The Testaments. This YA-flavored sequel to Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale is “surprisingly fresh.” Where the original show slogged to the point that our TV critic Judy Berman had to force herself to watch it, The Testaments “finds something The Handmaid’s Tale never had: room to grow.” Read the full review.

The Miniature Wife. “The show is ridiculous, to be sure,” writes Berman. “But it’s also surprisingly good.” That’s thanks to the chemistry between Elizabeth Banks and Matthew Macfadyen. Read more here.

In Trees. Trees offer more than shade on a sunny day or a perch for birds: they’re integral to the vast web of life, sucking up carbon dioxide and pumping oxygen into the air while playing pivotal roles in legends and religions. Here, Robert Moor embarks on an odyssey into the vivid science of overstory and root system. Read more.

The Witch. Marie NDiaye’s eerie novel, translated from French by Jordan Stump, recounts Lucie’s “lackluster powers” as she initiates her twin daughters, Maud and Lise, into her occult art only to discover they’re better at hocus-pocus hijinks. Read more.

The Edge of Space-Time. A physicist at the University of New Hampshire and a self-described “cosmic griot,” Chanda Prescod-Weinstein distills the knowns and unknowns of our universe in a heady brew of astronomical observation, complex calculus, personal anecdote, and political polemic. Read more.