Pop culture historian Hogan (Invasion USA) offers an eye-opening overview of American comic books during WWII and the postwar period, before the U.S. government established the Comics Code Authority, a censorship board designed to rein in the medium’s “excesses.” Featuring panels and covers from across the era’s popular genres—superheroes, westerns, and noirs—Hogan shows how the art form flourished as a hyperactive, aggressive, and subversive subcurrent of American culture. Contemporary readers inured to violence in films and TV may well find themselves shocked by the intensity of pre-Code comics: there are shootings, strangulations, and suggestions of sexual assault; severed heads drip with blood; a cover of a comic titled Crime Does Not Pay shows a criminal shoving a woman’s head onto a lit stovetop. Hogan’s commentary offers fascinating reflections on how such violence and gore tied into the era’s mainstream sentiments (a Stan Lee character punching Hitler is featured, although not Captain America; it turns out Lee had more than one character take a swing at the Führer). The author also points to more obscure social shifts, noting that “the rate of single white motherhood more than doubled during 1941–53,” a fact attested to by the proliferation of the light-romance genre of “love comics.” The result is not only a lavish appreciation of pre-Code comics, but an endlessly fascinating deep dive into wartime and postwar culture. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/04/2025 | Details & Permalink

The career of former UN Secretary-General U Thant represents both the potential for heroic diplomacy and its heartbreaking limitations, according to this intricate biography. Thant Myint-U (The Hidden History of Burma), a historian and Thant’s grandson, recaps Thant’s stint helming the UN and trying to resolve global crises from 1961 to 1971. His successes included the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when he shepherded America, the Soviet Union, and Cuba toward a stand-down, an effort that involved him restating American and Soviet demands as UN initiatives so neither side felt they were losing face. Thant also weathered frustrating failures, however; for years he tried, and failed, to get the U.S. to stop bombing North Vietnam in exchange for de-escalation and peace talks. Thant was also blamed for provoking the 1967 Six Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors by removing UN peacekeepers from the Sinai at Egypt’s behest—an account the author seeks to debunk by showing that most peacekeepers remained in place. Thant Myint-U’s colorful narrative is a classic fly-on-the-wall crisis drama of the “in the Kremlin, Khrushchev raged” variety, and his warmhearted portrait of Thant paints him as a straightforward, reassuring presence, possessed of endearing quirks—he was obsessed with UFOs—but unflappable in his equanimity. It makes for an insightful and gripping appreciation of the vital, patient work of international relations. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/04/2025 | Details & Permalink

Columbia University English professor Johnson (Waste and the Wasters) explores the intersection between 1960s and ’70s horror films and the feminist movement in this urgent critical study that doubles as a call to arms. The book was born out of a lecture Johnson gave about the 1968 film Rosemary’s Baby following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. She realized the movie—about a woman whose pregnancy has sinister consequences—was an ideal lens for understanding the fight for women’s rights, as were other thrillers of the time. For example, Johnson argues that the 1979 film Alien was not only a commentary on forced reproduction but also a direct response to the public’s fear that women would become eligible for the draft under the Equal Rights Amendment. Also explored is the 1975 film The Stepford Wives, which Johnson paints as a dystopian tale of domestic abuse. Johnson highlights each film’s relevance through sharp historical observations and astute readings, pulling dark political realities from movies that on the surface are about extraterrestrial or supernatural realms. This astute survey will fire up readers to fight back against the patriarchy. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/04/2025 | Details & Permalink

