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Pasta Girls
by Taylor Tracy"Sweeter than zeppole. This book has something for everyone."—Jake Maia Arlow, Stonewall Honor Author of Almost FlyingIn this queer, contemporary, and neurodiverse spin on Romeo and Juliet from Stonewall Award Honor author Taylor Tracy, two New York City girls from warring restaurateur families befriend each other during the busiest week for their respective Italian eateries: the Feast of San Gennaro.Hot-headed and energetic Romea Marino is starting ninth grade with a full plate. Between confusing social dynamics of high school and juggling extracurriculars, Ro can only find peace in the reliable comfort of her kitchen, where she’s able to follow in her dad’s culinary footsteps, whipping up Italian-fusion recipes.Thoughtful and reserved Julianna Cangelosi is dying to help in her family’s restaurant, which serves traditional Italian dishes. But because Jules suffers from anxiety and struggles with overstimulation, her parents are wary of their daughter being in the chaos of a New York City kitchen.When Ro and Jules meet on the first night of the San Gennaro Festival, sparks fly…until they learn that their fathers own dueling Italian restaurants across the street from each other. But the more the girls hang out—Ro teaching Jules how to cook; Jules taking Ro to her favorite spots around the city—the more their feelings grow. Can they rewrite the old tale of star-crossed kids from rival families and create a new recipe for love and friendship?
The Origin of Politics: How Evolution and Ideology Shape the Fate of Nations
by Nicholas WadeSocieties that ignore social disintegration and collapsing birth rates are putting their future in peril. So why are we ignoring the signs??In The Origin Of Politics, Nicholas Wade explains how our political systems compete with a more ancient set of rules for organizing society—those developed by evolution. Modern ideologies are in constant tension with structures inherent in human social behavior, such as the family, the tribe, and male-dominated institutions. This tension plays out in various ways. Sometimes nature prevails over politics, as in the proposal by Marx and Engels to eliminate the family, the basic unit of society. The founders of the kibbutz movement put this radical idea into practice, only to find that the conflict with human nature was unsustainable. In other cases, culture has successfully modified evolutionary behaviors, replacing polygamy with monogamy and dissolving the bonds of tribalism to make way for modern states. But the evolutionary framework of human societies is not infinitely flexible. The nation-state, especially in the case of the United States, is prone to disintegration if disruptive ideologies are allowed to undermine the cohesive affinities that hold its disparate cultures together. The worldwide decline in fertility in most countries except those in Africa signals a severe derangement in the behaviors evolution has devised for ensuring that a population will maintain itself. If the causes of this disruption cannot be understood and reversed, human societies will embark on an unsought path to extinction. Other fraught issues in which human biology and politics conflict include the innate specializations of the sexes, the stratification of society by ability, and the mismatch between the inequalities of wealth-creating societies and the egalitarian ethic inherited from our hunter-gatherer ancestors.We live in an iridescent bubble, the intoxicating richness of modern culture. Shielded from the natural world, we have lost our awareness of the evolutionary forces that still guide our motivations and shape the foundations of our societies. The Origin of Politics explores the risks of underestimating evolution’s fundamental role in human affairs.
Game Point: A Novel (Game, Set, and Match #2)
by Meg JonesA sweet and spicy friends-to-lovers romance set against the backdrop of the Australian Open, from the author of Clean Point.In the aftermath of Dylan Bailey’s tenth Grand Slam loss, she decides to put her racket away for good. Until a tempting bet from fellow pro Oliver Anderson convinces her to give it one last shot.If she sticks it out, and still loses the next tournament, she takes home his US Open Trophy, and is free to walk away from the sport forever. To sweeten the deal, Oliver proposes a twist—he’ll swap his racket for a whistle and coach Dylan in the months leading up to the Australian Open. After all, with the solid friendship they’ve built, surely working together could score a game point. They just need to keep their eyes on the ball and ignore their sizzling tension. As Oliver and Dylan navigate the unpredictable court, they rediscover their love for the sport, but the feelings they share could complicate things. With the world watching their every move, they must ensure their partnership stays on-court.But as the lines between coach and player blur, especially in a sport where every detail is scrutinized, keeping their feelings in check may be their toughest match yet.
