Rest can foster creativity, problem-solving skills, and empathy, according to this informative and approachable guide from neuroscientist Jebelli (In Pursuit of Memory). He explains how quieting the brain’s executive network gives free rein to its default network, which is made up of neurons that “enables us to daydream, mind wander, think reflectively, and imagine the future.” Resting is especially vital in today’s culture of overproductivity, where overwork is degrading brain structures and leaving people stressed, exhausted, unfocused, and more vulnerable to health problems (one study Jebelli cites suggests that long working hours cause an estimated 745,000 deaths a year, a 29% jump from 2000). Readers can find relief with commonsense practices, like getting outside, sleeping enough, or taking naps (he also suggests more unique ways of taking breaks, from forest bathing in Japan to the Dutch practice of deliberate idleness called niksen). Cogent neuroscience buttresses the author’s points, and his message gains particular resonance from his family’s struggles with work-life balance. (Jebelli’s father, an Iranian immigrant working as a computer programmer in Great Britain, had a mental breakdown after two decades of stress and burnout, was diagnosed with major depressive disorder, and never worked again.) Even the most devoted workaholics will be persuaded to take a breather. (June)

Reviewed on 05/30/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this eye-opening if meandering exploration of sexual diversity in America’s borderland, historian Wilke (Stagecoach!) depicts the western frontier as caught in a tense push-pull between a high degree of tolerance—nurtured by the frontier’s wide-open sense of possibility—and the settler project’s impulse to “tame” and civilize. Among the figures he profiles are two trans westerners: Charley Parkhurst, a famous stagecoach driver, and Mrs. Noonan, a teamster turned laundress at a fort run by General Custer. Both became notorious following their postmortem gender reveals, even as the communities who accepted them in life seemed unruffled by the disclosures—Custer’s wife even penned a defense of Mrs. Noonan. Elsewhere Wilke spotlights the 1880s affair, sensationalized in newspaper reports after their attempted elopement, between 16-year-old Ora Chatfield and 26-year-old Clara Dietrich; he uses the episode to note how increased “pathologization” came with increased settlement (both lovers were threatened with institutionalization). Wilke also analyzes an anonymous logger’s turn-of-the-20th-century memoir, which painted loggers as frequently engaged in homosexual liaisons for reasons ranging from “pragmatism to companionship,” and characterizes logging camps as a final outpost of same-sex love not overlain by the modern concept of identity-based queerness. Though well-researched, the diffuse narrative and multipronged arguments can sometimes drag. Still, it’s an illuminating survey of the past’s hidden queer lives. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/30/2025 | Details & Permalink

Knock things over, use cuteness as a weapon, reject restrictive collars, and always remember to set aside time for a nap are a few of the helpful tips that cats provide for the battle against fascism in this partly earnest, partly comedic guide. Canadian social media personality Reynolds (Welcome to the Stupidpocalypse), also known as Brittlestar, pinpoints felines as “the original disruptors” who have a lot to offer in terms of preventing the growth of authoritarianism. The book covers the ways cats’ behaviors, whether antagonizing “authority... with deliberate, calculated chaos,” refusing to “question their place in the world,” or generally acting “bold, unbothered, and maybe even a little cocky,” are antithetical to fascists’ need for power, control, and submission. With references to MAGA hats and a Mar-a-Lago chandelier, Reynolds isn’t shy about exactly which authoritarian he’s talking about, though this can clash with some of his generic, 1984-ish definitions of authoritarianism—fascists “want the world to be dull, gray” doesn’t exactly pair with cracks about tacky golden sneakers. While the humor is boisterous (“Vanish like a cat who’s just heard you open the travel carrier for a trip to the vet”), after a few lessons, the joke has fully worn itself out. Still, “in a world full of declawed dissenters,” this is an imaginative appeal to be, as cats are, ungovernable. (June)

