By the Book

Alexander Lefebvre’s new book is a ‘call to action about what we are trying to defend, and why,’ says the head of PEN America, which has been pummeled with disputes about speech, activism and Israel.

Even after doing research in Montana, a draft of the book that became “The Heart in Winter” was “dead on the page,” he says. Back in Ireland, the runaway lovers now at its center “suddenly appeared to me.”

But “I’m averse to entertaining the thought that what I’m working on is a first draft,” she says, “which implies the necessity of a second, even a third.” Her new book is “Concerning the Future of Souls: 99 Stories of Azrael.”

“It doesn’t make me esteem Wharton less. If anything, I take comfort in it, as a novelist.” Her own smash book “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” is out in paperback.

“The material that he uses for the songs is powerfully moving, involving his own personal losses,” the 88-year-old poet says. Also name-checked in “So What”: an Italian motorcycle magnate.

To write “Exhibit,” the queer novelist says she had to pretend that no one would read it. “By writing things I’m afraid of saying, I might stand a chance of voicing what I, too, really need and long to see in words.”

“No one should be surprised by a writer’s library,” says the author of the Maisie Dobbs series, about a World War I battlefield nurse turned private investigator. The series’ 18th and final book is “The Comfort of Ghosts.”

“Make eye contact, shake their hand, ask them about themselves and then sign their book with a genuine smile,” suggests the author of the Wyoming-set mystery series. The 20th, “First Frost,” is just out.

In “Reading the Room,” Paul Yamazaki, the chief buyer for City Lights Booksellers, calls this “one of the richest and most rewarding times” to be a literature fan.

Audiobooks have let the artist “stay invested in stories while working with my hands.” Her new project: illustrating Jamaica Kincaid’s “An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children.”

“They’re snapshots of the past: first-night gifts, holidays abroad, memories of lost friends and loved ones,” the award-winning actress says. Her latest, written with Brendan O’Hea, is “Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent.”

His essay warning that dictatorship was a real threat went viral, which prompted the early release of “Rebellion: How Antiliberalism Is Tearing America Apart — Again.” To relax, he reads the sports pages.

The former N.F.L. player has been living with A.L.S. for more than a decade. Sharing “the most lacerating and vulnerable times” in “A Life Impossible” was worth the physical and emotional toll, he says.

“I don’t want other people to miss out on the wisdom and joy this genre has to offer, the way I did for so long,” says the best-selling novelist. “Funny Story,” about a heartsore librarian and the new man in her life, is out next week.

Richard Goodwin, an adviser to presidents, “was more interested in shaping history,” she says, “and I in figuring out how history was shaped.” Their bond is at the heart of her new book, “An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s.”

“I mean that as an organizing principle,” says the U.S. poet laureate, who has edited a new anthology of nature poetry called “You Are Here,” “and also as a slight against prose.”

That kids’ classic “completely changed my life,” says the former football star, now the University of Colorado’s “Coach Prime.” His new book is “Elevate and Dominate: 21 Ways to Win On and Off the Field.”

Crafting the arguments in “You Get What You Pay For,” her first essay collection, “felt like pulling apart a long piece of taffy,” says the author of “Magical Negro.”

Men’s personal narratives are dissected; women’s are “dismissed as merely autofiction or memoir,” says the author of “The Light Room: On Art and Care.” Her 2012 “Heroines” has just been reissued.

Some familiar San Franciscans turn up in the British countryside in “Mona of the Manor,” which the author vows is the 10th, and last, in the series: “That has a nice symmetry.”

The feisty title character of her new book, “Ferris,” has a sharp eye for detail, and so, its author hopes, does she. Meanwhile, she is on an Alice McDermott reading jag.

“I’ve been prank-calling Justin Torres for like two decades,” says the poet and performer, whose new book is called “Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt: A Memoir in Verse.”

“Only then can I surrender to the spell of reading,” says the director of “Glory” and the author of “Hits, Flops and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood.”

“I love the inherent optimism and boldness” in young adult fiction, says the novelist, best known for reimagining classic fairy tales. Her new book is the contemporary rom-com “With a Little Luck.”

“Where you choose to direct your senses, step by step, matters,” says the eminent nature writer. His 30th book, “With Every Great Breath: New and Selected Essays, 1995-2023,” is out in February.

“You’ve got to know when you’re onto a good thing,” says the prolific historian, British TV personality and author of “Wolves of Winter,” the second novel in his Hundred Years’ War trilogy.

