"A hilarious story of jumping into new experiences with both feet and a surprisingly poignant tale of a working mother raising three kids"-- "'Is there a secret to happiness?' asks comedian Paula Poundstone. I don't know how or why anyone would keep it a secret. It seems rather cruel, really ... Where could it be? Is it deceptively simple? Does it melt at a certain temperature? Can you buy it? Must you suffer for it before or after? In her wildly...

"In Far from the Tree, Andrew Solomon tells the stories of parents who not only learn to deal with their exceptional children but also find profound meaning in doing so. His proposition is that diversity is what unites us all. He writes about families coping with deafness, dwarfism, Down syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, multiple severe disabilities, with children who are prodigies, who are conceived in rape, who become criminals, who are transgender....

Recounts the story of the 1914 disappearance of eleven-year-old Sarah Rector, an African American who was part of the Creek Indian people and whose land had made her wealthy, and what it reveals about race, money, and American society.

Long heralded as a city treasure herself, expert "mudlarker" Lara Maiklem is uniquely trained in the art of seeking. Tirelessly trekking across miles of the Thames' muddy shores, where others only see the detritus of city life, Maiklem unearths evidence of England's captivating, if sometimes murky, history-with some objects dating back to 43 AD, when London was but an outpost of the Roman Empire. From medieval mail worn by warriors on English battlefields...

Young Latinos across the United States are redefining their identities, pushing boundaries, and awakening politically in powerful and surprising ways. Many of them Afrolatino, indigenous, Muslim, queer and undocumented, living in large cities and small towns are voices who have been chronically overlooked in how the diverse population of almost sixty million Latinos in the U.S. has been represented. No longer. In this empowering cross-country travelogue,...

"We all assume we know what life is, but the more scientists learn about the living world--from protocells to brains, from zygotes to pandemic viruses--the harder they find it is to locate life's edge"-- What is life? The power seems obvious until you try to seriously answer it. Zimmer journeys through experiments that have attempted to recreate life; shows how coronaviruses have altered the course of history; and even tries his own had at evolving...

"This is the compelling, suspenseful, down-to-earth story of a killer that has been stalking and doing away with people for thousands of years: Tuberculosis. For centuries TB in many forms was treated with everything from poultices and potions to the king's touch. The microorganism that causes the disease was eventually identified, more effective treatments were developed, and the cure for TB was thought to be within reach. But the TB germ simply...

"'Pirate Hunters' is a gripping account of two courageous divers' quest to uncover the shipwrecked vessel of Joseph Bannister, one of history's most infamous pirates"--