Birds Aren’t Real delivers a knowing satire of American conspiratorial thinking in the century of QAnon. Beneath the collegiate humor, however, lies a profound grasp of conspiracism’s psychic appeal, and a valuable provocation. How to best fight false claims and conspiracies online is currently the subject of fierce debate among social and computer scientists, policymakers, even the Supreme Court. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Greatest Hits assembles Ellison’s most popular, award-bedecked stories, science fiction or sci-fi adjacent all, mostly from his middle and early-late career, when he was at the apogee of his powers. Selections include “The Deathbird,” “The Whimper of Whipped Dogs,” “Shatterday,” “The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World” (God, he was good with titles), and other winners of Nebulas, Hugos, and Locuses. Given the fact that many of his best books are out of print and the behemoth The Essential Ellison (1987) costs a fortune, this book, while hyperfocused on his sci-fi output, is both an excellent introduction to the man for neophytes and a convenient volume for acolytes. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Author Kazuo Ishiguro and jazz singer Stacey Kent turned a friendship into a songwriting collaboration. Sixteen lyrics have been compiled in a new book The Summer We Crossed Europe in the Rain. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Craig Whitlock’s masterful account of one of the biggest public corruption scandals in American history–exposing how a charismatic Malaysian defense contractor bribed scores of high-ranking military officers, defrauded the US Navy of tens of millions of dollars, and jeopardized our nation’s security. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Fascinating stories about books and the people who made them. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
As he struggled with writing and illness, the “Alienist” author found comfort in the feline companions he recalls in a new memoir, “My Beloved Monster.” Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Decades of unresolved trauma power the deeply moving, posthumously published final Rocksburg procedural (after 2002’s Saving Room for Dessert) from Constantine (1934–2023) … Constantine ends the long-running series on a high note, striking an elegiac tone that never tilts into triteness. Here’s hoping this graceful final act will spark new interest in an unsung master of crime fiction. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Winslow concludes his Danny Ryan trilogy—and his career as a novelist—with an addictive finale that charts the Rhode Island mobster turned Las Vegas casino mogul’s turbulent business dealings and deadly feuds … Bolstered by careful plotting and meticulous attention to character, Winslow’s ambitious narrative culminates with an exhilarating climax that beautifully wraps up the series’ many plot threads. It’s a fitting swan song from a giant of crime fiction. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
This superb study by University of Cambridge particle physicist Cliff (How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch) examines contemporary physics’ most intriguing mysteries through profiles of the scientists trying to solve them … Cliff’s lucid explanations do a remarkable job of making the complicated physics accessible and even exciting, and the focus on the scientists’ stories ensconces the heady ideas in approachable, human narratives. This is a first-rate dispatch from the cutting edge of physics. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Ryback details, week by week, day by day, and sometimes hour by hour, how a country with a functional, if flawed, democratic machinery handed absolute power over to someone who could never claim a majority in an actual election and whom the entire conservative political class regarded as a chaotic clown with a violent following. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
