LibraryAware July NF 2025

New Non-Fiction Arrivals at MPL

July 2025

Welcome to NEXTREADS, the Mobile Public Library's e-mail newsletter service.

Are you looking for a few good books to read? Sign up for our e-newsletters and get great book suggestions by email. We'll deliver reading lists right to your inbox along with new gems, bestsellers and related titles. You'll also be able to check immediately whether the items are available at your favorite Mobile Public Library Location or whether they've been checked out.

Sign Up For More Newsletters

Here are our new arrivals, click the title to view in our catalog:

Angelica: For Love and Country in a Time of Revolution
by Molly Beer

A women-centric view of revolution through the life of Angelica Schuyler Church, Alexander Hamilton's influential sister-in-law.

The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage That Made an American Icon
by Laurie Gwen Shapiro

The riveting and cinematic story of a partnership that would change the world forever.

Bad to Blue: The True Story of a Chinatown Gangster Turned NYPD Detective
by Michael Moy

In this intimate and harrowing memoir, a former Chinese gang member tells the story of how he went from "bad to blue" by leaving the gang behind and becoming a New York City police detective.

also available in audio

The CIA Book Club: The Secret Mission to Win the Cold War With Forbidden Literature
by Charlie English

"A fascinating account of a world-changing covert operation and a first-rate contribution to the history of the CIA."

Blood Harmony: The Everly Brothers Story
by Barry Mazor

The definitive biography of the Everly Brothers, one of the greatest and most influential acts in popular music history, based on dozens of exclusive and archival interviews, as well as long-lost global reporting.

Clint: The Man and the Movies
by Shawn Levy

From the acclaimed film critic and New York Times bestselling biographer of Paul Newman, a revelatory portrait of Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood, the most prolific and versatile actor-director in movie history and an imposing icon of American culture for six decades.

also available in audio

The Great Chinese Art Heist: Imperialism, Organized Crime, and the Hidden Story of China's Stolen Artistic Treasures
by Ralph Pezzullo

The extraordinary story of the theft of priceless Chinese antiques around the world and the connection to crimes spanning more than two centuries--with present-day implications.

The Hiroshima Men: The Quest to Build the Atomic Bomb, and the Fateful Decision to Use It
by Iain MacGregor

An epic, riveting history based on new interviews and research that elucidates the approval, construction, and fateful decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

also available in audio

How We Grow Up: Understanding Adolescence
by Matt Richtel

Greatly expanding his award-winning New York Times series on the contemporary teen mental-health crisis, Pulitzer Prize-winning science reporter Matt Richtel delivers a groundbreaking investigation into adolescence, the pivotal life stage undergoing profound--and often confounding--transformation.

The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy
by James Patterson

The murders of four innocent college students attending the University of Idaho left us all with so many questions. Now, after more than 300 interviews, James Patterson and prize-winning journalist Vicky Ward finally have some answers.

In God's Image: How Western Civilization Was Shaped by a Revolutionary Idea
by Tomer Persico

"This book examines the central role that the biblical idea the "image of God" has played in the development of Western civilization. Focusing on five themes-selfhood, freedom, conscience, equality, and meaning-it presents a cultural history of the Judeo-Christian tradition, from biblical times through modernity, suggesting also an answer for the troublesome question: Why the West?"

It's (Almost) Always Sunny in Philadelphia : How Three Friends Spent $200 to Create the Longest-running Live-action Sitcom in History and Help Build a Network
by Kimberly Potts

In the bestselling traditions of Seinfeldia and Top of the Rock comes a fascinating deep dive into the longest-running live-action sitcom in television history, from its humble beginnings to its evolution as a critically acclaimed cult classic comedy .

also available in audio

JFK Public, Private, Secret
by J. Randy Taraborrelli

From the New York Times bestselling Kennedy historian and author of Jackie: Public, Private, Secret comes the other side of the story--her husband's: JFK: Public, Private, Secret.

A Light in the Northern Sea: Denmark's Incredible Rescue of Their Jewish Citizens During WWII
by Tim Brady

From the bestselling author of Three Ordinary Girls, the gripping, remarkably little-known true story of how the people of Denmark banded together during WWII to rescue nearly all of their Jewish citizens from Nazi persecution by ferrying them just a few at a time to sanctuary in Sweden.

also available in audio

A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck
by Sophie Elmhirst

The electrifying true story of a young couple shipwrecked at sea: a mind-blowing tale of obsession, survival, and partnership stretched to its limits.

The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century
by Tim Weiner

The epic successor to Tim Weiner's National Book Award-winning classic, Legacy of Ashes: a gripping and revelatory history of the CIA in the 21st century, reaching from 9/11 through the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to today's battles with Russia and China--and with the President of the United States.

also available in audio

Monopoly X: How Top-Secret World War II Operations Used the Game of Monopoly to Help Allied POWS Escape, Conceal Spies, and Send Secret Codes
by Philip E. Orbanes

An amazing true story of World War II that reveals how British and American military intelligence successfully smuggled escape aids into German P.O.W. camps hidden inside Monopoly game boards, and also the game's surprising role in espionage.

also available in audio

Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, the Lincoln Assassination, and the Rebirth of America
by Scott Ellsworth

From the author of The Ground Breaking, longlisted for the National Book Award, comes a riveting saga of the last year of the Civil War--and a revealing new account of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Odyssey: The Greek Myths Reimagined
by Stephen Fry

The legendary Stephen Fry retells the adventures of Odysseus for the fourth and final installment in his internationally bestselling Greek Myths series.

The Relaxed Woman: Reclaim Rest and Live an Empowered, Joy-Filled Life
by Nicola Jane Hobbs

Psychologist Nicola Jane Hobbs draws on the latest science and extensive therapeutic experience to dispel the myth that relaxing is lazy and show women how to reclaim rest as a path to healing, freedom, and joy.

The Strangers: Five Extraordinary Black Men and the Worlds That Made Them
by Ekow Eshun

A richly imaginative, powerfully empathetic, and intimate portrait of five remarkable Black men that is also a moving meditation on race, estrangement, and the search for home.

Together in Manzanar: The True Story of a Japanese Jewish Family in an American Concentration Camp
by Tracy Slater

On a late March morning in the spring of 1942, Elaine Yoneda awoke to a series of terrible choices: between her family and freedom, her country and conscience, and her son and daughter.

Uncommon Favor: Basketball, North Philly, My Mother, and the Life Lessons I Learned from All Three
by Dawn Staley

For the first time, Dawn Staley shares powerful and inspiring stories that have shaped her journey on and off the court.

also available in audio

We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate
by Michael Grunwald

From the author of New York Times bestseller The New New Deal, a groundbreaking piece of reportage from the trenches of the next climate war: the fight to fix our food system.

A Year With the Seals: Unlocking the Secrets of the Sea's Most Charismatic and Controversial Creatures
by Alix Morris

Environmental journalist Alix Morris spends an eye-opening year getting to know these elusive, intelligent creatures, investigating the effects of their extraordinary return from the brink of extinction and how we can try to bring nature back into balance.