Renowned journalist Don Lemon always had a complicated relationship with God. He cherished the Southern Black church he was raised in but struggled with the fundamentalist rejection of his right to exist as a gay man – one who wanted to marry his longtime love in a church wedding with all the traditional trimmings. In his work as a reporter, moreover, he saw his fellow Americans losing faith in a higher power, in institutions, and in each other. Setting out to understand the place that religion has in our lives today,…
On the morning of October 7, 2023, Amir Tibon and his wife were awakened by mortar rounds exploding near their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, a progressive Israeli community less than a mile from Gaza City. Soon, they were holding their two young daughters in the family’s reinforced safe room, urging them not to cry as gunfire echoed just outside the door. With his cell phone battery running low, Tibon texted his father: “The girls are behaving really well,…
American women have been mostly minor characters in the literature of the Vietnam War, but in Alice McDermott’s Absolution they take center stage. Tricia is a shy newlywed, married to a rising attorney on loan to navy intelligence; Charlene is a practiced corporate spouse and mother of three, a beauty and a bully. In 1963 Saigon, the two form a wary alliance as they balance the era’s mandate to be “helpmeets” to their ambitious husbands with their own inchoate impulse to “do good” for the people of Vietnam.…
Master storyteller Erik Larson offers a gripping account of the chaotic months between Abraham Lincoln’s November 6, 1860, election and the Confederacy’s shelling of Sumter – a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of these five months were “so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them.” At the heart of this suspense-filled narrative are Maj.…
In Bone of the Bone, journalist Sarah Smarsh brings her graceful storytelling and incisive critique to the challenges that define our times – class division, political fissures, gender inequality, environmental crisis, media bias, and the rural-urban gulf – a longtime focus on the cultural dissonance that many in her industry have neglected until recently. Now, this thought-provoking collection of more than 30 of her highly relevant, previously published essays from the past decade, ranging from personal narratives to news commentary,…
In this strange age of crisis where there really is no front line, conflict journalist Clarissa Ward has moved from one hot zone to the next. With multiple assignments in Syria, Gaza, Ukraine, and Afghanistan, Ward – who speaks seven languages – has been based in Baghdad, Beirut, Beijing, and Moscow. She has seen and documented the violent remaking of the world at close range, and with deep empathy finds a way to tell the hardest stories. On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist is the riveting account of her singular career and of journalism in this age of extremism.…
In Connie: A Memoir (Grand Central Publishing), trailblazing Asian American journalist Connie Chung pulls no punches as she shares a behind-the-scenes tour of her life and career, from showdowns with powerful men in and out of the newsroom – where overt sexism was a way of life – to the stories behind some of her career-defining reporting. Tenacious in her pursuit of stories, Chung battled rival reporters to land scoops that ranged from covering the Watergate scandal – which included her first big interview,…
In 2016, Amy Tan grew overwhelmed by the state of the world: Hatred and misinformation became a daily presence on social media and the country felt more divisive than ever. In search of peace, she turned toward the natural world just beyond her window and, specifically, the birds visiting her yard. But what began as an attempt to find solace turned into something far greater – an opportunity to savor quiet moments during a volatile time, connect to nature in a meaningful way,…