Astral Reign

JULIA BRYAN-WILSON ON THE OTHERWORLDLY ABSTRACTION OF HILMA AF KLINT

Fighting Words

MEGAN K. STACK ON THE BATTLES OF A LEGENDARY REPORTER

Built to Last

ALEX ABRAMOVICH ON JOHN MCPHEE’S WAYS OF SEEING

MELANIE REHAK on BALZAC’S PAEAN TO COFFEE AND OTHER DELICIOUS VICES.

HELENA FITZGERALD: An interview with Heather Havrilesky

HOWARD HAMPTON on John Waters

BOOKFORUM CONTRIBUTORS on the season’s outstanding art books

SARAH WEINMAN on Tana French and the state of domestic suspense

LYNNE TILLMAN on why writers are drawn to tennis

THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

BECCA ROTHFELD: Uwe Johnson’s Anniversaries: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl

JENNIFER KRASINSKI: Olivia Laing’s Crudo

PAUL GRIMSTAD: Haruki Murakami’s Killing Commendatore

JOANNE O’LEARY: Lucia Berlin’s Welcome Home: A Memoir with Selected Photographs and Letters

LAUREN OYLER on Virginie Despentes

MAGGIE FOUCAULT: Leta Hong Fincher’s Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China

TOM CARSON: Tracy Daugherty’s Leaving the Gay Place: Billy Lee Brammer and the Great Society

ALBERT MOBILIO: Henry Taylor: The Only Portrait I Ever Painted of My Momma Was Stolen

SIDDHARTHA MITTER: Between Worlds: The Art of Bill Traylor

ED PARK: Hilary Spurling’s Anthony Powell: Dancing to the Music of Time

MELISSA ANDERSON: Lili Anolik’s Hollywood’s Eve: Eve Babitz and the Secret History of L.A.

MICHAEL ROBBINS: Elaine Pagels’s Why Religion? A Personal Story

ISMAIL MUHAMMAD: Casey Gerald’s There Will Be No Miracles Here

JESSE BARRON: Heike Geissler’s Seasonal Associate

BRIAN BLANCHFIELD: Kiese Laymon’s Heavy: An American Memoir

CHARLOTTE SHANE: Gemma Hartley’s Fed Up: Emotional Labor, Women, and the Way Forward

GREG AFINOGENOV: Tony Wood’s Russia Without Putin: Money, Power and the Myths of the New Cold War

FRANK GUAN: Francis Fukuyama’s Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment

GENE SEYMOUR: Arnold A. Offner’s Hubert Humphrey: The Conscience of the Country and Mick Caouette’s Hubert H. Humphrey: The Art of the Possible