On Becoming the Becky Sharp of Science: Hope Jahren
The author of “Lab Girl” on why scientific writing is like poetry, and how William Thackeray’s unstoppable heroine gave her…
Bill Tipper
Bill Tipper is Co-Editor of the Barnes & Noble Review. His reviews have appeared in the Washington Post Book World and elsewhere.
Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Cosmic Perspective
The director of the Hayden Planetarium goes from the Big Bang to the search for alien intelligence in just over…
Making the Bear Dance: Alexander Chee on The Queen of the Night
The author of a dazzling new work of historical fiction talks about “Falcon” sopranos, courtesans, spies, and how writing a…
Spectral Evidence: Stacy Schiff on the Mystery of Salem’s Witches
The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian on the “locked-room mystery” of Salem, and why it still haunts us today.
Sloane Crosley’s Treasure Hunt
The author of “The Clasp” on how a classic short story from 19th-century France inspired a comic romp through 21st-century…
More than Once in a Lifetime: David Mitchell on “The Bone Clocks”
“My original aspiration was to capture something massive, to go for broke.” David Mitchell talks about psychic battles and the…
In the Kingdom of Ice: Hampton Sides
The author of Ghost Soldiers tracks the fate of a doomed Arctic expedition whose scientific discoveries have new urgency.
Despair and Ecstasy: Lily King on Euphoria
The novelist on how an episode torn from the life of Margaret Mead blossomed into a novel.
Twice Upon a Time: Hari Kunzru
The author of Gods Without Men looks for the music — and multiple souls — of a city.
Gabriel García Márquez, 1927-2014
Essential reading from — and about — the master storyteller.
Beneath the Surface: Jeff VanderMeer on ‘Annihilation’
An intrepid fabulist on the making of his new science fiction epic.
Reading Lessing: Writers Reflect
“No one else does this like her; the pulling apart of what is going on within a human mind in…
John Freeman: How to Read a Novelist
Fifty novelists open up about art, life, and the discovery of new worlds.
Jeff VanderMeer: Wonderbook
A new book for aspiring writers of fantasy puts the emphasis on the visual.
Red Moon
A modern werewolf novel attempts to give 21st-century terror an additional bite.
Alternate Histories: David Abrams on Fobbit
The novelist talks war writing, military culture, and the origins of his new novel in Iraq’s cubicle combat zone.
"The Shock of his Bad Behavior": Claire Tomalin on Charles Dickens
The author of Charles Dickens: A Life on what happens “when you live with Dickens for years.”
Talking with Rob Sheffield about Duran Duran
A conversation (with videos) with the author of a new memoir about youth, heartbreak, and the music of the MTV…
Charles Dickens
The first major biography of the writer in two decades offers a stunningly detailed portrait of a life steeped in…