We take the weekend to highlight some of the recent books coverage in The Times:

A tour of the Book Review

The titles of two new books about climate change tell you all you need to know about their alarming contents: “The Uninhabitable Earth,” by David Wallace-Wells, and “Losing Earth,” by Nathaniel Rich. John Lanchester reviews both, using words like “brilliant,” “gripping” and “revelatory” to describe these grim but essential works.

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Vivian Gornick reviews “Greek to Me,” Mary Norris’s exuberant account of her decades-long obsession with a culture and its language.

The history and mysteries of Shakespeare’s reputation fuel two new books about the Bard.

In his latest book, “Stony the Road,” Henry Louis Gates Jr. writes: “Few American historical periods are more relevant to understanding our contemporary racial politics than Reconstruction.” Nell Irvin Painter reviews the book, and Gates visits the Book Review podcast to discuss it.