Eighteen books were recognized as winners or finalists for the Pulitzer Prize on Monday, in the categories of history, memoir, poetry, general nonfiction, fiction and biography, which had two winners. FICTION A story about a mother and daughter set in the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, W.Va., after the Civil War. “Night Watch,” which was…
The last six weeks have seen the long-simmering feud between the Compton, Calif.,-born rapper Kendrick Lamar and the Canadian rapper Drake turn into a full-fledged beef, with confrontations delivered in the form of diss tracks. But the squabble didn’t boil over until April 30, when Mr. Lamar released “Euphoria,” a six-and-a-half minute dressing down of…
Scientists are proposing a new way of understanding the genetics of Alzheimer’s that would mean that up to a fifth of patients would be considered to have a genetically caused form of the disease. Currently, the vast majority of Alzheimer’s cases do not have a clearly identified cause. The new designation, proposed in a study…
For a little mystery, try Louise Penny’s popular “Three Pines” detective series. Though set in a fictional town in Quebec, her novels often feature Montreal (“Glass Houses” in particular.) Kathy Reichs unearths the bones of the city in her thriller “Déjà Dead.” And Montreal’s rich queer culture is captured in the coming-of-age novels “The Geography…
In the mid-1990s, Carlos Monteiro, a nutritional epidemiologist in Brazil, noticed something alarming: Obesity rates among children in his country were rising rapidly. To understand why, he and his colleagues at the University of São Paulo scrutinized data on the food buying patterns of Brazilian households to see if they had changed in recent years….
Over the next six weeks or so, a trillion cicadas will emerge across the Midwest and Southeast for a brief, raucous, once-in-a-lifetime bender. “What an incredible time,” said Joseph Yoon, a particularly exuberant bug enthusiast who will hit the road and forage for the insects as they tunnel up in a mass emergence of two…
Since late last month, Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota has been the subject of fierce bipartisan attacks for her decision to shoot and kill her family dog, a 14-month-old German wirehaired pointer named Cricket. Ms. Noem has repeatedly defended her actions, which are detailed in her forthcoming memoir, in which she says the dog…
Good morning. It was peak cherry blossoms last week where I stay, the flowers almost ready to spring off their branches to blanket the curbs like drifts of snow. There was a deep humidity in the air and it made me think of summer down south, the way the atmosphere can seem almost liquid under…
Spring is for snacking superbly. It’s the season of radishes dragged through butter, potato-pea samosas eaten on a park bench, a wedge of almond cake with a 3 p.m. iced (!) coffee. The days are longer, the sun is sunnier and the trees are flowerier, setting the scene for meandering, grazing and cheerful little meals…
What is the best time of day to exercise? It’s a straightforward question with a frustrating number of answers, based on research results that can be downright contradictory. The latest piece of evidence came last month from a group of Australian researchers, who argued that evening was the healthiest time to break a sweat, at…
