Parul Sehgal

Richard Zenith’s biography of the Portuguese poet, critic, translator, mystic and giant of modernism is a perceptive reading of the eccentric man and his abundant work.

For the restless heroine of Dana Spiotta’s novel “Wayward,” menopause is reason enough to re-evaluate everything.

Recent novels, philosophical inquiries, young adult and romance fiction, films and television shows join a robust academic literature to explore the term and its limits.

In “A Sense of Self,” the psychiatrist Veronica O’Keane flashes narrative skill in exploring the science and mystery of memory.

In “A Ghost in the Throat,” Doireann Ni Ghriofa combines essay, biography and autofiction in writing about (and translating) a passionate 18th-century lament.

In his new book, Jordan Ellenberg explains how geometric thinking can allow for everything from fairer American elections to better pandemic planning.

In “On Violence and On Violence Against Women,” Jacqueline Rose roves widely to consider sexual harassment, Harvey Weinstein, political power, contemporary fiction and more.

Sarah Schulman’s “Let the Record Show” is a history of ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, based on 17 years of interviews with nearly 200 members of the organization.

The disgraced writer’s Philip Roth biography is a document of a misogynist literary world. But I had to read the book to get the whole story.

In “The Secret to Superhuman Strength,” Bechdel chronicles her susceptibility to exercise fads, including karate, yoga, skiing, biking, running, hiking and mountain climbing.

Pamela Paul, the editor of the Book Review, highlights memorable episodes from her eight years hosting the show, including conversations with Robert Caro, Isabel Wilkerson, James McBride and others.

Soyica Diggs Colbert’s “Radical Vision” situates the playwright of “A Raisin in the Sun” as a writer who offered “a road map to negotiate Black suffering in the past and present.”

In showing several different sides of the filmmaker, some of them contradictory, Edward White’s “The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock” captures him in full.

“Francis Bacon: Revelations,” by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan, is a comprehensive and detailed account of the painter’s very eventful life and career.

Shirley Hazzard’s “The Transit of Venus,” recently reissued, is a plushly written novel about two orphaned Australian sisters who arrive in England in the 1950s.

As the publication celebrates its 125th anniversary, Parul Sehgal, a staff critic and former editor at the Book Review, delves into the archives to critically examine its legacy in full.

In “The Good Girls,” Sonia Faleiro writes about the mysterious deaths of two girls, a case that revealed histories, resentments, secrets and competing interpretations.

Our critic calls this recounting of a middle-age writer preying on a 13-year-old girl a “work of dazzling, highly controlled fury.”

Oyler’s debut novel is about a smart, irascible narrator who is steeped in the concerns and tone of social media.

Tove Ditlevsen’s three memoirs — “Childhood,” “Youth” and “Dependency” — recall her beautiful, cruel mother and the author’s headlong dive into addiction.