|
|
America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation's Anniversaries by Eddie S. GlaudeThe New York Times bestselling author of Begin Again confronts America's unfinished story in this blistering reassessment of race, freedom, and the myths that bind us. Celebrated public intellectual Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. presents a groundbreaking analysis of the vicious cycles of American history and the country's enduring refusal to face its true nature--especially at the moments when national anniversaries steer us back toward the mythology meant to disguise the truth. America, U.S.A., deliberately formulated and beautifully written, details a heart-wrenching exploration of America's legacy. It is a magnificently complex combination of lessons and voices--from W.E.B. DuBois and John Dos Passos to Herman Melville and Martin Luther King, Jr.--that, together, paint a sprawling and honest tableau of the United States, its complicated past, and ever more tenuous future. Glaude's is a powerful voice of conscience in our tumultuous world. He pulls no punches, calling on us to interrogate our conceptions of innocence and freedom and the stories we tell ourselves about our past and present. Centered around the major celebrations of America's milestone birthdays across 250 years of history, the book offers a riveting look at the battles over who has a stake in writing the American story. Devastatingly candid, profoundly moving, and deeply reflective, America, U.S.A. is a shining meditation on how we must reckon with a grim past in order to strive for the better angels of our future.
|
|
|
|
American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed
by Isaac Fitzgerald
New York Times bestselling author Isaac Fitzgerald sets off to the heart of America, following the path of the legendary Johnny Appleseed on an epic journey that both takes him far from home and brings him closer to it. It's a difficult thing, to separate legend from story from memory from fact. As a child, Isaac Fitzgerald was always captivated by Johnny Appleseed, drawn by family ties to the legend, his father's larger-than-life stories, and a shared restlessness to leave home and discover what lies beyond. In American Rambler, he sets out, walking from Massachusetts to Indiana on a year-long journey to follow Appleseed's path, turning a childhood fascination into a profound reckoning of loss and grief, ritual and faith, grimy gas-station bathrooms and scenic apple picking. A moving blend of memoir, history, and travelogue, American Rambler is at once an ode to the American heartland and an antidote to the breakneck pace of modern life.
|
|
|
|
Big Fan: Two Friends, 82,490 Miles, and the Wild, Wonderful Sports We Love
by Michael Schur
New York Times bestselling authors Mike Schur and Joe Posnanski travel the world in a hilarious and heartwarming celebration of fans and the things they love: baseball, basketball, chess, darts, football, futbol, Indigenous North American stickball, pickleball, WWE, Taylor Swift, Star Wars, and more. Two great friends. Lots of frequent flyer miles. And a bottomless appetite for experiencing sports. That's what BIG FAN is all about. Bestselling authors and podcast hosts Joe Posnanski and Mike Schur love games--almost any game!--and they bring readers to the front row (and sometimes even right onto the field). Whether ringside at WrestleMania in Las Vegas, singing along with the maniacs at the World Darts Championships in London, or just watching eight straight hours of football at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Dallas, they bring us to the very heart of what it means to love something so much it hurts. Through crushing defeats and glorious wins, whether cheering penalty kicks with 65,000 fans in Liverpool or beholding a chess master castling in dead silence, BIG FAN is about why we love what we love and how fandom connects us in a time when so much else pulls us apart.
|
|
|
|
Body Electric: The Hidden Health Costs of the Digital Age and New Science to Reclaim Your Well-Being
by Manoush Zomorodi
From the award-winning journalist and NPR TED Radio Hour host comes a timely investigation into how screens and sitting are reshaping our bodies--and how a simple shift can change everything. In today's world, a normal day means sitting in front of a screen for eight to ten hours. Meeting after meeting. Email after email. We leave our desks drained, overstimulated and unfocused, only to go home, sit down again, and scroll some more. The result? Headaches, back pain, restless sleep, and rising rates of preventable disease. We know technology is breaking us down--so why can't we break away? It's a question that Manoush Zomorodi has always wanted to answer. As the host of the NPR's TED Radio Hour and Body Electric podcast, she has interviewed experts, conducted citizen experiments, and sought out research about how our digital lives are changing the way we think, learn, and feel. Now, in Body Electric, she presents an eye-opening investigation into the impact technology and sedentary living has had on our bodies and brains, from breath and eyesight to blood pressure, posture, and productivity, and shares what science (and tens of thousands of participants in a groundbreaking study with Columbia University Medical Center) have taught her--it's the small shifts, not the digital detoxes, that will make us healthier. And all we need is five minutes. Filled with perspective-shifting data and real-life applications and tools, Body Electric is the next must-read for fans of Four Thousand Weeks and The Anxious Generation, and anyone else feeling trapped by their technology.
