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The Shock of the Light

Lori Inglis Hall

“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.

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Life on the Bridge

Kaelynn Partlow



 

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

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I Sleep in My Kitchen

Mariam Daud

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.

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Hubris

David Stuttard

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.

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Hotwired

Bill Gifford

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.

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The Feather Wars

James H. McCommons

"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.

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Down South + East

Ron Hsu

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.

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Who Needs Friends

Andrew McCarthy

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.



 

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Western Star

David Streitfeld



 

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.

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The Scone Queen Bakes

Danielle Sepsy

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

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Reparenting the Inner Child

Nicole LePera

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.

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Open Space

David Ariosto

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.

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Landon

Landon Donovan

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.

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How Flowers Made Our World

David George Haskell

“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.

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Bring Cash

Kate Davis

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.

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Neptune's Fortune

Julian Sancton

The riveting true story of a legendary Spanish galleon that sunk off the coast of Colombia with over $1 billion in gold and silver—and one man’s obsessive quest to find it—from the New York Times bestselling author of Madhouse at the End of the Earth

“Splendid . . . Sancton is an expert guide through eighteenth-century European geopolitics [and] modern marine archaeology.”—The Wall Street Journal

Roger Dooley wasn’t looking for the San José. But an accidental discovery in the dusty stacks of a Spanish archive led him to the story of a lifetime, the tale of a great eighteenth-century treasure ship loaded with riches from the New World and destined for Spain. But that ship, the galleon San José, met a darker fate. It was drawn into a pitched battle with British ships of war off the coast of Cartagena, and when the smoke cleared, the San José and its bounty had disappeared into the ocean, its coordinates lost to time.

Though a diver at heart, Dooley was an unlikely candidate to find the San José. He had little in the way of serious credentials, yet his tenacity and single-minded devotion to finding and excavating the ship powered him across four decades, even as he became a man in exile from the country of his birth. As Dooley jousted with famous treasure hunters and well-funded competitors, he slowly homed in on a patch of sea that might contain a three-hundred-year-old shipwreck—or nothing at all.

Neptune's Fortune is a thrilling adventure, taking readers from great naval battles on the high seas to the sun-soaked shores that nurtured history’s most notorious treasure hunters, to the archives that held the secret keys to lost fortune on the ocean floor.

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Notes on Heartbreak

Annie Lord

"Arresting and vivid, raw and breathtaking . . . told with stunning originality. Annie Lord is a phenomenal talent." ―Dolly Alderton, author of Everything I Know About Love

"An electrifying debut." ―Caroline O'Donoghue, author of The Rachel Incident

With the incisive wit and depth of Dolly Alderton and Sally Rooney, a fierce, funny, and unflinching memoir about the exhilaration of love and the pain of its ending, from an acclaimed British Vogue writer.

You never forget your first love--or your first true heartbreak. Annie Lord is going through a devastating breakup after a five-year relationship with someone she thought she'd be with forever. Try as she might, she can't stop reliving the past, obsessively examining every moment that led to this point.

When she's not having disastrous rebound sex or stalking her ex on Instagram, Annie puts every moment of their history under a microscope, trying to understand where things went wrong and why. The answers, when they come, will surprise her as much as anyone.

Notes on Heartbreak is an engrossing and emotionally evocative account of love and loss that will resonate with anyone who has ever nursed a broken heart, been in a codependent relationship, or has come to understand that romantic partnerships are infinitely more complex than what we experience in the moment. It is a deeply personal and insightful book about the best and worst of love and how it can upend our lives: the euphoria and the desolation, the beauty and the cruelty.

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National Geographic Ultimate Guide to the National Parks

National Geographic

Full of expert advice on the best trails, scenic drives, wildlife spotting, must-do adventures, and more, this comprehensive guide is the ultimate resource for your next great escape to all 63 national parks in the U.S.

Discover America's wildly beautiful landscapes, monuments, and historic places with carefully curated expert recommendations, complemented by brand-new National Geographic photography to inspire your next adventure: 

 

  • Tips and tricks to experience the best every park has to offer, from the otherworldly sand dunes of New Mexico's White Sands National Park to the northern wonderland of the Gates of the Arctic National Park in Alaska
  • Maps of every park highlighting points of interest, including a pull-out wall map to pin your progress as you make your way through every park
  • Expert recommendations for the best walking and hiking trails, scenic overlooks, campgrounds, drives, and wildlife spotting
  • Curated lists of thrilling adventures from kayaking and biking to backpacking and sand-boarding
  • Park ranger recommendations for off-the-beaten-path sites and hidden gems within every park
  • Planning information from when to visit; park fees, passes, and reservation requirements; and visitor center information and accommodations
  • Beautiful and never-before-seen National Geographic photography that will inspire you to pack your bags and get out and explore
  • And so much more!


