BOOKS

This Pulitzer Prize–winning biography leaves no atom unturned as it explores the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb.” Co-authors Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin trace Oppenheimer’s life from his New York upbringing in a German Jewish family amidst growing antisemitic attitudes to his key role in developing the first atomic bomb to his postwar turn towards pacifism—which those in power found very unsettling. The authors’ meticulous research draws on thousands of personal sources and government documents to unpack the dizzying highs of the scientist’s career right along with the soul-destroying lows that Oppenheimer experienced after creating a weapon of unprecedented destruction. Narrator Jeff Cummings delivers the audiobook with a calm yet commanding tone that’...

In the prologue, Meg Cabot describes her desire for a Barbie and her mother's reluctance to purchase one, basically summing up the conflict surrounding the doll since its introduction in 1959. Listeners learn about Mattel Toys and the background behind Barbie's concept and development, how it was a solution for girls who wanted to imagine adult roles rather than just play mother, and details about inventor Ruth Handler. But more than that, Stone reveals the pathos behind so many relationships of girls with Barbie: those who cherished her and those who were negatively influenced. Was she a destructive role model or just a toy? Experts disagree. In this balanced overview, both sides of the quandary are addressed. Barbie's different roles, graduating from nurse to surgeon, stewardess to pi...

With more than four million copies sold, Wifey is Judy Blume's hilarious, moving tale of a woman who trades in her conventional wifely duties for her wildest fantasies—and learns a lot about life along the way. Sandy Pressman is a nice suburban wife whose boredom is getting the best of her. She could be making friends at the club, like her husband keeps encouraging her to do. Or working on her golf game. Or getting her hair done. But for some reason, these things don't interest her as much as the naked man on the motorcycle...

How much of ourselves do we disclose when we speak or write? A person’s accent may reveal, for example, whether they hail from Australia, or Ireland, or Mississippi. But it’s not just where we were born—we divulge all sorts of information about ourselves and our identity through language. Level of education, gender, age, and even aspects of our personality can all be reliably determined by our vocabulary and grammar. To those who know what to look for, we give ourselves away every time we open our mouths or tap on a keyboard. But how unique is a person’s linguistic identity? Can language be used to identify a specific person? To identify—or to exonerate—a murder suspect? To determine who authored a particular book? The answer to all these questions is yes. Forensic and computational lingu...

A queer, Black “biography in essays” about the performer who gave us “Hound Dog,” “Ball and Chain,” and other songs that changed the course of American music. Born in Alabama in 1926, raised in the church, appropriated by white performers, buried in an indigent’s grave—Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton’s life events epitomize the blues—but Lynnée Denise pushes past the stereotypes to read Thornton’s life through a Black, queer, feminist lens and reveal an artist who was an innovator across her four-decade-long career. Why Willie Mae Thornton Matters “samples” elements of Thornton’s art—and, occasionally, the author’s own story—to create “a biography in essays” that explores the life of its subject as a DJ might dig through a crate of records. Denise connects Thornton’s vaudevillesque perfor...

Following her New York Times bestseller Summer on the Bluffs, The View cohost and three-time Emmy Award winner Sunny Hostin spirits readers away to the warm beaches of Sag Harbor for the compelling second novel in her acclaimed Summer series. In a hidden enclave in Sag Harbor, affectionately known as SANS—Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest, and Nineveh—there’s a close-knit community of African American elites who escape the city and enjoy the beautiful warm weather and beaches at their vacation homes. Since the 1930s, very few have known about this Historically Black Beachfront Community in this part of the Hamptons on Long Island, and the residents like it that way. That is, until real estate developers discover the hidden gem. And now, the residents must fight for the soul of this HBBC. Agains...

US track-and-field superstar Allyson Felix competed in five Olympic Games. In 2021, Felix won her 11th Olympic track-and-field medal, more than any other athlete in US history. Explore her life on and off the track. Allyson Michelle Felix a retired American track and field athlete who competed in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 400 meters. She specialized in the 200 meters from 2003 to 2013, then gradually shifted to the 400 meters later in her career. At 200 meters, Felix is the 2012 Olympic champion, a three-time world champion (2005–2009), a two-time Olympic silver medalist (2004 and 2008), and the 2011 world bronze medalist. At 400 meters, she is the 2015 world champion, 2011 world silver medalist, 2016 Olympic silver medalist, 2017 world bronze medalist, and 2020 Olympic bronze meda...

For fans of Luster and I May Destroy You, a disarmingly honest, unapologetically black, and undeniably witty novel that will speak to those who have gone looking for love and found something very different in its place. Queenie Jenkins is a twenty-five-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle class peers. After a messy break up from her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places…including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth. As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, “What are ...

Hidden behind the veil of their secret society the group known as the Illuminati have still managed to garner great attention and acclaim. They have been blamed for everything imaginable such as being the igniting force behind the French Revolution and being the real masterminds behind the 9/11 attacks. They have even been credited with assassinating both Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy, because these two celebrated presidents made the unfortunate mistake of trying to usurp their unquestionable power. The so called conspiracy theorists say that they are hell bent on ushering in their new world order which consists of the establishment of a one world government, a one world army and destroying the sovereignty of every nation. They are said to be implementing their New World Order through or...

A stunning, contemporary Black southern gothic novel about what it means to be a poor woman in the God- fearing south. The perfect audiobook if you loved The Other Black Girl and Luster. “Every page, every scene, every sentence of Monica Brashears’s debut novel House of Cotton dazzles and surprises. An intense, enthralling, and deeply satisfying read!” —Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies "A new, dazzling, and essential American voice." —George Saunders, author of Lincoln in the Bardo. Magnolia Brown is nineteen years old, broke, and effectively an orphan. She feels stuck and haunted: by her overdrawn bank account, her predatory landlord, and the ghost of her late grandmother Mama Brown. One night, while working at her dead-end gas station job, a mysterious, sli...