Photographer and debut author Sansivero takes readers on a resonant tour of vacated homes across the U.S. through a series of evocative images. Photographs like “The Famous Writer’s Library”—which depicts an unnamed Pulitzer Prize–winning author’s Virginia house brimming with toppling stacks of books and personal effects—feel so characteristic of their former inhabitants that it seems they may have just left. Even long-neglected spaces clearly suggest the shape of the lives they once contained, like the dilapidated, paint-flaking interior of “Home Sweet Home,” with its fireplace, mantelpiece, and a yellow blanket draped across an armchair calling to mind a bustling family home. Other photos, including one of a stopped clock in an abandoned Virginia home, raise more questions than they answer (“When did the clock last tell time? Was it long after people were living there, or had it stopped before they left?”). Providing a few sentences beneath each photo, Sansivero frames each space as a time capsule of a person’s past, simultaneously recognizing life’s ephemerality and reminding readers to cherish the “little things we hold so dear, and that they will come and go, like those of others before us.” Alternately moving, eerie, and dramatic, it’s both a visual spectacle and a vibrant ode to forgotten lives. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/08/2025 | Details & Permalink

Finance writer Housel (The Psychology of Money) offers a deeply insightful guide to managing money focused on spending wisely. Instead of centering the acquisition and growth of wealth, Housel unravels the emotions that drive people to spend, arguing there is no “right” way to do it: some people spend extravagantly to make up for growing up poor or to justify working long hours at a miserable job, while others might buy expensive cars or designer handbags to chase status. Learning what actually makes one happy in life and spending money in support of those goals is key, he explains. Housel encourages experimenting with spending to find “your thing,” separating financial goals from identity, and minimizing future regret. One might find, as a result, that travel or hobbies brings them joy and gear their money toward those, while another may prefer giving money away. Still, some of Housel’s most profound advice is about saving, not spending: “Money you haven’t spent buys something intangible but valuable: freedom, independence, and being able to spend time in your own way.” Prudent and actionable, these lessons will help readers build sensible money habits. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/08/2025 | Details & Permalink

NBA reporter Weitzman (Tanking to the Top) takes readers behind the scenes of the Los Angeles Lakers in this in-depth account of a crucial moment in the team’s history: its acquisition of LeBron James. In 2018, the team was reeling from the death of owner Jerry Buss and a string of disappointing seasons. Controlling owner Jeanie Buss, Jerry’s daughter, was determined to return the squad to its former glory and hoped that adding James, the four-time NBA MVP, would make that possible. She was right: the decision yielded a championship in the Covid-impacted 2019–2020 season. But obstacles—including injuries and questionable player decisions—would prevent them from sustaining that success. While the “LeBron Lakers” may not have reached their full potential, Weitzman argues that, in the end, both Buss and James were successful; she brought the franchise “back from the abyss” after years of mediocrity, while James won his fourth title and became the league’s all-time scoring leader. Drawing on hundreds of interviews, Weitzman cinematically portrays the high-stakes drama behind the pairing of a living legend and an iconic sports team. This is a must-read for pro hoops fans. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/08/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this inspiring autobiography, Sewell recounts his arc from undergoing double above-the-knee leg amputations to becoming a nationally renowned athlete. Sewell was born in 1992 San Diego without tibias in either of his legs, prompting his mother to have the limbs removed and Sewell fitted with prosthetics before he turned two. In school, the author faced vicious bullying and halting physical adjustment to his prosthetics. The cost of the technology, too, posed problems, eventually leaving him and his mother homeless. When Sewell was eight, he and his mother bumped into a woman outside the shelter where they were living who ran a program for young disabled athletes, and Sewell started training in basketball. After Sewell and his mother relocated to Alabama in 2004, they connected with coaches from the Challenged Athletes Foundation, who helped him start running. From there, Sewell matter-of-factly recounts his myriad athletic achievements and the sometimes-joyous, sometimes-grueling training as a runner and swimmer that quickly became the main focus of his life. By 2019, he had become the first above-the-knee double amputee to complete the Ironman Triathlon, and had represented the U.S. on three national swimming teams. Stirring, straightforward, and occasionally tear-jerking, this athletic underdog story is about as uplifting as it gets. Agent: Ian Kleinert, Paradigm Agency. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 08/08/2025 | Details & Permalink

Journalist Rope (Strong as a Mother) outlines strategies to help parents and caregivers raise confident, empowered girls in this insightful guide. Rather than doling out one-size-fits-all advice for the array of issues impacting girls ages five to 12—including mental health, body image, and gender bias—Rope encourages open-ended discussions. For example, a parent whose young daughter has revealed that she has crushes on girls might ask, “What does that mean for you?” or “What do you like about girls?” Modeling healthy behaviors can help girls learn to sit with difficult emotions; verbally apologizing for missteps or acknowledging bad days (“I’m feeling irritable and tired”) can encourage children to do the same. When it comes to issues of identity, like navigating racism, ableism, or transphobia, Rope suggests affirming children for who they are and seeking out diverse communities to help them feel less alone. At every turn, Rope advocates for teaching children to listen to their own intuition; for instance, experts say that allowing kids to eat intuitively (rather than forcing or cajoling) can encourage lifelong healthy eating patterns. Rope’s belief in the potential of young girls and her compassion for their parents and caregivers shines through on every page. This comprehensive manual encourages and enlightens. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/08/2025 | Details & Permalink

