Protests are worthless, and “nonaction” is the only effective form of resistance, according to this provocative treatise from University of Alberta East Asian Studies professor Fried (The First Print Era). His approach is rooted in Daoism, a philosophy defined by its exhortation to nonaction, or “moving through... the world so that one’s actions never meet with resistance.” Fried asserts that, amid today’s performative culture that demands “heroic” action, “doing nothing at all is the very most you can do.” For instance, he denigrates recent pro-Palestinian college encampments as hogging attention from the issue they were protesting, contrasting them with the 2019 Hong Kong protests where protestors got closer to the Daoist ideal of “flowing like water” and “melting” away from conflict. Noting the Hong Kong protestors’ eventual turn to violence, however, Fried sticks with his assertion that any protest is useless; he argues that activism should focus instead on non-heroic, ego-less attempts to fix small things before they become large—once a conflict has resulted in mass death, protest can’t stop it, he maintains. Fried explores these ideas in meandering, koan-esque passages seeking to drain the “hope” out of protesting, since, in his view, “hope distorts and misleads,” and effective social change requires “seeing the world as it is,” with neither hope nor despair. Not all of Fried’s arguments land, but his challenging point of view will stretch readers’ imaginations. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

Bestselling travel writer McCarthy (Walking with Sam) offers a heartwarming meditation on male friendship. A pointed question from his son—“You don’t really have any friends, do you, Dad?”—inspires the author to reconsider his “self-induced isolation” and set out on cross-country drive to reconnect with former close friends. Over the course of a sprawling journey from Appalachia to the Southwest, McCarthy not only rekindles his relationships but makes impromptu, thematically appropriate stops—like at a museum dedicated to lonesome musical legend Roy Orbison—and, most intriguingly, chats with men he meets in bars and other hangouts about their friendships or lack thereof. He encounters several sets of lifelong best friends (including Mississippi duo Chuck and Dan, whose grandfathers were also best friends) and a slew of alienated loners (“I stick to myself,” one construction worker explains). These surprisingly open conversations allow McCarthy to interrogate what blocks male connection, particularly men’s fear of vulnerability and their sense that it’s easier to be emotional with women. McCarthy’s journey exposes how infrequently friendship is discussed at all in American culture—as one journalist notes, “People are reluctant to discuss friendship because it has no immediacy, no monetary value”—even as there is a widespread hunger to talk about it. The result is a poignant, life-affirming look at American men yearning for closer bonds. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

In this pragmatic guide, married coauthors Shen and Leung (Quit Like a Millionaire), who retired at 30, apply their frugal philosophy to the economics of raising children. Parents of a toddler, the authors draw on their expertise in saving and investing to challenge what they dub “Big Baby,” the consumer culture that encourages parents to buy more than they need. They instruct readers to optimize their kid-related spending and invest the money saved into assets that provide passive income, like real estate investment trusts and index funds. Parents can save money by buying baby gear, like strollers and clothes, secondhand; renting instead of owning a home (if the math favors doing so); buying a used car; trying nontraditional childcare options, like nanny-sharing and bartering babysitting services with other parents; moving to a less expensive city; and getting kids into magnet schools. Elsewhere, they explain how parents can optimize their tax credits, use the stock market to pay for college, and treat their Health Savings Account as a retirement savings tool. Blending personal anecdotes with cost analyses, Shen and Leung lay out an effective road map for resisting social pressure to overspend on kids. Readers will find this a welcome counterpoint to alarmist narratives about the cost of starting a family. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

Flowers “belong at the center of the story of how our world came to be,” argues biologist Haskell (Sounds Wild and Broken) in this passionate examination. Compared to other lifeforms, flowers were “latecomers,” evolving after many complex animals in the fossil record some 150–200 million years ago. The plants quickly diversified and became “champion relationship-builders,” as insects, birds, and other animals came to rely on them for food and shelter. Haskell explains how the study of goatsbeard helped scientists discover that some flowering plants duplicate their genomes, a process that allows them to adapt and evolve. The flexibility of plant genetics enabled the development of important crops that supported agrarian civilizations, like wheat, oats, potato, and cotton. Grass, another flowering plant, has also been key to sustaining human populations, building organic and fertile soils and forming a large portion of the calories people consume (rice, maize, and wheat are all grasses). Elsewhere, Haskell demonstrates how flowers elucidate the past—Carl Linnaeus’s classification of flowers in the 18th century helped usher in the theory of evolution—and offer lessons for the future, such as “thriving worlds grow from cooperation.” Through deep research and lyrical prose, Haskell triumphantly recasts the role of flowers as foundational to humanity. This is astonishing. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

New Yorker staff writer Lemann (High Admissions) offers a personal take on the history of Jews in America in this powerful family portrait. He initially focuses on his great-great-grandfather Jacob, who was part of a “distinct movement” of German Jews in the early-to-mid-1800s who left the Rhine Valley for New Orleans. Challenging the downtrodden immigrant stereotype, Lemann charts Jacob’s rise from making small-scale loans to opening a dry goods store in Donaldsville, La., where he soon owned land. Yet in researching his family’s past, Lemann learned that “among the assets Jacob bought and sold... were enslaved people,” which helped the family amass a fortune that enabled subsequent generations to attend Harvard Law School even as they worked to conceal their Jewish identity. More recently, as Lemann sought out Judaism “not just as a surface cultural style or as a set of political positions but as something profound,” he became “actively religious” and embraced Jewish life through synagogue attendance and a 2005 visit to Israel. In noting how he “had gone from feeling uncomfortable in the Jewish world to feeling more comfortable in the Jewish world than I did outside it,” he offers an unabashedly emotional account of finding faith. It’s a stirring saga. Agent: Amanda Urban, CAA. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