Whatever outdoor adventure is calling your name--from rafting the Colorado River to climbing majestic peaks to forested nature walks--you'll find what you're looking for in this comprehensive guidebook. All that's left to do is pick your park and go explore!

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A Killing in Cannabis

Scott Eden

"A deeply reported literary nonfiction masterpiece."--Wright Thompson

A shocking murder at the nexus of Silicon Valley, California surf culture, and the cannabis gold rush exposes the dark side of the legal weed business in this revelatory work of investigative journalism.

Santa Cruz is one of the country's surf meccas and a favored getaway of the Silicon Valley elite. For decades, marijuana has been cultivated, consumed, and trafficked in these mountains, one of the most important regions in the country for the crop. It's where Ken Kesey threw his wild parties, where back-to-the-land types came to live off the grid, and where Tushar Atre, Silicon Valley entrepreneur, was found brutally murdered.

Charismatic, ambitious, arrogant, and rich, Atre was the leader among a clutch of tech execs and venture capitalists with a voracious appetite for risk, work, and money, riding waves at dawn and then putting in fourteen-hour days. When he met Rachael Lynch, a maverick cannabis grower and mover of product, he had a vision of how their lives could come together in business and in love. Atre sought to disrupt the newly legal cannabis trade by funding a start-up with black-market capital. This illegal pursuit would entangle him with an array of colorful and dangerous characters, many of whom had compelling reason to want him dead.

Award-winning journalist Scott Eden's panoramic investigation exposes the symbiotic relationship between the legal weed world and its shadowy, black-market counterpart. It is a story of love, greed, and betrayal, set in a world where visionaries, hippies, masters of the universe, and stone-cold killers are all stakeholders, eager to exploit the power of the plant.

 

 

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Flourish

Daniel Coyle

A science-based, practical blueprint for cultivating a life—at work and at home—full of belonging, joy, and vitality, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Culture Code

What is a meaningful life, and how do we make one? How do certain communities foster closeness, fulfillment, happiness, and energy?

In Flourish, bestselling author and leading culture expert Daniel Coyle trains his eye on the groups and people who demonstrate exceptional connectivity, presence, and dynamism. He draws on research and original reporting—taking us inside an unlikely brotherhood of thirty-three men who were trapped in a Chilean mine, a tiny Michigan deli that blossomed into a $90 million ecosystem of businesses, an inventive Dutch soccer team that revolutionized the sport as we know it, and a disconnected Paris district that remade itself into a tight-knit neighborhood—to reveal the principles and practices that ignite and sustain thriving. He finds that flourishing groups do two things: They make meaning (creating deep connections) and build community (forging a common good).

Through captivating real-world stories, rigorous scientific studies, and firsthand accounts, Coyle reveals what sets some groups apart—and offers you the tools and insights to flourish in your own life.

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Empire of Madness

Khameer Kidia

An urgent rethinking of the Western approach to mental health, which treats the symptoms rather than the exploitative systems causing our distress—by a Rhodes Scholar and Harvard Medical School physician-anthropologist—offering lessons from the rest of the world.

What if the mainstay of mental health care involved cancelling onerous debt, giving poor people free housing, and paying reparations to the descendants of slavery and colonialism? In Empire of Madness, Dr. Khameer Kidia re-evaluates the Western approach to mental health, which medicates symptoms instead of changing the structures that harm the human psyche. A physician and researcher whose own family suffers from the psychological effects of colonialism, Kidia highlights the limitations of the Western mental health model by reporting from the front lines of mental health crises at home, in the clinic, and during a decade of fieldwork.

Clear-eyed and openhearted, Kidia asks the nuanced questions unaddressed by our current mental health model: How do history, culture, and politics shape mental distress? Are hoarding and burnout medical diagnoses or social problems? Why are schizophrenia outcomes sometimes better in poor countries without antipsychotics? Can a traditional healer treat mental illness better than a Western-trained clinician? For those living in poverty, can cash replace pills?

