Books: Whats the Buzz from the New York Times

Here is the latest Book News from The New York Times.

Ann Patchett’s Nashville Bookstore Hits the Road, With Dogs in Tow
The arrival of bookmobiles in Nashville and other cities indicates that independent bookstores are making a comeback after years of decline.

Arts | Long Island: From Relationships to Murder and Mayhem
Jack Dana, the leading character of Mr. Begley’s 2015 work, “Killer, Come Hither,” returns in a sequel, and both novels are a departure from the author’s usual fiction.

Edna O’Brien Is Still Gripped by Dark Moral Questions
This 85-year-old Irish writer discusses her career and her latest novel, “The Little Red Chairs,” which is her first in 10 years.

Shakespeare, the Book Tour
A fleet of First Folios is on a barnstorming tour of all 50 states. We caught up in South Dakota.

Sunday Routine: How the Novelist Douglas Kennedy Spends His Sundays
Mr. Kennedy, a self-proclaimed “jazz junkie” who splits his time living in Europe, Maine and Montreal, enjoys a workout, a play, music and one cigar.

Inside The New York Times Book Review Podcast: ‘Girls and Sex’
Peggy Orenstein talks about “Girls and Sex,” and John Williams discusses “The Throwback Special.”

Paperback Row
Seven new paperbacks to check out this week.

Editors’ Choice
Nine new books recommended by the editors of The New York Times Book Review this week.

Inside the List
James Patterson’s “Private Paris,” No. 1 on the hardcover fiction list, is the author’s 13th book to spend time on the lists in 2016.

Open Book: Posthumous Novel With a Beat
Ali Eskandarian’s deeply autobiographical first novel arrives three years after the Iranian-American musician was murdered in Brooklyn.

The Shortlist: Comic Fiction
New books by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, Mona Awad, Elizabeth McKenzie and Helen Ellis.

Author’s Note: Millennial Days
Why is it distasteful or indulgent for young women to confess to the darkest times in their lives?

Bruce Wagner’s ‘I Met Someone’
A novel of Hollywood goings-on stars hustlers and climbers, parental yearnings and baroque twists.

John Jodzio’s ‘Knockout’
Stories featuring Taser-happy humans and a collapsing giraffe.

‘The Best Place on Earth,’ by Ayelet Tsabari
Short fiction on the search for identity in Israel and beyond.

‘As Close to Us as Breathing,’ by Elizabeth Poliner
A novel of family life in a Jewish summer community shortly after World War II.

‘Smarter Faster Better,’ by Charles Duhigg
A journalist pairs eight ideas for increasing productivity with stories of success.

‘Gone With the Mind,’ by Mark Leyner
In Mark Leyner’s novel, a writer and his mother head to the mall to read from his ‘autobiography.’

‘American Girls,’ by Nancy Jo Sales
Nancy Jo Sales believes we should be very worried about the effects of social media on teenage girls.

My Bookshelf, Myself: My 10 Favorite Books: Simon Critchley
The philosopher shares the titles he’d most want with him on a desert island.

Alas, Poor William Shakespeare. Where Does His Skull Rest?
Researchers have uncovered evidence that they say indicates his skull was stolen from his grave by a local doctor in 1794.

Books of The Times: Review: Adam Hochschild’s ‘Spain in Our Hearts,’ About a Strangely Literary Conflict
Mr. Hochschild’s book, about Americans in the Spanish Civil War, follows reporters, authors and others who fought in a war the United States never entered.

Albert Camus, Stranger in a Strange Land: New York
The French writer spent three months in the city in 1946. Seventy years later, a monthlong festival is celebrating his residency.

Letters: The Man to Thank
Readers respond to recent reviews of Gillian Thomas’s “Because of Sex,” Sonia Shah’s “Pandemic” and more.

In Hindsight, an ‘American Psycho’ Looks a Lot Like Us
When Bret Easton Ellis’s novel was published in 1991, he and his protagonist, Patrick Bateman, were equally vilified. But Bateman’s bloodlust, materialism and obsession with Donald J. Trump are all part of our current cultural fabric — including a new Broadway musical adaptation.

