In the seventeenth century, the Netherlands became home to a large diaspora community of Sephardic Jews fleeing persecution. Their community thrived for centuries until its abrupt end under Nazi occupation. Longtime BBC reporter Lipika... Read More

John P. Clark’s "Between Earth and Empire" is an expansive work that considers the broad and chilling consequences of ecological disaster. The Earth is in such dire straits that Clark labels the present “the Necrocene,” or “the... Read More

A technological utopia collapses into a prison of nightmares in Louis Greenberg’s science fiction thriller "Green Valley", a breakneck novel that explores what remains of human nature in a world of virtual reality. When society grows... Read More

Marc Stein’s The Stonewall Riots: A Documentary History is an essential collection of primary sources including newspaper articles, opinion pieces, court documents, and photos that place a central event in LGBTQ+ history in context.... Read More

“The conversation hobbles on,” Harriet Shawcross observes at a camp for children with selective mutism. “Without daily practice, they grasp at topics like leaves in a stream, exchanging information, but never quite conversing.”... Read More

In Audrey Coulthurst and Paula Garner’s touching "Starworld", high schoolers Sam Jones and Zoe Miller are the unlikeliest of matches. Sam is an awkward, artistic brainiac, and Zoe is outgoing, popular, and has a jock boyfriend.... Read More

Louis Bayard’s "Courting Mr. Lincoln" begins its story of Lincoln when he was still a roughhewn Springfield lawyer whose potential was guarded by a friend and roommate, Joshua Speed, and admired by a politically minded debutante, Mary... Read More

In Varley O’Connor’s historical novel "The Welsh Fasting Girl", Sarah Jacob is a humdrum farm girl. When she stops eating in the 1860s, she swiftly gains notoriety throughout the United Kingdom and United States, becoming the... Read More