With rigorous research, cutting analysis, and illuminating prose, Kidia invites us to reimagine mental health as a global idea where our wellbeing is mutual and everyone’s voice—patients, caregivers, and healthcare workers alike—matters.

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The Last Kings of Hollywood

Paul Fischer

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"Riveting, grade A smack for cinema junkies...Fischer's writing pulsates." —Steven Soderbergh, filmmaker

The untold, intimate story of how three young visionaries—Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg—revolutionized American cinema, creating the most iconic films in history while risking everything, redefining friendship, and shaping Hollywood as we know it. 

In the summer of 1967, as the old Hollywood studio system was dying, an intense, uncompromising young film school graduate named George Lucas walked onto the Warner Bros backlot for his first day working as an assistant to another up-and-coming, largely-unknown filmmaker, a boisterous father of two called Francis Ford Coppola. At the exact same time, across town on the Universal Studios lot, a film-obsessed twenty-year-old from a peripatetic Jewish family, Steven Spielberg, longed to break free from his apprenticeship for the struggling studio and become a film director in his own right.

Within a year, the three men would become friends. Spielberg, prioritizing security, got his seven-year contract directing television. Lucas and Coppola, hungry for independence, left Hollywood for San Francisco to found an alternative studio, American Zoetrope, and make films without answering to corporate capitalism.

Based on extensive research and hundreds of original interviews with the inner circle of these Hollywood icons, The Last Kings of Hollywood tells the thrilling, dramatic inside story of how, over the next fifteen years, the three filmmakers rivalled and supported each other, fell out and reconciled, and struggled to reinvent popular American cinema. Along the way, Coppola directed The Godfather, then the highest-grossing film of all-time, until Spielberg surpassed it with Jaws — whose record Lucas broke with Star Wars, which Spielberg surpassed again with E.T. By the early 1980s, they were the richest, best-known filmmakers in the world, each with an empire of their own. The Last Kings of Hollywood is an unprecedented chronicle of their rise, their dreams and demons, their triumphs and their failures — intimate, extraordinary, and supremely entertaining.

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Knits to Wear

Veronika Lindberg

Knits to Wearfeatures 17 Scandinavian-inspired patterns that blend comfort with contemporary elegance.

Create your own treasured pieces with this beautiful book by one of today's most beloved knitwear designers, Veronika Lindberg (also known as Kutova Kika). Knits to Wear offers 17 patterns destined to become cherished favourites. From simple, timeless designs to modern pieces with a romantic twist, decorative textures and traditional colourwork, Veronika guides you in crafting stylish, everyday knits for year-round wear.

She also shares her expert tips and tricks to help you save time and knit like a pro, along with styling suggestions to inspire you to create pieces that reflect your unique personal style.

Including 17 patterns: 7 sweaters, 2 cardigans, 3 tops, 1 vest, 3 hats & 1 collar. Most sweaters, cardigans, vests and tops come in 9-10 sizes and are graded to fit at least a 54-60" / 137-152 cm chest.



The original book was created by Laine, a publishing house based in Finland who are behind the eponymously named international knit and lifestyle magazine. 

 

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A Hymn to Life

Gisèle Pelicot

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“A rousing feminist manifesto.” – The New York Times Book Review 

“Staggering . . . a lyrical book about monstrous events, a compelling exploration of what it feels like to hold two existences in your brain at once.” – Washington Post

“Deeply vulnerable.” – USA Today

The sexual assault that stunned the world. A courageous woman’s rallying call for shame to "change sides." For the very first time, Gisèle Pelicot tells her story.

In 2024, Gisèle Pelicot waived her right to anonymity in her legal fight against her ex-husband and the fifty men accused of sexually assaulting her, a courageous decision that inspired millions of people around the world. Only four years prior, Gisèle had made the shattering discovery that her partner, Dominique Pelicot, had been secretly drugging and raping her, and inviting strangers to also abuse her in their home for nearly a decade. “Shame must change sides,” Gisèle bravely declared at the opening of the trial in Avignon, France, and the dictum soon became an international rallying cry to radically transform public sentiment and legislation surrounding cases of sexual violence. By the time Dominique and the dozens of men accused were found guilty three and a half months later, Gisèle had become a global figure, and her message—that she and other victims of sexual abuse have no reason to feel ashamed—galvanized a movement that triggered protests and demonstrations around the world.

