The advice comes from sports figures and entrepreneurs, and is often movingly down-to-earth.

Growing into their worlds — essentially “growing up” — is still hard for the characters that populate the works of Karen Russell. Witness any of the eight astonishing stories in “Orange World and Other Stories,” her latest book.

“Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells,” the new book from Time magazine travel writer Pico Iyer, is a poignant meditation on the evanescent nature of life in general and of traditional Japan in particular.

Of all the writers who have speculated as to why Harper Lee abandoned her true-crime book, I believe that Casey Cep comes closest to the truth.

The crime at the core of “Murder by the Book” by Claire Harman stunned London for months. Yet Harman’s book is not so much focused on the uncovering of a murderer as it is on dissecting the London not only of Queen Victoria, but the London of Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray as well.

“Cemetery Road” is the new book from Greg Iles, author of the Natchez Burning Trilogy. That trilogy brought to a close the exploits of Mississippi lawyer Penn Cage (who first appeared in “The Devil’s Punchbowl”) and his efforts to put to rest the Double Eagles, a clandestine offshoot of the …

“Landfall,” the newest historical novel from Thomas Mallon, brings his recent political trilogy to an inspired close. “Watergate” (2012) has Richard Nixon at its center. The subtitle of “Finale” (2015) is “A Novel of the Reagan Years.”

“The Parade,” the new novel from Dave Eggers, is about progress; it is a subtle contemplation of the dire effect that progress can have on its surroundings. This is all tied up in a plot that is worthy of, say, an absurdist like Samuel Beckett.

Nathan Englander’s new novel “kaddish.com” is a contemporary fable of redemption and forgiveness. It quietly pays tribute to classic works of Bernard Malamud and Philip Roth, as well as Englander’s own exquisite novel from 2017, “Dinner at the Center of the Earth.”

A dozen stand-alone essays come together to turn “Black Is the Body,” the new book from scholar Emily Bernard, into a most exquisitely written and poignant memoir, a memoir that questions identity, race and what it is to be a woman in America.

“Lost Children Archive,” the latest novel from Valeria Luiselli, is as timely as it is challenging. It confronts the current American political landscape even as it gauges echoes of the waning American dream.

How art can both enhance and hinder our lives in unexpected ways is the absolute essence of “The Weight of a Piano” by Chris Cander. The novel’s chapters alternate between the experiences of one woman whose troubled life is kept at bay by the music she can draw from the piano and the experie…

Let’s just get this out of the way as soon as possible. It is highly unlikely that “‘Broadsword Calling Danny Boy’: Watching ‘Where Eagles Dare,’” Geoff Dyer’s new book, resembles any book that anyone has ever come across.

Dani Shapiro is the author of five novels and four previous memoirs. “Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love,” her new book, is likely to become her best known as well as be remembered as her most moving.

Chris Hammer’s career as a journalist for over 30 years certainly sets him in good stead in “Scrublands,” his first novel. A native Australian, Hammer has covered his country’s national politics as well as international affairs. Already a bestseller in Australia, “Scrublands” is now newly pu…

To read “Elsey Come Home,” the new novel from Susan Conley, is to come into contact with any search for self that any individual might ever have experienced. The novel is an intimate declaration of independence. It’s a story told many times over, true, but Conley tells it with such understan…

“Wolves of Eden” is a remarkable mash-up of a novel. It’s both a western and a noir murder mystery. It is all the more remarkable since it is from the pen of Irish author Kevin McCarthy, whose two previous novels have been thrillers set against the background of the Irish Civil War.

Restoration touches every page of “Old Newgate Road,” the new novel from Keith Scribner. It is a portrait of an American family still threatened by the past as its members labor to construct a sustainable present.

The essence of “A Ladder to the Sky,” the new novel for adults from Irish author John Boyne, is an old proverb. Late in the novel, Maurice Swift, the amoral writer at the novel’s center, tells a much younger writer: “And you’ve heard the old proverb about ambition, haven’t you? … That it’s l…

The “Winters” in this new work from Tom Barbash are the members of the Winters family who live in the Dakota, the famous residence in the heart of New York City. “The Dakota Winters” is a novel populated by characters both fictional and actual, and it is a novel that is very much about the l…

More than 100 years ago, in the town of Radcot “along the upper reaches of the Thames,” sits the Swan Inn, as famous for its storytelling as it is for its thatched roof. It’s here that “Once Upon a River,” the new novel by Diane Setterfield, begins.

First of all, there’s the cover art. Against a bright, red-orange background are Joe Biden at the wheel of a Dodge Charger, safety belt harnessing him in, while Barack Obama stands through the car’s sunroof with an absolute sense of urgency, pointing ahead while his tie flaps over his should…

Know how it is when you like a book so much that you wonder how you’ve managed to miss other books by the same writer? Be prepared for that experience at the end of “Virgil Wander,” a new novel from Leif Enger.

It was in 2005 that Markus Zusak first published in Australia what in this country a year later was touted as a book for young people. Adult readers quickly embraced it.