|
|
|
|
I Am Not a Robot: My Year Using AI to Do (Almost) Everything
by Joanna Stern
What happens when intelligent machines aren't just in our pockets but are also driving our cars, making our decisions, folding our laundry, and educating our kids?You've heard the hype: AI will make us healthier, give every child a personalized tutor, run our businesses more efficiently, return hours of free time to our overworked brains, and make discoveries previously unimagined by humankind. The AI future is going to be unlike any other technological revolution. But what does that really mean? And will AI truly make life better?To find out, award-winning journalist Joanna Stern surrendered her life to artificial intelligence for one year. The results are both hilarious and unsettling.I Am Not a Robot is like a time machine trip to the very near future, where AI promises to be your doctor, chauffeur, teacher, masseuse, coworker, therapist, financial planner, chef, housekeeper, and even . . . romantic partner. Your colleague might be using ChatGPT to write emails at work, but Joanna used AI tools and robots to do household chores, to manage her health, and to transport her family on vacation. If there was a decision to make or a task to do, she let AI go first. Along the way, she conducted exclusive interviews with the tech leaders building this future, then reported back from the front lines as your funny, no-nonsense tour guide.Of course, tech's sunny promises never tell the whole story, and that's what Joanna is here to share. Filled with illustrations and photographs, this book offers less hype, more clarity, and as little jargon as humanly (or robotically) possible. It's an AI guide for ordinary people--not the tech bros who tried to sell you a cruise to the metaverse or an NFT of a cartoon monkey.This book is not the definitive story, because we're only a few years into the AI revolution. But after a year of living as a human lab rat, Joanna delivers one of the clearest--and funniest--pictures yet of what's really happening and what it means for you.
|
|
|
|
The Killer and Frank Lloyd Wright: The True Story of Mass Murder in Paradise
by Casey Sherman
The scandal. The genius. The murder that shocked America.Frank Lloyd Wright was more than the mind behind America's most iconic buildings--he was a man whose turbulent private life captivated a nation. The famous architect's stormy marriage to Kitty Wright and his infamous affair with another woman, Mamah Borthwick, ignited one of the country's first celebrity scandals, splashed across headlines from coast to coast.Then, in August 1914, scandal turned to horror. A tragedy at Taliesin, the Wisconsin home Wright built as a monument to love, shook the very foundation of Wright's life--and catapulted him back to the front pages of newspapers across the country as readers clamored for glimpses of his very darkest moments.In The Killer and Frank Lloyd Wright, New York Times bestselling author Casey Sherman delves beyond the myth of Wright's genius to reveal a man of relentless ambition, consuming passion, and devastating loss. With haunting intimacy and propulsive storytelling, Sherman delivers a portrait of an artist who could not escape the shadows of his own making--and who rose, again and again, from the ashes.
|
|
|
|
The Land and Its People: Essays
by David Sedaris
In this new collection, David Sedaris reflects on what it means to be a foreigner, a brother, a lifelong friend, in essays that are among the best of his career (Publishers Weekly, starred review). A welcome return to form for the much-awarded and much-loved humorist...Sedaris remains a national treasure. --Kirkus (starred review) In The Land and Its People, Sedaris investigates what it means to be a traveler, a brother, a lifelong friend. Trying on the role of caretaker after his boyfriend Hugh's hip-replacement surgery, he both succeeds and fails. He covers ground with his friend Dawn and challenges her to eat a truck tire. A ambivalent Duolingo bot becomes his unlikely confidante as he attempts to describe his family in a foreign language. Ever adding to his list of Countries I Have Been To, he rides a horse named Tequila in Guatemala, buys a bespoke priest's cassock in Vatican City, and goes on safari in Kenya without taking a single photo. Time takes its toll: scrolling through his address book, he counts those he couldn't bear to outlive, and realizes how many are already gone. He is bitten by a dog and insulted by a wee train passenger. A woman on the street late at night either sexually harasses him or doesn't. It's easy to agree with the lady waving a sign that reads, Enough Is Enough. And yet, life holds much to delight in: the massive testicles of a ram, a trip abroad with his sisters, a really excellent reptile video, a pair of well-made cotton underpants. Throughout these essays--at once acerbic and tender, playful and profound--Sedaris shows how much there is to marvel at when you keep your head up and your eyes open, observing with warmth and curiosity our fascinating human species and the lands we inhabit.
|
|
|
|
The Lost Empire of Emanuel Nobel: Romanovs, Revolutionaries, and the Forgotten Titan Who Fueled the World
by Douglas Brunt
From the author of the New York Times bestselling The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel comes the enthralling hidden history of one of the world's most successful business titans, a rival to the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds, whose legacy was erased in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. With the exception of the tsar, Emanuel Nobel was likely the wealthiest man in early twentieth-century Russia, and one of the wealthiest in the world. Over three generations, he and his family grew the Russian petroleum industry into a behemoth that surpassed even John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil. The Nobels imported the best practices from America and improved on them, transforming every aspect of the industry. Though Emanuel's uncle Alfred would become world famous thanks to his creation of the Nobel Prize, the even more successful Nobels in Russia have been largely forgotten. The reason why is one of history's most gripping untold stories. Working in the oil fields of southern Russia at the same time as Emanuel was a troubled young man from a peasant family in Georgia. Though educated to be a priest, he took a different path when he discovered the revolutionary ideas of Karl Marx. In and out of prison in Siberia, charismatic and committed, always at the center of a fight, this young man would become known to the world as Joseph Stalin, a leader of the Bolshevik Revolution and eventually one of the most brutal dictators in history. Directly in Stalin's crosshairs was Emanuel Nobel, who represented everything Stalin despised about capitalism. As the world turned upside down, Emanuel began to plan a life-or-death escape from Russia. But would he make it out in time? And what would be the fate of the immense empire he and his family had built? Sweeping across more than a hundred years of history, from the dawn of the Victorian Age to World War I to the Russian Revolution and beyond, this captivating book chronicles one of the most influential men in history, a man whose name has been stricken from memory, and returns him thrillingly to life.
