but also hope.

In which we consult the Book Review’s past to shed light on the books of the present. This week: Elizabeth Janeway on Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita.”

In “America: The Farewell Tour,” Chris Hedges says the end is near.

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

Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged,” Boris Pasternak’s “Doctor Zhivago” and Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita” continue to be controversial even today.