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“A wonderfully conceived and remarkably assured first novel, rich in emotion and with a truly compelling narrative drive. A brilliant success.”
—William Boyd, bestselling author of Any Human Heart

For readers of The Nightingale, In Memoriam, and The Postcard, a sweeping novel of siblings, steeped in love, heart-rending loss, and sacrifice, the story of twins who meet shockingly different fates, but whose bond will last forever

Twins Tessa and Theo are roots of the same tree, in tune with one another’s every thought and desire. As World War II takes hold across Europe, both are eager to do their part. Theo is recruited by the RAF and disappears into the skies, while Tessa jumps at the chance to join the Special Operations Executive, devoted to spying and sabotage behind enemy lines. It will be dangerous, highly classified work, but Tessa, despite all she shares with Theo, is no stranger to secret-keeping. 

Two years later, Theo comes home. Tessa does not.

Theo, wounded, broken by the loss of his fellows and disappearance of his sister, is indefatigable, angry, and driven. He has secrets of his own that could jeopardize his future, and—he will pay a price for pursuing answers about Tessa’s fate. 


Decades later, PhD candidate Edie is deep into her research on the Special Operations Executive during the war. When she finds Theo in London, they form an unlikely partnership, and together they will try to uncover the truth about Theo’s beloved sister—and the one secret she never told him…

Stunningly and propulsively written, The Shock of the Light is a novel of bravery, the brutal human cost of war, a brother and sister bond that outlasts even death, and the redemptive love that grows in unexpected places.

The forthcoming hardcover and digital audio editions will feature new material, and a new introduction from Cian O'Clery, director of Netflix's hit series Love on the Spectrum!

From Autistic Advocate, Love on the Spectrum cast member, and therapist Kaelynn Partlow, a warm, personal, and practical guide to understanding autism--from behaviors to communication and beyond.

You've heard from autistic authors.

You've heard from therapists.

Now hear from one extraordinary young woman who's both.

Experience autism from the inside out through a rare fusion of professional skill and personal understanding. Reshape what you know about the autism spectrum and increase your ability to give support. Varied perspectives among autistic individuals, their families, and professionals have often been difficult to reconcile. Now, you can bridge that divide with guidance from someone who's lived in multiple worlds. Find immediate, actionable options to build connections, foster communication, navigate challenges, and enhance interactions.

SPECIFIC CONTENT:

Autism. What it is, what it isn't, and what are the resulting misunderstandings across the spectrum

Communication. Exactly how do you avoid misunderstandings, encourage conversation, and build options for better interaction

Behavior. Learn about the origin and mechanics of meltdowns, stimming, perseveration, sensory distortion, and other common autistic challenges.

Interaction. The struggles are real: autism-enhanced loneliness, social-skill deficits, goal-setting, and the thorny issues of disability accommodation.

Common Questions. What are DSM-V diagnostic levels and why do they matter What about therapy and ABA or routes to useful advocacy

"Loved Kaelynn Partlow's information on ambiguity and communication. She gives lots of practical pointers on how to be more direct and specific when talking to autistic individuals. Vague, open ended questions are not effective communication." -- Temple Grandin, New York Times bestselling author of Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions

"As a rising star in the field, Partlow is poised to become this generation's Temple Grandin." -- Erin R. Hahn, Ph.D., Department Chair and Professor of Psychology, Furman University

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • 100 flavor-forward recipes—including signature bakes—from the Palestinian American creator of the beloved social media account mxriyum

Mariam Daud has built a devoted following by sharing beautifully prepared, comforting meals that feel both timeless and entirely her own. In I Sleep in My Kitchen, she offers a collection of the recipes that have shaped her life—dishes that carry the flavors of her heritage and the ease and creativity of a home cook who simply loves to feed others, from cherished classics like her mother’s irresistible Cheese Fatayer, a savory cheese-stuffed pastry, to her takes on everyday favorites like Triple Stack Smash Burgers or tender, pull-apart Cinnamon Rolls.

At the heart of I Sleep in My Kitchen are the flavors Mariam Daud grew up with in her Palestinian American home, including celebratory dishes like Msakhan, the national dish of Palestine, of soft flatbread, caramelized onions, tender stewed chicken, and toasted pine nuts, alongside playful recipes infused with Middle Eastern flavor, like her Mediterranean Pasta Salad with Sumac-Vinaigrette, and Tahini Browned Butter Banana Bread.

Spanning breakfasts, small plates, salads, soups, mains, and her signature sweet and savory baked goods, this collection includes many of her most-loved recipes as well as brand-new creations, including Bang Bang Shrimp Tacos with Cabbage Slaw, Fluffy Browned Butter Rolls, and a Loaded Chickpea Salad with Bulgur.

