LibraryAware New Nonfiction September 2025

New and Recently Released

The Intelligence Explosion: When AI Beats Humans at Everything
by James Barrat

In The Intelligence Explosion, James Barrat, a leading technology expert, equips readers with the tools to navigate the complex and often chaotic landscape of modern AI. This compelling book dives deep into the challenges posed by generative AI, exposing how tech companies have built systems that are both error-prone and impossible to fully interpret. Through insightful interviews with AI pioneers, Barrat highlights the unstable trajectory of AI development, showcasing its potential for modest benefits and catastrophic consequences. Bold, eye-opening, and essential, The Intelligence Explosion is a must-read for anyone grappling with the realities of the technological revolution.

Reacher: The Stories Behind the Stories
by Lee Child

After making his debut in 1997's The Killing Floor, Jack Reacher has quickly become one of the most popular--and most enduring--fictional heroes to emerge in the past half century. Now, his creator tells the stories behind the stories.

These are the origin tales of all of the Reacher novels written solely by Lee Child, chock full of colorful anecdotes and intriguing inspirations. One by one, they expand upon each novel and place it in the context not only of the author's life, but of the world outside the books. And taken together, they chart the rise of an action icon, from 1999's The Killing Floor to 2019's Blue Moon. An afterword by crime fiction expert and bookseller Otto Penzler considers the importance of the character and novels in the canon of contemporary crime fiction.

In addition to the essays, this collection also includes an original Reacher short story--the first new Reacher appearance entirely written by Lee Child since 2019. Entertaining and enlightening, Reacher: The Stories Behind the Stories is a must-read for fans of the Jack Reacher series and a capstone to any collection of this excellent author.

All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation
by Elizabeth Gilbert

In 2000, Elizabeth Gilbert met Rayya. They became friends, then best friends, then inseparable. When tragedy entered their lives, the truth was finally laid bare: The two were in love. They were also a pair of addicts, on a collision course toward catastrophe. What if your most beautiful love story turned into your biggest nightmare? What if the dear friend who taught you so much about your self-destructive tendencies became the unstable partner with whom you disastrously reenacted every one of them? And what if your most devastating heartbreak opened a pathway to your greatest awakening? All the Way to the River is a landmark memoir that will resonate with anyone who has ever been captive to love--or to any other passion, substance, or craving--and who yearns, at long last, for liberation.

Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival
by Stephen Greenblatt

In repressive Elizabethan England, artists are frightened into dull conventionality; foreigners are suspect; popular entertainment largely consists of coarse spectacles, animal fights, and hangings. Into this crude world of government censorship and religious authoritarianism comes an ambitious cobbler's son from Canterbury with a daring desire to be known--and an uncanny ear for Latin poetry. A torment for most schoolboys, yet for a few, like Christopher Marlowe, a secret portal to beauty, visionary imagination, transgressive desire, and dangerous skepticism. What Marlowe seizes in his rare opportunity for a classical education, and what he does with it, brings about a spectacular explosion of English literature, language, and culture. His astonishing literary success will, in turn, nourish the talent of a collaborator and rival, William Shakespeare.

The Last Extinction : The Real Science Behind the Death of the Dinosaurs
by Gerta Keller

The story behind Dr. Gerta Keller's world-shattering scientific discovery that dinosaur extinction was NOT caused by asteroid impact, but rather by volcanic eruptions on the Indian peninsula, a discovery that highlights today's existential threat of greenhouse gasses and climate change--and one that sparked an all-out war waged by the scientific establishment. Part scientific detective story, part personal odyssey, The Last Extinction is the definitive account of a radical theory that has reshaped how we understand our planet's past and, as we face the possibility of a sixth extinction, how we might survive its future. For decades, the dominant theory held that an asteroid impact caused the dinosaurs' extinction. But Princeton Geologist Dr. Gerta Keller followed the evidence to the truth: Deccan volcanism, a series of massive volcanic eruptions in India, triggered a long-term climate catastrophe and Earth's fifth mass extinction. Her findings upended the field and ignited a bitter feud in modern science-what became known as the "Dinosaur Wars." Raised in poverty on a Swiss farm and told she could never be a scientist, Keller defied expectations, earning her PhD at Stanford and battling her way into the highest ranks of Geology, eventually becoming a Professor of Paleontology and Geology at Princeton University. Her refusal to back down in the face of ridicule, sabotage, and sexism makes her story as thrilling as her science, which offers urgent insight into today's climate crisis: Sustained planetary upheaval--not a single cataclysmic event--can plunge the planet into an age of death.

Art Work: On the Creative Life
by Sally Mann

Art Work, by photographer and writer Sally Mann, offers a spellbinding mix of wild and illuminating stories, practical (and some impractical) advice, and life lessons. Written in the same direct, fearless, and occasionally outrageous tone of her bestselling memoir, Hold Still, this new book reaffirms Mann as a unique and resonant voice for our times and is destined to become a classic. Illustrated throughout with photographs, journal entries, and letters that bring immediacy and poignancy to the narrative, Art Work is full of thought-provoking insights about the hazards of early promise; the unpredictable role of luck; the value of work, work, work, and more hard work; the challenges of rejection and distraction; the importance of risk-taking; and the rewards of knowing why and when you say yes. In sparkling prose and thoughtfully juxtaposed visuals and ephemera, Art Work is a generous, provocative, and compulsively readable exploration of creativity by one of our most original thinkers.

