Books

Ted Chiang, in his new collection of science-fiction stories, clearly enjoys imagining technological advances taken to the extreme, “Black Mirror” style, but you sense his ambivalence as he wonders what we're really doing to ourselves.

With “The Nickel Boys,” Colson Whitehead takes us deep into the Jim Crow-era South of the 1960s, in a novel based on the true story of a Florida reform school where wayward boys were trapped in a kind of hell on earth.

From "Mourning Songs," a poetry anthology just published by New Directions and edited by Grace Schulman. She will read new poems and excerpts from her recent memoir, "Strange Paradise: Portrait of a Marriage," on Aug. 3 at 5 p.m. at the Amagansett Library.

The Fridays at Five author series at the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton for July 19 brings Chris Babu with his dystopian Y.A. novel “The Initiation” and its sequel, “The Expedition.”

“Ballpark” is an architecture critic’s paean to the idiosyncrasies of old beauties like Fenway Park and the smart city-integrating design of new stadiums like Camden Yards. But hold the “concrete doughnuts,” please.

The East Hampton Historical Society's Poetry Marathon, held at the Mulford Farm on James Lane in the village, returns Sunday to continue a roughly 25-year tradition, with wine, comestibles, and signings.

It has been an open secret for some time that Howard Stern might be the best interviewer in America, humorous and agile. His new book, “Howard Stern Comes Again,” anthologizes the highlights of his radio career, from Paltrow to McCartney to Trump, complete with cross-references.

In a booze-soaked Montauk share house one summer, the housemates were grouped into three categories, “the girls, the finance guys, and the gays.” At 27, John Glynn didn't fit into any of them. “Out East” is his story of coming out and growing up.

Chris Pavone’s follow-up thriller plays a fast-paced game, with more twists than you can get your head around, expressive writing about Paris, and a most modern woman, an ex-C.I.A. agent who wants a family life.

Renting to the rich for the summer that old family house with the great views? In order to send your kid to college, or simply afford it here? Judy Blundell's first novel for adults explores the way we live now on the East End.

In his new novel, “Assassin of Shadows,” Lawrence Goldstone offers an alternative theory to the events of the McKinley assassination.

From "Millennial," a new collection by an East Hampton poet.

Jeffrey Sussman has dug up an all-star roster of low-life scum for our reading pleasure, but at least they had some style.

Thomas Harris, the undisputed king of memorable grotesquerie, returns with a murderous albino pornographer, sex trafficker, torturer, and organ harvester in his long-awaited new thriller.

From “Hamptons,” a new poetry collection by Lucas Hunt, who will read from it at the Amagansett Library on Sunday at 2 p.m.

“What better way to kick off the season than baseball and architecture?” asks Paul Goldberger, the architecture critic, who will do just that when he talks about his new book on Sunday at 5 p.m. at BookHampton.

An appraisal of Winsor McCay, an early master of animation and the most skilled and innovative newspaper cartoonist in the medium’s history, by the country’s pre-eminent scholar of animation.

A new poem by Bernard Goldhirsch of Springs

The legendary Wild Bill Hickok, the fastest gunslinger in the West, also dressed well, bathed regularly, and wrote letters home to his mom.

Of all the foes Richard Holbrooke faced across diplomatic negotiating tables and within the upper echelons of American government, his worst enemy was frequently himself.

As couturier to high-profile women, Isaac Mizrahi dressed the likes of Meryl Streep, Oprah Winfrey, Liza Minnelli, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Aretha Franklin, Hillary Clinton, Diane Sawyer, Sharon Stone, Sandra Bernhardt, and Diane Keaton.

In “Lesser Lights,” Sandy McIntosh has crafted a memoir of entertaining vignettes that show a Hamptons barely recognizable today, when the arts were fun, writers were accessible, and the living was easy.

It’s spring, it’s National Poetry Month, it’s time for something different — a new poetry reading and open mike, that is, at the South­ampton Cultural Center Friday night.

Nelson Algren, champion of the hard-luck cases and the losers, was one of the most famous authors of the mid-20th century. What happened? Colin Asher has written a reappraisal.

Amy Hempel’s stories are like artifacts, every word is meticulously chosen, every sentence matters. They cannot be easily summarized, so be prepared to connect the dots.

Susan Van Scoy, an art history professor at St. Joseph’s College, is just out with “The Big Duck and Eastern Long Island’s Duck Farming Industry,” a tale told in photographs.

Fresh from publication in The New Yorker, Gary J. Whitehead reads at Stony Brook Southampton for Writers Speak.

With “Golden Child,” Claire Adam’s gripping novel set in Trinidad, Sarah Jessica Parker’s imprint has its second success in introducing a new voice.

A thriller that at first seems cynically executed is in fact solidly entertaining.

Stony Brook Southampton faculty consider the “art and craft of the redraft” Wednesday in the return of the M.F.A. program’s Writers Speak series for the spring.