New this week:

THE WORKSHOP AND THE WORLD: What Ten Thinkers Can Teach Us About Science and Authority, by Robert P. Crease. (Norton, $26.95.) Crease, a philosopher of science and the search for truth, relates the history of 10 seminal thinkers who helped nudge scientific progress forward.

NEARING 90: And Other Comedies of Late Life, by Judith Viorst. (Simon & Schuster, $17.) Like clockwork since her 30s, Viorst has issued a sort of continuing diary in light verse. Here, old age finds her largely content (“still a fool for my husband’s kisses”) and “hoping — just a reminder — that I’ll be remembered.”

LIFE WILL BE THE DEATH OF ME: … And You Too!, by Chelsea Handler. (Spiegel & Grau, $27.) The comedian’s first book in five years follows her into therapy and through a year of political engagement and self-discovery as she adjusts to the Trump presidency with dark humor and a fair amount of cannabis.

THE UNNAMABLE PRESENT, by Roberto Calasso. Translated by Richard Dixon. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26.) This slim but wide-ranging philosophical inquiry extends the Italian author’s series on the roots of modernity, with particular attention to moral relativism.