|
|
|
|
Take Me to Your Leader: Perspectives on Your First Alien Encounter
by Neil DeGrasse Tyson
America's favorite astrophysicist has written the most entertaining and universally appealing book of his stellar career: a practical guide for dealing with Alien visitors, an exploration of how it might happen, and a cultural history of our fascination with extraterrestrials. Ever since childhood, writes Neil deGrasse Tyson, I've wanted to be abducted by Aliens. Take Me to Your Leader is the culmination of a lifetime of fascination, speculation, and the amassing of scientific data about the possibility of Aliens visiting Earth. Drawing on a wealth of depictions from history, literature, pop culture, and film, Tyson applies the universal laws of physics to make the case for what Aliens might look like, act like, how they might travel through the universe to reach us, and what they might think of us upon arrival. Should such an event occur, Tyson further offers useful etiquette tips for your first close encounter. If you've ever wondered why there are so many UFO sightings, or whether Aliens might already be among us, Tyson offers an informed perspective that is both factual and fun. Take Me to Your Leader is a tantalizing exploration of what would be the most mind-blowing experience of your life--the book for anyone who has ever wondered: Are we alone?
|
|
|
|
Undue Process: The Inside Story of Trump's Mass Deportation Program
by Julia Ainsley
A revealing, news driven account of the Trump Administration's mass deportation program, featuring never-before-told stories and behind-the-scenes reporting from NBC News' Senior Homeland Security Correspondent.In Undue Process, NBC's Senior Homeland Security correspondent Julia Ainsley takes us inside the Trump White House to show how Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, Tom Homan, and other anti-immigration hardliners are executing the administration's mass deportation plan, seemingly prioritizing spectacle and punishment over security and legal constraints.Brimming with revelations from sources within ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, Undue Process is a harrowing chronicle of how the Trump administration aimed to create the largest deportation force in U.S. history, only to ignite a resistance within the government and across the country as they redefined the limits of executive power.
|
|
|
|
The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader
by Melissa Murray
From a #1 New York Times bestselling author, podcast host, and legal expert comes an accessible and modern guide on how to read and understand the U.S. Constitution. Think of this as the U.S. Constitution explained by America's favorite law professor, Melissa Murray. On her podcast, Strict Scrutiny, Murray and her cohosts, Kate Shaw and Leah Litman, provide in-depth, accessible, and irreverent analysis of the Supreme Court and its cases, culture, and personalities. On that podcast, on MSNOW--where she is a frequent contributor--in opinion pieces, and when providing commentary as she did in a recent New York Times piece on Justice Brown Jackson, Murray spends an awful lot of time demystifying laws for everyone else. In this book, she tackles one of the founding American documents: the Constitution. Each amendment will be annotated with some historical context provided, as well as examples of how it is relevant to our present day. More necessary than ever, as we look to the Supreme Court and their interpretation of the Constitution as the last institution upholding our democracy, this book is an indispensable read for every thinking American.
|
|
|
|
Young King: The Making of Martin Luther King Jr.
by Lerone Martin
From a preeminent King scholar, the origin story of the man, minister, and civil rights hero who would lead the nation and change the world.We know who Martin Luther King, Jr. became, but who was he at the beginning of his life? How did his youth inform his outlook and activism?Before Martin Luther King, Jr. was a civil rights leader, a Nobel Laureate, and a global hero, he was an emotional boy, a middling high school student devoted to fashion, dancing, and dating. Lerone A. Martin, Faculty Director of the Martin Luther King Institute at Stanford University, traces these roots to develop a fuller understanding of the influential preacher's emotional life, his youthful confusion about his future and career direction, his teenage missteps, and his inspiration to fight for justice.Revelatory, humanizing, and compassionate, Young King unearths: MLK's Childhood on Auburn Avenue: his days as Little Mike--the ever-eager middle child and a precocious prankster--spent at Ebenezer Baptist Church and the Auburn Avenue Library in AtlantaEarly Encounters with Racism: his early experiences of segregation and the summers he spent on a Connecticut tobacco farm, his first trip outside the Jim Crow SouthCollege Life at Morehouse: his transformative time at Morehouse, playing basketball, hosting parties, studying sociology, and joining the Ministers' UnionPath to Seminary and Activism: his winding path to seminary and the co-development of his activist consciousness, his spiritual devotion, and his relationship with Coretta, his wife-to-beAs America undergoes another era of turmoil and change, this powerful biography provides a vital roadmap for how greatness comes to light. This essential work is a testament to how history shapes a leader.Young King includes rarely seen black-and-white photographs of an adolescent MLK from his high school days and college years.
|
|
|