Ecologist and neurobiologist Yovel shares the fruits of his decades of field and lab research on bats in this standout work of popular science. The almost 1,500 species of bats around the world, he explains, account for 20% of all mammalian species. Bats come in all shapes and sizes and have varying behaviors. Vampire bats, for example, engage in “reciprocal altruism,” preferring to share the blood that forms their diet with others who had previously done the same with them, and Africa’s male hammer-headed bats make sounds akin to the beeping of truck horns to attract females. Yovel chronicles the “arms race” between bats and the insects they eat, noting some prey have evolved to detect and “jam” bats’ echolocation calls. Yovel also details his own contributions to bat science, including his work attaching over 1,000 GPS devices to bats in more than 10 countries to understand what life is like for these mammals. He’s come to believe they are conscious creatures; “the vampire bat that returns home after a sleepless night and feeds a hungry member of its colony must have some consciousness.” Yovel’s passion and curiosity will leave readers with a greater appreciation for the wonders and mysteries of the bat world. This is a revelation. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/08/2025 | Details & Permalink

Journalist and NBCC award winner Quinones (The Least of Us) assembles an eclectic and affectionate ode to the tuba and those who devote their lives to it. Roaming far and wide through the instrument’s history, he highlights legends like New Orlean’s Anthony “Tuba Fats” Lacen (1950–2004), who innovated New Orleans jazz and blues, and New York’s Bill Bell (1927–2005), who played with the New York Philharmonic as well as in Broadway shows and circuses (and may have kept a sousaphone in a Grand Central Station locker so he could join parades on short notice). Elsewhere, the author captures the tuba’s role in genres ranging from jazz to punk rock, explores its ubiquitous presence in marching and military bands, and spotlights musicians who have spent their careers mastering the instrument. Along the way, Quinones emphasizes the tuba’s unique demands on musicians, like the mega lung capacity and impressive lip musculature needed to produce a special ear-throbbing sound called “grit” (which fills halls and stadiums but is “not necessarily pretty to hear close up”). Quinones finds in the tuba and those who play it a surprisingly moving symbol of tenacity in today’s hectic, destabilizing world—a quiet willingness to work at one’s “craft, usually alone, in spite of the... indifference of others” in pursuit of that “which cannot be purchased other than by hard work, preparation and persistence.” Attesting to the tuba’s central place in American music, this exuberant love letter resonates. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 08/08/2025 | Details & Permalink

Psychologist Doherty shares a lucid guide to coping with climate crisis-induced depression and anxiety. Presupposing the reader’s understanding of the situation’s gravity, Doherty mostly avoids outlining the perils of climate change and instead explains how to adjust one’s behavior and feelings to cope, beginning with standard practices like reframing thoughts and more precisely labeling one’s emotions. Later sections get more specific, detailing how readers can define their “environmental identity”—or “deep-seated beliefs, attitudes, and relationships towards nature in all its forms”—and use it as a sort of North Star to guide the environmental initiatives they pursue and ways in which they connect to nature. The goal, Doherty explains, is to find a “stabilizing, grounding force to combat the free-floating existential dread... about the planet’s future” and move forward in a more focused, productive way. The author’s lack of alarmism is refreshing, as is his middle-of-the-road approach to appreciating “good things, honestly and in the present moment, while also having an awareness that things could be much better,” making room for “moments of gratitude and satisfaction... alongside moments of outrage and anger.” The result is a smart, practical guide to battling through the uncertainty of one of today’s most pressing global threats. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/08/2025 | Details & Permalink

James Beard Award winner Edge (The Potlikker Papers) serves up a bountiful repast that covers family legacy, Southern history, and enduring connections between race and food. Growing up in small-town 1960s Georgia in a house originally owned by a Confederate general, Edge learned early on to regale his friends with stories of the Lost Cause. His bohemian mother fueled such tales, while his father pulled him away to visit local “houses of smoke,” where Edge’s “passion for food blossomed, born of my father’s taste for barbecue and our shared curiosity about the wider world.” After graduating from the University of Mississippi with a Southern studies degree, Edge settled in Oxford, Miss., eating and writing until, in 1999, he became the founding director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, an organization devoted to preserving the South’s diverse food cultures. In 2020, activists called for him to step down, citing a lack of diversity among leadership, pushing him to reconsider “the stories on which I depended” about his homeland. His subsequent reckoning with his role as a white spokesperson for Black cultures is gracious and direct. Clear-eyed, bighearted, and beautifully written, this nourishing memoir offers readers plenty to chew on. Photos. Agent: David Black, David Black Literary. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 08/08/2025 | Details & Permalink

Rose debuts with a heartbreaking and genre-bending exploration of grief, trauma, and gender identity. In blunt prose, she wades through a flood of memories, volleying from scenes of caring for her immobile grandfather in the present to recollections of sometimes-awful, sometimes-transcendent hookups and the dissolution of a major romantic relationship. Along the way, Rose supplements straightforward prose sections with Grindr transcripts, fictional screenplay snippets, and themed lists. A “List of People I Want to Meet” includes “The Twitter gay I followed last night (yum)”; a “List of Reasons My Rape Doesn’t Count” includes “He didn’t leave my body in a ditch.” Such fluid transitions between heavy and light abound, with Rose’s internet-indebted humor counterbalancing frank episodes of suicidal ideation and sexual violence, while her moving descriptions of gender euphoria (which induces a state of “patching up her heart, fixing their brain, being lovable, not crying”) provide genuine pathos. The book’s magpie structure could be off-putting in lesser hands, but James always roots the proceedings in bracing honesty. The emotional intensity and sexual candor won’t be for everyone, but open-minded readers will be wowed—especially if they’re grappling with their own self-definition. Agent: Mollie Glick, CAA. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/08/2025 | Details & Permalink