Maren Meinhardt’s biography of early nineteenth-century scientist Alexander von Humboldt shows how he came to have more places and objects named after him than any other person. The text focuses on the scientist and explorer’s... Read More

Two things have become unambiguous about Russia’s role in the 2016 US presidential election: it carried out a significant attack against the United States; and not enough is being done to prevent a repeat performance. Jake Braun... Read More

Robert Cocuzzo’s satisfying travel story "The Road to San Donato" is about honoring family connections and self-discovery in the context of history. Cocuzzo and his father, Stephen, set out to return to the Italian mountain village of... Read More

In D. W. Gillespie’s unsettling novel "One by One", a family falls prey to a house’s malevolence as they struggle to stay together. The Eastons thought they found the perfect fixer-upper when they bought an isolated, strange old... Read More

Katya Geller has been making her living as a writer for the past twelve years, all the more impressive because she’s a Russian immigrant writing in English. But making a living as a writer requires you to write, and now she’s stalled... Read More

Emily Arnason Casey’s expansive and elegiac essay collection "Made Holy" is full of unsparing personal revelations and fierce, unflinching insights. The opening essay, “The Cabin,” establishes the collection’s tone. Ruminating on... Read More

Citizen science might seem like a model for discovery that could only work in the internet age, but amateur involvement in science is in fact nothing new. In "The Crowd and the Cosmos", Oxford Professor of Astrophysics Chris Lintott... Read More

Bettina Elias Siegel’s "Kid Food" is an informative culinary guide for parents. It’s easy to feed kids in a way that’s quick and thoughtless, especially to fit their whims and preferences, but Siegel’s book encourages parents to... Read More