Atria Books Sarah Langan's Good Neighbors is one of the creepiest, most unnerving deconstructions of American suburbia I've ever read. Langan cuts to the heart of upper middle class lives like a skilled surgeon and exposes the rotten realities behind manicured lawns and perfect families, and the result is horrifically ...

Nightboat Books Welcome to the final installment of this year's poetry preview. I'd like to thank Ana, Ken, Evie, and Phillip for joining me this year and bringing their unique sensibilities to this glimpse into the future. Our collective picks for the must-read poetry books of the coming year (don't ...

Michaela Coel's I May Destroy You was a critical favorite last year — but didn't garner any Golden Globe nominations.Natalie Seery/HBO When it came time to pick the best TV shows of 2020 late last year, I and my fellow critics at NPR were all over the map. But there ...

Riverhead For novelist Chang-rae Lee, a new book is often a response to the last one. His previous novel, On Such A Full Sea, was a dystopian parable. It was concise, controlled. "One of the metaphors of that last book is an aquarium," he says. "That the world and our ...

The Copenhagen Trilogy, by Tove DitlevsenFarrar, Straus and Giroux We're living in a golden age for women's writing. The wheels of literary justice are finally giving due process to great women writers whose work has been forgotten, ignored or insufficiently appreciated. The latest revelation is Tove Ditlevsen, a Danish poet ...

Frazer Harrison | Getty Images Past Golden Globe winners Sarah Jessica Parker and Taraji P. Henson kicked off the announcement of this year's nominees, in a livestream simulcast by the Today show. Netflix led the pack with 22 nominations for motion pictures and 20 for TV; Mank garnered the most ...

Mike Nichols: A Life, by Mark HarrisPenguin Press For decades, Mike Nichols was one of the most recognized names in theater and film, but very few people really knew the legendary director — even, it seems, himself. At least that's the impression one gets from Mike Nichols: A Life, Mark ...

Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke play Tully and Kate, two friends who spend decades supporting each other in Firefly Lane.Netflix As of this writing, as its Netflix adaptation is about to premiere, the 2008 Kristin Hannah novel Firefly Lane sits at #1 in the Amazon Kindle Store category called "Women's ...

The author's grandparents, Russell and Mary Shorto, socialize at Club Harlem in Atlantic City, N.J., in the mid-1950s.Courtesy of Russell Shorto Hollywood portrayals of the American Mafia often focus on major cities, but writer Russell Shorto says there have been active mob organizations in countless small and midsize cities in ...

Dolly Parton says she was offered the honor by the Trump administration but was unable to accept.Robyn Beck | AFP via Getty Images Last fall, former President Barack Obama told Stephen Colbert that he was "shocked" Dolly Parton hadn't gotten a Presidential Medal of Freedom during his time in office. ...