The Classics Everyone Should Read Today
To build a better world in the age of AI, students need grounding in indispensable ideas.
Books
Introducing The Atlantic’s expanded books coverage: essays, criticism, fiction, poetry, and recommendations from our writers and editors
He Was Hugely Influential. He Also Had a Foolish Streak.
A recent biography of the writer John Berger reminds us about his hefty influence—and how he could be blinkered by his convictions.
Forget Grit
Even the luminaries of the self-help genre have begun to recognize how little in life we can actually control.
How American Girl Doll Lost Its Way
At 40, the brand faces a midlife crisis.
Democrats Are Sounding More Like Republicans
Why politicians are betting on ever more moralizing language
What To Read
See All/media/img/mt/2026/10/ezgif_optimized/original.gif)
50 Unforgettable Love Stories
Centuries of joyous, tragic, tantalizing, enduring fiction
Six Hard-to-Find Books Worth Reading
These titles are no longer fashionable, if they ever were—but should you manage to read one, you might love it.
What to Read to Wake Up Your Brain
These books can ease readers into a season of work and hard thinking.
/media/img/mt/2026/05/Animation_The_Atlantic_A_Final_HP/original.gif)
Six Books That Take You to Space
You won’t even have to leave your couch.
Newsletter
The Books Briefing
Our culture editors’ weekly guide to the best in books.
Subject to The Atlantic's Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions
Fiction
See All
The Guardians
A short story
Disunion
A short story
I Heard You Singing
A short story
The Wisdom of Holden Caulfield
Beneath all the alienation, The Catcher in the Rye, which turns 75 this year, has a surprisingly hopeful—and ethical—outlook.
Even Trump Can’t Believe How Well This Book Has Sold
What the wild success of Regime Change, after a long slump in newsy nonfiction, might say about the state of the presidency.
Movies Are Good, Actually
A film critic’s new book attacks the medium for diminishing culture. Rarely has David Thomson been more wrong.
The Incredible Freedom of Not Trying to Look Good
A new book explores the benefits of accepting ugliness instead of trying to change it.
Dark Matter
A poem
The ‘Two Ships’ Theory of American History
Can our unruly national story be squeezed into two vessels?
Darwin’s Story Isn’t as Simple as It Seems
The best writing leads us to a more complex and more honest understanding of the past.
Guiding Red
A poem
Paradise Revisited
What Darwin saw in the Galápagos
The Thinkers Who Explain This Baffling Era
These philosophers are less arcane—and more relevant—than some readers might think.