History Matters
by David McCullough

History Matters brings together selected essays by beloved historian David McCullough, some published here for the first time, written at different points over the course of his long career but all focused on the subject of his lifelong passion: the importance of history in understanding our present and future. Edited by McCullough’s daughter, Dorie McCullough Lawson, and his longtime researcher, Michael Hill, History Matters is a tribute to a master historian and offers fresh insights into McCullough’s enduring interests and writing life. The book also features a foreword by Jon Meacham.

McCullough highlights the importance of character in political leaders, with Harry Truman and George Washington serving as exemplars of American values like optimism and determination. He shares his early influences, from the books he cherished in his youth to the people who mentored him. He also pays homage to those who inspired him, such as writer Paul Horgan and painter Thomas Eakins, illustrating the diverse influences on his writing as well as the influence of art.

Rich with McCullough’s signature grace, curiosity, and narrative gifts, these essays offer vital lessons in viewing history through the eyes of its participants, a perspective that McCullough believed was crucial to understanding the present as well as the past. History Matters is testament to McCullough’s legacy as one of the great storytellers of this nation’s history and of the lasting promise of American ideals.
Book Annotation

Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis--A Memoir
by Priscilla Presley

Priscilla Presley's divorce from Elvis left his fans incredulous. How could she leave the man every woman wanted? From the outside, life in Elvis's mansion looked glamorous and enviable, and in many respects, it was. But inside the mansion, her husband was constantly surrounded by a male entourage while at the gates, lines of beautiful women waited hopefully for an audience with the King. From the time she was seventeen years-old, that life was all Priscilla had known. During her ten years with Elvis, it became painfully apparent that she had no idea who she was outside Elvis's world. The only way to find herself was to leave that world and seek a new life of her own, because leaving was the only way to survive, for herself and for her daughter.
Softly, As I Leave You, is the deeply personal story of what Priscilla lost and what she found when she walked away from the man she loved. Despite the legal separation, their love for one another transformed into a touching and tender dynamic that endured until Elvis's untimely death four years later. Shattered by Elvis's passing, she had to reinvent herself a second time as the single mother of a talented, often headstrong daughter who never really recovered from her father's death. Priscilla's dedication to motherhood was enriched by the birth of her second child, and she gradually found her footing as a businesswoman, actress, designer, and legislative advocate. She transformed Graceland into an international destination and helped guide the development of Elvis Presley Enterprises. But the unexpected, shattering loss of three immediate family members years later brought Priscilla to her knees. She shares her journey with a quiet dignity that will comfort and reassure anyone who has suffered - and survived - seemingly unbearable loss.
A passionate, compassionate, and inspiring story of finding your place in the world, Softly, As I Leave You, is a sweet Southern melody that will take the reader with Priscilla on her long road home.

The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz: A Story of Survival
by Anne Sebba

In 1943, German SS officers in charge of Auschwitz-Birkenau ordered that an orchestra be formed among the female prisoners. Almost fifty women and girls from eleven nations were drafted into a band that would play in all weathers marching music to other inmates, forced laborers who left each morning and returned, exhausted and often broken, at the end of the day. While still living amid the harshest of circumstances, with little more than a bowl of soup to eat, they were also made to give weekly concerts for Nazi officers, and individual members were sometimes summoned to give solo performances. For almost all of the musicians chosen to take part, being in the orchestra saved their lives. But at what cost? What role could music play in a death camp? What was the effect on those women who owed their survival to their participation in a Nazi propaganda project? And how did it feel to be forced to provide solace to the perpetrators of a genocide that claimed the lives of their family and friends? In The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz, award-winning historian Anne Sebba traces these tangled questions of deep moral complexity with sensitivity and care. From Alma Rosé, the orchestra's main conductor, niece of Gustav Mahler and a formidable pre-war celebrity violinist, to Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, its teenage cellist and last surviving member, Sebba draws on meticulous archival research and exclusive first-hand accounts to tell the full and astonishing story of the orchestra, its members, and the response of other prisoners for the first time.

The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path
by Emma Heming Willis

The day Emma Heming Willis’ husband, Bruce Willis, was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), all they were given was a pamphlet and told to check back in a few months. With no hope or direction, Emma walked out of that doctor’s appointment frozen with fear, confusion and a sense that her world had just fallen apart.

In fact, it had. Bruce and Emma had their story written, their future mapped out. Yet all those dreams crumbled with that diagnosis, and Emma felt alone and more isolated than ever. How would she care for her husband while parenting their young daughters?

At that devastating time, Emma just wanted someone who'd been through it to tell her, “This feels terrible right now. Your life is in shambles. But it’s going to be okay. Here are some things to think about and put in place so you cannot just survive but thrive.”

With The Unexpected Journey, Emma has written the book she wishes she’d been handed on the day of Bruce’s diagnosis: a supportive guide to navigating the complicated, heartbreaking, and transformative experience that is caregiving for your loved one.

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