Dance critic Veale debuts with a sinuous history of the women dancers and choreographers who transformed their male-dominated industry. She begins in the 1890s, when modern dancers rejected symmetrical forms of ballet and fluffy tulle in favor of “supple, free-flowing dances” and diaphanous tunics that shocked audiences. The 1910s saw the rise of a second generation of modern dancers, led by Martha Graham, who used their bodies to express freedom, empowerment, and equality. Veale credits these women—including Hanya Holm and members of the New Dance Group—with “reimagin[ing] the relationship between dance and society” by making the art form more accessible and mixing performances with advocacy against social ills. The third generation profiled emerged in the 1940s, as dancers harnessed “sweeping styles” and “visceral twists of the body” to celebrate individualism and revitalize marginalized histories. For example, Black dancers like Katherine Dunham combined modern dance with African and Caribbean influences, while Pearl Lang explored her Jewish identity in dances that dramatized the lives of biblical matriarchs. With evocative prose (“You could hear her body as it slapped the floor, heavy with suffering”), Veale vividly highlights how famous and lesser-known female dancers remade an often exclusionary art form while expanding the ways that art can be used to pursue sociocultural change. It’s a captivating chronicle. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

This cosmopolitan collection of journal entries from the late Australian poet Antigone Kefala, who died in 2022, contains moving reflections on the tension between modern life and the life of the mind. Kefala makes pithy observations of everything from the lowering of society’s standards to the drift toward uniformity (“Looking at the crowds outside the milk bar at lunchtime. It is as if no one carries an inner life any longer, empty shells full of movement, action, action”). She has regular glimpses of the eternal and universal elements of humanity—“How ancient our gestures are, one sees them inscribed on marble or stone century after century”—but perceives them as in retreat from the rising tide of mass culture, which breeds prejudice, cheapens art, and damages inner life itself. (“What is surprising about prejudice is how... in an open society, [with] free speech and all that... underneath it all, everyone is programmed and the attitudes operate as efficiently as if in the army.”) Kefala writes insightfully and joyously of music, painting, and writing, and quotes copiously from other writers, philosophers, and poets who feel like companions on her constant travels. Throughout, she strives for an open internationalism that abhors small-minded, mass-produced, flattening tones. This veers between the caustic and the elegiac, but never fails to render itself in full color, at perfect pitch. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

Activist McBay (Full Spectrum Resistance) offers an encouraging survey of successful environmental justice activism. The victories spotlighted include an unlikely alliance between construction unions and conservationists that helped protect urban green spaces in 1970s Australia, the diverse coalition-building that prevented gentrification of Boston’s Chinatown in the 1990s, the rural organizing and civil disobedience that stopped the construction of a nuclear reactor in Germany in 1975, and the ways in which Canadian environmentalists have built on a strong history of Indigenous land protection strategies to fight the installation of fossil fuel pipelines from the 2010s to today. Along the way, McBay points out common themes and approaches that led to each movement’s success, spotlighting 12 key “patterns,” including having “urgency” and a “positive vision” for the future, practicing strategic “escalation” and engaging in direct action rather than just protest, and building “coalitions across difference” and movements that can “persist and endure.” The individual stories are accessible but light on detail, leaving McBay’s points sometimes too vaguely illustrated. Still, it’s an illuminating overview and a useful playbook for environmentalists. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

This hit-or-miss debut account from Tablet contributing editor Siegel posits that the rise of the surveillance state after 9/11 laid the groundwork for today’s supercharged alliance between Big Tech and government. Tracing earlier attempts to use technology to manage and control local populations from the Vietnam War through the “war on terror,” Siegel pegs the Obama administration as particularly culpable for having fostered partnerships between intelligence agencies, academics, tech giants, and NGOs that led to unprecedented consolidation of power in the hands of technocrats. In response to populist movements of the 2010s, this new cohort of elites turned its tools of information warfare toward censorship under the guise of combatting Russian disinformation, Siegel contends. He also frames other recent free speech grievances on the right as part of such “information state” crackdowns, including tech companies censoring speech related to Hunter Biden’s laptop and Covid-19 vaccine skepticism, as well as the deplatforming of January 6 rioters. Though clear-eyed about the dangers of state repression in the Information Age, Siegel relies too much on insinuation and analogy to make his case. Moreover, while spotlighting the dangerous precedent set by liberal censorship of conservative speech is a provocative and original contribution, at times it feels like he’s overcorrecting, with no mention of how people on the left have been deplatformed for pro-Palestinian views, for instance. It’s a mixed bag. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

This passionate study from ecologist Simard (Finding the Mother Tree) reveals how preserving forests’ natural cycles of death and renewal is key to their longevity. When trees die and decompose, she explains, their rotting logs release nutrients into the soil and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which new seedlings then absorb. This process gets disrupted by industrial logging companies, which harvest trees by clear-cutting, a technique, Simard points out, that releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, destroys wildlife habitats, and increases the risk of wildfires and floods. The heavy machinery of the modern logging industry—some of which weighs up to 55,000 pounds—crushes and destroys the carbon-rich forest floor, and the acres of single-species trees (“uniform as picket fences”) planted to replace a clear-cut forest have just a fraction of their predecessors’ productivity and biodiversity. According to Simard and her colleagues’ research on clear-cut and undisturbed forests in British Columbia, a far better approach is one inspired by Indigenous respect for the interconnectedness of all living things and involves leaving the majority of the oldest trees, or “mother trees,” standing to help the forest rebuild. Throughout, Simard artfully highlights the importance of honoring natural cycles by reflecting on her daughter’s coming-of-age and her mother’s reaching the end of her life. The result is a resonant and urgent call for change. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