“That you could collaborate with others and go out for boba tea was quite revelatory,” says the author of “The Expatriates,” which Nicole Kidman has produced (and stars in) for Amazon this month.

“Invisible Man” “made me feel seen and heard,” the rapper-actor says. “I can return the favor.” His new book, “And Then We Rise: A Guide to Loving and Taking Care of Self” is out this month.

Finishing “The Portrait of a Lady” leaves the author of “Old Crimes,” a new story collection, “a little more confident.” Meanwhile, Rod Serling has a place on her shelves.

“One must read between the lies,” he suggests, putting his own “Everywhere an Oink Oink” at the top of the list.

“Caro’s works are masterpieces of research and artistry,” says the former vice president and managing editor at Knopf Doubleday, who looks forward to — what else? — more reading, after 60 years on the job.

“A book is made of language,” says the author, whose new novel is “Welcome Home, Stranger.” “How can a house be great if it’s made of shoddy materials? How can a dinner be great if it’s made with terrible ingredients?”

“A great story casts a spell,” says the author, whose new novel is “The Vulnerables.” “It can enthrall you so completely that you not only forget that you’re stuck between two manspreaders in a noisy, crowded, smelly subway car but miss your stop.”

The author of the Percy Jackson series (newly adapted for Disney+ this month) is looking for anthologies of Indigenous folklore and mythology, too.

“There are too many books celebrating it,” says the author, whose new book is “The Core of an Onion.”

“I have a lot of books on near-death experiences, psychic phenomena and past-life regression on my shelves,” says the two-time poet laureate, whose new book is the memoir “To Free the Captives.” “These kinds of books nudge me to remember our world is but one facet of an enormous continuity.”

“The first condition is silence,” says the 2022 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, whose most recent book is “The Young Man.” “The when and where do not matter.”

“I read them the way that people surf the internet today, maybe,” says the Wilco frontman, whose new memoir is “World Within a Song.” “So I know everything.”

“I know my limitations, but I would still invite William Shakespeare,” says the actor, whose new memoir is “Being Henry: The Fonz … and Beyond.” “I would also invite Daniel Silva and definitely Larry David!”

“My favorite author was Madeleine L’Engle,” says the National Book Award-winning historian, whose new book is “Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation.” “In middle school I would ride the city bus to the public library and check out L’Engle’s novels for teens.”

“I love it when I don’t have any plans the next day and end up reading until daybreak because I can’t sleep,” says the author, whose new novel is “The Premonition.” “It’s the best feeling.”

“I acted Macbeth for exactly 365 days,” says the actor, whose new memoir is “Making It So.” “The role got into me so deeply it dominated my life at the time and caused me to drink too much alcohol after the performance was over. No other role I have played has affected me so profoundly.”

“I often look back on a book I thought was wonderful and inspiring and found it to be maudlin and flowery or have some other defect of character I overlooked,” says the journalist, whose new book is the novel “Mr. Texas.” “It could be that literary fashions have changed or I’ve gotten older, and of course both are true.”

“Language, specific to the writer’s voice, rhythmic, weighted, moves me,” says the author, whose new novel is “Night Watch.” “Language is always the living soul of a narrative.”

“They are meaningful books for my children, but I haven’t read them,” says the novelist and story writer, whose new book is the collection “Wednesday’s Child.”

“I have music and rhythm to help me get my point across,” says the singer and songwriter, whose new memoir is “Talking to My Angels.” “But real poets do it all just with the language and the lines. That’s a gift.”

Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” got to her: “Sure, it’s a novel full of unbelievable violence and apocalyptic nightmare stuff,” says the best-selling author of “Wonder,” “Pony” and “White Bird,” soon to be a feature film. “But the humanity and love is there right from the first line.”

“I think she’d find it fascinating,” says the novelist, whose latest book is “The Librarianist.”

“I love great character growth and fresh plots that involve some sort of social justice,” says the author of the spy novel “Undercover Latina” and other thrillers. “However, if there’s too much violence or threatened violence against women or children, I move from a sense of thrill to a sense of dread.”

“Have you ever smoked a joint and read Toni Morrison’s ‘Sula’ in a very hot bath, reveling in a single, rich paragraph for what feels like an hour?” says the novelist, whose new book is “Time’s Mouth.” “If not, may I suggest you try it?”