In A Hymn to Life, Gisèle tells her story for the very first time, not as victim, but as witness. Beginning in 2020, when she received the first phone call from a local police station, Gisèle recounts the fateful investigation that turned her life inside out. With unwavering honesty and devastating grace, she retraces the steps of a life built over the course of five decades, the final decade of her marriage and its hidden abuse, and the long path of emotional healing that ensues. As Gisèle transcends the unfathomable traumas of her past, against all odds, she emerges with a renewed sense of passion and reverence for her life. Part memoir, part act of defiance, A Hymn to Life is a moving story of survival, testimony, and courage, and an unforgettable portrait of a woman who broke her silence, reclaimed her voice, and forced a reckoning.

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The Blood Countess

Shelley Puhak

A March Indie Next Pick * A Barnes & Noble Most Anticipated Nonfiction Book of 2026 * A Barnes & Noble Reads Best Book of February 2026

From the author of the national bestseller The Dark Queens, an incandescent work of true crime and feminist history about Elizabeth Bathory, the woman alleged to be the world's most prolific female serial killer.

There have long been whispers, coming from the castle; from the village square; from the dark woods. The great lady-a countess, from one of Europe's oldest families-is a vicious killer. Some even say she bathes in the blood of her victims. When the king's men force their way into her manor house, she has blood on her hands, caught in the act of murdering yet another of her maids. She is walled up in a tower and never seen again, except in the uppermost barred window, where she broods over the countryside, cursing all those who dared speak up against her.

Told and retold in many languages, the legend of the Blood Countess has consumed cultural imaginations around the world. But despite claims that Elizabeth Bathory tortured and killed as many as 650 girls, some have wondered if the Countess was herself a victim- of one of the most successful disinformation campaigns known to history. So, was Elizabeth Bathory a monster, a victim, or a bit of both? With the breathlessness of a whodunit, drawing upon new archival evidence and questioning old assumptions, Shelley Puhak traces the Countess's downfall, bringing to life an assertive woman leader in a world sliding into anti-scientific, reactionary darkness-a world where nothing is ever as it seems. In this exhilarating narrative, Puhak renders a vivid portrait of history's most dangerous woman and her tumultuous time, revealing just how far we will go to destroy a woman in power.

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Be Your Own Bestie

Misha Brown

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
USA TODAY BESTSELLER

Hey, Bestie! Start loving yourself radically with the 4-step SASS Method that literally anyone can do—from social media star Misha Brown.

You deserve happiness.
You deserve hope.
And you deserve a sassy best friend who can help you learn not to settle for less.

It’s time to start loving yourself radically. And Misha Brown—you may know him as @yourbestiemisha—is here to guide you along your journey of self-discovery, accountability, and most importantly, self-love. With his no-nonsense (but always loving) approach, Misha shares stories from his own life, encounters with others, and the wisdom gleaned from them to help you release the patterns, relationships, and beliefs that have kept you from stepping into your full fabulousness.

With equal parts hilarity and heart, Misha’s S.A.S.S. Method to glowing up your life consists of:

S – Self-reflection: Turn your focus inward to push away what’s been holding you back
A – Affirmations: Reshape the way you speak to and about yourself
S – Standing your ground: Set boundaries and stop apologizing
S – Sculpting the life you want: Take bold steps toward your own happily ever after

No matter where you are today, now is the time to begin showing up for yourself as your own best friend. Because you deserve it, bestie!

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A World Appears

Michael Pollan

"Pollan’s real genius—the word is not too strong—remains intact. That is his uncanny ability to scent the direction in which the culture is headed. He did it with food and psychedelics, and now, though A World Appears focuses on AI only intermittently, he has done it again." —Charles Finch, The Atlantic

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Change Your Mind, a panoptic exploration of consciousness—what it is, who has it, and why—and a meditation on the essence of our humanity

When it comes to the phenomenon that is consciousness, there is one point on which scientists, philosophers, and artists all agree: it feels like something to be us. Yet the fact that we have subjective experience of the world remains one of nature’s greatest mysteries. How is it that our mental operations are accompanied by feelings, thoughts, and a sense of self? What would a scientific investigation of our inner life look like, when we have as little distance and perspective on it as fish do of the sea? In A World Appears, Michael Pollan traces the unmapped continent that is consciousness, bringing radically different perspectives—scientific, philosophical, literary, spiritual and psychedelic—to see what each can teach us about this central fact of life.