Journalist Ariosto (This Is Cuba) delivers an informative if uneven breakdown of today’s space race, which he argues is at a pivotal juncture as tech elites and rival nations vie to determine the future of humankind in the cosmos. Space is currently “an open canvas of possibilities,” according to Ariosto, so “it’s time for deliberate choices about the people, rules, and systems that we allow to win out.” He highlights the rise of private-sector space exploration in the U.S., recounting the launch of Intuitive Machines’ lunar lander Odysseus in 2024, the first spacecraft made by a private company to successfully land on the moon. Meanwhile, China continues to make rapid advancements in space exploration, Ariosto notes, describing the country’s expansion plans for its Tiangong space station and efforts to create a sustained presence on the moon, all of which are sparking national security concerns in the U.S. While the book’s first half captivates with suspenseful storytelling, particularly Ariosto’s detailed descriptions of moon landing attempts, the second half lacks a propulsive through line, jumping from the dangers of space debris to the prospect of colonizing mars to technical discussions of the theoretical possibility of warp-speed travel. Still, space aficionados will find much of interest. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

Computational neuroscientist Sussillo unpacks his difficult childhood and considers “how complex patterns arrive from simple parts” in his inspirational debut. Sussillo grew up in 1970s Albuquerque with a younger sister and two heroin-addicted parents. His father’s abandonment of the family and his mother’s institutionalization resulted in Sussillo and his sister, Esther, bouncing between 13 different foster homes in their childhood. Time spent playing arcade games like Ms. Pac-Man led a young Sussillo to grow curious about how computers worked; he eventually double-majored in computer science and mathematics at Carnegie Mellon. Though severe panic attacks interrupted his college years, he graduated in his mid-20s and pursued a PhD at Columbia, then worked in Silicon Valley during the dot-com boom before landing at the Google Brain AI research group. Sussillo manages to make his work mathematically modeling the human mind accessible to a layperson, but what stand out most are his reflections on overcoming hardship and his guilt about Esther’s difficulty doing the same. His musings offer both a stirring tribute to resilience and a humble acknowledgment of how much remains unknown about the human mind. It’s a gripping and erudite self-portrait. Agent: Jenna Free, Folio Literary. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

A replay of WWI is imminent, according to this troubling rumination from historian Westad (The Great Transformation). He argues that today’s geopolitics resembles that of 1914: China is a modern version of early 20th-century Germany, an upstart elbowing its way into Great Power status; America is the new Great Britain, a declining hegemon increasingly unwilling to pay the price of maintaining its preeminence; and Russia is, like Austria-Hungary, a decrepit empire trying to hold on. Westad gives a recap of 1914 that emphasizes bad choices: a showdown between Austria and Serbia escalated as their sponsors, Germany and Russia, failed to rein them in; rigid alliances brought France in on Russia’s side; Britain failed to clearly declare that it would fight on France’s side, leading Germany to believe the war was winnable; and immediate mobilization left no room for diplomacy. Elsewhere, Westad surveys present-day contested territories that could drag the world into war—Taiwan, Ukraine, Kashmir, Israel-Palestine—and offers policy proposals to avoid that fate, including that America should make clear it will support Taiwan if China attacks. Westad’s retrospective on the run-up to WWI is incisive but his schematic application of it to the present can feel forced, and his downplaying of nuclear weapons as a deterrent doesn’t totally convince. Still, geopolitics wonks will find this worthwhile. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

The U.S. is a cobbled-together assortment of nations with radically different cultural values, according to this sweeping follow-up to journalist Woodard’s American Nations. Updating the thesis of that book, Woodard posits a total of nine American subnations that diverge sharply, particularly over individual liberty vs. collective responsibility. They include Yankeedom, stretching from New England to Minnesota, whose Puritan roots bequeathed a sense of communitarian social discipline; the Deep South, whose origins in plantation slavery imprinted it with a hierarchical social order; and Greater Appalachia, a land of rebellious individualism. Drawing on polling stats and maps of county-level data on everything from election results to life expectancy, Woodard applies the nations framework to explain differing regional attitudes on issues like gun control (the violent honor cultures of the South and Appalachia detest it), migration (Appalachian xenophobia runs deep), and action on climate change (it’s actually popular in all the nations, he notes). A Maine native, Woodard wears his Yankee progressivism on his sleeve, frequently suggesting ways to nudge the other regions leftward. At times, his approach can seem unnuanced, as he ascribes so much of politics to tradition, but at other times readers will find themselves nodding along. It’s a thought-provoking reflection on the deep roots of America’s divisions. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

Bestseller Lawson (Furiously Happy) offers a witty roundup of coping strategies for navigating anxiety, creative block, and distraction. Drawing from her experiences with depression, anxiety, and ADHD, she shares ways of reframing mental flaws and embracing one’s limitations, useful tools (such as identifying concrete sensory details to interrupt emotional spirals, or lowering expectations to bypass creative paralysis), and gentle reassurances (describing how she dealt with her own sensitivity to rejection, she reminds readers that “you’re not for everyone. And that’s wonderful”). Lawson’s at her most winning when she’s relating her personal mishaps, from mistakenly handing a Dunkin’ Donuts cashier a long-expired hotel key card to abandoning a “hot yoga” class mid-session, to show how ordinary embarrassment can be reframed as evidence of persistence rather than failure. The result is an irreverent, idiosyncratic grab bag of tactics for getting through tough mental health days. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink