LibraryAware November 2025 (1)

Recent Releases

The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald
by John U. Bacon

Published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald's sinking, bestselling author John U. Bacon's (The Great Halifax Explosion) suspenseful latest explores the maritime disaster's cause and aftermath and includes interviews with the victims' families. For fans of: The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea by Sebastian Junger.

We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution
by Jill Lepore

Harvard University historian Jill Lepore's sweeping and accessible history surveys the creation and evolution of the United States Constitution, spotlighting key amendments that continue to shape the country. It's "urgent" (Kirkus Reviews) and "essential" (Library Journal) reading. Try this next: The Nation That Never Was: Reconstructing America's Story by Kermit Roosevelt III.

History Matters
by David McCullough; foreword by Jon Meacham, edited by Dorie McCullough Lawson and Michael Hill

In this posthumous collection of 20 essays and speeches (some previously unpublished), Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough offers freewheeling and impassioned reflections on the importance of learning about history to better understand the present. Try this next: An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Here in New England: Unforgettable Stories of People, Places, and Memories That Connect Us All.
by Mel Allen

From the time he published his first story in Yankee in 1979 to the day he retired as its editor in 2025, Mel Allen's writing has captured the unique essence of New England and the people who call it home. Here for the first time, Allen has collected 45 of his favorite pieces, adding intimate new introductions and postscripts to put them in context. The feel and flavor of New England lives within the covers of this engaging collection.

1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History -- and How It Shattered a Nation
by Andrew Ross Sorkin

Journalist and Too Big to Fail author Andrew Ross Sorkin's richly detailed latest offers an evocative account of the Wall Street crash of 1929, which spurred the worldwide Great Depression. Further reading: Bubble in the Sun: The Florida Boom of the 1920s and How It Brought on the Great Depression by Christopher Knowlton.

Focus on: Native American Heritage Month

The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History
by Ned Blackhawk

Winner of the National Book Award, Western Shoshone Yale historian Ned Blackhawk's incisive and richly detailed study explores how Indigenous Americans were instrumental to the evolution of United States history. Try this next: Indigenous Continent: The Epic Conquest for North America by Pekka Hämäläinen.

By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land
by Rebecca Nagle

In this "valuable corrective to our national ignorance" (Kirkus Reviews), Cherokee journalist Rebecca Nagle surveys the history of Indigenous removal and resistance in the United States, culminating in the landmark 2020 Supreme Court decision that upheld tribal sovereignty for the Muscogee Nation in eastern Oklahoma. Further reading: Jacksonland: President Andrew Jackson, the Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a Great American Land Grab by Steve Inskeep.

Born of lakes and plains : mixed-descent peoples and the making of the American West
by Anne Farrar Hyde

A revealing history of the West that pivots on Native peoples and the mixed families they made with European settlers. Ar the heart of Native life for centuries there were complex households using marriage to link communities and protect people within circles of kin. These family circles took in European newcomers who followed the fur trade into Indian Country from the Great Lakes to the Columbia River. Vividly combining the panoramic and the particular, Anne F. Hyde's pathbreaking history follows five mixed-descent families whose lives were inscribed by history.

Native Nations: A Millennium in North America
by Kathleen DuVal

Historian Kathleen DuVal's sweeping and scholarly Pulitzer Prize winner offers a corrective to Eurocentric narratives about Indigenous Americans by spotlighting one thousand years of Native autonomy, governance, and resistance. For fans of: The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History by Ned Blackhawk.

We refuse to forget : a true story of Black Creeks, American identity, and power
by Caleb Gayle

An award-winning journalist, in this paradigm-shifting, thought-provoking examination of racial and ethnic identity in American history, tells the extraordinary story of the Creek Nation, a Native tribe that two centuries ago both owned slaves and accepted Black people as full members.

Contact your librarian for more great books!