Last Updated: August 6, 2025
Mark Twain
by Ron Chernow
Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835, under Halley’s Comet, the rambunctious Twain was an early teller of tall tales. Drawing on Twain’s bountiful archives, including his fifty notebooks, thousands of letters, and hundreds of unpublished manuscripts, Chernow masterfully captures a man whose career reflected the country’s westward expansion, industrialization, and foreign wars.
An essential investigation into the collapse of youth mental health-and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults.
In 2019, author John Green met Henry Reider, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequities that allow this curable, preventable infectious disease to also be the deadliest, killing over a million people every year. In Everything is Tuberculosis, John tells Henry’s story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world–and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis.
A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck
by Sophie Elmhirst
A Marriage at Sea tells the true story of Maurice and Maralyn, an unlikely couple who abandon ordinary life to sail the world–only to face disaster when a whale sinks their boat in the Pacific. Stranded in a raft with little hope of rescue, they battle starvation, the elements, and each other in a gripping tale of survival, obsession, and the limits of love.
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
by Bessel A. van der Kolk
Bessel van der Kolk transforms our understanding of traumatic stress, revealing how it literally rearranges the brain’s wiring–specifically areas dedicated to pleasure, engagement, control, and trust. He shows how these areas can be reactivated through innovative treatments including neurofeedback, mindfulness techniques, play, yoga, and other therapies.
Abundance
by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
This book discusses the history of the twenty-first century as a story of unaffordability and shortage in America. It highlights the national housing crisis, labor shortages due to limited immigration, insufficient clean-energy infrastructure, and delayed, over-budget public projects. The author argues that the root cause of these problems is a lack of sufficient building and proactive planning over the decades.
Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity
by Peter Attia, MD with Bill Gifford
Wouldn’t you like to live longer? And better? In this operating manual for longevity, Dr. Peter Attia draws on the latest science to deliver innovative nutritional interventions, techniques for optimizing exercise and sleep, and tools for addressing emotional and mental health.
Signs: The Secret Language of the Universe
by Laura Lynne Jackson
Laura Lynne Jackson possesses an incredible gift–the ability to communicate with loved ones who have passed, convey messages of love and healing, and impart a greater understanding of our interconnectedness. Though her abilities are exceptional, they are not unique, and that is the message at the core of this book.