I Sleep in My Kitchen is an invitation to cook with generosity and curiosity, to explore the food that connects us to memory, place, and one another.

A new perspective on ancient Athens at the height of its powers, reinterpreting the city’s supposed “Golden Age” as a period of ruinous culture wars.

The age of Pericles, in the fifth century BC, is often described as the Golden Age of Athens. The city witnessed a flowering of philosophy, art, and architecture—including an ambitious building program, with the Parthenon its centerpiece. But as David Stuttard shows in this vivid account, the seemingly triumphant city was in fact riven by conflict and contradiction. Though nominally a democracy, Athens led a tyrannical empire. And for Pericles and his circle, the Parthenon was less a holy place than a propaganda vehicle. Its sculptures carried the message that Athenians, beloved by the gods, were nearly divine in their own right—which to many Greeks smacked of hubris.

As long as things went well, Athenian democracy appeared to prosper. But just a year after the Parthenon was finished, Athens was at war with Sparta; a plague killed a third of the population, including Pericles; and earthquakes razed much of the city. In the wake of what seemed like divine retribution, popular outrage against those accused of undermining state religion was so strong that it took the execution of Socrates to lance the boil.

Hubris offers dramatic portraits of key figures like Pheidias, who sculpted the monumental statue of Athena yet fell prey to charges of impiety; Themistocles, who built the Athenian navy but died an exile in enemy lands; and Alcibiades, the psychopathic playboy whose mercurial ego hastened his city’s defeat. To understand the Parthenon and the Athens that built it, Stuttard reasons, we must recognize the tensions among the city’s rivalrous families, generations, and social classes, whose visions of their place in the world ultimately proved incompatible.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Outlive comes a radical exploration of the science of heat adaptation and sweat therapy to tap into the evolutionary superpowers that we've forgotten we possess.

What if the key to thriving in a hotter world isn't avoiding the heat--but harnessing it?

In Hotwired, bestselling author and science journalist Bill Gifford takes readers on a fascinating exploration of the power of heat to improve our performance and our health. Combining cutting-edge science, personal discovery, and practical insights, Gifford reveals how heat adaptation and heat therapy such as sauna can make us healthier, stronger, and even happier, by unlocking the body's built-in tools to promote longevity and resilience.

Through innovative research in evolutionary biology, physiology, and thermoregulation, Gifford uncovers how humans evolved to excel in sweltering conditions--and how we've lost touch with this ancient advantage. He plunges into the steamy world of Finnish saunas, serves as a test subject in cutting-edge heat labs, and tackles a grueling 100-mile bike ride under the blazing Texas sun--to show how temperature extremes can expand our physical and mental limits. He even explores how infrared sauna therapy may fight depression more effectively than medication--and how many people are rediscovering the power of communal wellness through the use of social sauna.

Whether you're looking to perform better, extend your healthy lifespan, adapt to a warming planet, or tap into the human connection that forms when we sweat together, Gifford reveals the incredible benefits of reawakening your body's natural adaptability to heat and cold. You'll discover how sweat is more than a cooling mechanism; it's central to peak performance. We were born to sweat, and sweating makes us stronger.

Hotwired shows how short-term discomfort transforms into long-term power. It's a thrilling call to reimagine heat--not as a threat, but as a tool for survival and strength.

"A definitive history of bird conservation in America.” (Kirkus Reviews, starred)

From the time the country was founded, early Americans assumed that the land’s natural resources were infinite, including its birds, which were zealously hunted for food, game, and fashion. With the rapid extinction of the passenger pigeon—a bird once so numerous that its flocks darkened the sky in flight—many realized actions needed to be taken if other birds were to be saved. What followed was both a spiritual awakening and a great crusade to save birds and their habitat. The campaign took place on many battlefields: society teas in Boston, hunt clubs on the East Coast, the mangroves in the Everglades, and in the editorial pages of newspapers and periodicals. From many corners of the country the bird protection movement was born and brought together a remarkable coalition of people and organizations to save America’s birds.

The Feather Wars is an entertaining and expansive work of American history, an incredible story about how disparate characters—progressive politicians, free-thinking society belles, nature writers and artists, bird-loving U.S. presidents, gunmakers, business titans, and brave game wardens—came together to save hundreds of species of birds. Heroes, martyrs, villains, and conflicted do-gooders—the early bird conservation movement had them all. Together they transformed how Americans thought and cared about birds, forever altering the American landscape.

