Books Briefing: Another Trump tell-all

June 16, 2020

President Trump walking off Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on Sunday.Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times

Hi readers,

Here’s your weekly catch-up on everything you need to know going on in the book world.

The news:

Mary Trump, a niece of the president, next month will release “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” the first time the president could be forced to grapple with unflattering revelations by a member of his own family. Ms. Trump will also will say that she was a source of The New York Times’s coverage of the president’s tax returns.
As libraries across the U.S. begin to reopen, many are reimagining what it means to be a community hub during the coronavirus outbreak.
Sixteen poets, including Rita Dove, Kwame Alexander, Natalie Diaz, Ocean Vuong, Joy Harjo and Safiya Sinclair, talk about the poetry they’re reading now.
Internet Archive plans to close its National Emergency Library this week. The organization said the project was a public service to people unable to access libraries during the pandemic, but publishers and authors accused it of theft.
The president and the board chairman of the Poetry Foundation resigned last week after nearly 2,000 poets protested the organization’s statement about Black Lives Matter.
Fiction out today: “Shadowplay,” by Joseph O’Connor.
Nonfiction out today: “Billion Dollar Burger,” by Chase Purdy; “Exercise of Power,” by Robert M. Gates.

The critics:

Dwight Garner reviews “The Art of Her Deal,” a new biography of Melania Trump by Mary Jordan, which brings the first lady into slightly sharper focus.
In an essay, Jennifer Szalai assesses the books, opinion columns and essays that argue over whether the word “fascism” should apply to Donald Trump and his presidency.
And Sarah Lyall writes about a “gorgeous” debut novel, Sanaë Lemoine’s “The Margot Affair,” which details a French teenager’s coming-of-age and echoes “Bonjour Tristesse.”

On Thursday at 6 p.m. Eastern time, join Toni Tipton-Martin, the award-winning food journalist, and Veronica Chambers, a senior editor at The Times, for a virtual cocktail hour. They’ll be making drinks from Tipton-Martin’s new cookbook, “Jubilee,” and talking about how they explore race, history, memory and meaning on and off the page. RSVP here.

That’s all for now. Please stay in touch and let me know what you think — whether it’s about this newsletter, our reviews, our podcast, our literary calendar, our Instagram or what you’re reading. We on the Books desk read all of it, and I’ll make every effort to write back. You can reach me at books@nytimes.com.

All my best,

Joumana Khatib

Books at The New York Times

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