Book cover of The Naked Don't Fear the Water: An Underground Journey with Afghan Refugees by Matthieu Aikins
History

The Naked Don’t Fear the Water: An Underground Journey with Afghan Refugees 

In this extraordinary book, an acclaimed young war reporter chronicles a dangerous journey on the smuggler’s road to Europe, accompanying his friend, an Afghan refugee, in search of a better future.

In 2016, a young Afghan driver and translator named Omar makes the heart-wrenching choice to flee his war-torn country, saying goodbye to Laila, the love of his life, without knowing when they might be reunited again. He is one of millions of refugees who leave their homes that year. […Learn More]

Book cover of The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World by Jonathan Freedland
Biography & Autobiography

The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World

Award-winning journalist and bestselling novelist Jonathan Freedland tells the incredible story of Rudolf Vrba—the first Jew to break out of Auschwitz, a man determined to warn the world and pass on a truth too few were willing to hear—elevating him to his rightful place in the annals of World War II alongside Anne Frank, Primo Levi, and Oskar Schindler and casting a new light on the Holocaust and its aftermath. […Learn More]

Book cover of These Precious Days: Essays by Ann Patchett
Biography & Autobiography

These Precious Days: Essays

At the center of These Precious Days is the title essay, a surprising and moving meditation on an unexpected friendship that explores “what it means to be seen, to find someone with whom you can be your best and most complete self.” When Patchett chose an early galley of actor and producer Tom Hanks’ short story collection to read one night before bed, she had no idea that this single choice would be life changing. It would introduce her to a remarkable woman—Tom’s brilliant assistant Sooki—with whom she would form a profound bond that held monumental consequences for them both.  […Learn More]

Book cover of Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse by Dave Goulson
Biological Sciences

Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse 

In the tradition of Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking environmental classic Silent Spring, an award-winning entomologist and conservationist explains the importance of insects to our survival, and offers a clarion call to avoid a looming ecological disaster of our own making. […Learn More]

Book cover of Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic by Scott Gottlieb
Health and Psychology

Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic 

In Uncontrolled Spread, he shows how the coronavirus and its variants were able to trounce America’s pandemic preparations, and he outlines the steps that must be taken to protect against the next outbreak. As the pandemic unfolded, Gottlieb was in regular contact with all the key players in Congress, the Trump administration, and the drug and diagnostic industries. He provides an inside account of how level after level of American government crumbled as the COVID-19 crisis advanced. […Learn More]

Book cover of Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History by Alex von Tunzelman
History

Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History

In this timely and lively look at the act of toppling monuments, the popular historian and author of Blood and Sand explores the vital question of how a society remembers—and confronts—the past.

In 2020, history came tumbling down. From the US and the UK to Belgium, New Zealand, and Bangladesh, Black Lives Matter protesters defaced, and in some cases, hauled down statues of Confederate icons, slaveholders, and imperialists. […Learn More]