Tayari Jones, whose novel "An American Marriage" has been chosen for Oprah Winfrey's book club, will always remember that phone call from last October. She was driving in Las Vegas, expecting to...

"Feel Free: Essays" (Penguin Press), by Zadie Smith The subject matter of Zadie Smith's newest collection of essays, "Feel Free," ranges wide. She addresses world issues from the perspective of...

"All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire" (Crown Archetype), by Jonathan Abrams The now-celebrated television series "The Wire" attracted few viewers and was virtually snubbed by the...

As he wrote what has become one of the top-selling novels so far in 2018, "The Woman in the Window," the author who calls himself A.J. Finn was thinking of a certain master of suspense: Alfred...

It's a chilling cliche of thrillers that women often end up abducted, abused or dead. One writer is so sick of the violence that she has set up a book prize to reward crime novels "in which no...

Darlingside, "Extralife" (Thirty Tigers/More Doug Records) Not everything Darlingside does turns to gold, and yet the stylistic quartet out of Massachusetts doesn't sound like anybody...

Vance Joy, "Nation of Two" (Atlantic) If ukuleles make their way back onto the pop charts, you can probably thank Vance Joy. The Australian singer-songwriter delivers an exciting sophomore...

"Black Panther The Album Music From And Inspired By," Various Artists (Top Dawg/Aftermath/Interscope) At times, the Kendrick Lamar-curated "Black Panther" album feels like a stand-alone set, only...

In "Whiplash" (out Friday), he plays an aspiring jazz drummer at a Julliard-like New York music conservatory, playing until his hands bleed to meet the impossible standards of his...

Tony Bennett has never forgotten the boost he got when Frank Sinatra declared him "the best singer in the whole business." Now it's Bennett's turn to grant his imprimatur to another Italian-American...