The joys and embarrassments of Cleary’s characters—of Henry Huggins and Ramona Quimby—helped so many of us understand who we are and what the world is.

A Princeton sociologist chronicled the human toll of eviction in one city in a 2016 book. A new project may reveal just how widespread the problem is.

A quadriplegic man who emerged from a coma in 2004 claims Christian publisher Tyndale House published a fake near-death story about him going to heaven, which was concocted by his father after they survived a severe car accident. Alex Malarkey, 19, claims in a lawsuit filed Monday in Dupage County, Ill., that Tyndale House Publishers has made millions of dollars from a book his father wrote that falsely claimed he died and went to heaven, where he spoke to Jesus and the devil.

For the first time in two decades, a huge number of books, films, and other works will escape U.S. copyright law.

Donald Trump is president of the United States by title and law. He is not president of all Americans. Trump cares only about his voters and the most enthusiastic part of his "base." He is a political cult leader. Nothing seems to matter to him but the adoration and power that comes from his followers. Public opinion polls and other research has shown that Trump's supporters are driven by racism, sexism, Christian nationalism and nativism. They hold authoritarian values, and hold America's democratic norms in contempt. All that matters is winning: Democracy be damned.

I suspect that I was invited to review Magic’s Reason because it is largely about stage magic and stage magicians, a topic on which I once wrote a book myself... By Simon During.

Bill Gates reviews “Factfulness” by Hans Rosling and Anna Rosling Ronnlund.

In Women and Power: A manifesto, Mary Beard reveals the ancient roots of misogyny with new and characteristic clarity. By Afua Hirsch.

What makes a science fiction story a space opera? By T.W. O'Brien.

Director Josh Boone, who’s been attached to the series for years, is still set to direct.

Grizzly bears, dogs, and even cockroaches fart. Do sea anemones? Nope. As for spiders, no one knows.

In “The Infernal Library,” Daniel Kalder offers a grim tour of dictators’ bestsellers. By Earnest Hilbert.

Reading, education can help ensure that prisoners who gain freedom, keep it.

The Forbes Pigment Collection contains samples of material that represent all shades of the rainbow — plus brown, white, black, and metallic.

One of the shocks of reading Rob Iliffe’s study of Isaac Newton is that its subject fancied himself as something very much like a mujaddid. By Oliver Moody.

In the battle of the bunny books, John Oliver is the clear winner. The family of Vice President Mike Pence released a children’s book on Monday written from the perspective of the family’s pet rabbit, Marlon Bundo. Unfortunately for the nation’s second family, the HBO personality released his own version on Sunday. Oliver’s features a gay Bundo, by the way, and its sales and reviews are kicking the carrots out of Karen Pence’s publication.

Thomas Nagel reviews “As If: Idealization and Ideals” by Kwame Anthony Appiah.

About a quarter of American adults (24%) say they haven’t read a book in whole or in part in the past year, whether in print, electronic or audio form. Who are these non-book readers?

When a strange document appeared in her shop, an Australian bookseller turned detective.

Robert O. Paxton reviews “The Enigma of the Owl: An Illustrated Natural History” by Mike Unwin and David Tipling, and “Owls: A Guide to Every Species in the World” by Marianne Taylor.

Originally published in 1491, Fasciculus medicinae quickly proved popular, and dozens of editions followed until 1522.

In June 1940, with Nazi troops on the verge of invading Paris, German-Jewish exile Walter Benjamin was preparing to leave the city. One of the leading European intellectuals of the 20th century, Benjamin was unable to acquire the necessary documents that would have made it possible for him to escape through the port city of Marseille. Instead, he joined other refugees trekking through the mountains into Spain, making their way to Lisbon where they’d fly out. Slowing Benjamin down was a heavy black suitcase, which contained a manuscript. Speaking to another traveller, Benjamin described the contents as more valuable than his own life.

An essayist looks into the curious past of pathological collectors – and considers her own lifelong urge to hoard ever more volumes

The LIBOR scandal is one of the biggest financial scrams in history. In his new book, journalist David Enrich unravels what went down.

At some point, most science fiction readers come across the “Big Three” authors from its so-called Golden Age: Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke. Over the course of his lifetime, Clarke witnessed the birth of the space age, and helped push science fiction from a nascent literary movement into a modern vision for humanity’s future with grounded, realistic stories that drew on science and technology—themes that are more relevant than ever today, on the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Clare Pettitt on Charles Darwin’s method and approach to his scientific discoveries and the influence of ideology in shaping his theory of sexual selection.

The disagreement between Coates and me is clear: his view of black America is narrow and dangerously misleading. By Cornel West.

Court documents filed in the US have revealed the editorial concerns of the publisher Simon & Schuster about the manuscript of the “alt-right” controversialist Milo Yiannopoulos’s autobiography Dangerous. Having reportedly secured the book for an advance of $255,000 (£200,000), Simon & Schuster cancelled the deal in February after a recording emerged that appeared to show Yiannopoulos endorsing sex between “younger boys” and older men.

President Trump is reportedly attempting to stop the publication of “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” Michael Wolff’s explosive new book about his campaign and presidency.

Journalist Michael Wolff's new "front row" account of Trump presidency is causing controversy.

In this extract from his new book, Johann Hari, who took antidepressants for 14 years, calls for a new approach

For every amusingly wrong prediction, there’s one unnervingly close to the mark.

A Stephen King enthusiast has just been struck a terrible blow that a lot of other fans might feel once they hear the news. A large portion of a private collection of King works, which included original typed manuscripts of Maximum Overdrive and The Eyes of the Dragon, has been lost to an accident.

In 1909, two London bookbinders were commissioned to create a book that would become one of the most bedazzling the world had beheld. Joobin Bekhrad reveals how it ended up at the bottom of the Atlantic – and how it still influences today.

Sue Halpern reviews “Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World” by Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott, and “Attack of the Fifty Foot Blockchain: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Ethereum and Smart Contracts” by David Gerard. (Dec. 21, 2017)