Chinese American chef Ron Hsu shares original recipes exploring innovative Asian-influenced dishes via the rich larder of the American South in his debut cookbook, Down South + East

With mouthwatering ingredient combinations, a fresh take on Southern food, and comforting-yet-creative recipes, Down South + East helps home cooks across the country look at everyday ingredients in new ways and discover exciting possibilities for them.

Ron Hsu grew up a restaurant kid, surrounded by the delicious smells and flavors of Chinese food at Hunan Village, a set of seven restaurants his parents ran in Georgia from 1980 to 2008. Now, with culinary school, seven years at the world-famous Le Bernardin--where he moved from line cook to creative director--and his Michelin-starred restaurant Lazy Betty under his belt, Hsu is more than ready to share his recipes inspired by his Chinese childhood in the American South.

The delicious results include recipes like cornbread made with deeply flavored lap cheong (Chinese sausage) standing in for pork cracklins and char siu style pork lacquered with a sorghum syrup-bourbon glaze. Laced with ginger, the potlikker of gently braised watercress can throw down with that of any collard greens, and a soy sauce and shiitake mushroom gravy enhances traditional meatloaf.

A deep section on the Southern and Chinese pantry sets the stage for the recipes to come, exploring the ingredients most common in both cuisines--from pork, rice, peanuts, okra, cabbage, and peaches to sorghum, ketchup, soy sauce, and five spice--and redefining what is considered Southern food.

A moving and provocative exploration of male friendship and loneliness, from New York Times bestselling author, filmmaker, and actor Andrew McCarthy as he crisscrosses the country to reconnect with his friends.



"You don't really have any friends, do you, Dad?" 



A seemingly innocuous, if direct, question from Andrew McCarthy's son left him reeling. McCarthy did have friends, but like so many other men, the necessities of modern adult life had forced his friendships to the background. At one point his friends had been instrumental in broadening his horizons, bolstering his courage, providing safe harbor. Now, McCarthy found himself questioning what had happened to those friendships, whether he needed them, what he valued, and what he had to offer. A simple question had become a moment that demanded a reckoning. 



Who Needs Friends charts McCarthy's journey over nearly ten thousand miles behind the wheel, following him on often-unexpected travels through Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta, the Chihuahuan Desert, the Rocky Mountains with one driving purpose: to reconnect. Along the way he talks to countless men about their male friendships, from cowboys and blues musicians to preachers and rootless teens. What began as a simple desire to catch up with a few friends turned into a deep exploration of the challenges and rewards that men experience in forming bonds with each other.



In McCarthy's own words, "It turns out that guys have a difficult time with friendship." But that's not the way it needs to be.



 

By his longtime friend and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, the definitive biography of Larry McMurtry, the legendary author and screenwriter of Lonesome Dove, The Last Picture Show, and Brokeback Mountain, who transformed our vision of the West.

Before Larry McMurtry became one of the most celebrated writers of the twentieth century, he worked on his family's ranch in rural Texas. At night he heard vivid stories of his cowboy uncles driving herds of cattle across the plains where there once were bison and Native Americans. "McMurtry Means Beef," as one ranching magazine put it. By the time he died in 2021, McMurtry had published forty books, won a Pulitzer for Lonesome Dove and an Oscar for his cowritten adaptation of Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain, and seen his work made into such classic films as Hud and Terms of Endearment. Now, McMurtry means great stories.

For all his fame, McMurtry was an elusive figure. He loved women but was married to his typewriter; he was wary of critics and distrustful of other men--except David Streitfeld. When McMurtry gave the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist the keys to his past, Streitfeld dug into every archive and interviewed everyone who would talk. He found that, even as McMurtry's work criticized the old cowboy myths, he loved making up stories about himself.

Western Star reveals the real and complicated life of a storyteller who was both an icon and critic of Texas, the favorite of presidents, confidant to movie stars like Diane Keaton and Cybill Shepherd, friend to Ken Kesey and husband to his widow Faye, an obsessive bookseller, and the most enduring voice of the American West.

A collection of one hundred easy and delicious recipes for scones, muffins, cookies, and more—including the top secret recipe for the famous scones that earned her the title the “Scone Queen”— from baker extraordinaire and founder of The Hungry Gnome, Danielle Sepsy

“Danielle understands better than most the extraordinary things that can happen with just the right combination of flour, sugar, and butter. Her mastery of baking is a thing of beauty, and tasting her magical creations has proven to be one of the great pleasures I’ve experienced in the last few years. It’s incredibly exciting that so many will get to learn from her through this book.” —Will Guidara, Restaurateur and Author of Unreasonable Hospitality

When Danielle Sepsy started baking scones for friends, she had no idea that one day she would have her own successful whole-sale and online bakery, The Hungry Gnome—or that her scones would be sold in hundreds of coffee shops all over the tristate area and celebrated on a hit television show.