One of Them: A Novel
by Kitty ZeldisThe beloved author of Not Our Kind and The Dressmakers of Prospect Heights returns with a story of secrets, friendship, and betrayal about two young women at Vassar in the years after World War II, a powerful and moving tale of prejudice and pride that echoes the cultural and social issues of today.Anne Bishop seems like a typical Vassar sophomore—one of a popular group of privileged WASP friends. None of the girls in her circle has any idea that she’s Jewish, or that her real name is or that her real first name is Miriam. Pretending to be a Gentile has made life easier—as Anne, she no longer suffers the snubs, snide remarks, and daily restrictions Jews face. She enjoys her college life of teas, late-night conversations, and mixers. She turns a blind eye to the casual anti-Semitism that flourishes among her friends and classmates—after all, it's no longer directed at her.But her secret life is threatened when she becomes fascinated by a girl not in her crowd. Delia Goldhush is sophisticated, stylish, brilliant, and unashamedly Jewish—and seems not to care that she’s an outcast among the other students. Knowing that her growing closeness with Delia would be social suicide if it were discovered, Anne keeps their friendship quiet. Delia seems to understand—until a cruelty on Anne’s part drives them apart and sends them scattering to other corners of the world, alone and together.
The Macabre: A Novel
by Kosoko JacksonFrom award-winning and USA Today bestselling author Kosoko Jackson comes his adult speculative debut, a stand-alone novel blending time travel and globe-hopping adventure, art history, and dark fantasy about magical paintings and the lengths people will go to collect them, destroy them…or be destroyed.A picture is worth a thousand nightmares.Art has always been an escape for struggling painter Lewis Dixon. But other than his mom, who has recently passed away, no one has ever praised his work. If he is being honest, there’s really no one in his life. So he is shocked when the British Museum shows an unusual interest in his art. This is his chance to show the world what he’s capable of…he just has no idea that he might also be saving the world at the same time.As Lewis soon learns, he has not been invited to participate in a curated show, but rather a test: to see if the fugue-like exhilaration he experiences when painting is actually magic, a power that allows him to enter nine very special paintings—paintings made by his great-grandfather. Spread across the globe, these paintings have unbelievable eldritch abilities…and not necessarily beneficial ones. In terms of power, these are the most valuable works of art in the world, and there are those out there who would do anything to possess just one.And Lewis, upon passing the test, has been asked to destroy them all.Partnered with an alluring agent in museum’s employ, Noah Rao, Lewis must travel to Japan, Australia, Nigeria—and the past—plunging himself into a world of black markets, gothic magic, ancient history, and cursed objects to save those unlucky enough to call any of the paintings their own—or to free the world from those who would misuse the power of the paintings. In doing so, he will need to discover if he has what it takes to truly be an artist, the confidence to finally open himself up to someone who could give his lonely life meaning, and the strength to enter and navigate a reality where magic is everywhere.
Crooks: A Novel About Crime and Family
by Lou Berney"Lou Berney's Crooks stands with some of the finest crime novels ever written." — Don Winslow, #1 Internationally bestselling author"A panoramic, cross-generational look at a unique family pursuing their individual visions of the American dream.” — Joseph Finder, New York Times bestselling authorFrom award-winning author Lou Berney comes an electrifying new novel that follows a uniquely American crime family on an unforgettable journey across four decades.You’ve never met a family like the Mercurios.They say the American dream is going farther in life than your parents ever did. But how does that work if your parents are criminals?For Buddy, a low-level mob wise guy, and Lillian, a charming pickpocket, the criminal underworld is the only life they’ve ever known. When they’re forced to flee the glittering Babylon of Las Vegas, they end up opening a club in Oklahoma City—a town that quickly feels like a gold mine of fresh marks and easy new money. Along for the ride are their five children, all of them raised into the family business of crime—until the day comes when they each have a chance to make their own way in the world, even if they can never completely escape the family’s long, dark shadow. Jeremy, the family’s Golden Boy, will throw himself into the glittering excesses of a drug-fueled Hollywood in the roaring 1980s. Tallulah, the daredevil, will find herself in the deadly Wild West of post-communist Moscow.Ray, the dope, the dumb muscle since he was a kid, wants nothing more than to put down his gun, but following orders is all he’s ever known. Alice, the genius who renounced her life of crime long ago, now sees her white-shoe law firm being blackmailed and must tap into old skills to save both the company and her own life.And Piggy, a civilian always on the outside looking in on his crime family, desperate to be part of the gang.Crooks is an epic novel about a truly unforgettable family–forty years of peril as each Mercurio has to grapple, in their own way, with the family’s powerful criminal legacy.
