Maybe We Already Have Runaway Machines

 

 

A new book argues that the invention of states and corporations has something to teach us about A.I. But perhaps it’s the other way around.

 

 

 

 

The Best Books of 2023

 

 

Our editors and critics review notable new fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

 

 

 

 

Teju Cole on Open-Ended Stories

 

 

The author discusses “Incoming,” his story from the latest issue of the magazine.

 

 

 

 

The Forgotten Giant of Yiddish Fiction

 

 

Though his younger brother Isaac Bashevis Singer eventually eclipsed him, Israel Joshua Singer excelled at showing characters buffeted by the tides of history.

 

 

 

 

Teju Cole Reads “Incoming”

 

 

The author reads his story from the December 4, 2023, issue of the magazine.

 

 

 

 

When Your Own Book Gets Caught Up in the Censorship Wars

 

 

I had envisioned book bans as modern morality plays—but the reality was far more complicated.

 

 

 

 

Briefly Noted Book Reviews

 

 

“A Shining,” “Brooklyn Crime Novel,” “Klan War,” and “Earlier.”

 

 

 

 

Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and the Dawn of the Celebrity Power Couple

 

 

From Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, the first rule of the A-list relationship is clear: It always involves more than two people.

 

 

 

 

Bianca Stone Reads Franz Wright

 

 

The poet joins Kevin Young to read and discuss “Learning to Read,” by Franz Wright, and her own poem “What’s Poetry Like?”

 

 

 

 

The Surprising Sweetness of the Ayn Rand Fangirl Novel

 

 

Lexi Freiman’s “The Book of Ayn” paints an obsession with the godmother of libertarianism as a useful but transient phase.

 

 

 

 

The Morality of Having Kids in a Burning, Drowning World

 

 

Two recent books, “The Quickening” and “The Parenthood Dilemma,” consider the ethics of procreation in the age of man-made climate change.

 

 

 

 

Briefly Noted Book Reviews

 

 

“Fear Is Just a Word,” “Beyond the Wall,” “Let Us Descend,” and “The Love of Singular Men.”

 

 

 

 

What if Nostalgia Isn’t What It Used to Be?

 

 

As our faith in the future plummets and the present blends with the past, we doomscroll and catastrophize and feel certain that we’ve reached the point where history has fallen apart.

 

 

 

 

Why Are Millennials Still Attached to American Girl?

 

 

From the beginning, Pleasant Rowland’s invention wasn’t just a doll but a brand.

 

 

 

 

A Hedge-Fund Founder’s Obsessive Storytelling

 

 

A new book about Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, paints an unflattering picture—but it’s hard to imagine a record more damning than the one Dalio has created himself.