Here, in her long-awaited first cookbook, The Scone Queen Bakes, Sepsy gives us over 100 delightful recipes for scones, muffins, cookies, bars, breads, snacking cakes and other sweet treats, such as:

*Twelve different kinds of Sepsy’s famous scones (a scone for every month of the year!), including Funfetti Scones and THE Chocolate Chip Scone (the one that started it all)
*Muffins, such as Blueberry Crumb, Double Chocolate, Pumpkin Spice, Raspberry Ricotta and more
*Cookies! Soft & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, One Toff Cookies, Vegan Cookie Butter Chip Cookies, Strawberries & Cream Cookies, Italian Rainbow Cookies, and more
*Three kinds of brownies, Lemon Icebox Bars, S’Mores Blondies, and more
*Chocolate Date Tahini Buns, Cinnamon Raisin Bread, and French Toast Monkey Bread
*Breads and Cakes such as Banana Nutella Snacking Cake, Cookie Butter Swirled Pumpkin Bread, and a Spumoni Loaf, to name just a few

“I didn’t even think I liked scones until I ate one of Danielle’s, warm from the oven and studded with molten chocolate chips. Her pastries surprised me over and over again, from the fluffy cinnamon rolls to the perfect pucker of her lemon muffins. Thanks to her cookbook, now I can re-create all her goodies in my own kitchen (when I’m not ordering a big batch from her shop, The Hungry Gnome).” —Sohla El-Waylly, author of Start Here

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Do the Work and How to Be the Love You Seek comes a groundbreaking guide to healing our childhood wounds and rediscovering our full potential

As adults, we often fall into patterns that feel irrational or out of character—shutting down, lashing out, people-pleasing, or self-sabotaging. Beneath those reactions lies our inner child, a younger part of us still trying to get its needs met the only way it knows how.

We all carry the imprint of our earliest years. Childhood is brief, yet its impact is lifelong. Some parts of us were met with love while other parts were met with silence, criticism, or disapproval. To survive, we learned to adapt—learning to over perform, to hide, or stay small. Most of us made it through with a mix of love and lack. And many of us still protect the parts of ourselves that once felt unsafe.

While we can’t change what happened, we can change how it lives within us and impacts our lives today. Reparenting the Inner Child offers a clear, compassionate path to self-integration, combining practical exercises, somatic tools, and guided reflections to help us create the safety, love, and boundaries we've always needed. Through her holistic framework that models individual development, Dr. LePera explains how we can cultivate the emotional maturity and regulation to respond calmly instead of reacting, to embrace desire instead of shame, and to question the stories we've long believed about who we have to be.

Enlightening, empowering, and clarifying, Reparenting the Inner Child is a book that will stand the test of time as a comprehensive guide for personal development and healing, and a resource that will forever change the way we understand ourselves.

The next space race has arrived—driven by rival nations, billionaire-funded ventures, and breakthrough technologies all vying to alter the balance of power on Earth and beyond.

"This isn’t science fiction; it’s the blueprint for the world we’re about to inherit.” —Ali Velshi, NBC News senior economic and business correspondent and anchor for MS NOW

In 2024, the Odysseus lander touched down near the south pole of the Moon. It was the first lunar landing by Americans in more than half a century—and the first ever by a private company. “Odie” embodied the ambitions of a new genera­tion of space entrepreneurs, as well as Washington’s bid to challenge a rising Beijing. A gateway to interplanetary explo­ration and conquest, the Moon is now also open for busi­ness, and the race to level up technology, secure resources, and build off-world infrastructure has begun.

First place isn’t just a symbolic win, but a strategic path to influence and control. The United States, although turbo­charged by tech elites, risks being outpaced by China, which increasingly aligns commercial enterprise with national secu­rity. Not far behind are Russia, India, Japan, and the Euro­pean Union.

In Open Space, journalist and space industry analyst David Ariosto gives us a front-row seat to the future. With unprecedented access, he recounts the split-second deci­sions in mission control and hold-your-breath moments on the launch pad. He travels from research labs orchestrating our planetary defense to an antimatter factory and the Mars Desert Research Station, where scientists imagine how an off-world colony might survive (it involves a diet of bugs). He probes inside the Chinese space sector itself, meeting with key figures and companies and traveling to a remote military station in South America. In this global odyssey, we meet the visionaries who are dreaming up the future and the engineers and physicists who are making science fiction a reality.