Rewriting the Rules: How Dr. Kathleen Friel Created New Possibilities for Brain Research and Disability
by Danna ZeigerWhen Kathleen Friel was young, she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and a doctor told her parents all the things she'd never be able to do. They left his office for good and found a new doctor. As Kathleen grew up, she found her own methods to tackle tricky tasks and make her way through the world. After becoming fascinated by science, she went on to earn a PhD, investigating how injured brains can build new connections. She now runs her own lab, developing new techniques to help others with cerebral palsy. This is the incredible story of how a determined scientist rewrote the rules and followed her dreams.
Arm in Arm: The Grimké Sisters' Fight for Abolition and Women's Rights
by Angelica Shirley CarpenterSisters Sarah and Angelina Grimké grew up in wealth and privilege in early nineteenth century Charleston, South Carolina. Following the standards of the time, they should have known nothing but prosperity, high social status, and Southern gentility for all their lives. But neither could look away from the inhumanity, violence, and cruelty of the enslavement they saw everywhere, even in their own home. Shaped by their religious beliefs and a fierce sense of compassion, the sisters moved north to begin a fight that would change America forever. Historian and author Angelica Shirley Carpenter tells the remarkable true story of the sisters’ lives as they cut a swath across the northeastern United States, speaking out against slavery even while facing violence from pro-slavery mobs. When women were expected to stay at home and be quiet, they spoke up, too, for women’s rights, becoming pioneer advocates for that civil liberties movement. Sarah and Angelina’s activism played an important role in the early 1800s, and their actions have had lasting effects—influencing figures such as Ruth Bader Ginsberg—that have set the stage for present-day crusades for equality.
Zeyna Lost and Found
by Shafaq KhanIn 1970, twelve-year-old Zeyna has grown up in London but has never quite felt like she fits in. Her monotonous life is suddenly interrupted when Zeyna's parents decide to visit their native Pakistan—where Zeyna feels she doesn't fit in either. But then her parents disappear, leaving behind a string of clues that connect them to an international jewel heist. Along with her annoying little brother and her clever Pakistani cousin, Zeyna sets out to find her parents and clear their names. Along the way, she discovers that being shaped by two cultures doesn't have to mean she's always an outsider.
To the Stars: The Story of NASA
by Ron Miller“At NASA, our eyes are not just focused on the stars but also fixated on the sky.” –NASA Administrator Bill Nelson “NASA’s future will continue to be a story of human exploration, technology, and science.... We will continue to try to answer the question, ‘Are we alone?’” –NASA In 1915 the US Congress created the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The committee’s first goal was to support the development of aviation. But in the wake of the space race with the Soviet Union that began in the late 1950s, NACA became NASA—the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. From novel technology to international collaboration to scientific research, NASA has become a global leader in space exploration. It even enabled people to walk on the moon for the first time. But how did NASA get here? What has the agency accomplished along the way? Award-winning science author Ron Miller explains NASA’s rich history through a curious, detailed exploration of its successes and failures. Discover the full story of how NASA came to be and learn about its many accomplishments and the scientists and technology behind them. Then look to the future through NASA’s Artemis program and their next big goal of sending astronauts to Mars.
