The Best Books for Distancing Yourself From Reality Right Now

Books inform us, educate us, enlarge us—but they also transport us. Now more than ever, many of us are looking to literature for an escape from the ails of restlessness and anxiety. For some, now is the time to brush up on hard-hitting nonfiction about pandemics, but for others, now is the time to get lost in the balm of another world. If you’re in the latter group, we’ve rounded up a collection of engrossing reads that will take you to another place, another time, or another state of mind. From speculative and historical fiction to soulful works of nonfiction, these transporting books are the best medicine for strange times.