Ruby considers herself lucky to be a housemaid for Lumaria’s royal family. After the parents she doesn’t remember were killed in a short but deadly war with neighboring Castella, a kind stranger placed Ruby in the care of Mellie, who was the royal family’s cook. Ruby grew up in the castle, befriended handsome Rowan, one of […]
Based on dozens of interviews and abundant archival sources, scholar and author Kaplan’s book offers a perceptive, sympathetic biography of activist, unabashed communist, and muckraker Jessica Mitford (1917-1996). Jessica, known as Decca, was defiant even as a child—unlike her sisters Nancy, who became a well-known novelist; Nazi sympathizers Diana and Unity; Deborah, who married a […]
Preszler, professor of practice at Cornell University and director of the Henry David Thoreau Foundation’s Planetary Solutions Initiative, opens with a paean to Christmas trees. Introduced by 19th-century German immigrants, they’ve become a symbol of peace and goodwill for the religious and unreligious alike. They’re also disappearing. Since realistic plastic models appeared in the 1980s, […]
Why do all journalists in early 20th-century New York get to party with the Fitzgeralds? Morris Markey squired Zelda to the scandalous Midnight Frolic in Mariah Fredericks’ The Girl in the Green Dress (2025), and now Freddie Archer, author of the Touch of Rouge column in Gotham magazine, pours herself into a taxi and goes […]
Although she’s dreamed of getting her pilot’s license for years, Beth has been too busy waitressing in a diner outside Arlington so she can pay for her mom’s medical bills and the mortgage on their fixer-upper house. When her beloved, wealthy brother arranges for his friend George Bunsen to give Beth a flight in his […]
What is a refugee? While the simple answer—“a person fleeing their country to find safety”—is true, it only scratches the surface. This volume adds clear historical context. In the first three chapters, readers glean facts about refugees in the U.S. and examine global causes and responses and the social impact of displacement. The book offers […]
This series kickoff features plenty of elements familiar to fantasy readers but soon veers off in an unexpected direction. When it begins, young siblings Aisha and Milucha Keluahn are on the run; they’re eventually captured by the forces of Lord Jookuchi. Aisha figures out that Jookuchi is being poisoned, which saves the siblings’ lives. Imperial […]
Alice Wilson receives an email from her ex-husband, Dan, announcing that their long-estranged daughter, Esme, has been arrested (“she doesn’t want to hear from you”). The news cracks open silent years of guilt and longing. A successful environmental financial analyst, Alice has lived with the ache of separation since Esme chose to live with her […]
“There are so many family caregivers in the United States that if they were paid, their labor would be worth more than the amount spent on all other forms of professional long-term care combined,” writes Mauldin. Trained as a medical sociologist, she also fell in love with a woman whose leukemia returned, to which Mauldin […]
Growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, TikTok influencer James never learned how to read. The economically insecure child of a single Black mother, he attended schools where “teachers never taught.” He also grew up with OCD, ADHD, anxiety, and dyslexia, all of which made school challenging. Despite his lack of literacy, James graduated from high school […]