The book that inspired today’s playlist, the cultural critic Lucy Sante’s “I Heard Her Call My Name,” isn’t about music per se. As its subtitle attests, it is mostly “a memoir of transition,” centered ...

Seattle satirist Maria Semple’s breakthrough novel is a flurry of contemporary, epistolary wit. Passive aggressive e-mail ...

While the new administration takes aim at DEI initiatives, there’s one place where diversity is alive and well: Children’s literature. At a time when book bans are raging and the federal government is ...