"Fearless and Free" is a memoir from a black, talented, rule-breaking girl born in 1906 in St. Louis, Mo. It is a compilation of conversations French journalist Marcel Sauvage had over the course of 20 years with American expatriate entertainer Josephine Baker. Born into poverty, Baker made her debut in Philadelphia at age 16. She moved to New York at 17, where she found a better-paying job on Broadway dancing in the Black musical "Shuffle Along." Baker left the US for the P

Edge of your seat thriller, “The First Time I Saw Him,” by Laura Dave, is a sequel to her bestseller, “The Last Thing He Told Me,” published in 2021. In her first book, Dave introduces the reader to the Michaels Family. Bailey is a typical 16-year-old, unhappy with her new stepmom, Hannah. Her father, Owen, seems like any other dad in Sausalito; that is until he disappears leaving behind a duffle bag of money and a cryptic note for Hannah to “protect her.” The FBI comes kno

American author George Saunders, after earning a degree in Geophysical Engineering, worked a series of technical jobs until he entered the M.F.A. program at Syracuse University. In1997 he was appointed to the Syracuse faculty, where he has taught until the present day. Saunders’s first novel, 2017’s “Lincoln in the Bardo,” was awarded the Booker Prize for Fiction. The novel is set in the Bardo, a Buddhist concept of the status of the soul between death and reincarnation. Sa

“The Seven Daughters of Dupree,” by Nikesha Elise Williams, is a multigenerational story that focuses on the lives of generations of women who share the Dupree name. As layers of their family history are slowly revealed readers learn that their pasts were full of pain, love and sacrifice. The historical revelations of the story begin in 1995 when 14-year-old Tati begins uncovering the identity of her father, even though her mother Nadia has ignored all of Tati’s previous re

I have rarely read a novel about the exploration of uncharted territory (in this case Tibet) that so vividly describes the hardships of mapping “a blank space” in the world. At the same time, the descriptions of the absolute beauty and wonders of the country, home of the Himalayas and Mount Everest, made me feel that I was accompanying the explorers on a very trying journey. In 1869, two explorers set out to map cities and rivers that run through Tibet. They do not k

Young men are not doing well. In 2022, among 10 to 24-year-olds, males accounted for 78% of suicides. In 2023, male high school graduates were 8% less likely to enroll in college. The labor-force participation rate has dropped by 10% among young men ages 20 to 24 over the last 30 years. “The data around boys and men is overwhelming,” writes author Scott Galloway, a popular podcaster and university professor. Drawing on social and economic trends and his 61 years of life exp

In May 1884 the Mignonette, a 52-two-foot yacht, set sail from England to be delivered to its new owner in Australia. Many thought the Mignonette was too frail a vessel to withstand the seas it would encounter in its 122-day voyage to Sydney. Nevertheless, the ship was manned by a captain with extensive seafaring experience, two mates with similar backgrounds, and a 17-year-old cabin boy. Several weeks into the journey the ship encountered heavy seas in the south Atlantic, s

Public education is at the forefront in almost every community in the United States. Teaching is key to shaping values and lives. Because of the power of education, schools have become a battleground over what gets taught. Angry citizens confront school boards with critical questions: who gets instructed, how, by whom, and who decides the curriculum? Efforts to suppress freedom of speech and knowledge about race, gender, and sexuality have become so politicized and heated tha

In the summer of 1994 Christine Kuehn, working at a Maryland radio station, received a letter from a Hollywood screenwriter. He was writing a screenplay based on a World War II incident that might have involved Otto, her grandfather. The writer hoped to make contact with Eberhardt, her father, Otto’s son, to uncover facts about the matter. Thus began a 30-year quest that led Kuehn deeper and deeper into unknown territory in her family’s history. Her father had always been qu

"The Zorg" is a historical horror story, the wrenching, little-known story of an 18th-century incident on an Atlantic slave ship that led to the abolition of slavery in the British Empire and eventually the United States. "The Zorg" (a Dutch word meaning "care") was a merchant vessel flying the Dutch flag that the British captured. Purchased by a privateer, it set sail from the Gold Coast of Africa in 1781 with a rough and tumble crew of 17 men who carelessly stocked it with