Bride of Frankenstein (film|minutes)
by Shane DensonThe inaugural volume in the film|minutes book series, this book offers a close, minute-by-minute analysis of director James Whale’s iconic 1935 masterpiece Bride of Frankenstein. Alternating between a variety of analytical lenses, including descriptive, historical, and philosophical, this study breaks from conventional forms of film-analytical writing and offers an experiment in defamiliarization and looking anew. In the 1930s, the film opened a space for reflection on the rapid normalization of filmic sound, which it both relies on and estranges. In the 2020s, Bride of Frankenstein brings forth questions of new technological mediums such as artificial intelligence and the transformation of human agency. Shane Denson argues that such associations should not be written off as mere anachronism, but seen, rather, as a strategy of serialization; that is, it is by means of such anachronism that a film like Bride of Frankenstein remains open to new developments and novel situations, and thus comes alive for future viewers. Volumes in the film|minutes series cut up films into segments of exactly one minute and transform each minute into an innovative tool for thinking with the film. Each volume works rigorously with the concept of “the minute” as a non-cinematic scale/quantity, a means to zoom in on (dis)orderly fragments that do not necessarily respect the confinements of cinematic form or meaning. As a critical practice, the focus on minutes causes disruptions and displacement that create novel connections and perspectives, and uncovers hidden traces, making it possible to watch each film anew.
Stock
by Jennifer Bowering Delisle“Woman laughing alone with salad”: humorous and ironic feminist dialogue with stock photography.Stock photographs are everywhere. With their contrived poses, unusual angles, and bizarre visual metaphors, they’re instantly familiar – and familiarly narrow in their vision of our society. Their ubiquity shapes and reinforces the biases, privilege, and stereotypes of their distinct aesthetic.From found poems using metadata and keywords to riffs on stock image database search results with titles like ‘Good Mother Morning Family Happy,’ ‘Beautiful Woman Eating Salad,’ and ‘Lady Boss Smiles with Arms Folded,’ Delisle’s ekphrastic poems take a playful look at stock photography’s clichés and delight in all its strangeness, while casting a critical eye on its representations of women.
I Confess
by Eric SchmaltzHow is a lyric poem like a polygraph machine? A personal, poetic examination of the technology of truth-telling.Eric Schmaltz’s I Confess delves into the complexities of truth-telling in poetry, and the history of technologies designed to produce truth from willing and unwilling subjects, considering what it means to use a device – poetry or polygraph – to draw out one’s most profound feelings and emotions.Exploring the intersection of power, technology, and language, I Confess meditates on lie detection and its history, including trials by ordeal and pseudoscientific technologies. The poet then turns to his own personal experiences working with a lie detector and polygraph analyst. Taking himself as the central subject of the book, Schmaltz puts his subjectivity and positionality under scrutiny.The answers to questions such as What does family mean to you? and Can you describe a time when you felt your best? inspire a range of forms from conventional lyrical verse to list poems to palindromes to visual poems. With an afterword by Orchid Tierney, I Confess is a personal, poetic document of truth’s performance under duress.
InvestiGators: Case Files (InvestiGators)
by Steve Behling John Patrick GreenFROM THE MEGA BESTSELLING GRAPHIC NOVEL SERIESTackle tricky cases in this solve-along Investigators adventure, along with everyone's favorite sleuths Mango and Brash!Special agents Mango and Brash are back again, and this time they’ll be asking their readers for help in cracking the case! The gators have been given a brand new add-on for their V.E.S.T.s to help with gathering evidence and making sense of clues – the G.R.I.D. (Gator Reasoning, Inquiry, Deduction) – and with that powerful tool in hand, kids can follow along as they solve six brand-new mysteries! Featuring plenty of familiar faces from investigations past, as well as a few brand new suspects, Mango and Brash and YOU (the reader) will get to the bottom of cases big and small!
A Silent Treatment: A Memoir
by Jeannie Vanasco"Unspeakably compelling."—Ed Park "A Silent Treatment confronts both the complexity of family and the quandary of capturing a family’s shapeshifting and perplexing love, their truthful and devoted love, in the amber of memoir." —Megha Majumdar She did it to my dad, though. They used the silent treatment on each other, she explained, because they didn't want to say something they'd regret. What does she want to say now that she'd regret? Jeannie Vanasco’s mother starts using the silent treatment not long after moving into the renovated apartment within Jeannie’s home. The silences begin at any perceived slight. Her shortest period of silence lasts two weeks. Her longest, six months. As Vanasco guides us through her mother’s childhood, their shared past, and the devastating silence of their present, she paints a layered, complicated portrait of a mother and daughter looking, failing, and—in big and small ways—succeeding to understand each other. In the margins of her research, at her kitchen table with her partner, in phone calls to friends, and in delightful hey google queries, Vanasco explores the loneliness and isolation of silence as punishment, both in her own life and beyond it, and confronts her greatest fear: that her mother will never speak to her again. From the acclaimed author of Things We Didn’t Talk About When I was a Girl and The Glass Eye, Jeannie Vanasco’s A Silent Treatment is a searingly honest and lasting testament to the power of all things left unsaid.
Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival
by Stephen GreenblattPoor boy. Spy. Transgressor. Genius. In repressive Elizabethan England, artists are frightened into dull conventionality; foreigners are suspect; popular entertainment largely consists of coarse spectacles, animal fights, and hangings. Into this crude world of government censorship and religious authoritarianism comes an ambitious cobbler’s son from Canterbury with a daring desire to be known—and an uncanny ear for Latin poetry. A torment for most schoolboys, yet for a few, like Christopher Marlowe, a secret portal to beauty, visionary imagination, transgressive desire, and dangerous skepticism. What Marlowe seizes in his rare opportunity for a classical education, and what he does with it, brings about a spectacular explosion of English literature, language, and culture. His astonishing literary success will, in turn, nourish the talent of a collaborator and rival, William Shakespeare. Dark Renaissance illuminates both Marlowe’s times and the origins and significance of his work—from his erotic translations of Ovid to his portrayal of unfettered ambition in a triumphant Tamburlaine to Doctor Faustus, his unforgettable masterpiece about making a pact with the devil in exchange for knowledge. Introducing us to Marlowe’s transgressive genius in the form of a thrilling page-turner, Stephen Greenblatt brings a penetrating understanding of the literary work to reveal the inner world of the author, bringing to life a homosexual atheist who was tormented by his own compromises, who refused to toe the party line, and who was murdered just when he had found love. Meanwhile, he explores how the people Marlowe knew, and the transformations they wrought, gave birth to the economic, scientific, and cultural power of the modern world including Faustian bargains with which we reckon still.
Living in the Present with John Prine
by Tom PiazzaA vivid, joyful, moving window onto the life and heart of an American icon. In the spring of 2018, Tom Piazza climbed into a 1977 Coupe de Ville with the great singer-songwriter John Prine to write an article for the Oxford American. Their Florida road trip ignited a deep friendship, full of tall tales over epic meals, long nights playing guitar and trading songs, and visits back and forth between their homes in Nashville and New Orleans. Along the way, Prine invited Piazza to work with him on a memoir, with John telling sprawling, often hilarious stories of his youth and family in Chicago and Kentucky, his breakthrough into the national spotlight, his riotous early years in the Nashville country scene, and much more. When Prine died suddenly of COVID in April 2020, that unfinished memoir evolved into an intimate and very personal narrative of the artist’s final years. In it, Piazza offers fans an unforgettable portrait of the beloved musician in his late glory—as a boyish cut-up, an epic raconteur, a great American poet, and, most important, a beloved friend.
Savory and Sweet Shrubs: Tart Mixers for Delicious Cocktails and Mocktails
by Michael DietschRecipes for vintage mixers made modern with zesty herbs and spices from the original shrubs aficionado. Michael Dietsch took the mixology community by storm with Shrubs, the definitive guide to making and using the vinegar-based, Colonial-era drink mixer. In this companion collection, he expands on the concoction's versatility by embracing the fresh flavors of herbs and spices. Using everything from mint, sage, nutmeg, and peppercorn to lemongrass, vanilla, and green and black teas, readers will love experimenting with unique infusions such as Cilantro Lime Jalapeño, Passion Fruit Mint, and Banana Pineapple Nutmeg. Dietsch provides recipes for 50 shrubs as well as dozens of cocktails, mocktails, and craft sodas that feature them, including the Fruited Gin and Tonic, which features a pomegranate, grapefruit, and ginger shrub, or the Strawbanero Highball with a strawberry habanero shrub. Complete with full-color photography, Savory and Sweet Shrubs is a must-have addition to every bar cart and bookshelf.