Reviewed on 05/30/2025 | Details & Permalink

This chock-full-of-detail biography from historian Diamond (Fleeing Hitler) zooms in on the famed singer and dancer’s “wartime contribution” during WWII. Josephine Baker was a French citizen by marriage and had a “visceral” attachment to France, which led her to decide—rare for Black Americans—to stay in France when war broke out. Before long, the French head of counterespionage, Capt. Jacques Abtey, realized that Baker had potential as a spy; her “star power allowed her access to places and... individuals that could prove very helpful.” The two traveled to Vichy North Africa, where they stayed for most of the war. Diamond walks readers through what is known of Baker’s counterintelligence work, but those hoping for juicy tales of espionage will be disappointed; Baker’s spy record is patchy at best. Often, Diamond is forced to admit that certain intriguing possibilities—like that Baker’s convalescent bedroom in a clinic in Casablanca played double duty as a meeting place for spies—may or may not have happened, as “the evidence base does not conclusively support” the narrative given by Baker and Abtey. Instead, the book’s most rewarding aspect is Diamond’s portrait of Baker as a quick-thinking, hard-working, game-for-anything entertainer, who used ambulance lights as spotlights and a circle of soldiers as a dressing room. WWII buffs and Baker fans will find much to pique their interest. (May)

Reviewed on 05/30/2025 | Details & Permalink

Married collaborators Bain (What the Best College Teachers Do), president of the teacher-training Best Teachers Institute, and Marshall Bain, the institute’s coordinator, make a strong case in this smart manual for encouraging children’s natural inquisitiveness to build their love of learning. The authors explain that sparking curiosity through open-ended conversation, like asking “Why are there so many different kinds of animals and plants in the world?” during a walk in the park, can help even young kids feel comfortable asking questions and searching for answers, and “unlock more of what a school education should offer.” Elsewhere, Bain and Marshall Bain argue that genuine interest in a topic can take students further in their studies than rote memorization, citing how one Texas student’s performance soared when she pursued her passion for studying botany, a decision the authors note may “spark dismay” in parents looking for a more practical path. Their approach is bolstered by eye-opening studies: in one example, children were given puzzles that had no solution, and the authors describe how those who believed that “intelligence expands with experience,” rather than being fixed, were more willing to continue having fun. Educators and parents looking to deepen children’s love of learning should check this out. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/30/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this unsettling debut investigation, journalist and Iraq War veteran Harp delivers a blistering exposé of criminality within the U.S. Army’s Special Forces. Focusing on Fort Bragg, N.C., home to Delta Force and other elite military units, Harp uncovers a culture steeped in drug trafficking, weapons theft, and cover-ups. Drawing on extensive interviews and documentation, Harp alleges that soldiers returning to Fort Bragg from Afghanistan smuggled opioids and other narcotics into the U.S., sometimes in collaboration with Mexican cartels, and engaged in reckless, often violent behavior on the base—much of it fueled by substance abuse—that the military swept under the rug. A detailed history of the Army’s entanglement with Afghanistan’s opium trade and harrowing accounts of drug-fueled parties at Fort Bragg full of racist behavior frame Harp’s discovery of a shocking number of deaths on the base: 109 from 2020 to 2021 alone, many of them unexplained. Harp’s investigative rigor and visceral storytelling make this a disturbing must-read for anyone seeking to understand the full cost of America’s overseas conflicts. Agent: Rafe Sagalyn, CAA. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/30/2025 | Details & Permalink

Former Conan O’Brien Show staffer Nash (72 Raisins) delivers a gossipy and engrossing account of her life in Hollywood from the 1970s through 2019. Her portraits of Robert Altman, Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, and dozens of other stars bring them down to earth through sparkling anecdotes in which Nash isn’t afraid to paint herself as young, naive, and opportunistic. The most enduring profile subject is Beatty, whom San Fernando Valley native Nash met and seduced when she was 18, then kept up with casually even through his relationships with Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, and Diane Keaton. Elsewhere, Nash writes of how her steely intelligence led to steady work in the entertainment industry, from production jobs on the TV show Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and the Academy Awards to side pursuits in stand-up and improv comedy. Nash’s story of getting sober after years of drug and alcohol addiction, and her late-in-life epiphany regarding her musician father and frustrated-housewife mother, whose depression impacted her own early aimlessness, shape this self-aware, fascinating account of brushing up against the edge of fame. Written with humor, vulnerability, and verve, this satisfies. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/30/2025 | Details & Permalink