Susan Orlean has been a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine since 1992. She is the author of the best-selling novels “The Orchard Thief “(1998), “Rin Tin Tin: the Life and the Legend” (2011), and “The Library Book” (2018). Orlean has written for television and for Vogue , Rolling Stone , and Esquire magazines. “Joyride” is a memoir of Orlean’s writing career. At age 70, she is still writing and retains the same curiosity about the unusual or elusive su

Indian-born British/American author Salman Rushdie’s extensive literary output is best known for his 1988 Novel “The Satanic Verses,” whose depiction of the prophet Mohammed was deemed blasphemous by some Islamic authorities and led to a call for his assassination by the supreme ruler of Iran. For years Rushdie lived in seclusion under an assumed name. In 2022, after his return to the public, Rushdie was attacked during a presentation, costing him the use of his right eye an

“Bad Bad Girl,” by Gish Jen, has been named by Time magazine as one of the 100 must-read books of 2025. The autofiction novel is an account of the conversations the author Jen wishes she had had with her Chinese mother before her mother’s death in 2020 at age 96. When Jen was born, a multi-generational chain of dysfunction and abuse sadly continued, broken only when Jen had her own children. The novel also chronicles the immigrant experience and the complex relationship be

“The Ivory City,” by Emily Bain Murphy, is a historical romance/murder mystery set in our own back yard. With thorough research, Murphy has captured the sights, sounds, smells, and wonders of the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, making this world-class event the center of her story. Grace, the poor cousin of Lillie and Oliver, experiences the excitement of exploring the attractions of the fair by day and attending the gala evening events thanks to her cousins. Early in the op

After an 8-year hiatus Jan Karon is back with her 15 th book in the Mitford series. This gentle story is full of love, laughter and faith. Father Tim Kavanagh, the main character, is a retired Episcopal priest who married his artistic wife, Cynthia, late in life. Cynthia tells Tim that the one thing she wants for Christmas is a love letter. Christmas is a big deal for the Kavanaghs and a special time in the small mountain town of Mitford, North Carolina. After much thought

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down Of the big lake they call Gitchie Gumee So begins Gordon Lightfoot’s iconic 1976 ballad “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” Michigan journalist John U. Bacon’s book, “The Gales of November,” published only weeks before the 50 th anniversary of the Great Lakes shipping disaster, (11-10-2025) offers a deep dive into the details of the tragedy. But Bacon’s book offers more than a recounting of the Fitzgerald’s loss.

Historian Bruce Henderson draws on personal interviews and extensive research to tell the story of the collaboration between U.S. bomber crews and the French Resistance during World War II. The military operation, code-named Operation Carpetbagger, commenced in 1942 and continued through D-Day, June 6, 1944. The mission was for U.S. B-24 Liberators, based at a secret airfield near London, to "fly low and slow in the dead of night to parachute spies and supplies" into Nazi oc

Journalist Beth Macy, born and raised in the small city of Urbana, Ohio, was able to attend college on the support of funding by a Pell Grant. For 25 years she was a reporter for the Roanoke (Va.) Times. During her years with the paper she developed a keen eye for the changes in America, particularly its smaller cities and rural areas. The result of those observations was a series of books detailing the effects of globalization on the non-urban sector as well as the nationwi

There are events in life one wishes could be undone. This is something readers are reminded of in “The White Octopus Hotel,” by Alexandra Bell, a novel that takes us on a magical journey through time. No one knows regret better than Eve Shaw, a young art appraiser, who is constantly haunted by the demons of her past. When an old man, someone Eve feels she may have known in the past, gives her a most peculiar birthday gift she embarks on a quest that could change her life for

Noted astronomer Tycho Brahe became the first recorded recipient of a prosthetic nose after his natal proboscis was removed in a 1566 duel of honor. The first chapter of Mary Roach’s intriguing (and funny) “Replaceable You” recounts the history of facial reconstruction surgery from Brahe’s 16 th century interchangeable snouts to the current widespread use of advancement flaps to rebuild facial features damaged by injury or disease. Roach is quick to point out that human at