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

A tour of the Book Review

Our cover review this week is of “Mama’s Last Hug,” by the renowned ethologist Frans de Waal, who argues that emotions are key to understanding both human and animal behavior.

Image Credit... Wesley Allsbrook

James McBride writes about Toni Morrison on the occasion of her new collection, “The Source of Self-Regard,” which spans four decades of her career and cements her status as an unparalleled literary innovator.

“Death Is Hard Work,” the latest by the lauded Syrian novelist Khaled Khalifa, is his first to be set during the country’s current war, and the plot follows a father’s corpse as it travels across Syria.