Buckbee debuts with a poignant if scattered account of rescuing an injured pigeon while dealing with a mysterious illness. While traveling in Asia, Buckbee was stricken by an undiagnosed condition that causes excruciating migraines, rendering him unable to read or write. As a result, he dictated this memoir to editor Fitzgerald. The central thread is Buckbee’s bond with a baby pigeon he discovered near his home in Montana and named Two-Step, whose rescue and subsequent care offered Buckbee moments of solace amid his physical suffering and the dissolution of a long-term romantic relationship. Despite that ostensible through line, however, Buckbee’s gloomy reflections on illness and heartbreak often overshadow the avian connection. There’s some intriguing tension between Buckbee’s and Fitzgerald’s perspectives (she urges him not to put his relationship on a pedestal, suggesting readers will want to know more about its “complexity,” and Buckbee replies that he doesn’t want to make his ex’s memory “even the slightest bit profane”), but the lack of narrative momentum grows wearying. Though readers will likely sympathize with Buckbee’s struggle against illness and emotional turmoil, the book’s exploration of caregiving resonates more than its darker themes of loss. It’s a mixed bag. Agent: Farley Chase, Chase Literary. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/30/2025 | Details & Permalink

New York Times Magazine staff writer Mahler (The Challenge) provides an expansive yet fast-paced history of the final chaotic years of New York City’s 1980s. Mahler characterizes the era as one of overlapping crises: Wall Street’s 1987 Black Monday crash, the rise of crack and homelessness, the growing AIDS emergency, and the “widening racial divide and the anger and resentment beneath it,” which reached a boiling point with several vicious murders and beatings of Black men by white mobs and the lightning-rod trial of subway vigilante Bernhard Goetz. Mahler also profiles a media-savvy cadre of high-profile eccentrics who were “perfectly suited for this moment,” among them U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani, ACT UP firebrand Larry Kramer, “activist and opportunist” Al Sharpton, and Donald Trump. (He keeps things fresh by highlighting lesser-known incidents as well, like Mayor Ed Koch’s “public spat with a ten-year-old homeless boy.”) Mahler evocatively portrays how the tension peaked in 1989; in particular, the rape of a jogger in Central Park and the arrest of five Black and Hispanic teens, known as the Central Park Five, for the crime serves as metaphor for the city’s fracturing and marks the moment Trump transformed into “the city’s white id” through his infamous pro–death penalty newspaper ads. It’s an astute, propulsive history of the “entrenched” inequality and zany politics that came to dominate the city and the nation. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/30/2025 | Details & Permalink

English literature scholar Bilston (The Promise of the Suburbs) unspools a sprawling saga of greed, triumph, and evolution, all swirling around the hunt for an elusive orchid. British naturalist William Swainson arrived in Brazil in 1816 “animated by a passionate, chaotic, destructive urge to discover.” In financial straits and short on social skills, Swainson saw this venture as a chance to make a name for himself. Among the specimens he sent back to Britain was the Cattleya labiata, a lustrous purple and crimson bloom—considered “the epitome of floral beauty”—that launched a wave of “orchidomania.” A disruptive, brutal cadre of orchid hunters descended on South America, many of them “socially peripheral figures”—“rootless, working-class, ill-educated”—who would lie, steal, or do anything else it took to find specimens. Orchid retailers, meanwhile, created a rosy alternate reality in their marketing campaigns, drawing on tropes from contemporary adventure stories by authors like Rudyard Kipling to depict orchid hunters as heroes. Even as hybridization and advances in greenhouse technology meant orchid-growing was possible for British gardeners, the search for the Cattleya labiata continued. Bilston scours myriad firsthand sources to construct an edifying story of imperialism, the rise of the natural sciences (including Darwin’s fascination with orchids), and some genuine tales of adventure and derring-do. Readers will be engrossed. (May)

Reviewed on 05/30/2025 | Details & Permalink