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February 3, 2026

Peter Marlow/Magnum Photos

	By Joumana Khatib

Dear readers,

What I wouldn’t give to be in the ocean with my friends right now rather than dodging filthy snow piles up to my waist!

Ah, escapism. One of the great joys of my work is trumpeting the merits of a standout book. This week I review “Clutch,” by Emily Nemens, which feels a bit like Mary McCarthy’s “The Group” updated for millennial women. It’s very, very good.

“Clutch” follows five friends around the age of 40 as they grapple with the joys and struggles of midlife. This is a common premise for a novel, sure, but Nemens, a former Paris Review editor, is in firm control of each part of the story. There’s a quiet confidence to the narration and structure, and the book’s humor and imagery really make it memorable. I was utterly engrossed — and it has one of the greatest endings I’ve read recently, with pyrotechnics only a billionaire with atmospheric ambitions (or his capable assistant) could arrange. You are in for a treat.

See you Friday.

Editors’ Choice 6 New Books We Love This Week Reading recommendations from critics and editors at The New York Times.

Doeun Choi New Thrillers Spiked With Dread and Menace Our columnist on three excellent, twisty new novels. By Sarah Lyall

27 Books Coming in February Previously unpublished Toni Morrison; fiction by Tayari Jones, Lauren Groff and Mario Vargas Llosa; Gavin Newsom’s memoir; and more.

RECENT BOOK REVIEWS

Nonfiction Is Football Doomed? Chuck Klosterman Thinks So. In his new book, the writer goes deep on a sport that dominates American cultural life — but possibly not for long. By Dwight Garner

Fiction Book Smart and Sexually Liberated, but She Still Can’t Make Up Her Mind In the slyly charming “The End of Romance,” Lily Meyer puts a graduate student with big ideas about love and autonomy to the personal test. By Alexandra Jacobs

Fiction Help! It’s the First Trump Presidency and This Poet’s Life Is Spiraling. Daniel Poppick’s novel, “The Copywriter,” peeks into a writer’s journal as he navigates his everyday life and a tumultuous period in American history. By Jonathan Russell Clark

fiction A Girl Is Dead, and a Community Mourns. Or Does It? The death of an Afghan American teenager exposes the limits of assimilation and acceptance in Patmeena Sabit’s panoramic novel, “Good People.” By Tommy Orange

If ‘Misery’ Was About Boy Bands, and Had a Happy Ending “Superfan,” by Jenny Tinghui Zhang, explores the parallel struggles of a K-Pop-inspired star and the lonely college student who adores him. By Teddy Wayne

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