"Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) is, of course, best known as the author of Little Women (1868). But she was also a noted essayist who wrote on a wide range of subjects, including her father's failed utopian commune, the benefits of an unmarried life, and her experience as a young woman sent to work in service to alleviate her family's poverty. Her first literary success was a contemporary close-up account of the American Civil War, brilliantly depicted...

"Welcome to the Coral Lounge, a room in Helen Ellis's New York City apartment painted such an exuberant shade of Sherman Williams that a peeping Tom once left a sticky note with the doorman asking for the color. It is in the Coral Lounge that the magic of Helen's marriage unfolds: Shindigs where strangers swap clothing in the powder room, a party game called "What's in the box?" makes its uproarious debut, the Puzzle Posse pounces on a 500-piece jigsaw...

"Scientific methods, tools, and discoveries have shaped modern civilization and created the landscape we've built for ourselves on which to live, work, and play. Tyson shows how an infusion of science and rational thinking renders worldviews deeper and more informed than ever before-and exposes unfounded perspectives and unjustified emotions. With crystalline prose and an abundance of evidence, Starry Messenger walks us through the scientific palette...

The struggle to perform well is universal: each of us faces fatigue, limited resources, and imperfect abilities in whatever we do. But nowhere is this drive to do better more important than in medicine, where lives are on the line with every decision. Author Gawande explores how doctors strive to close the gap between best intentions and best performance in the face of obstacles that sometimes seem insurmountable. Gawande's stories take us to battlefield...

"There's no right way to keep a diary, but if there's an entertaining way, David Sedaris seems to have mastered it. If it's navel-gazing you're after, you've come to the wrong place; ditto treacly self-examination. Rather, his observation turn outward: a fight between two men on a bus, a fight between two men on the street, pedestrians being whacked over the head or gathering to watch as a man considers leaping to his death. There's a dirty joke shared...

To illuminate the changing times, Forster throws together three vastly dissimilar classes of people: the Schlegels, Helen and Margaret, educated, compassionate and independently wealthy; the Wilcoxes, nouveau riche Empire builders; and Leonard Bast, an ambitious but struggling bank clerk.

Included in Time's 100 Must Read Books of 2021 list * A New York Times Best Seller * One of Audible's Best of The Year * AV Club's Best Books to Buy

"Funny, tender, and so good." — Mindy Kaling, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Why Not Me?

Remember when we hit it off so well that we decided We're Going to Need More Wine? Well, this time you and I are going to turn

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"Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer edits a collection of Alain Locke's influential essays on the importance of the Black artist and the Black imagination"--

"I'm awkward--and Black. Someone once told me those were the two worst things anyone could be. That someone was right. Where do I start?" Being an introvert in a world that regards introverts as hapless misfits and Black as cool isn't easy. But when Issa Rae is that introvert--whether she's navigating love, work, friendships, or 'rapping'--it sure is entertaining. Rae covers everything from cybersexing in the early days of the Internet to deflecting...

"The writer of the viral New York Magazine piece 'I Was Caroline Calloway' presents an absurdist and comical memoir-in-essays about the frenzied journey to adulthood in a world gone mad"-- "Natalie Beach became an internet sensation when her essay on her toxic friendship with Instagram influencer Caroline Calloway went viral. Now, for the first time, and in her own indelible voice, Beach offers a revelatory glimpse into her own life alongside a broader...