Book Reviews

David Allen Sibley's name is synonymous with his bird field guides. In researching this volume, he became convinced of something new: Birds make complex decisions and experience emotions.

Bishakh Som's new comics collection is uncanny and hard to categorize — science-fictiony, mythic and humanistic, without making any particular assumptions about where humans as a species are going.

Bloomberg reporter Sarah Frier's new book is a vibrant play-by-play of how Instagram reached its high level of influence through the business of manufacturing coolness.

Acclaimed poet Mark Doty's memoir is not only an exaltation of America's troubadour, Walt Whitman, but also a celebration of gay manhood, queerness, and the power and elasticity of poetry.

Combining the knowledge of a seasoned scientist and the skills of a good storyteller, the ecologist-author invites us to leave our cultural worlds and enter some animal ones to see just how they work.

In charming, anxious, tender essays, writer Mark O'Connell examines his own apocalyptic frame of mind by taking "a series of perverse pilgrimages" to subcultures preparing for the end of the world.

"I was intent on making the next stage of my life even more interesting than the last," former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright writes in Hell And Other Destinations.

With much of the world on lockdown due to the pandemic, critic Maureen Corrigan turns to books for companionship. Her recommended reads span fiction, nonfiction and poetry — some old, some new.

Aira's oddball new novella chronicles his love affair with the magazine Artforum, to which he ascribes almost magical qualities. It's a giddy, self-indulgent but delightful read.

None of us are likely to have a glorious summer this year — but crack open Jessica Pennington's new Meet Me at Midnight and follow the charming enemies-to-lovers story, and you'll get close.