Reading Suggestions
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An Unfinished Love Story
An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin, one of America’s most beloved historians, artfully weaves together biography, memoir, and history. She takes you along on the emotional journey she and her husband, Richard (Dick) Goodwin embarked upon in the last years of his life.
Dick and Doris Goodwin were married for forty-two years and married to American history even longer. In his twenties, Dick was one of the brilliant young men of John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier. In his thirties he both named and helped design Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and was a speechwriter and close advisor to Robert Kennedy. Doris Kearns was a twenty-four-year-old graduate student when selected as a White House Fellow. She worked directly for Lyndon Johnson and later assisted on his memoir.
Over the years, with humor, anger, frustration, and in the end, a growing understanding, Dick and Doris had argued over the achievements and failings of the leaders they served and observed, debating the progress and unfinished promises of the country they both loved.
The Goodwins’ last great adventure involved finally opening the more than three hundred boxes of letters, diaries, documents, and memorabilia that Dick had saved for more than fifty years. They soon realized they had before them an unparalleled personal time capsule of the 1960s, illuminating public and private moments of a decade when individuals were powered by the conviction they could make a difference; a time, like today, marked by struggles for racial and economic justice, a time when lines were drawn and loyalties tested.
Their expedition gave Dick’s last years renewed purpose and determination. It gave Doris the opportunity to connect and reconnect with participants and witnesses of pivotal moments of the 1960s. And it gave them both an opportunity to make fresh assessments of the central figures of the time—John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, and especially Lyndon Johnson, who greatly impacted both their lives. The voyage of remembrance brought unexpected discoveries, forgiveness, and the renewal of old dreams, reviving the hope that the youth of today will carry forward this unfinished love story with America. -
Love, Mom
From Fox News medical contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier, comes an inspiring collection of powerful first-person stories celebrating motherhood, from Fox News personalities and extraordinary moms around America.
Unmatched and unwavering, mothers are the embodiment of selfless, pure, and unconditional love. But so often, the sacrifices and triumphs of motherhood go unrecognized. Now, in Love, Mom, Fox News medical contributor and mom of three, Dr. Nicole Saphier, shines a light on the power of a mother's love, with inspiring first-person stories from moms in the Fox News family.
For Dr. Saphier--who was just a teenager when she gave birth to her first son--motherhood was a transformative responsibility. Her story, like so many moms featured in this book, is an inspiration for what it means to be there for your child, no matter where you are in life. Alongside Dr. Saphier's account are deeply personal contributions from FOX News anchors and personalities, such as:
- Ainsley Earhardt, on the precious bond between mother and daughter, the loss of her own mom, and the power of her faith. Rachel Campos-Duffy, on raising nine children, unexpected blessings, and dedicating her life to advocating for education and awareness about children with Down Syndrome. Kayleigh McEnany, on embracing motherhood despite health challenges, and the delicate balance between career aspirations and the profound gift of raising children. Janice Dean, on navigating the heartbreak of miscarriage, living with an autoimmune disease, and finding joy in raising boys. Martha MacCallum, on the challenges of juggling career and family, the myth of perfection, and the importance of being kind to yourself. Sandra Smith, on how motherhood truly takes a village, and the value of a strong support system as a working mom. Carley Shimkus, on being a new mom, and balancing new responsibilities with grace and determination.
In Love, Mom, these mothers share their powerful stories, greatest challenges, and insightful reflections about young motherhood, miscarriage, ovarian cancer, mixed race children, postpartum depression, domestic violence, adoption, blended families, and more. Ultimately, Love, Mom is a celebration of motherhood and reminds us that a mother's strength and love is an extraordinary gift.
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Knife
From internationally renowned writer and Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie, a searing, deeply personal account of enduring—and surviving—an attempt on his life thirty years after the fatwa that was ordered against him
On the morning of August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was standing onstage at the Chautauqua Institution, preparing to give a lecture on the importance of keeping writers safe from harm, when a man in black—black clothes, black mask—rushed down the aisle toward him, wielding a knife. His first thought: So it’s you. Here you are.
What followed was a horrific act of violence that shook the literary world and beyond. Now, for the first time, and in unforgettable detail, Rushdie relives the traumatic events of that day and its aftermath, as well as his journey toward physical recovery and the healing that was made possible by the love and support of his wife, Eliza, his family, his army of doctors and physical therapists, and his community of readers worldwide.