Noting that practical advice for getting published is plentiful for fiction writers, but sparse for nonfiction writers, debut author and Gernert Company VP Habib offers the latter an essential guide to “the ins and outs of the publishing side.” Rather than a reassuring feel-good like Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird (which the author references knowing it’s on many aspiring writers’ shelves), Habib’s book is a nitty-gritty, roll-up-your-sleeves how-to for academics, journalists, and experts hoping to carve out a path for publishing their work. The author addresses key questions asked by many writers—do I need a platform? an MFA? a book proposal? a query letter? an agent?—and incorporates actual sample content that resulted in representation, contracts, and publication. Habib recommends that aspiring nonfiction authors pitch articles and essays in national newspapers, magazines, and literary journals; the “golden ticket to nonfiction book publishing” is “writing an original piece and having an agent see it and reach out to you.” She also emphasizes developing the book proposal over completing the manuscript, as agents and publishers prefer to help authors shape the work for their audiences. Habib lifts the curtain on how agents decide what books to represent and how editors choose titles to acquire, as well as offering detailed explanations on everything from author advances to what to expect as publication day nears. For aspiring nonfiction authors, it’s a must. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

Today Ukraine, tomorrow Estonia, warns Masala, a professor of international politics at Munich University, in his English-language debut, an immersive work of speculative nonfiction. A bestseller in Germany, the book envisions a near future in which Russia succeeds in holding onto Ukraine; a cash-strapped Europe abandons rearmament; and America normalizes relations with Russia while pivoting toward Asia. The result is a 2028 surprise Russian attack on Estonia, under the guise of protecting the country’s Russian-speaking citizens from discrimination. Estonia, a NATO member, then calls on that organization to defend it, leading to an international crisis. Masala’s novelistic narrative astutely depicts the ensuing diplomatic wrangling: the Baltic States, Eastern Europe, and Germany demand a decisive response, as the French, echoed by Hungary and Italy, take the lead in equivocating; a Trumpian U.S. president declares that America’s not paying for Europe’s defense; and the U.S. national security adviser is spooked by Russia’s nuclear saber-rattling. Masala’s what-if about a West that crumbles before Russian brinksmanship has the excitement of a thriller, but less convincing is his depiction of the other side: his scenario never adequately explains why Russia would nip at the NATO alliance as opposed to gobbling up another NATO outsider like Ukraine. Still, this provocative thought experiment will appeal to geopolitics wonks. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

When Paul Kutchinsky, heir to a London jewelry dynasty, risked his fortune to create a massive bejeweled egg, the price of failure was his business, marriage, and legacy, according to this spellbinding debut investigation by his eldest daughter, journalist Serena Kutchinsky. The author’s great-great-grandfather Hersh, a watchmaker, fled antisemitic violence in Poland for London in 1893 and taught his trade to his son Moshe, who opened the first Kutchinsky jewelry shop. By 1986, Paul was helming the company. After his first collections “fell flat,” he sought to dream up “something spectacular” enough to “upstage” European competitors like Cartier and Bulgari and landed on “jeweled artworks” to rival Fabergé’s. The author traces the challenging, intricate construction of the first of these artworks, an egg the size of “a small child” that was encrusted with pink diamonds and encased in a gold shell that opened to reveal a diamond clock. The demanding process of making and attempting to profit off the egg—whose sky-high price (initially, £7 million) and persistent mechanical problems made it unsellable—sent Paul into a tailspin of drinking and drugging that broke up his marriage. Eventually, the company and the egg were seized by creditors. The author unearths the story with a journalist’s doggedness and a novelist’s flair for detail, bravely seeking answers to childhood mysteries many would leave unsolved. This is riveting. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

The most dangerous fraudulent practice in science is often overlooked, argue social scientists Plümper and Neumayer (coauthors of Robustness Tests for Quantitative Research) in this thorough but dry examination. The authors demonstrate that “tweaking”—which they define as “the intentional manipulation of model specifications and research designs” typically to increase the likelihood of publication or to get results that align with the authors’ beliefs—is a widespread practice that weakens the validity of empirical results and degrades the body of modern scientific inquiry as a whole. They examine common tweaking strategies, such as modifying the level of statistical significance of the data’s effects and conclusions and selecting model specifications based on the data rather than before the data is collected, and offer examples of fraud, like the case of Francesca Gino, a former Harvard professor accused in 2023 of fabricating data in her behavioral research papers. While the arguments are thorough and the authors offer potential solutions, such as robustness tests selected by journal editors and peer reviewers, it is not clear who the authors intend to reach; the text is largely technical in nature with a few humorous interjections and pop culture quotes interspersed throughout. Still, for those concerned with a loss of credibility in science, this is worth a look. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

Navigating divorce as a parent presents a unique set of challenges, but putting children’s needs at the forefront can help everyone stay grounded, explains psychoanalyst and parent coach Komisar (Chicken Little the Sky Isn’t Falling) in this practical manual. The key to mitigating trauma, according to Komisar, is a “child-healthy divorce,” which involves prioritizing children’s mental and emotional well-being and continuing to approach parenting as a joint act. Making changes slowly, like ensuring the kids continue to attend the same school; involving children in such decisions as how to decorate their room in a parent’s new home; and anticipating conflicts with the ex-spouse, including disagreements over custody, are all ways in which parents can promote a sense of continuity and rebuild trust with their kids in a time of tremendous change. Leaning into new traditions, like exchanging gifts on Christmas Eve if the other parent has custody Christmas Day, or getting a new pet if the family dog now lives with the ex, can be a cause for celebration when life feels heavy. Komisar’s message remains consistent throughout: put children first, and be honest but neutral when discussing the other parent. This is a valuable resource for parents who are separating. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink