Annalisa Quinn

The Shadow President looks like a book, but belongs firmly in the world of partisan TV. There is plenty to uncover about the "real" Mike Pence, but readers won't find it here.

Nell Stevens's new memoir is an uneven but pleasant book that braids her story of doing a PhD amid an uneasy love affair with imaginary scenes from the life of her 19th century research subject.

The former Trump press officer intelligently dissects the reward structure of viral Twitter and gives a valuable sketch of conservative politics, but he seems to have written "The Briefing" to an end.

Caitlin Moran's new novel, the second installment in the adventures of teen rock critic Dolly Wilde, is a dirty, jolly, book-length defense of teenage enthusiasm — for music, sex and life in general.

Helen DeWitt's new story collection seems less like a book, and more like a series of notes from some vast, alien intelligence, capable of picking apart human habits with startling precision.

Curtis Sittenfeld's new collection gives sustained, compassionate attention to the inner lives of women — middle-aged, middle-American, moms — who are often dismissed and devalued in fiction.

Memoirs now tend toward the unique and superhuman, recounting experiences most of us will never have. But Meaghan O'Connell's wry new book is brutally honest about something commonplace: pregnancy.

Madeleine Miller's lush, gold-lit new novel is told from the perspective of Circe, the sorceress whose brief appearance in the Odyssey becomes just one moment in a longer, more complex life.

Author Leslie Jamison's new memoir of her years of alcoholism walks in the paths of drunken icons like Raymond Carver and John Cheever, describing the effects of intoxicants with gorgeous, exact care.

At the start of Meg Wolitzer's new novel, a young woman is groped at a fraternity party — and her question, "Why is it like this, and what are we supposed to do about it?" echoes through the book.

Alissa Nutting's new novel has a deviant instinct that makes it fascinating at first — but after a promising start, it falls back on shallow sex slapstick rather than authorial skill.

Anne Helen Petersen's new book is a thoughtful consideration of several public women — from Nicki Minaj to Hillary Clinton — who've run up against the invisible expectations our culture has of them.

Sarah Perry's historical novel is gloriously alive, teeming with bugs, moss and marsh, unconventional spirits and a darker undercurrent of fear about a legendary monster haunting the Essex coast.

David Sedaris is great company in this new collected volume of his diaries. He buries emotions deep, but describes the world around him (and his love for IHOP) in chaotic and delightful fashion.

Patricia Lockwood's scabrous memoir of growing up with a married Catholic priest for a father is a little overreliant on quirky family details, but scorching in its approach to the Catholic Church.

Ivanka Trump's new book — named after her brand's marketing campaign — is packed with anodyne advice borrowed from others, and a striking lack of awareness about economic and racial realities.

Deb Olin Unferth's story collection delights in going in unexpected directions, and her sensitively-drawn characters feel the full, real, often contradictory and uneasy layering of human emotion.

Jean Hanff Korelitz's latest is set at a tony New England college rocked by racial unrest. It's a suggestive exploration of tough issues, but lacks the nuance and intellect of the best campus novels.

Elif Batuman has sung the praises of "long novels, pointless novels," and she puts her money where her mouth is with The Idiot, a tale of youthful confusion that can be both boring and beautiful.

Jamie Attenberg's newest novel follows a woman living her life unapologetically, and on her own terms. But that kind of life can is not necessarily a good one.