Unfamiliar Fishes
Unfamiliar Fishes is a lively examination of America's influence in the Hawaiian Islands, from the early-19th-century conversion efforts of Christian missionaries to the coup led by their...
View ArticleSex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern...
Sex at Dawn is nonfiction at its best. Writing across a range of disciplines, from anthropology to philosophy, the authors explore and challenge everything we thought we knew about human sexuality in...
View ArticleExtra Lives: Why Video Games Matter
If you've ever said to yourself (or your significant other), "as soon as I finish this level, I'll go to bed," you have to read Extra Lives. It's not so much a defense of video games as a willingness...
View ArticleDoes God Go on Manhunts?
More specifically, was he involved with the one I wrote about in my new book, Desert Reckoning? Before I answer those questions, let me tell you about my own personal pantheon. First of all, you need...
View ArticleSomeplace Like America (staff pick)
Someplace Like America: Tales from the New Great Depression, as with so many other important and deserving books, may never enjoy the level of attention and readership it so obviously merits. Written...
View ArticleSteven Johnson: The Powells.com Interview
In a 2003 TED Talk, Steven Johnson quipped: "Who decides that SoHo should have this personality and that the Latin Quarter should have that personality? There are some kind of executive decisions, but...
View ArticleFuture Perfect: The Case for Progress in a Networked Age
Fascinating, insightful, and deliciously readable, Future Perfect is at once a deep social analysis and a sharp forecast of how things can, should, and might soon be done. Consider: the news media like...
View ArticleTwilight of the Elites: America after Meritocracy
Chris Hayes — the best thing to happen to political punditry in 2012 — provides an immensely readable analysis of numerous societal failings in recent times. The book is highly entertaining and thought...
View ArticlePowell’s Q&A: Donna Freitas
Describe your latest book/project/work. My most recent nonfiction book, The End of Sex, is most definitely not about how sex is "over" — though I keep getting questions about why I'm saying this is the...
View ArticleShould We Aim to Be “Wide Achievers” in Our Careers?
For the last century everyone from career advisers to nagging parents have been telling us that the best way to use our talents is to become a high achiever — an expert in a narrow field. But one of...
View ArticleVery Recent History
In Very Recent History, Choire Sicha, two-time editor of Gawker and cofounder of The Awl, manages to do three seemingly disparate things at once. First, he's written a kind of guide to our times for a...
View ArticleShock Tactics: Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Experiments Revisited
You may have heard of Stanley Milgram's obedience experiments. Perhaps you've read about them in a textbook at school, as I did. Even if you haven't, you've likely come across them without knowing it —...
View ArticleOne Summer: America, 1927
Trust Bill Bryson to make the summer of 1927 as immediate and thrilling to the reader as it was to the Americans who lived through it. Written with Bryson's characteristic combination of wit, irony,...
View ArticleFar from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity
Andrew Solomon's gorgeous prose is always a pleasure, and this book, 10 years in the making, is his masterpiece. With empathy and grace, Far from the Tree explores the lives of people who are...
View ArticleFar from the Tree
Andrew Solomon is the most life-changing writer I know of. His journalism about psychology and identity is brilliant, poignant, and exacting. Far from the Tree, his latest book, explores families whose...
View ArticleAll God’s Children: Inside the Dark and Violent World of Street Families
This book was an eye-opening look into a culture that Portlanders encounter on a daily basis but know little of. After reading this true-life, page-turning thriller, you'll be looking at the city...
View ArticleThink Like a Freak
Sharpen your insight in the world around you by training your brain to think differently. Bold and funny, this fascinating book teaches readers how to apply the genius approach behind Freakonomics and...
View ArticleUnruly Places
Unruly Places is The Chronicles of Narnia for grown-ups, made real. Sorted into chapters like "Dead Cities" and "No Man's Lands," which are further divided into vignettes about specific locations...
View ArticleFar from the Tree by Andrew Solomon
Far from the Tree is a document of such profound empathy that most readers will be stunned. Solomon navigates the barriers between parents and children with amazing emotional dexterity and an unmatched...
View ArticleBeyond the Headlines: Race, the Inner City, and Books That Delve Deeper
Like many Americans I walk an uneasy line between being appalled by the living conditions of the inner-city and being afraid of them. The educational and socio-economic disadvantages common in...
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