Structural Foundations

The buildings that defined the Western world

The Story of Architecture by Witold Rybczynski

Quark of Habit

Scientists keep pushing for larger particle colliders—but is this really wise?

The Matter of Everything: How Curiosity, Physics, and Improbable Experiments Changed the World by Suzie Sheehy

Beauty Born of Ashes

The story of a lyrical masterpiece that almost wasn’t

The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem by Matthew Hollis

To Hell and Back

An Italian master’s unlikely depictions of Dante’s dark vision

Botticelli’s Secret: The Lost Drawings and the Rediscovery of the Renaissance by Joseph Luzzi

Of Dharma and Doom

A fresh translation revives the ending of an ancient Indian epic

After the War: The Last Books of the Mahabharata Wendy Doniger

Power of the Peoples

American history was shaped as much by Native Americans as by their colonizers

Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America by Pekka Hämäläinen

Building Up and Breaking Down

What happens when the structures we erect plunge us into despair?

Bold Ventures: Thirteen Tales of Architectural Tragedy by Charlotte Van den Broeck (trans. from the Dutch by David McKay)

Jena-Gadda-Da-Vida

The brief flowering of an intellectual mecca in 1790s Germany

Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self by Andrea Wulf

The Ephemeral Art

How a Russian impresario revolutionized dance

Diaghilev’s Empire: How the Ballets Russes Enthralled the World by Rupert Christiansen

Zeal of the Convert

A new biography charts a Peruvian seeker’s spiritual quest

The Prophet of the Andes: An Unlikely Journey to the Promised Landy (trans. from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman) by Graciela Mochkofsk

Blood—and Beauty—at the Root

Fifty years ago, Alex Haley’s landmark novel changed the way many Americans thought about race

Remembering Roots: How an American Classic Transformed the Worldby Lucas L. Johnson II

In Defense of Difficult Reading

The tomes of the past cultivate the lost art of sustained attention

What’s So Great About the Great Books?: Why You Should Read Classic Literature (Even Though It Might Destroy You) Naomi Kanakia

Inside Man

A young reporter’s devastating exposé of the amoral elite

How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford UniversityBy Theo Baker

Things Fall Apart

A meditation on entropy, obsolescence, and death

How We Disappear: A Personal History of InformationBy Thomas S. Mullaney

Into the Wilds

The tangled terrain of untrammeled lands

The Savage Landscape: How We Made the WildernessBy Cal Flyn

The Painter Time Forgot

An overdue reckoning of an artist’s volcanic genius

Glorious Country: How the Artist Frederic Church Brought the World to America and America to the WorldBy Victoria Johnson

Where Are We?

Finding our bearings has never been so risky

Little Blue Dot: How GPS Shaped the Modern WorldBy Katherine Dunn

Canonical Contempt

Even in the 18th century, Edward Gibbon’s misogyny set him apart

The Conversions of Edward Gibbon: A Modern BiographyBy Martha Saxton

Books Are a Star’s Best Friend

The little-known reading habits of a Hollywood icon

Marilyn and Her Books: The Literary Life of Marilyn Monroeby Gail Crowther

Who Is Thinking?

The quest to discover the answer to an age-old question

A World Appears: A Journey into ConsciousnessBy Michael Pollan

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