Books

In rare remarks, retired Gen. Martin Dempsey rebuked the president's threat to use military troops against protesters as "dangerous," saying it would hurt relations between the military and civilians.

Essayist Sejal Shah brings important, refreshing, and depressing observations about what it means to have dark skin and an "exotic" name, when the only country you've ever lived in is America.

The lawsuit filed this week in federal court alleges that the organization, which lends books online for free, amounts to a "piracy site" that has been eluding copyright law for years.

In Five Days, Moore chronicles the uprising that occurred in Baltimore following Gray's death. "We're basically reliving history right now," he says of Floyd's death at the hands of police.

Brit Bennett's triumphant new novel follows two light-skinned black sisters whose lives take very different paths; you'll keep turning pages not to find out what happens, but who these women are.

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with The New Yorker staff writer Masha Gessen about their new book, Surviving Autocracy.

The New Yorker journalist says Putin and Trump were elected president without really wanting the job. They ran "not for president but for autocrat" and did not expect to settle for anything less.

Brit Bennett's new novel centers on two light-skinned African American sisters — one of whom "passes" for white. The Vanishing Half is compelling — if somewhat melodramatic.

In Meryl Wilsner's debut novel, a Hollywood showrunner and her assistant are thrust into the spotlight after an innocuous red-carpet moment prompts gossip about a relationship between the two women.

Before he became an astrophysicist, Ray Jayawardhana was just a kid, looking up at the night sky with his father. "I remember being awed," he says. He's written a book called Child of the Universe.

The historian and author of Utopia for Realists says that research shows that "especially in times of crisis, we show our best selves. And we get this explosion of altruism and cooperation."

Our kids' books columnist reports that amidst the messes and fights that result from kids in lockdown, Matthew Cordell's gentle new picture book biography of Mister Rogers has the power to soothe.