This is an edition of the Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books. Sign up for it here. Oliva recommended six books in which the presence of aliens prompts readers to think more ...

When we imagine alien life, we picture monsters, insects, or tentacles—but what if the most realistic aliens are human-like? Evolution tends to solve the same problems with similar designs, and ...

When I look at the night sky, I don’t wonder whether alien life is somewhere out there; I think it probably is. Considering the sheer number of stars in the cosmos, and the possibly larger number of ...