Knife is Rushdie at the peak of his powers, writing with urgency, with gravity, with unflinching honesty. It is also a deeply moving reminder of literature’s capacity to make sense of the unthinkable, an intimate and life-affirming meditation on life, loss, love, art—and finding the strength to stand up again. -
Briefly Perfectly Human
A deeply transformative memoir that reframes how we think about death and how it can help us lead better, more fulfilling and authentic lives, from America's most visible death doula.
For her clients and everyone who has been inspired by her humanity, Alua Arthur is a friend at the end of the world. As our country's leading death doula, she's spreading a transformative message: thinking about your death--whether imminent or not--will breathe wild, new potential into your life.
Warm, generous, and funny AF, Alua supports and helps manage end-of-life care on many levels. The business matters, medical directives, memorial planning; but also honoring the quiet moments, when monitors are beeping and loved ones have stepped out to get some air--or maybe not shown up at all--and her clients become deeply contemplative and want to talk. Aching, unfinished business often emerges. Alua has been present for thousands of these sacred moments--when regrets, fears, secret joys, hidden affairs, and dim realities are finally said aloud. When this happens, Alua focuses her attention at the pulsing center of her clients' anguish and creates space for them, and sometimes their loved ones, to find peace.
This has had a profound effect on Alua, who was already no stranger to death's periphery. Her family fled a murderous coup d'état in Ghana in the 1980s. She has suffered major, debilitating depressions. And her dear friend and brother-in-law died of lymphoma. Advocating for him in his final months is what led Alua to her life's calling. She knows firsthand the power of bearing witness and telling the truth about life's painful complexities, because they do not disappear when you look the other way. They wait for you.
Briefly Perfectly Human is a life-changing, soul-gathering debut, by a writer whose empathy, tenderness, and wisdom shimmers on the page. Alua Arthur combines intimate storytelling with a passionate appeal for loving, courageous end-of-life care--what she calls "death embrace." Hers is a powerful testament to getting in touch with something deeper in our lives, by embracing the fact of our own mortality. "Hold that truth in your mind," Alua says, "and wondrous things will begin to grow around it."
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My Beloved Monster
The #1 bestselling author of The Alienist tells the extraordinary story of Masha, a half-wild rescue cat who fought off a bear, tackled Caleb like a linebacker--and bonded with him as tightly as any cat and human possibly can.
Caleb Carr has had special relationships with cats since he was a young boy in a turbulent household, famously peopled by the founding members of the Beat Generation, where his steadiest companions were the adopted cats that lived with him both in the city and the country. As an adult, he has had many close feline companions, with relationships that have outlasted most of his human ones. But only after building a three-story home in rural, upstate New York did he enter into the most extraordinary of all of his cat pairings: Masha, a Siberian Forest cat who had been abandoned as a kitten, and was languishing in a shelter when Caleb met her. She had hissed and fought off all previous carers and potential adopters, but somehow, she chose Caleb as her savior.
For the seventeen years that followed, Caleb and Masha were inseparable. Masha ruled the house and the extensive, dangerous surrounding fields and forests. When she was hurt, only Caleb could help her. When he suffered long-standing physical ailments, Masha knew what to do. Caleb's life-long study of the literature of cat behavior, and his years of experience with previous cats, helped him decode much of Masha's inner life. But their bond went far beyond academic studies and experience. The story of Caleb and Masha is an inspiring and life-affirming relationship for readers of all backgrounds and interests--a love story like no other.
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New Cold Wars
The fast-paced inside story of America’s plunge into a volatile rivalry with the other two great nuclear powers—Xi Jinping’s China and Vladimir Putin’s Russia—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and bestselling author of The Perfect Weapon
New Cold Wars—the latest from the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and bestselling author of The Perfect Weapon David E. Sanger—is a fast-paced account of America’s plunge into simultaneous confrontations with two very different adversaries. For years, the United States was confident that the newly democratic Russia and increasingly wealthy China could be lured into a Western-led order that promised prosperity and relative peace—so long as they agreed to Washington’s terms. By the time America emerged from the age of terrorism, it was clear that this had been a fantasy.
Now the three powers are engaged in a high-stakes struggle for military, economic, political, and technological supremacy, with nations around the world pressured to take sides. Yet all three are discovering that they are maneuvering for influence in a far more turbulent world than they imagined.
Based on a remarkable array of interviews with top officials from five presidential administrations, U.S. intelligence agencies, foreign governments, and tech companies, Sanger unfolds a riveting narrative spun around the era’s critical questions: Will the mistakes Putin made in his invasion of Ukraine prove his undoing and will he reach for his nuclear arsenal—or will the West’s famously short attention span signal Kyiv’s doom? Will Xi invade Taiwan? Will both men deepen their partnership to undercut America’s dominance? And can a politically dysfunctional America still lead the world?
Taking readers from the battlefields of Ukraine—where trench warfare and cyberwarfare are interwoven—to the Taiwan headquarters where the world’s most advanced computer chips are produced and on to tense debates in the White House Situation Room, New Cold Wars is a remarkable first-draft history chronicling America’s return to superpower conflict, the choices that lie ahead, and what is at stake for the United States and the world. -
Seriously, So Good
Delicious, satisfying recipes that are good for your health, heart, and mind by the beloved blogger and creator of Brocc Your Body.
Self-proclaimed SoCal beach girl Carissa Stanton first earned her nickname Brocc, not because of an obsession with broccoli (though she thinks it’s a damn good veggie), but because she hosted weekly girl’s nights with her friends who loved to cook, eat—and move their bodies. With Justin Timberlake’s “Rock Your Body” in mind, she combined her love of food and created @BroccYourBody to start sharing her favorite recipes on Instagram.
Now, Carissa shares with her hundreds of thousands of followers how cooking for yourself after a busy day of work can be just as exciting as relaxing with friends over cocktails and apps. Seriously, So Good reflects her philosophy of feeling good about what she’s cooking and eating by making smart choices without depriving herself of carbs or a splash of cream here and there. She wants to remove the anxiety around food by helping us all feel more confident in and out of the kitchen. She shares her recipes and balanced outlook to motivate others to experience a stress-free cooking approach while enjoying mouth-watering meals alone or with loved ones.
The 100 flavor-bomb dishes, which are approachable, nourishing, and always fun, include all-time favorites such as her viral Greek-Style Lemon Chicken Soup, a better-for-you take on fast food with her “Fried” Chicken Sandwich with Special Sauce, and more like:- Pan-Fried Brie with Pistachios and Rosemary Hot Honey
- Sun-Dried Tomato and Feta Turkey Burgers with Jalapeño Tzatziki
- Brown Butter Lemon Halibut with Asparagus and Olive Oil Whipped Potatoes
- Chicken Pot Pie Soup with Flaky Biscuits
- Spicy Rosé Spritz
- Flourless Espresso Brownies
Carissa describes her recipes as healthy, but not too healthy because health isn’t just about being able to run a marathon or eating “clean.” It’s about living your life to the fullest. -
Pizza Night
Making great pizza isn’t complicated. Whether you’re using a kitchen oven, a grill, or an outdoor pizza oven, it all starts with the dough.
In Pizza Night, Alexandra Stafford presents four simple doughs—thin-crust, pan, Neapolitan-style, and gluten-free (plus sourdough variations)—and easy techniques for perfecting your crust. From there, you can create a variety of delicious pizzas, including Detroit-Style Pizza for a Crowd, Classic Margherita Pizza, and Winter White Pizza with Garlic and Herbs. You can make it the same day or ahead; make it extra cheesy and decadent or go the healthy road—pizza-making easily adapts to busy schedules and tastes and requires little in special equipment.
Arranged seasonally, each pizza is paired with a salad, from a springtime Salami and Red Onion Pizza with Calabrian Chiles and Hot Honey served with an Arugula Salad with Prosciutto and Parmesan, to a fall Broccoli Rabe and Smoked Mozzarella Pizza accompanied by a Farm Share Harvest Slaw to a summery Roasted Hatch Chili Pizza with Corn and Oaxaca with a Melon, Cucumber and Mint Salad. To end your meal on a sweet note, there are also a handful of simple desserts to choose from (Loaf Pan Tiramisu, One-Bowl Lemon Ricotta Pound Cake). Pizza Night serves up a year’s worth of delicious, inspired, and satisfying pizzas and salads. -
Somehow
From the bestselling author of Dusk, Night, Dawn and Help, Thanks, Wow, a joyful celebration of love
“Love is our only hope,” Anne Lamott writes in this perceptive new book. “It is not always the easiest choice, but it is always the right one, the noble path, the way home to safety, no matter how bleak the future looks.”
In Somehow: Thoughts on Love, Lamott explores the transformative power that love has in our lives: how it surprises us, forces us to confront uncomfortable truths, reminds us of our humanity, and guides us forward. “Love just won't be pinned down,” she says. “It is in our very atmosphere” and lies at the heart of who we are. We are, Lamott says, creatures of love.