After millennia of gazing up at the stars, humanity is now forging the tools to travel among them. Propulsive, awe-inspiring, and poignant, Open Space charts this epic journey to the final frontier and looks for our place within it.

American soccer legend Landon Donovan’s unfiltered account of his celebrated career, his battle with mental health, and his search for peace beyond the game.

Includes 40 full color photos! 

You may think you know Landon Donovan—but you don’t. As one of the most decorated players in US soccer history, he knows many recognize his greatest triumphs, but far fewer understand his deepest struggles. Behind the legendary #10 jersey and a dazzling career, he grappled with finding peace—both on and off the pitch. In this unflinchingly honest autobiography, Donovan shares his tumultuous journey through the rise of US soccer and his battles with depression.

Growing up as a twin in California, the son of an absent father and a single mother, Donovan was introduced to soccer at a young age by his half-brother Josh. By five years old, he was maniacal about playing—and winning—against players twice his age. When Donovan scored, he reveled in the attention he never received at home. Soccer offered him a golden ticket, and as soon as he could, he was off. From the US U-17 men’s national team to the 2000 Olympics to multiple World Cups, Donovan built an enviable career—winning six MLS championships, experiencing an epic stint with LA Galaxy where he played alongside David Beckham, and netting a historic extra-time winner against Algeria in the 2010 World Cup. His impact was so profound that when Donovan retired, Major League Soccer renamed its Most Valuable Player award in his honor. But even with all his achievements, peace was hard to find off the pitch. The US team’s loss at the 2006 World Cup haunted him and led to the first of three bouts of serious depression.

Landon is a must-read for soccer fans and anyone navigating their own mental health journey. More than a sports memoir, it’s a powerful testament to resilience, identity, and the pursuit of self-acceptance. Through his struggles and triumphs, Landon Donovan shows us that no matter where you start, becoming the person you want to be is always possible.

“A work of real passion… More Haskells, please, and more flowers.”—The New York Times Book Review

An exquisite exploration of the power of flowers, placing them at the center of the story of how evolution created the world we know today

We live on a floral planet, yet flowers don’t get the credit they deserve. We admire them for their aesthetics, not their power. In this exquisite exploration of the role flowers played in creating the world we know today, David George Haskell observes, smells, and studies flowers such as magnolias, orchids, and roses, as well as fascinating but less celebrated flowers such as seagrasses and tea to show us what we’ve been missing.

Flowers are beautiful revolutionaries. When they evolved, they remade the natural world: Gorgeous petals and alluring aromas transformed former enemies into cooperative partners. Flowers reinvented plant sexuality and motherhood, bringing male and female together in the same flower and amply provisioning seeds and fruits, innovations that also feed legions of animals, ourselves included. Through radical genetic flexibility, flowers turned past environmental upheavals into opportunities for renewal. This inventiveness allowed them to build and sustain rainforests, savannahs, prairies, and even ocean shores.

Without flowers, human beings would not exist. We are a floral species. Flowers catalyzed our evolution, and we now depend on them for food and a healthy planet. When we perfume ourselves, give a loved one a bouquet, or use blooms in gardens and religious ceremonies, we honor the special bond between people and flowers. The study of flowers also shaped modern science and horticulture in ways both marvelous and, sometimes, unjust.

Looking to the future, flowers offer us lessons on resilience and creativity in the face of rapid environmental change. We need floral creativity, beauty, and joy more than ever. How Flowers Made Our World combines lyrical writing, sensual exploration, and the latest in scientific research to explore some of the most consequential life forms ever to have evolved, showing how our planet came to be and how it thrives today.

Unlock the secrets of shopping estate sales--and why doing so is good for your home, your style, your wallet, the planet, and even your sense of empathy.

Have you ever wanted to get into shopping estate sales but felt intimidated by the unspoken rules and norms? Bring Cash is your pocket-sized guide to navigating estate sales like a pro. Whether you're wondering when to arrive, if haggling is allowed, or how to identify true vintage, Kate Davis of Midwest Estate Sailing on Substack is your intrepid captain. You'll learn how to decode sign-up sheets, how to date clothing, and that--of course--cash is king.

With helpful photos, practical tips, and thoughtful insights into why estate sales are worth exploring, especially in the Midwest, Bring Cash is as entertaining as it is informative. Davis shares advice and personal anecdotes like a savvy friend, and crowd-sourced stories of great estate-sale finds help inspire you to find your own Big Find--or small prize. Slip this into your bag and take it with you to turn weekend outings into rewarding adventures.