Álvaro Enrigue: By the Book
The author, most recently, of “Sudden Death” says literature has its limits: “Life is larger than books. Any bully has more character-building effects on you than the most moving of books.”

‘The Violet Hour,’ by Katie Roiphe
Katie Roiphe looks at the experiences of six writers and artists as their deaths approached.

Books of The Times: Review: ‘The Caped Crusade’ and Batman’s Reach Beyond — Gasp! — Comic Book Lore
Glen Weldon’s book is a roaring getaway car of guilty pleasures — film gossip, comic-book esoterica, tales of nerd rage — for more than Bat-fans.

Sext and the Single Girl
In “Girls and Sex,” Peggy Orenstein investigates the effects of hookups, pornography, alcohol, celebrities and social media on the intimate lives of young women.

‘Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America,’ by Douglas Brinkley
The New Deal contributed significantly to the preservation of the American landscape.

Kevin Hart to Publish Memoir Next Year
The comedian and actor is the latest to land a book deal in what has become a pitched battle among publishers for memoirs and autobiographies from prominent comics.

Books of The Times: Review: ‘Seven Brief Lessons on Physics’ Is Long on Knowledge
This Carlo Rovelli book is meant to appeal especially to “those who know little or nothing about modern science.”

‘Arcadia,’ by Iain Pears
In a novel of interconnected real and imaginary worlds, plots run in all directions on the time continuum.

‘The Throwback Special,’ by Chris Bachelder
The escapism of fantasy sports and the fetishism of re-enactments underlie an annual reunion of fictional buddies.

Books of The Times: Review: ‘The Year of the Runaways,’ About Fighting for Scraps in a New Country
Sunjeev Sahota’s second novel, shortlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize, follows three young Indian migrants who have made their way to Britain.

Help Desk: Cleanse Creep
Cleansing our digestive system is no longer enough. Today we’re urged to purify closet, kitchen, desktop, checkbook, behavior and spirit.

James Patterson Has a Big Plan for Small Books
Starting this summer, the popular novelist will start testing a new line of short novels that cost less than $5 and can be read in a single sitting.

‘The Abundance,’ by Annie Dillard
This selection of Annie Dillard’s essays looks back on four decades of fascination with the natural world.

‘A Murder Over a Girl,’ by Ken Corbett
The murder of a teenager with a fluid gender identity confounds a California school.

Books of The Times: Review: In ‘Switched On,’ John Elder Robison’s Asperger’s Brain Is Changed
In this book, Mr. Robison tells how a treatment awakened him emotionally.

Geoffrey H. Hartman, Scholar Who Saw Literary Criticism as Art, Dies at 86
Long associated with the Yale School of criticism, Professor Hartman examined a wide range of subjects, including Wordsworth, Judaica and trauma.

Bookshelf: Examining Yiddish Theater, From Shtick to Stardom
The history of a dramatic phenomenon that acculturated immigrant Jews and propelled some to national fame.

Inside The New York Times Book Review Podcast: American Eugenics
Adam Cohen talks about “Imbeciles,” and Ellen Fitzpatrick discusses “The Highest Glass Ceiling.”

Paperback Row
Seven new paperbacks to check out this week.

Editors’ Choice
Nine new books recommended by the editors of The New York Times Book Review this week.

Been There, Haven’t Done That
The poet Eileen Myles, who ran for the presidency in 1992 as a write-in candidate, is one of many women who have sought the country’s highest office.

‘What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours,’ by Helen Oyeyemi
Fantasy and the familiar overlap in stories that conjur worlds of mystery and menace.

‘The End of Karma,’ by Somini Sengupta
In India, nearly a million people will turn 18 every month until 2030.

‘Until We Are Free,’ by Shirin Ebadi
A Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s personal story focuses a lens on human rights violations in Iran.