Bestseller Gilbert (City of Girls) discusses in this inspiring account how she struggled through financial hazards, obsessive love affairs, and emotional land mines on her way to “a healthy relationship with myself” after a tumultuous romance. Gilbert first met Rayya Elias in 2000, when Elias began cutting Gilbert’s hair just before the author grew disenchanted with her first marriage. The pair gradually evolved from casual friends to soulmates, with Gilbert ending her second marriage to start a relationship with Elias in the 2010s after Elias received a terminal pancreatic cancer diagnosis. After the couple consummated their attraction, both fell deeper into addiction—Gilbert to love and sex, Elias to alcohol and drugs. After Elias died in 2018, Gilbert examined her addictions and arrived at a spiritual awakening (“I gave my life to God then, the way I used to give it to strangers”). Gilbert achieves her signature intimacy through a bluntly confessional tone (“Sex has always been the fastest and most direct way for me to feel thoroughly chosen”) and an admirable ability to stare darkness in the face without losing hope. Readers struggling with addiction or seeking a path through heartbreak will find invaluable wisdom in these pages. Agent: Sarah Chalfant, Wylie Agency. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/04/2025 | Details & Permalink

Biologist Rice (Scientifically Thinking) pushes against the idea of North America as an unadulterated wilderness prior to European colonization in this expansive study. He highlights various ways in which Indigenous people intentionally reshaped ecological patterns well before first contact, and also argues that pre-contact Native Americans lived more sustainably than Europeans. Among his examples are Native Americans’ widespread use of fires to expand and rejuvenate prairies; their genetic engineering of crops that, when co-planted, are mutually beneficial (the most well-known example being the “three sisters”: squash, corn, and beans); and their ambitious irrigation projects in the Southwest. He also points to how the colonial era’s animal population explosions, such as its massive flocks of passenger pigeons, were likely the result of the falloff of Native husbandry; even the Little Ice Age, the colonial-era cold snap, may have been caused by the end of pre-Columbian controlled burns. While these claims have previously been made by others, Rice offers a fantastic synthesis of current thinking on pre-Columbian ecology, as well as an intriguing recap of how scholarship on the subject has evolved over time. He closes with a reflection on the harms of factory farming, monoculture, and pesticides, advocating for a return to pre-Columbian ecological principles of coexistence and integration with nature. The result is an alluring call for a more conscientious, less destructive relationship with the land. (July)

Reviewed on 07/04/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this spellbinding and truly one-of-a-kind volume, Pulitzer Prize–winning cognitive scientist Hofstadter (Godel, Escher, Bach) shares his passion for ambigrams, or visual text puzzles created by “distorting letters in order to make doubly readable words.” His fascination with them dates back to his undergraduate days, when he started designing word-art that could be read backwards, forwards, flipped upside down, or rotated 180 degrees. According to Hofstadter, these clever flights of fancy illuminate how humans learn and use language on an unconscious level—for instance, ambigrams reveal that written language has “minimal chunks,” aka the simplest arrangements of marks that the brain can immediately recognize as writing. Hofstadter also describes the more esoteric properties of written text that result in ambigrams, such as occurrences of “intrinsic symmetry”—write the word chump in lowercase cursive and it will spell the same word when flipped upside-down, no distortion necessary. Throughout, Hofstadter offers wide-ranging asides on the history of science, from Einstein to AI (opining on whether AI could be “capable of the kind of ‘intrinsically human’ cognition employed in creating ambigrams,” he concludes “with a sense of great malaise” that “I don’t know”). Written in a disarming, conversational tone that belies Hofstadter’s mastery of the subject matter, and lavishly illustrated with full-color diagrams on nearly every page, this is an absolute delight. (July)

Reviewed on 07/04/2025 | Details & Permalink

Human rights lawyer Shehadeh (A Rift in Time) and his wife, women’s studies scholar Johnson (Companions in Conflict), offer an illuminating and poignant journey through Palestine’s past and present. In 2021, driven partly by post-pandemic wanderlust, the authors roamed the West Bank and northern Israel, exploring and uncovering Neolithic stone dolmens, Bronze Age water systems, Byzantine churches, Ottoman-era rest stops, and memorials to Turkish aviators. In addition to recounting those discoveries, they also delve into more recent concealed histories, including the region’s many hidden remnants of the 1948 Nakba, or the mass displacement of Palestinians by Israel (when Shehadeh’s own parents fled “the once lively” town of Manshiya). The authors compare the vibrant histories of sites abandoned since the Nakba—like the old Haifa train station’s now disused lines—with life in present-day Palestine, where the lack of rail service hampers travel between villages. The book also brings into focus Palestinians’ limited rights of movement as the authors recall encountering copious checkpoints, closures, forbidden highways, and confrontations with Israeli settlers (“Unlike you, I really live here,” says one). By cataloging such restrictions, the authors show how the inaccessibility of these bygone sites serves to “alienate the new generations who have no... experience of historic Palestine.” It’s a tender and undeterred love letter to a contested land. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/04/2025 | Details & Permalink

