Raven Leilani's novel centers on a young woman with a free-range libido who dreams of being a painter. Luster is a crackling debut about sex, art and the inescapable workings of race.

More than 2,000 newspapers have shut down in recent years, and some regions have become news deserts. Washington Post columnist Margaret Sullivan says the collapse of local news undermines democracy.

This mordantly funny horror film opens on a young woman who awakens with a terrifying premonition of doom. She Dies Tomorrow feels surprisingly in tune with our present moment of unease.

The Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? host, who died July 24, held the Guinness World Record for clocking more hours on camera than anyone else in the history of TV. Originally broadcast in 2011.

A new comedy from The Muppets Studio features familiar characters and a few new ones. But the Disney+ series isn't nearly as funny as the original — and many of its sketches go on too long.

The Aunt Who Wouldn't Die, by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, centers on an Indian family haunted by a jealous ghost. And S. A. Cosby's Blacktop Wasteland is a noir thriller — with muscle cars.

White Too Long author Robert P. Jones says churches should be more in vocal on issues of social justice: "White Christians have been largely silent ... and have hardly begun these conversations."

About half of the Miami Marlins' roster has tested positive for COVID. ESPN baseball analyst Tim Kurkjian explains the challenges Major League Baseball faces as play resumes amid the pandemic.

When Natasha Trethewey was 19, her stepfather killed her mother. Tretheway says she aimed to "forge a new life for myself that didn't include that past." Her new memoir is Memorial Drive.

In the memoir, The New One, comic Birbiglia and his wife, Jen Stein, open up about his ambivalence about fatherhood and the strain it had on their marriage.

In a career spanning four decades, Dickey authored seven books and reported from more than 40 countries, often covering war, conflict and espionage. He died July 16. Originally broadcast in 1998.

Characters' living spaces are infected with dark spirits and become inescapable prisons in two new movies. Amulet is an intensely creepy revenge thriller, while Relic explores the horrors of dementia.

Mary Trump was devastated when her uncle was elected president. Her book, Too Much and Never Enough, describes Donald Trump as a "belligerent" youth who hasn't changed since he was a teen.

Smith began Intimations: Six Essays at the onset of the pandemic and finished it shortly after George Floyd's killing. Although only 100 pages, there's something worth quoting on virtually every page.

In the HBO drama, a young woman is drugged and sexually assaulted — and then must piece together what happened to her. Coel wrote, directed and stars in the show, which is based on her own experience.