Jung Yun’s ‘Shelter’
The housing collapse drives a tale of disruption and filial duty.

Inside the List
Most of the buzz around Padma Lakshmi’s new memoir, No. 14 on the hardcover nonfiction list, has centered on her ill-fated marriage to Salman Rushdie.

The Shortlist: Banned in Beijing
Three novels that have been censored in China.

‘A Man Lies Dreaming,’ by Lavie Tidhar
A genre-bending Holocaust novel employs both shock effects and satire.

‘Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X’
Friends and then not friends, Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali were both charismatic and ambitious.

‘Charlotte Brontë: A Fiery Heart,’ by Claire Harman
For the author of “Jane Eyre,” the lack of support was an obstacle; a life of seclusion was not.

Crime: Linwood Barclay’s ‘Far From True,’ and More
In “Far From True,” a drive-in movie theater’s four-story screen collapses, crushing two cars in the front row.

‘Carry Me,’ by Peter Behrens
A couple looking to escape Nazi Germany heads to America.

‘The Road Taken,’ by Henry Petroski
A professor of history and engineering extols the virtues of small thinking when it comes to fixing bridges and highways.

‘The Sellout’ Wins National Book Critics Circle’s Fiction Award
The Paul Beatty novel, and “Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic,” a nonfiction title by Sam Quinones, were given the top prizes by the literary critics and editors’ group.

Books of The Times: Review: ‘We Love You, Charlie Freeman,’ Kaitlyn Greenidge’s Debut Novel
A black Massachusetts family moves to an all-white neighborhood to be part of a research experiment, living with a chimpanzee.

Mo Willems and the Art of the Children’s Book
A survey of this author-illustrator’s work is opening at the New-York Historical Society.

Talk: Padma Lakshmi Won’t Date Men Who Aren’t Feminists
The writer and TV personality on her family of empowered women, eating placenta and how Mary Carr introduced her to a new passion: boxing.

‘Noonday,’ by Pat Barker
Pat Barker’s novel follows the tense months of the London bombings of World War II.

‘The Lonely City,’ by Olivia Laing
A memoir considers how cultural figures like Andy Warhol and Edward Hopper might ease the pain of urban loneliness.

Jim Harrison: By the Book
The author, most recently, of “The Ancient Minstrel” is an inveterate reader of cookbooks, including Mario Batali, Anthony Bourdain and Gabrielle Hamilton.

The Writer’s Room: A Writer’s Room: Yann Martel
The novelist’s latest, ‘The High Mountains of Portugal,’ was written in a shed in Saskatoon, Canada.

Letters: Writing Women
Readers respond to recent reviews of “Constance Fenimore Woolson,” “The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe” and more.

HarperCollins to Offer Discounted ‘Mockingbird’ Paperback to Schools
The move comes after Harper Lee, who died last month, asked that the cheaper, mass market paperback edition be discontinued.

Books of The Times: Review: When the Digital World Is Judging Your Every Thought
Jarett Kobek’s “I Hate the Internet” is a grainy political and cultural rant, a sustained shriek about power and morality in a new global era.

‘The Black Calhouns,’ by Gail Lumet Buckley
A black family’s world over 150 years holds a critical mirror to the denial of racism’s historical force.

Books of The Times: Review: In ‘The Travelers,’ Danger at Every Destination
In Chris Pavone’s new novel, a travel writer is on the run through countless efforts to recruit, frame, trick and kill him.

Karen Hall Alters ‘Dark Debts’ in a New Edition
Ms. Hall’s obsessiveness was the driving force behind the decision to revisit her 1996 breakthrough novel.

New Print Technologies Help Art Books Survive in a Digital World
Printed art books, often with special cover coatings, embossing and extravagant illustrations, deliver a sense of tactile immediacy.

Bookends: Which Books Have Been Unfairly Maligned?
Benjamin Moser and Charles McGrath discuss books with undeserved bad reputations

Anita Brookner, British Art Historian and Novelist, Dies at 87
A daughter of Polish Jews, she won the Booker Prize for her 1984 novel “Hotel du Lac.”

