July 2025 list by Donalee Jacobs
 
The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery
by Sol Smith

In this first-of-its-kind book, Sol Smith combines current research, his own experience as a late-diagnosed autistic adult, and lessons learned as an educator to show how to transcend common mischaracterizations, overcome shame, and gain the skills to flourish. Sol knows that neurodivergent people often feel that nothing they have been taught relates to how they experience the world. To resolve this conflict, they try to change or mask who they are, which can cause isolation, depression, and anxiety. Designed to help peel away the shell of inadequacy and self-blame that often comes with neurodivergence, Smith offers the necessary tools and knowledge to function effectively at home, at work, and in the wider world.

Bad Company 
by Megan Greenwell

Private equity controls our hospitals, daycares, supermarket, newspapers, nursing homes, and prisons. The industry also manages many of our municipal and emergency services, all while owning a growing swath of commercial and residential real estate. Private equity executives are modern-day barons with outsized influence on politics and legislation. CEOs are rewarded with seats in the Senate and on the boards of the country's most august institutions; meanwhile, entire communities are hollowed out as a result of their buyouts. Acclaimed journalist Megan Greenwell unearths the hidden story of private equity by examining the lives of four American workers that were devastated as private equity upended their employers and communities.

Baddest Man
by Mark Kriegel

An acclaimed New York Times bestselling author whose coverage of Mike Tyson and his inner circle dates back to the 1980s offers a magnificent noir epic about fame, race, greed, criminality, trauma, and the creation of the most feared and mesmerizing fighter in boxing history.

The Brain at Rest
by Joseph Jebelli

Challenges conventional wisdom about productivity, arguing that allowing the brain to rest and activate its "default network" through activities like walking and relaxation can lead to greater creativity, happiness, and productivity while reducing stress and burnout.

Deep Listening
by Emily Kasriel

Distracted by our own agenda, we so often hear without understanding, impatiently waiting for our turn to speak. In this exploration of transformational listening, Kasriel shows how shifting from surface-level exchanges to Deep Listening can enrich our relationships as friends, parents, and partners, enhance our effectiveness as leaders, and strengthen the fabric of our communities. At a time when divisions within communities, organizations, and families are often a source of profound pain, this book offers inspiration and practical guidance on how we can better listen to each other, even when we fiercely disagree.

Far from Home 
by Lisa Murkowski

Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski has repeatedly stood at the center of our nation’s most challenging issues, serving as a swing vote and a voice willing to challenge the president, regardless of who holds the office. In this candid memoir that offers hope for a functional Washington, she guides readers through the defining events of her more than twenty-year career. Written at a time when Americans’ trust in their institutions is in crisis, Far from Home is a candid account of how things get done in Washington. It is an uplifting narrative for anyone seeking reassurance that our political system can still work.

The Haves and Have-Yachts 
by Evan Osnos

A collection of essays explores American oligarchy and the culture of excess, providing a wry, unfiltered look at how the ultrarich shape—and sometimes warp—our social and political landscape.

Hit Girls 
by Nora Princiotti

Exploring the early 2000s pop explosion, this deep dive examines how female artists reshaped music, celebrity culture and industry standards, driving a new era of pop stardom that continues to influence today's biggest stars and redefine the genre's cultural impact.

How Countries Go Broke 
by Ray Dalio

"Do big government debts threaten our collective well-being? Are there limits to debt growth? Can a big, important reserve currency country like the United States really go broke--and what would that look like? For decades, politicians, policymakers, and investors have debated these questions, but the answers have eluded them. In this groundbreaking book, Ray Dalio shares his detailed explanation of what he calls the 'Big Debt Cycle.' Understanding this cycle is critical for helping policymakers, investors, and the general public grasp where we are and where we are headed with the debt issue. 

Invisible No More 
by Ilene S. Ruhoy

While Covid-19 has brought increased attention to chronic and complex illnesses, these conditions have impacted millions worldwide since long before the pandemic. Dr. Ilene Ruhoy aims to empower the long-term patients of chronic and complex diseases, delving into her own harrowing experience as a patient. She details her evolution as a physician to work with people across the globe in treating their chronic symptoms and disabling disease, all while amplifying their own voices. Along with answering patient's most pressing question Ruhoy provides practical sections on nutrition, breathing, supplements and more, empowering them to take their health into their own hands.

It's Only Drowning
by David Litt

David, a Yale-educated writer with a fear of sharks, learns to surf with help from his brother-in-law Matt, a daredevil electrician with a shed full of surfboards, and they set out on a journey that spans coasts, and even continents, before taking them to Oahu's famously dangerous North Shore. 

John Hancock 
by Willard Sterne Randall

A revealing portrait of the Revolutionary leader, exploring his rise from modest beginnings to wealthy merchant, his pivotal yet overlooked role in the American Revolution, his political rivalries and his influence on key events that shaped the United States.

Kuleana
by Sara Kehaulani Goo

From an early age, Sara Kehaulani Goo was enchanted by her family's land in Hawai'i on the rugged shores of Maui's east side—given by King Kamehameha III in 1848. When a property tax bill arrives with a 500 percent increase, Sara and her family members are forced to make a decision about the property: fight to keep the land or sell to the next offshore millionaire. In Kuleana, Sara interrogates deeper questions of identity, legacy, and what we owe to those who come before and after us. With breathtaking stories of unexpected homecomings, familial hardship, and fierce devotion to ancestry, the author creates a new narrative about Hawai'i, its native people, and their struggle to hold on to their land and culture today.

The Last Sweet Bite
by Michael Shaikh

A groundbreaking combination of travel writing, memoir, and cookbook, The Last Sweet Bite uncovers how humanity’s appetite for violence shapes what’s on our plate. Featuring touching personal interviews, original reporting, and extraordinary recipes from modern-day conflict zones across the globe, Shaikh reveals the stories of how genocide, occupation, and civil war can disappear treasured recipes, but also introduces us to the extraordinary yet overlooked home cooks and human rights activists trying to save them. From a sprawling refugee camp in Bangladesh and a brutal civil war in Sri Lanka to the drug wars in the Andes, Shaikh highlights resilient diasporic communities refusing to let their culinary heritage become another casualty of war.

The Little Book of Data
by Justin Evans

Data is not about number crunching. It's about ideas. And when used properly (read: ethically), it is the problem solver of our time. Yet many savvy people seem to be in data denial: they don't think they need to understand data, or it's too complicated, or worse, using it is somehow unethical. Yet as data and AI move to the center of professional and civic life, everyone needs to harness this power. In The Little Book of Data, each chapter illustrates one of the core principles of solving problems with data by featuring an expert who has solved a big problem with data. Along the way Evans injects lessons from his own career journey and offers practical thought-starters for readers to apply to their own organizations.

Making the Afterlife Connection
by Suzanne Giesemann

Gifted medium Suzanne Giesemann takes readers on a journey of spiritual awakening, to a life beyond physical existence. As a former Navy Commander, Suzanne's credibility and down-to-earth style make deep spiritual concepts accessible and engaging. She offers a grounded approach that blends her military background with her spiritual insights, and in doing so, she demystifies mediumship and provides a systematic method for others to explore their own gifts.

The Mind Electric
by Pria Anand

In this collection of medical tales, a neurologist reckons with the stories we tell about our brains, and the stories our brains tell us. The author explores storytelling through case studies, personal narrative, and cultural critique, examining how neurological symptoms are shaped, interpreted, and often misunderstood within medicine, revealing overlooked truths about illness, identity, and the porous boundaries between health and suffering.

Misbehaving at the Crossroads 
by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

In Misbehaving at the Crossroads, Jeffers explores the emotional and historical tensions in Black women's public lives and her own private life. She charts voyages of Black girlhood to womanhood and the currents buffeting these journeys, including the difficulties of racially gendered oppression, the challenges of documenting Black women's ancestry; the adultification of Black girls; the irony of Black female respectability politics; the origins of Womanism/Black feminism; and resistance to White supremacy and patriarchy. As Jeffers shows with empathy and wisdom, naming difficult historical truths represents both Blues and transcendence, a crossroads that speaks.

Murderland 
by Caroline Fraser

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Prairie Fires comes a terrifying true-crime history of serial killers in the Pacific Northwest and beyond—a gripping investigation of how a new strain of psychopath emerged out of a toxic landscape of deadly industrial violence.

The Place of Tides
by James Rebanks

From perhaps the preeminent nature writer of our time and the acclaimed author of Pastoral Song and The Shepherd's Life, a magical work of nonfiction in which James Rebanks reflects on a life-changing summer spent on a remote island off the coast of Norway, where his only companion was an old woman who practiced the ancient tradition of collecting eiderdown from birds that nest on this remarkable landscape each year.

The River's Daughter
by Bridget Crocker

After Bridget Crocker's parents divorce, she moved with her mother to Wyoming. Her life there was idyllic, growing up in a trailer park on the Snake River—until her mother took up a radical new lifestyle. The one constant in her life was the river. When she discovered the world of whitewater rafting, she found her calling. On the river, Bridget learned to read the natural world and the language of rivers, becoming one of the few female guides on the Snake River. She then traveled to the Zambezi River in Africa, where she faced death, learned to conquer her fears and trust herself, which allowed her to then help heal her family from generational cycles of trauma and poverty.

The Salmon Cannon and the Levitating Frog
by Carly Anne York

Carly Anne York shows how unappreciated, overlooked, and curiosity-driven science has led to breakthroughs big and small. Got wind power? You might have humpback whales to thank. Know anything about particle physics? Turns out there is a ferret close to the heart of it all. And if you want to keep salmon around, be thankful for that cannon! York invites readers to appreciate the often unpredictable journey of scientific exploration, highlighting that the heart of science lies in the relentless pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Emphasizing the hard work of the people behind the discoveries, this is an accessible, story-driven book that shows how important and exciting it is to simply let curiosity run wild.

The Sisterhood of Ravensbrück
by Lynne Olson

Drawing on the experiences of a group of French Resistance women imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, this account details their acts of defiance, survival strategies, and postwar efforts to seek justice and ensure their experiences were not forgotten.

The Spinach King 
by John Seabrook

One of The New Yorker's most acclaimed storytellers unravels the riveting saga of his illustrious family: the Seabrooks. The patriarch, C. F. Seabrook, was hailed as the "Henry Ford of Agriculture." His son Jack, a keen businessman, was poised to take over what Life called "the biggest vegetable factory on earth." At the heart of the narrative is a multi-generational succession battle. It's a tale of family secrets and Swiss bank accounts, of half-truths, of hatred and passion―and lots and lots of liquor. The Seabrooks' colorful legal and moral failings took place amid the trappings of extraordinary privilege. But the story of where that money came from is not so pretty.
A compelling tale of class and privilege, betrayal and revenge―three decades in the making.

The Story of ABBA 
by Jan Gradvall

There has never been a group like ABBA. More than half a century after their songs were recorded, ABBA still make people the world over dance and sing their hearts out. Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad all share their personal stories, their thoughts and their opinions about ABBA's music more openly than ever before. Weaving in and out of their story, well-known international music critic Jan Gradvall reveals the context in which their unique sound developed and shows how the story of ABBA is also the story of Sweden and the globalization of pop culture.

Submersed 
by Matthew Gavin Frank

Matthew Gavin Frank explores the human compulsion to sink to depth of the seas. The deeper he plunges, the more the obsession seems to dovetail with more threatening traits. Following the murder of journalist Kim Wall by entrepreneur Peter Madsen, Frank finds himself reckoning with dark extremes. Weaving together elements of true crime, the strange history of the submarine, the mythology of the deep sea, and the physical and mental side effects of sinking to great depth, Frank attempts to understand this niche compulsion to chase the extreme. What he discovers are the odd and unexpected overlaps between the desire to descend into deep water and unspeakable violence.

War Against All Puerto Ricans
by Nelson A. Denis

In 1950, after over fifty years of military occupation and colonial rule, the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico staged an unsuccessful armed insurrection against the United States. In order to suppress this uprising, the US Army deployed thousands of troops and bombarded two towns, marking the first time in history that the US government bombed its own citizens. Denis tells this powerful story through the controversial life of Pedro Albizu Campos, who served as the president of the Nationalist Party, was imprisoned for twenty-five years, and died under mysterious circumstances. By tracing his life and death, Denis shows how the journey of Albizu Campos is part of a larger story of Puerto Rico and US colonialism.

We Might Just Make It After All
by Elyce Arons

In a moving portrait of friendship, the author reflects on her long relationship with Kate Spade, whom she met in college and went on to cofound the multibillion-dollar fashion company as they came of age in 1990s New York. Through it all, Katy and Elyce's friendship remained unshakeable. This powerful friendship lasted nearly forty years, until Katy's tragic suicide in 2018. We Might Just Make It After All celebrates her legacy as a cultural icon and loyal friend. 

Write Through It
by Kate McKean

Discover what every new and aspiring author needs to know about the publishing industry and how to navigate all the complicated feelings that come with writing a book in this no-nonsense guide from literary agent, author, and creator of the popular newsletter Agents & Books Kate McKean.