The staff of The New York Times Book Review choose the year’s top fiction and nonfiction. Credit...By Sebastian Mast Supported by The envelope, please: After a full year spent reading hundreds of ...

It was the best-of times (you know, that period in December when we do the best-of lists). But it could feel like the worst of times: There’s so much to read before the year finishes! Well, there’s ...

In a hard year—and when, recently, have we had one we’d consider easy?—books can be a lifeline and a balm, a place to retreat and regain our grounding. Among the many entertaining, delightful, ...