The Glass Eel
by J. J. ViertelIn this gripping debut thriller, struggling divorcée Jeanette King becomes embroiled in a criminal ring when she discovers her ex-husband’s cache of baby eels. Caterpillar Island is off the central coast of Maine—beloved vacationland of lobster bakes and quaint fried clam shacks, kayaking and country houses. At night, though, by the light of a headlamp, the island is alive with cash, guns, and poachers. Oxy addicts, struggling retirees, and unemployable deadbeats dip their nets in the creeks to catch elvers—two-inch-long baby eels that fetch $2000 a pound on the international black market. Into this dark and dangerous world falls Jeanette King, who has, up to this moment, been earning her meager living mainly by picking and packaging peekytoe crab meat for shipment to New York and Boston. As Jeanette gets drawn into a fast-moving story of risk and violent consequences, she enlists the aid of a local policeman and an Indigenous activist. Together they try to set things right for the people and the planet. But the deeper they dig, the more dangerous things get. An ensuing procession of colorful locals, corrupt state politicians, and treacherous outsiders weaves a tale that reveals the underbelly of a deadly business.
Healing Bias: Your Guide to Individual, Interpersonal, and Institutional Change
by Dana E. CrawfordBlends CBT and interpersonal therapy principles for implementable actions to reduce bias. Everyone has biases, yet most people are unable to discuss them openly without feelings of shame, stigma, and defensiveness. Although perceived as flaws or a question of one’s character, these biases should be viewed as socially constructed coping mechanisms shaped by trauma, stress, and the need to survive. Only when redefined will we be able to have honest conversations about and reductions in bias, race, and prejudice. Dana Crawford’s Crawford Bias Reduction Theory & Training (CBRT) invites readers on a transformative journey to understand, research, and reduce bias at the internal, relational, and systemic levels. Her three-pronged approach starts with the awareness phase which focuses on self-reflection and group interaction through empathy, compassion, and accountability. The investigation phase will help readers recognize and dissect bias within themselves, with others, and in society. Lastly, the reduction phase further develops skills to confront and mitigate bias with exercises like role-play and real-play scenarios. With reflection prompts, personal stories, actionable advice, and examples inspired by actual events, Healing Bias translates complex ideas into relatable, empowering solutions that can be used on your own or in group settings. This guide can be used with the Racial Awareness Conversations for Everyone (R. A. C. E.) card deck to enhance self-reflection and group discussion with questions based on the CBRT model.
Reacher: The Stories Behind the Stories
by Lee ChildLee Child tells the stories behind the stories from the bestselling Jack Reacher novels. Includes a new, never-before-seen Reacher tale. After making his debut in 1997’s The Killing Floor, Jack Reacher has quickly become one of the most popular—and most enduring—fictional heroes to emerge in the past half century. Now, his creator tells the stories behind the stories. These are the origin tales of all of the Reacher novels written solely by Lee Child, chock full of colorful anecdotes and intriguing inspirations. One by one, they expand upon each novel and place it in the context not only of the author’s life, but of the world outside the books. And taken together, they chart the rise of an action icon, from 1999’s The Killing Floor to 2019’s Blue Moon. An afterword by crime fiction expert and bookseller Otto Penzler considers the importance of the character and novels in the canon of contemporary crime fiction. In addition to the essays, this collection also includes an original Reacher short story—the first new Reacher appearance entirely written by Lee Child since 2019. Entertaining and enlightening, Reacher: The Stories Behind the Stories is a must-read for fans of the Jack Reacher series and a capstone to any collection of this excellent author.
Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World
by Thant Myint-U"A wonderful subject, beautifully written, evoking a world startlingly like and unlike our own. Essential reading for anyone interested in the origins and possibilities of our current global crisis."—Rory Stewart, author of Politics on the Edge A new history of the turbulent 1960s told through the life of U Thant, the first UN secretary-general of color, whose decisions once shaped global war and peace. In the early 1960s, a peaceful world was an imaginable goal. The still-young United Nations was widely respected and regarded as humankind’s best hope for resolving global conflicts. African and Asian nations, having recently won their freedom from colonial domination, sought dignity and influence on the world stage. At the helm of their international efforts was U Thant, a practicing Buddhist from a remote town in Burma who, as the UN’s first non-Western secretary-general, became the Cold War era’s preeminent ambassador of peace. From the moment of his predecessor’s mysterious death in 1961, Thant faced a deluge of violent conflicts in Congo, Yemen, Cyprus, and Nigeria, as well as one between India and Pakistan, that threatened larger conflagrations. Crucially, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, he played an indispensable role—virtually hidden until now—in defusing tensions and helping both superpowers find a way back from nuclear confrontation. For years Thant also challenged Washington over its war in Vietnam, identifying paths to peace that could have saved the lives of millions. Drawing on newly declassified documents, Thant’s grandson, historian Thant Myint-U, gives a riveting account of how his grandfather’s gentle yet willful disposition shaped his determination to avoid a third world war, give voice to the newly decolonized world, create a fairer international economy, and safeguard the environment. Rather than a vestige of an idealistic past, U Thant’s fight for peace is central to a fresh understanding of our world today.
