What to read this week: New books by Toni Morrison, Adam Higginbotham and Christopher Castellani

THE SOURCE OF SELF-REGARD: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations, by Toni Morrison. From the Nobel Prize-winning author of “The Bluest Eye” and “Beloved” comes this collection of nonfiction writing of the past 40 years. Among the highlights: Morrison’s 1987 eulogy for James Baldwin, her Nobel lecture of 1993, a prayer for the dead of 9/11 and considerations of Gertrude Stein and Chinua Achebe. (Knopf, $28.95)

MIDNIGHT IN CHERNOBYL: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster, by Adam Higginbotham. In April 1986, an explosion in a reactor at the Chernobyl power plant in the Soviet Union caused the worst nuclear disaster in history. In fascinating detail, Higginbotham chronicles how the drama played out, showing that Soviet hubris in part led to the accident and Soviet secrecy compounded it. (Simon & Schuster, $29.95)

LEADING MEN, by Christopher Castellani. For most of the 1950s, Frank Merlo was the lover and personal secretary of Tennessee Williams, author of such classic dramas as “The Glass Menagerie” and “A Streetcar Named Desire.” This novel conjures their relationship and the intricate dance of art and love. (Viking, $27)