‘The Syrian Jihad,’ by Charles R. Lister
A study of the Syrian civil war offers a guide to jihadi factions: how they are organized, why people join them.

‘The Highest Glass Ceiling,’ by Ellen Fitzpatrick
The stories of three women who set their sights on the White House.

‘The Association of Small Bombs,’ by Karan Mahajan
A novel insists that we consider — and possibly even like — the people who are drawn to terrorism.

Books of The Times: Review: ‘And Then All Hell Broke Loose,’ Richard Engel’s Memoir of Reporting From the Middle East
Mr. Engel, a veteran war correspondent, explains the chaos and complexity of the region in a fast-paced account.

In San Diego, a Comics Confab That Never Ends
A gallery founded by the comics publisher IDW gives visitors a sense of the artist’s creative process, from thumbnail sketch to the published page.

‘Imbeciles’ and ‘Illiberal Reformers’
“Imbeciles” examines one of the darkest chapters of progressive reform, and “Illiberal Reformers” looks at the perils of intellectual arrogance in dealing with explosive social issues.

‘In Other Words,’ by Jhumpa Lahiri
Jhumpa Lahiri, a prize-winning novelist in English, now writes in Italian.

Who Is Elena Ferrante? An Educated Guess Causes a Stir
An article in an Italian newspaper suggested that a professor in Naples is the author of the popular novels, who writes under a pseudonym. She denied the report.

Books of The Times: Review: Jonathan Lee’s ‘High Dive’ Revisits a Plot to Kill Margaret Thatcher
The novel, Mr. Lee’s first to be published in the United States, has its broad outlines in a 1984 I.R.A. bombing at a hotel in Brighton, England.

On Work: For a Child Actor, the Tears Didn’t Come Until It Was Too Late
An aspiring young actress couldn’t make herself cry to land a part in a big Hollywood film, leading her adult self to wonder what might have been.

Mass Market Edition of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ to End
An edition of Harper Lee’s classic that is popular in classrooms will not be sold after April 25, although more expensive editions will be available.

‘For a Little While,’ by Rick Bass
Rick Bass writes to save our wild places, but also to save what’s wild and humane within us.

Paperback Row
Seven new paperbacks to check out this week.

Editors’ Choice
Nine new books recommended by the editors of The New York Times Book Review this week.

Inside the List
“Seven Brief Lessons on Physics,” No. 5 on the hardcover nonfiction list, outsold “Fifty Shades of Grey” in its author Carlo Rovelli’s native Italy.

Children’s Books: ‘Anna and the Swallow Man,’ by Gavriel Savit
Orphaned by the Nazis, a young girl survives by wandering the countryside with a mysterious, possibly magical stranger.

Children’s Books: ‘The Girl in the Well Is Me,’ by Karen Rivers
Trapped by a freakish accident, a girl reconsiders her priorities and her family’s travails.

Children’s Books: ‘Forest of Wonders,’ by Linda Sue Park
An apothecary’s cure for an injured bat also gives it the ability to speak.

Open Book: Kafka’s Odds and Ends
A new book collects pieces of trivia and ephemera by and about Kafka.

‘Innocents and Others,’ by Dana Spiotta
In Dana Spiotta’s novel, two women who grew up together remain in each other’s lives and art.

‘Sudden Death,’ by Álvaro Enrigue
Caravaggio plays tennis and Cortés conquers Mexico in Álvaro Enrigue’s far-ranging novel.

Children’s Books: ‘The Night Gardener,’ ‘Tokyo Digs a Garden’ and ‘Stories From Bug Garden’
In three new picture books, you never know what might crop up in the natural world.

The Shortlist: The Brontës
New books include “Reader, I Married Him: Stories Inspired by ‘Jane Eyre.’ ”

Author’s Note: Drawing Inspiration
For some artists the melding of writing and drawing is integral to their process — and a perfect solution to creative difficulties.