Heller McAlpin

In her latest work, Cusk probes questions about the connections between freedom, gender, domesticity, art, and suffering.

Jill Ciment wrote about a relationship she had with a teacher when she was very young – that turned into a marriage – in Half a Life. Now, eight years after his death at 93, she reconsiders their relationship in light of the #MToo movement.

Like her other books, French writer Valérie Perrin's third novel to be translated into English, centers on the life-changing magic of friendships across generations.

Set during a uniquely stressful summer for one Nantucket family, Gabriella Burnham's second novel highlights the strong bonds between a mom and her daughters.

In a heartrending follow-up to his beloved 2009 novel, Brooklyn, Colm Tóibín's handles uncertainties and moral conundrums with exquisite delicacy, zigzagging through time to a devastating climax.

These books, including Roxana Robinson's Leaving, which comes out on Tuesday, all concern older women — some in their 60s, others in their 90s — who fully intend to enjoy all their years.

All three of these books would make great gifts for gardeners and armchair oglers alike, and may tempt you to book a garden tour — or maybe even plant some bulbs and seeds yourself.

This group ranges from a fabulous collection by contemporary, neurodiverse artists to Milton Glaser's pop art, and Aino and Alvar Aalto's Finnish modernist designs to a survey of Islamic architecture.

Talk about a dream, kill a conversation. But not in the case of graphic novelist Roz Chast. Even her subconscious emanations present deliciously skewed takes on life's absurdities and fraught moments.

The writer W. Somerset Maugham plays a central role Tan Twan Eng's entrancing new novel that encompasses at-the-time risky interracial and homosexual love stories and a scandalous murder trial.