On rare occasions, excess precipitation nurtures scores of flowers in otherwise harsh and arid landscapes. For this project, Mark Lisk scoured western deserts in search of these superblooms, traveling from from Idaho to Baja California... Read More

Cecily Gilligan’s sweeping encyclopedia "Cures of Ireland" archives centuries of Irish folk medicine, herbalism, and healing charms. Drawing on firsthand interviews and archival research, this expansive book details hundreds of Irish... Read More

A sensitive exploration of Brazilian history and the boundaries of biographical writing, Jacob Blanc’s collaborative book reconstructs the life of human rights activist and former militant Aluízio Palmar. Born in rural Brazil, Palmar... Read More

A fascinating, multifaceted collection of armchair treks, Linda Cracknell’s travel memoir "Doubling Back" is about revisiting significant places on foot. Cracknell’s walks, undertaken sometimes solo and at other times with... Read More

Julian Borger’s illuminating, elegiac memoir "I Seek a Kind Person" traces his search for his Viennese father’s wartime history. In 1983, Borger’s father, Robert, committed suicide. Borger, a journalist, later discovered an... Read More

A couple experiences the futility and horror of trying to outrun their problems in Dennis Mahoney’s horror novel "Our Winter Monster". Holly and Brian rumble toward a ski resort to salvage their scattered partnership. A blizzard is on... Read More

Neil Taylor’s thriller "Anticipation" unravels a high-tech mystery in an unsettling near-future scenario. Riya is a math and machine-learning savant who lost her technology genius father in a plane accident. When she learns that his... Read More

Steve Stern’s "A Fool’s Kabbalah" is a crushing, startling novel about intellectual and spiritual defiance in the face of unbearable cruelties. On a scholarly scavenging expedition through Europe, famed kabbalist Gershom Scholem... Read More