| The Naked Don't Fear the Water: An Underground Journey With Afghan Refugees by Matthieu AikinsWhat it is: an immersive and empathetic account of Sunni refugee Omar's attempts to flee Afghanistan in 2016; joining him on the perilous journey was his friend, Canadian journalist Matthieu Aikins.
Author alert: Polk Award-winning Aikins has lived in Afghanistan since 2008; his work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and more.
Try this next: My Fourth Time, We Drowned by Sally Hayden, which chronicles the plight of asylum-seeking Eritreans held in a Libyan detention camp. |
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| Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age by Dennis DuncanWhat it is: an accessible history of the index, whose contributions to the advancement of knowledge have often gone unrecognized.
Read it for: a witty and insightful narrative that will appeal to bibliophiles, fans of social history, and general readers alike.
Don't miss: photographs of historical indexes; two concluding indexes -- one AI-generated, the other compiled by Society of Indexers member Paula Clarke Bain. |
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| Watergate: A New History by Garrett M. GraffWhat it's about: the June 17, 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C.'s Watergate building, a scandal that led to the downfall of the Nixon administration.
Why you should read it: Published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the event, this illuminating latest from journalist Garrett M. Graff is "the best and fullest account of the Watergate crisis, one unlikely to be surpassed any time soon" (Kirkus Reviews).
What's inside: a fast-paced and dramatic account drawing on court transcripts, tape recordings, and recently declassified FBI documents. |
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| Born of Lakes and Plains: Mixed-Descent Peoples and the Making of the American West by Anne F. HydeWhat it's about: how mixed-descent families created from Indigenous-European intermarriages made their mark on the American West from the 17th to the 20th centuries.
Why you might like it: Historian Anne F. Hyde focuses on five families to craft this intimate and well-researched chronicle.
Reviewers say: "an essential reconsideration of Native American history" (Publishers Weekly). |
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| Heiresses: The Lives of the Million Dollar Babies by Laura ThompsonWhat it is: an engaging social history chronicling the lives of British and American heiresses from the 18th to the 20th centuries.
Read it for: a gossipy yet humanizing chronicle of how heiresses were impeded by social constraints and subjected to mistreatment.
Try this next: The Husband Hunters: American Heiresses Who Married into the British Aristocracy by Anne de Courcy. |
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| Scoundrel: How a Convicted Murderer Persuaded the Women Who Loved Him... by Sarah WeinmanHow it began: In 1962, New Jersey death row inmate and convicted murderer Edgar Smith struck up a correspondence with conservative intellectual William F. Buckley, who used his connections to help secure Smith a book deal and, in 1971, a release from prison.
What happened next: Smith manipulated his way to fame and acclaim, though his second act was short-lived -- in 1976, he was convicted of kidnapping a woman at knifepoint and sent back to prison.
For fans of: stranger-than-fiction true crime tales. |
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| Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth by Elizabeth WilliamsonWhat it is: a sobering account of the aftermath of Newton, CT's Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, which left 20 students and six staff dead.
Featuring: interviews with survivors, parents, and first responders.
Is it for you? This disturbing debut also examines how misinformation campaigns, led by far-right radio host Alex Jones, compounded survivors' trauma and spurred widespread conspiracy-mongering that persists. |
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