Nonfiction

The Fairbanks Four

The Fairbanks Four tells the story of four young Athabaskan men who were convicted of murdering a white teenager in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1997. As was the case with The Central Park Five, the men were railroaded by local police and served decades in prison for a crime they didn’t commit. Brian Patrick O’Donoghue narrates the details of their harrowing story and that of the community members who rallied around them.

The Fairbanks Four tells the story of four young Athabaskan men who were convicted of murdering a white teenager in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1997. As was the case with The Central Park Five, the men were railroaded by local police and served decades in prison for a crime they didn’t commit. Brian Patrick O’Donoghue narrates the […]

Traveling

By Ann Powers

The best music critics balance accessible writing with their own obsessive attention to the history and analysis of sound. Author and NPR music critic Ann Powers has been laying it on the line for decades, and her upcoming biography of Joni Mitchell is sure to earn the author more admiring fans. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews with Mitchell’s peers, Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell examines not just the artist’s life and music, but also the competing nature and, at times, kinship, of biography and fandom.

The Demon of Unrest

By Erik Larson

In The Demon of Unrest, Erik Laron crafts a tale of hold-your-breath suspense about the crucial three months leading up to the Civil War.

In The Demon of Unrest, Erik Laron crafts a tale of hold-your-breath suspense about the crucial three months leading up to the Civil War.

Knife

By Salman Rushdie

More than 30 years after an Iranian leader called for his assassination, master storyteller and literary icon Salman Rushdie was repeatedly stabbed at a public appearance in 2022, suffering life-threatening wounds. He describes the attack and his recovery in Knife. Rushie has called it “a necessary book for me to write: a way to take charge of what happened, and to answer violence with art.”

More than 30 years after an Iranian leader called for his assassination, master storyteller and literary icon Salman Rushdie was repeatedly stabbed at a public appearance in 2022, suffering life-threatening wounds. He describes the attack and his recovery in Knife. Rushie has called it “a necessary book for me to write: a way to take […]

Madness

By Antonia Hylton

In 1911, 12 Black men were delivered to the forest in rural Maryland and began building their new residence, the State Hospital for the Negro Insane. During its near century of existence, the hospital (re-named Crownsville) held patients in prisonlike conditions without offering them adequate medical attention, food, space or safety. In Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum, Emmy-winning journalist Antonia Hylton summoned extensive archival research and conducted dozens of interviews with former patients and staff, as well as their descendants, to offer an unsparing reckoning with history.

Thank You, More Please

By Lily Womble

You know it, we know it: Most dating books belong in the trash. Clouded by old-fashioned, patriarchal norms and expectations, they seem to hold little value to those of us dating in 2024. But proven matchmaker Lily Womble’s Thank You, More Please promises something more: A fresh perspective on dating that advises you to trust your gut and find joy.

You know it, we know it: Most dating books belong in the trash. Clouded by old-fashioned, patriarchal norms and expectations, they seem to hold little value to those of us dating in 2024. But proven matchmaker Lily Womble’s Thank You, More Please promises something more: A fresh perspective on dating that advises you to trust […]

The House of Hidden Meanings

By RuPaul

In his refreshing memoir, drag superstar and pop culture icon RuPaul tells his life story with a tender clarity that renders a larger-than-life figure unforgettably human.

One Way Back

By Christine Blasey Ford

History will remember the four hours that a woman testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee as it considered the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. In her long-awaited memoir, Christine Blasey Ford recounts her decision to publicly accuse the justice of sexual assault, the overwhelming aftermath and how she’s continued to persevere since.

Circle of Hope

By Eliza Griswold

Eliza Griswold won a 2019 Pulitzer for Amity and Prosperity, which chronicled the devastating impact of fracking in a small Pennsylvania town. Now, the journalist and poet turns her attention to Circle of Hope, a progressive Anabaptist church that relies on both scripture and public protest as articles of faith. Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church follows the congregation’s reckoning with the pandemic, our country’s religious landscape and internal rifts as it fights for its survival.

Eliza Griswold won a 2019 Pulitzer for Amity and Prosperity, which chronicled the devastating impact of fracking in a small Pennsylvania town. Now, the journalist and poet turns her attention to Circle of Hope, a progressive Anabaptist church that relies on both scripture and public protest as articles of faith. Circle of Hope: A Reckoning […]

There’s Always This Year

By Hanif Abdurraqib

Hanif Abdurraqib’s captivating There’s Always This Year is a powerful meditation on place and community.

The Age of Deer

By Erika Howsare

Erika Howsare’s The Age of Deer invites us to consider the practical, environmental and spiritual relationships we share with a most ubiquitous species.

Erika Howsare’s The Age of Deer invites us to consider the practical, environmental and spiritual relationships we share with a most ubiquitous species.