In each chapter of Somehow, Lamott refracts all the colors of the spectrum. She explores the unexpected love for a partner later in life. The bruised (and bruising) love for a child who disappoints, even frightens. The sustaining love among a group of sinners, for a community in transition, in the wider world. The lessons she underscores are that love enlightens as it educates, comforts as it energizes, sustains as it surprises.
Somehow is Anne Lamott’s twentieth book, and in it she draws from her own life and experience to delineate the intimate and elemental ways that love buttresses us in the face of despair as it galvanizes us to believe that tomorrow will be better than today. Full of the compassion and humanity that have made Lamott beloved by millions of readers, Somehow is classic Anne Lamott: funny, warm, and wise. -
The Wide Wide Sea
From New York Times bestselling author Hampton Sides, an epic account of the most momentous voyage of the Age of Exploration, which culminated in Captain James Cook's death in Hawaii, and left a complex and controversial legacy still debated to this day.
On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution. Two-and-a-half years later, on a beach on the island of Hawaii, Cook was killed in a conflict with native Hawaiians. How did Cook, who was unique among captains for his respect for Indigenous peoples and cultures, come to that fatal moment?
Hampton Sides' bravura account of Cook's last journey both wrestles with Cook's legacy and provides a thrilling narrative of the titanic efforts and continual danger that characterized exploration in the 1700s. Cook was renowned for his peerless seamanship, his humane leadership, and his dedication to science--the famed naturalist Joseph Banks accompanied him on his first voyage, and Cook has been called one of the most important figures of the Age of Enlightenment. He was also deeply interested in the native people he encountered. In fact, his stated mission was to return a Tahitian man, Mai, who had become the toast of London, to his home islands. On previous expeditions, Cook mapped huge swaths of the Pacific, including the east coast of Australia, and initiated first European contact with numerous peoples. He treated his crew well, and endeavored to learn about the societies he encountered with curiosity and without judgment.
Yet something was different on this last voyage. Cook became mercurial, resorting to the lash to enforce discipline, and led his two vessels into danger time and again. Uncharacteristically, he ordered violent retaliation for perceived theft on the part of native peoples. This may have had something to do with his secret orders, which were to chart and claim lands before Britain's imperial rivals could, and to discover the fabled Northwest Passage. Whatever Cook's intentions, his scientific efforts were the sharp edge of the colonial sword, and the ultimate effects of first contact were catastrophic for Indigenous people around the world. The tensions between Cook's overt and covert missions came to a head on the shores of Hawaii. His first landing there was harmonious, but when Cook returned after mapping the coast of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, his exploitative treatment of the Hawaiians led to the fatal encounter.
At once a ferociously-paced story of adventure on the high seas and a searching examination of the complexities and consequences of the Age of Exploration, THE WIDE WIDE SEA is a major work from one of our finest narrative nonfiction writers. -
The Age of Magical Overthinking
From the bestselling author of Cultish and host of the podcast Sounds Like a Cult, a delicious blend of cultural criticism and personal narrative that explores our cognitive biases and the power, disadvantages, and highlights of magical thinking.
Utilizing the linguistic insights of her “witty and brilliant” (Blyth Roberson, author of America the Beautiful?) first book Wordslut and the sociological explorations of her breakout hit Cultish, Amanda Montell now turns her erudite eye to the inner workings of the human mind and its biases in her most personal and electrifying work yet.
“Magical thinking” can be broadly defined as the belief that one’s internal thoughts can affect unrelated events in the external world: Think of the conviction that one can manifest their way out of poverty, stave off cancer with positive vibes, thwart the apocalypse by learning to can their own peaches, or transform an unhealthy relationship to a glorious one with loyalty alone. In all its forms, magical thinking works in service of restoring agency amid chaos, but in The Age of Magical Overthinking, Montell argues that in the modern information age, our brain’s coping mechanisms have been overloaded, and our irrationality turned up to an eleven.
In a series of razor sharp, deeply funny chapters, Montell delves into a cornucopia of the cognitive biases that run rampant in our brains, from how the “Halo effect” cultivates worship (and hatred) of larger than life celebrities, to how the “Sunk Cost Fallacy” can keep us in detrimental relationships long after we’ve realized they’re not serving us. As she illuminates these concepts with her signature brilliance and wit, Montell’s prevailing message is one of hope, empathy, and ultimately forgiveness for our anxiety-addled human selves. If you have all but lost faith in our ability to reason, Montell aims to make some sense of the senseless. To crack open a window in our minds, and let a warm breeze in. To help quiet the cacophony for a while, or even hear a melody in it. -
The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians
This "celebration of the world of books" (Kirkus) serves up "comfort food for bookworms" (Publishers Weekly) in true stories from the booksellers and librarians--the superheroes of reading--as told to the greatest storyteller of our time, James Patterson.
To be a bookseller or librarian...
You have to play detective.
Be a treasure hunter. A matchmaker. An advocate. A visionary.
A person who creates "book joy" by pulling a book from a shelf, handing it to someone and saying, "You've got to read this. You're going to love it."
Step inside The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians and enter a world where you can feed your curiosities, discover new voices, find whatever you want or require. This place has the magic of rainbows and unicorns, but it's also a business. The book business.
Meet the smart and talented people who live between the pages--and who can't wait to help you find your next favorite book. -
All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words
An oral history of The Beatles from never-before-seen interviews.
All You Need Is Love is a groundbreaking oral history of the one of the most enduring musical acts of all time. The material is comprised of intimate interviews with Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, their families, friends and business associates that were conducted by Beatles intimate Peter Brown and author Steven Gaines in 1980-1981 during the preparation of their international bestseller, The Love You Make, which spent four months on the New York Times bestseller list in 1983 and remains the biggest selling biography worldwide about the Beatles
Only a small portion of the contents of these transcribed interviews have ever been revealed. The interviews are unique and candid. The information, stories, and experiences, and the authority of the people who relate to them, have historic value. No collection like this can ever be assembled again.
In addition to interviews with Paul, Yoko, Ringo and George, Brown and Gaines also include interviews from ex-wives Cynthia Lennon, Pattie Harrison Clapton, and Maureen Starkey, as well as the major social and business figures of the Beatles’ inner circle. Among other sought-after information the interviews contribute definitively as to why the Beatles broke up. -
Grown Woman Talk
A practical guide to aging and health for women who have felt ignored or marginalized by the medical profession, from a leading OB/GYN and expert on menopausal and post-reproductive health
There’s not enough talk around women’s health, and what little there is rarely helps. Women are routinely warned, lectured, or threatened about their health. Or they are ignored, dismissed, or shamed. But they are rarely empowered. And empowerment, more than anything, is what women—and women of color, in particular—need.
Grown Woman Talk is for every woman who has felt marginalized or overwhelmed by a healthcare system that has become more impersonal, complex, and difficult to navigate than ever. It’s also for any woman who is simply standing at the intersection of aging and health, anxious and wanting solutions.
Part medical handbook, part memoir, and part sister-girl cheerleader, this book is filled with useful resources and real-life stories of victory and defeat. It not only highlights the current data around women’s health issues, but it also places that data in a helpful context.
In a tone that is lively and intimate but unflinchingly direct, Dr. Sharon Malone details how to live better, age better, and get better medical treatment, especially when it’s most needed. This is not a medical activism book designed to fight the power. This is a book designed to show women that they already have the power—they need only to increase their capacity and willingness to use it.
Most important, Grown Woman Talk seeks to eradicate the silence that surrounds women’s health by facilitating discussion between women of all ages and encouraging more accurate and productive medical insights. It is Dr. Sharon’s belief that giving women more agency can, literally, give them life. -
The Wealth Money Can't Buy
Real wealth is so much more than cash in the bank, flashy cars in the driveway and luxury vacations on exotic islands. Too many financially prosperous people are surprisingly poor when it comes to the things that truly matter for a life of happiness, vitality, and serenity.
Society has sold us a version of success that has left too many people feeling empty, frustrated, and filled with regret. Fortunately, there is a much better way to live.
In The Wealth Money Can’t Buy, you will discover a life-altering system that will help you lead your richest life before it’s too late. You will learn a framework based on the eight hidden habits used by authentically rich people and gain a methodology to master your destiny. Open this book and allow a trusted mentor to offer you valuable insights, including:
• how to become a “perfect moment” creator
• why your choice of mate is 90% of your joy
• the power of “The 10,000 Dinners Question”
• hidden habits of authentically wealthy people
• the brilliance of “going ghost” for a year
Legendary personal growth expert Robin Sharma has mentored billionaires, superstar athletes, and heads of state, teaching them The 8 Forms of Wealth Model with transformational results. Now, you will learn it, too, and create the lifetime of your highest dreams.
Full of practical tools and transformational tactics, The Wealth Money Can’t Buy offers a life-changing philosophy and methodology for enjoying a genuinely rich life—filled with personal power, unusual authenticity, exceptionally fulfilling work, and a lifestyle that will make you feel that fortune has finally smiled on you.