🧠Because truth is often stranger—and funnier—than fiction.
Memoirs, essays, and deep dives into everything from psychology to platypuses. Smart reads for curious minds.
From the former U.S. Poet Laureate, "a keenly idiosyncratic account of the place of poetry in our time . . . not only interesting but suspenseful to read" (James Logenbach, The Nation)."Poetry is a vocal, which is to say a bodily, art," Robert Pinsky declares in The...
A heartfelt, hilarious look at the evolution of a half-trillion-dollar American holidayHank Stuever turns his unerring eye for the idiosyncrasies of modern life to Frisco, Texas, a suburb at once all-American and completely itself, to tell the story of the nation's...
An enchanting, highly personal tour of some of the most iconic cemeteries of the world—part travelogue, part memoir, part “excursions through death,” by the author of Our Share of Night and “queen of horror” (Los Angeles Times)“Not a travelogue so much as a...
The New York Times–bestselling author and critic investigates whether teens can be turned on to serious reading and what kinds of teachers can do it."Denby makes an impassioned case for the critical importance of books to the lives of young people." —The New York...
"Get your head into the clouds with Aerial Geology." —The New York Times Book ReviewAerial Geology is an up-in-the-sky exploration of North America's 100 most spectacular geological formations. Crisscrossing the continent from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska to the...
The English language is a battlefield. Since the age of Shakespeare, arguments over correct usage have been bitter, and have always really been about contesting values-morality, politics, and class. The Language Wars examines the present state of the conflict, its...
The widower of children's book author Amy Krause Rosenthal shares a "gut-wrenching, honest, and uplifting memoir" of love, loss, and new beginnings (Booklist).In 2017, Amy Krouse Rosenthal penned an op-ed piece for the New York Times' "Modern Love" column titled "You...
In this groundbreaking union of art and science, rocker-turned-neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin explores the connection between music—its performance, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it—and the human brain. Taking on prominent thinkers who argue...
The acclaimed author of Lolita offers unique insight into works by James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Jane Austen, and others—with an introduction by John Updike. In the 1940s, when Vladimir Nabokov first embarked on his academic career in the United States, he brought with...
In this “unmissable book” (The Guardian), an internationally renowned forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist explores the psychology of violence and demonstrates the remarkable human capacity for radical empathy, change, and redemption.What drives someone to commit...