Heart of Semi-Darkness

A writer’s delectable quest for rare flavors

Masters of Horror and Magic

The German folklorists who helped build a nation

For Want of Touch

The astonishing breadth of our passions

Imperiled Planet

The ecological havoc we’ve wrought

The Burning Earth: A History by Sunil Amrith

Ground Truth

A story of dirt, dollars, and death

The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi by Wright Thompson

Insisting on the Positive

A popular historian’s philosophical musings

On Freedom by Timothy Snyder

A Stranger in the Seven Hills

A refugee’s experience in the Eternal City

Roman Year: A Memoir by André Aciman

Mortal Coils

We aren’t alone in facing the inevitable

Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death by Susana Monsó

Silent Partner

The union that may have made possible a writer’s late flourishing

A Wilder Shore: The Romantic Odyssey of Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson by Camille Peri

Schmaltz of Significance

How the first talkie treated the myth of the melting pot

Only in America: Al Jolson and The Jazz Singer by Richard Bernstein

Anything Goes

Prose for the people

The Sense of Style By Steven Pinker

Our Beastly Friends

A literary walk on the wild side

Zoologies By Alison Hawthorne Deming

Frozen Hell

An expedition gone wrong

In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette By Hampton Sides

The Deciders

Two presidents and their war

Embattled Rebel: Jefferson Davis as Commander in ChiefBy James M. McPherson / Founders’ Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln By Richard Brookhiser

Taking Shots

A powerful plea for vaccination

On Immunity: An Inoculation By Eula Biss

Man of the World

Well-traveled and erudite, John Quincy Adams sometimes had trouble appealing to his countrymen

John Quincy Adams: American Visionary By Fred Kaplan

The Skeptic

A critic’s cranky charm

A Literary Education and Other Essays By Joseph Epstein

Inside the Box

How we became pod people

Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace By Nikil Saval

Numbers Game

The problems of solutions

Infinitesimal: How a Dangerous Mathematical Theory Shaped the Modern World By Amir Alexander

Dangerous Liaison

A CIA officer’s many faces

The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames By Kai Bird

● NEWSLETTER

Please enter a valid email address
That address is already in use
The security code entered was incorrect
Thanks for signing up