It is 1970. “Bean” Holladay is twelve and her sister Liz is fifteen when their artistic mother Charlotte, a woman “who flees every place she’s ever lived at...

One of Rolling Stone’s 20 Best Music Books of 2013

When memoirist and head writer for The A.V. Club Nathan Rabin first set out to write about obsessed music fans, he had no idea the journey would take him to the deepest recesses of both the pop culture universe and his own mind. For two very curious years, Rabin, who Mindy Kaling called “smart and funny” in ...

“We were sitting in a coffee shop talking, looking at the view of downtown Charlottesville, Virginia. This was ten years ago, and we had both been off alcohol for more than a decade. We were disagree­ing about the best way to stay sober when my mother said, ‘I think we should write a book about alcoholism.’

“I sat back. ‘We?’

“‘Both of us. Two points of...

Vivid and alive, Cristina García’s new novel transports readers to Cuba, to Miami, and into the heads of two larger-than-life men—a fictionalized Fidel Castro and an octogenarian Cuban exile obsessed with seeking revenge against the dictator. In King of Cuba, the National Book Award finalist and author of Dreaming in Cuban, writing at the top of her form...

At seventeen, Dylan Dethier couldn’t help but think he’d never really done anything with his life. So, two months before his freshman year...

Every century or so, our republic has been changed by a new technology: 170 years ago it was the railroad; today it's the microprocessor. But in the early twentieth century it was the gasoline-combustion engine, built by a young, unknown, industrious man named Henry Ford.
Born into a steam-powered world, the young farm boy saw the advantages of internal...

An irreverent, laugh-out-loud funny parenting guide from the Honest Toddler, the Internet’s most infamous tot, whose unchecked sense of entitlement and undeniable charm have captivated hundreds of thousands of fans online.

In this antidote to heavy-handed advice books written by parenting “experts” who have gotten too big for size 2T...

Direct, blunt, and brutally honest, Relentless goes to the “dark side” of...

Jesse and Ramon are a happy, loving couple but after years trying to get pregnant they turn to adoption, relieved to think that once they navigate the bureaucratic path to parenthood they will finally be able to bring a child into their family. But nothing prepared them for the labyrinthine process—for the many training sessions and approvals, for the...

Why, despite our state-of-the-art medical technology, does the United States have among the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the industrialized world? Why do pregnant women who are planning to breastfeed receive “free” samples of infant formula from American obstetricians? Why are American newborns given a vaccine at birth against hepatitis B...

The year is 1977 and Reno—so-called because of the place of her birth—has come to New York intent on turning her fascination with motorcycles and speed into art. Her arrival coincides with an explosion of activity in the art world—artists have colonized a deserted and industrial Soho, are squatting in the East Village, and blurring the line between...

Glennon Melton became a sensation when her personal essays started going viral. Giving language to our universal (yet often secret) experiences, her hilarious and poignant observations were read by millions, shared among friends, discussed at water coolers, quoted in The New York Times, and have inspired a social movement.

Melton’s mistakes and triumphs...

The most prevalent form of chronic illness in this country, autoimmune diseases affect nearly 23.5 million Americans. This epidemic—a result of the toxins in our...

Michael Hainey had just turned six when his uncle knocked on his family’s back door one morning with the tragic news: Bob Hainey, Michael’s father, was...

“I don’t know Tamara Shopsin, but I am a fan.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times

“Shopsin tells this story in a terse, true manner. A beautifully illustrated memoir full of love, with no bullsh*t.” —Maira Kalman, author of And the Pursuit of Happiness

Best known for her witty, sparse illustrations, and as a cook beside her mischievous father in her...

Mary Mallon was a courageous, headstrong Irish immigrant woman who bravely came to America alone, fought hard to climb up from the lowest rung of the domestic service ladder, and discovered in herself an uncanny, and coveted, talent for cooking. Working in the kitchens of the upper class, she left a trail of disease in her wake, until one enterprising...

A Harvard physician’s scientifically proven method to improve your physical and mental health by optimizing your hormones in your 30s, 40s, and beyond.

ALL TOO OFTEN WOMEN ARE TOLD that feeling moody, asexual, tapped out, dried up, stressed out, and sleep deprived is just a part of being female. Or they’re led to believe that the answer can be found only at...