Facing Infinity: Black Holes and Our Place on Earth
by Jonas EnanderA fresh, fascinating, up-to-the-moment appraisal of black holes—the massive astronomical objects with a gravitational pull so strong nothing can escape them, not even light—that situates them at the center of our understanding of our place on Earth and of the universe Humanity’s relationship with black holes began in 1783 in a small English village, when clergyman John Michell posed a startling question: What if there are objects in space that are so large and heavy that not even light can escape them? Almost 250 years later, in April 2019, scientists presented the first picture of a black hole. Profoundly inspired by that image, physicist Jonas Enander has traveled the world to investigate how our understanding of these elusive celestial objects has evolved since the days of Michell. With the particular goal of discovering our human connection to black holes, Enander visits telescopes and observatories, delves deeply into archives, and interviews over 20 world-leading experts, including several Nobel laureates. With Facing Infinity, he takes us on a spellbinding journey into the universe’s greatest mystery, deciphers the most mind-bending science, and answers questions surrounding how black holes work, where they come from, and what role they play in the universe. Along the way Enander discovers how our desire to understand black holes inadvertently paved the way for the invention of Wi-Fi and the calibration of our global navigation satellites, how astronomical discovery became entangled with colonial conflicts, and how our looking outward gave us critical evidence of the impact of climate change. Facing Infinity helps us appreciate and understand as never before these mysterious celestial objects and our surprising connections to them.
More Letters from the Edge: Outrider Conversations
by Margaret RandallA collection of letters exchanged between the author and four “outriders”—artists, writers, and activists who risk everything to confront censorship, injustice, and the constraints of conventionIn More Letters from the Edge, Margaret Randall continues her exploration of the power of correspondence, revealing the intimate and unguarded exchanges that define lives lived at the margins of convention. Through letters, interviews, and fragments of memory, she invites us into conversations with four fearlessly radical writers, artists, and activists: Arturo Arango, Kathy Boudin, Jane Norling, and Robert Schweitzer. Their voices—translated, remembered, and preserved—offer urgent reflections on risk, resistance, and the act of making meaning in a world that, now more than ever, seeks to silence dissent. More than historical artifacts, these conversations bridge past and present, proving that the fight for creative and political integrity is never confined to a single era. More Letters from the Edge is a testament to those who push against the edges, opening doors for all who follow.
Designer Science: A History of Intelligent Design in America
by C.W. HowellThe history of the intelligent design movement and its legacyAnti-science rhetoric in contemporary American politics has become a preoccupying concern for science educators, politicians, and government employees. But why are so many Americans primed to distrust the scientific establishment? This book offers a history of the intelligent design movement, analyzing the links between the legal contests over United States high school curricula and a radical rejection of contemporary scientific practice. Though closely associated with creationism, the intelligent design movement has its own story. It is related to but different from the various forms of creationism, and it has a unique background in natural theology and conservative politics. Typically perceived today as defunct after its public defeat in the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover court case, intelligent design did not disappear, and this book makes the case that its legacy is far more significant than we might think. Though it failed to achieve its goal of remaking contemporary science, intelligent design played a crucial role in legitimizing a mindset of suspicion which has taken hold in discussions of climate change, COVID-19, and vaccine hesitancy. In today’s post-truth moment, where scientific expertise has become increasingly rejected, the volume showcases that the intelligent design movement’s most lasting effects may not be in its challenge to evolution, but in the way it influenced the public’s understanding of science and scientists. Designer Science makes the case that we are all grappling today with intelligent design’s legacy, and it offers a history of how we got here.