When neuroscientists began studying consciousness in the early 1990s, they sought to explain how and why three pounds of spongy gray matter could generate a subjective point of view—assuming that the brain is the source of our perceived reality. Pollan takes us to the cutting edge of the field, where scientists are entertaining more radical (and less materialist) theories of consciousness. He introduces us to “plant neurobiologists” searching for the first flicker of consciousness in plants, scientists striving to engineer feelings into AI, and psychologists and novelists seeking to capture the felt experience of our slippery stream of consciousness.

In Pollan’s dazzling exploration of consciousness, he discovers a world far deeper and stranger than our everyday reality. Eye-opening and mind-expanding, A World Appears takes us into the laboratories of our own minds, ultimately showing us how we might make better use of the gift of awareness to more meaningfully connect with the world and our deepest selves.

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We the Women

Norah O'Donnell

A vivid portrait of the unsung American women from 1776 to today who changed the course of history in their fight for freedom and helped shape a more perfect union

“This terrific book reveals the central, though often hidden role that women have played at every stage of our country’s history.”—Doris Kearns Goodwin

Over a decades-long, distinguished career, award-winning journalist Norah O’Donnell has made it her mission to shed light on untold wom­en’s stories. Now, in honor of America’s 250th birthday, O’Donnell focuses that passion on the American heroines who helped change the course of history. 

We the Women presents a fresh look at American his­tory through the eyes of women, introducing us to inspiring patriots who demanded that the country live up to the prom­ises made 250 years ago in the Declaration of Independence: “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Since the signing of that document, the pressing question from women has been: Why don’t those unalienable rights apply to us? 

Through extensive research and interviews, as well as historical documents and old photos, O’Donnell curates a compelling portrait of these fierce fighters for freedom. From Mary Katherine Goddard, who printed the first signed Declaration of Independence, to the Forten family women, who were active in the abolition and suffrage movements and were considered the “Black Founders” of Philadelphia, to the first women who served in the armed forces even before they had the right to vote, O’Donnell brings these extraordinary women together for the first time, and in doing so writes the American story anew.

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Unread

Oliver James

As a result of childhood learning disabilities and educational neglect, Oliver James graduated from high school and became one of approximately 45 million functionally illiterate Americans. However, at age 32, with big dreams and few tools to actualize them, he dedicated himself to learning the key skill that had evaded him his entire life: reading.



Oliver has become a TikTok/BookTok sensation for the way he's candidly documented his decision to learn to read as an adult, and his struggles and triumphs along the way. Here, he tells the full story behind his journey for the first time through the 21 key books that shaped and informed his experience. His story reveals the ways in which reading can teach each of us how to be better, more empathetic people.



In just 365 days, Oliver went from barely being able to read a restaurant menu to closing in on his goal of finishing 100 books in a year. Unread is a moving reminder to all of us that words and stories have power, and that, no matter our past, it's never too late to grow.

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I Told You So!

Matt Kaplan

An energetic and impassioned work of popular science about scientists who have had to fight for their revolutionary ideas to be accepted—from Darwin to Pasteur to modern day Nobel Prize winners.

For two decades, Matt Kaplan has covered science for the Economist. He’s seen breakthroughs often occur in spite of, rather than because of, the behavior of the research community, and how support can be withheld for those who don’t conform or have the right connections. In this passionately argued and entertaining book, Kaplan narrates the history of the 19th century Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis, who realized that Childbed fever—a devastating infection that only struck women who had recently given birth—was spread by doctors not washing their hands. Semmelweis was met with overwhelming hostility by those offended at the notion that doctors were at fault, and is a prime example of how the scientific community often fights new ideas, even when the facts are staring them in the face.

In entertaining prose, Kaplan reveals scientific cases past and present to make his case. Some are familiar, like Galileo being threatened with torture and Nobel laureate Katalin Karikó being fired when on the brink of discovering how to wield mRNA–a finding that proved pivotal for the creation of the Covid-19 vaccine. Others less so, like researchers silenced for raising safety concerns about new drugs, and biologists ridiculed for revealing major flaws in the way rodent research is conducted. Kaplan shows how the scientific community can work faster and better by making reasonably small changes to the forces that shape it.

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