Campbell (Tiny Humans, Big Emotions), CEO of Seed & Sew, an online resource for parents, and Lounder, a parent and researcher, tackle the heavy-hitting issues that affect children between the ages of five and 12—peer pressure, changing bodies, technology use—in this practical manual. Many parents expect things to get easier once their child leaves diapers and tantrums behind, but as Campbell and Lounder explain, the elementary school years bring their own unique challenges. Parents can avoid some battles with their kids by teaching healthy coping skills and ensuring certain needs, like food and sleep, have been met. The authors also make a convincing case for communicating openly about sex, contending that normalizing curiosity helps kids feel safe bringing up bigger topics, such as sexual abuse and pornography, later on. Drawing from personal experience and psychological research, Campbell and Lounder demonstrate that the elementary school years are a crucial time to lay the groundwork for healthy parent-child relationships. In one powerful example, Campbell shares how a couple she worked with felt rejected when their daughter started to pull away but were able to reconnect with her by acknowledging her fluctuating emotions and need for autonomy. Packed with relatable anecdotes and accessible parenting tools, this compassionate guide delivers. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/04/2025 | Details & Permalink

Gurule blends candid self-examination with sharp critiques of class and power in this audacious debut chronicle of her experiences as a sex worker. Gurule met “John”—a lonely, middle-aged businessman—while stripping to pay her way through college. John soon became Gurule’s sugar daddy, and the money she earned from him provided financial security for her and her eccentric family, including her conspiracy theorist father and financially reckless mother. As Gurule grappled with the isolation and shame attached to her new gig, she wondered what toll it might take on her dignity, body, and future relationships. Eventually, Gurule charted a path out of sex work when she earned a spot in a graduate writing program and enrolled in a transformative seminar taught by Alanis Morissette, which helped her realize she was “keeping parts of myself locked away” and “living in fragments of truth” by focusing solely on putting money in the bank. With a bruising wit and a gimlet eye (her recollection of a disastrous date with John at the Cheesecake Factory is particularly memorable), Gurule paints an affectionate portrait of her eccentric family and delivers a nuanced glimpse at the pros and cons of sex work. It’s an enthralling mix of the funny and the gut-wrenching. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/04/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this sweeping account, historians Churchill (George V) and Eberholst recap the opening weeks of WWI, a dramatic season when epic battles raged on every front. Among them were the Battle of the Frontiers, in which German armies swept across northern France, and the Battle of Galicia in Poland, in which a million Russian soldiers routed a million Austro-Hungarians. Drawing on reams of non-Anglophone records, the authors focus on the war’s impact on European civilians as well as its global reach. They evocatively portray the conflicting strains of “hysterical” patriotism and somber foreboding in public opinion as well as among government officials (several diplomats suffered mental breakdowns); the chaotic mobilization of civilian reserves and conscripts, including those from Europe’s colonies, who entered the military with zeal, dread, and a host of ulterior motives (many Australians saw it as a free ticket to Europe; many Africans signed up to avoid famine or make money, and understood that the war was being fought by the French “to keep us... and [by] the Germans to have us. We shouldn’t look for another explanation”); and the widespread displacement and massacres of civilians. The result is an intense exploration of the emotional and intellectual landscape of the war’s outbreak that brings complexity and depth to the first truly international conflict. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 07/04/2025 | Details & Permalink