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WOODROW WILSON

Historian, lawyer, and former Congressman Cox writes that Wilson was the first Southern Democrat to occupy the White House since Andrew Johnson. Scholars have long considered him a giant among presidents for his progressive reforms and leadership in World War I. They have not ignored his flaws, emphasizing the censorship, suppression of civil rights, and persecution of war opponents. Cox will have none of that. Sticking to the historical record but keeping Wilson’s achievements in the backgroun

INVISIBLE WARFARE

Imprisoned in 1990 for four years in China for performing two protest poems that “railed against and condemned the Tiananmen massacre,” Liao Yiwu has committed his life to fighting against the Chinese government’s widespread oppression. He continued to write when he was released, hounded by the Chinese police, who confiscated his work. In 2011, he was compelled to defect to Germany in order “to publish the writings I’d started in prison.” In exile, he has been able to have much of his clandesti

TO THE SUCCESS OF OUR HOPELESS CAUSE

When Stalin lived, his government paid little attention to the nation’s guarantees of constitutional rights and used terror, imprisonment, and torture to curb dissent. When Stalin died in 1953, the regime was less inclined to kill its opponents. In this deeply researched history, Nathans, author of Beyond the Pale, introduces bohemian intellectual Alexander Volpin, son of the poet Sergei Esenin, who, inspired by Rosa Parks and other civil rights activists, “sought to apply modal logic to two hu

A HORSE NAMED SKY

Parry’s moving story follows the pattern of her recent animal tales, A Wolf Called Wander (2019) and A Whale of the Wild (2020), chronicling a wild animal’s life in the first person, imagining its point of view, and detailing and appreciating the natural world it inhabits. As Sky grows from wobbly newborn to leader of his family, he faces more than the usual challenges for colts who must fight their stallions or leave their herds when they are grown up. Fagan’s appealing black-and-white illustr

WHY CONGRESS

Congress has been the subject of jeers since the early days of the republic, but the past 20 years have seen the scoffing turn into outright contempt. Wallach, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, agrees that Congress has become dysfunctional and wants to know why. In this authoritative book, he begins with the period after World War II and the civil rights era, when Congress worked effectively. Much of the essential policy work was done through bipartisan committees, and even

BLACK WOMEN TAUGHT US

Jackson, a political science professor and columnist for Teen Vogue, presents these 11 essays as “love letters” to influential Black women “who built our movements and taught us how to love ourselves whole.” The author links their personal history with a vital tradition of intellectualism and activism spanning nearly two centuries. Jackson considers celebrated figures such as Harriet Jacobs, Zora Neale Hurston, and Audre Lorde, but they also examine less well-known ones, including Fannie Lou Ha

NIGHT FOR DAY

Camille Buhay started dating Ward Dunbar when they were in college in Chicago. Though they were opposites, they were deliriously happy with each other—until they weren’t. Dissatisfied with what she took to be Ward’s entitlement and privilege, Camille moved to Manhattan. A short time later, Ward headed to Los Angeles. But distance didn’t heal their emotional wounds. When they both end up heading to London, where they’re interviewing for similar jobs selling art and antiques, neither knows the ot

THE NOTEBOOK

British publisher and diarist Allen brings his love of notebooks to a lively, wide-ranging history of bound blank pages. Notebooks, he writes, “interest me as a technology that has had tangible effects on the world around us.” The author started keeping a journal in 2002: “Writing a diary made me happier; keeping things-to-do lists made me more reliable (which in turn made those around me happier), and I learned never to go to a doctor’s appointment, or a meeting of any kind, without taking not

GAYS ON BROADWAY

In his latest book, Mordden, who has written extensively about American and British theater, focuses on the influences of “homosexuals, bisexuals, transsexuals, metrosexuals, and the sexually fluid” on American stage productions throughout the 20th century. The author begins with profiles of high-profile drag queens like illusionist Julian Eltinge and lesbian repertory firebrand Eva Le Gallienne, who, alongside many others, paved the way for gay characterizations and storylines through both “se

THE GENIZAH

A Genizah is a place where worn-out religious books are kept until they get a proper burial; when death is everywhere and proper burial is no longer possible, Karlin suggests, everyone starts to live in a Genizah, an in-between space. Inspired by his mother’s stories about life in Kolno, Poland, and her family’s subsequent reinvention in America, Karlin’s heartfelt book asks, “What if they had stayed?” Leaving becomes a focus of the main characters: Elazar, a talented boxer, and Rahel, the daug

IN EXILE

Ansari never understood Tahira, the taciturn grandmother who lived with the author’s family for a decade until she died. Then an aunt casually revealed that Tahira had once walked out on seven children to be with another man. The “strict code of propriety” that governed family interactions kept Ansari from asking questions. However, when she was studying journalism in graduate school, Ansari began to probe her grandmother’s past through interviews with family members, historical research, and t

THE RANCH AT THE END OF THE WORLD

New arrivals to Ransh Cyfle Olaf, or Last Chance Ranch, learn that “this isn’t prison; this isn’t holiday camp. This is a place to start at the beginning.” The novel opens with Nell and four other young people on a bus in rural Wales. Nell tells readers, “I’m quick to rage, will flip if pushed, and I like girls.” As she does chores, tends to the horses, and explores the hills, forest, and river surrounding the ranch, Nell makes new friends, including Fran, whose mother runs the farm. Both Nell

AMERICAN MOTHER

Award-winning novelist McCann and Foley, mother of murdered journalist James Wright Foley (1973-2014), offer a powerful recounting of the unspeakable tragedy and its aftermath. In August 2014, after being held hostage for two years, Jim was beheaded by Islamic Group terrorists. He had been taken hostage once before, in Libya, but that time was released after 44 days. Undaunted, he went to Syria “determined to bear witness to the horrific bombings and gassings of innocent civilians by the Assad

HOW TO CATCH SANTA CLAUS

Oddly, previous installments saw the children trying (and failing) to catch an elf and a reindeer, but both are easily captured in this story. Santa, however, is slippery. Tempted but not fooled by poinsettias, a good book (attached to a slingshot armed with a teddy bear projectile), and, of course, milk and cookies, Santa foils every plan. The hero in a red suit has a job to do. Presents must be placed, and lists must be checked. He has no time for traps and foolery (except if you’re the elf,

AMIL AND THE AFTER

After leaving their beloved home in Mirpur Khas, which is now part of the newly created Pakistan, 12-year-old twins Amil and Nisha are living in Bombay with their doctor father, paternal grandmother, and beloved family cook. While Amil (whose late mother was Muslim and father is Hindu) is grateful for their newfound safety, he’s haunted by memories of their flight. Nisha kept a diary during their journey, and when she suggests Amil should draw to express his feelings, he begins sketching the fa

IMPOSSIBLE JOURNEY

Private Nathan (Nat) Daniel Luck, the upbeat, first-person fictional narrator of the author’s retelling of Lewis and Clark’s two-year exploratory North American adventure, has finished his day’s work at their winter camp in the small village of Cahokia, Indiana Territory, where the members of the expedition have been preparing to head up the Mississippi as soon as the ice melts on the connecting Missouri River. Arriving at the local tavern, Nat spots his friend, Charles (Charlie) Floyd, waiting

UNCHARTED

Busenbark’s husband, Rick, had a fatal heart attack in December 2011, which upended her life. Clinging to plans they’d made together before his passing, the author, a landscape painter, moved from Peterborough, New Hampshire to the small town of Hampton Falls, and opened an art gallery. Her sorrow had only just begun to abate when her 34-year-old son, Richard, died of a fatal overdose. Having lost two of the most important people in her life in as many years, Busenbark struggled to make sense o

ROMAN STORIES

Lahiri’s third collection follows her Pulitzer-winning debut collection, Interpreter of Maladies (1999), and Unaccustomed Earth (2008), with novels and essays interspersed. In 2011, she moved from the U.S. to Rome, where she has become a prolific translator and editor in Italian, and like its immediate predecessor, the novel Whereabouts (2021), the stories in this book were written in Italian then translated to English. As a group, they evoke her new city from the perspective of an outsider loo

THE BRAINIAC'S BOOK OF ROBOTS AND AI

Starting out with a superficial checklist designed to distinguish robots from “non-bots” (“Does it move?” “Is it automatic?”) and a list of machines (readers must decide whether they are robots; answers are provided in the backmatter), Virr goes on to an equally quick gallery of automata from the ancient world to the 18th-century “Digesting Duck,” then rushes headlong past modern robot construction and design, programming, common current or potential uses for work and for play, and finally pros

ACCOUNTABLE

Liberal Albany, California—where over half the residents are White and most are college educated—was the site in 2017 of a shocking discovery. A Korean American high school junior had created a private Instagram account and for several months shared racist, sexist memes with his 13 followers, all White and Asian boys. The targets were predominantly Black and Black biracial girls (a Black coach and Sri Lankan American boy were also victims). The violent, degrading images were even more horrific