Historian Bound-Alberti (A Biography of Loneliness) offers a stimulating reconsideration of the long-standing role of the face as a perceived window into a person’s inner substance. Arguing that this isn’t a natural idea, but a culturally constructed one, she begins with prehistoric cave paintings, noting that, in those artworks, it was animal faces that were realistically portrayed while the humans remained highly abstract. From there she traces the history of the face to its present malleable state (both via online face-tuning and real-world plastic surgery), along the way spotlighting moments when new tech coincided with changes in ideas about what the face reveals about a person. Advances in the art of portraiture during the Renaissance, for example, laid the groundwork for the notion of “facehood”—i.e., “the idea that a single, unique face equates with an individual, named person,” and thus that faces can be used as tools for identification. Later, the emergence of photography “democratized” facehood, but also opened new avenues for surveillance. Bound-Alberti’s roving narrative touches on everything from eugenics to makeup to the first selfie (taken in 1839 by Philadelphian Robert Cornelius, who could not have foreseen that generations later there would be a perennial online debate about his relative “hotness”). It makes for a fun and thought-provoking rumination on what it means to take each other at face value. (June)

Reviewed on 03/27/2026 | Details & Permalink

Hip-hop artist Ross (The Perfect Day to Boss Up) extracts haphazard insights about creativity from his efforts to pull himself out of an artistic rut. As he closed in on the 20th anniversary of his breakout album Port of Miami, Ross sought inspiration for a book on creativity he’d agreed to write. His efforts included taking psychedelic drugs and planning to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, a goal he abandoned partly because he’d failed to set deadlines for booking flights or physical training—a must, he writes, for “injecting a sense of urgency into the creative process.” He also took a meandering road trip from his home in Florida to Las Vegas, stopping en route at a race car museum that rekindled his passion for cars and reminded him of the importance of using one’s “childlike wonderment” to stick to creative pursuits in the face of others’ doubts. While there’s value in the up-close look at the often frustrating, start-and-stop process of an artist attempting to recapture his spark, Ross’s insights about creativity aren’t explored in enough depth and fail to coalesce into a coherent program or philosophy. Only the author’s most devoted fans need apply. (May)

Reviewed on 03/27/2026 | Details & Permalink

Geologist and environmental advocate Osleger debuts with a passionate call for investing in the maintenance of trails in public lands across the U.S., “not to boost economic opportunity but to provide equitable access to what is ours and to what we should seek to protect and conserve.” Noting the U.S. once had “the greatest infrastructure of trails and connectivity in history,” he demonstrates how shifting priorities—dwindling federal investment and the privatizing of land for settlement, mining, and logging—have led to the erasure of more than two-thirds of such paths. He pairs scenes from his journeys on neglected trails in California, often “fighting through thickets of brush for miles,” with historical asides, explaining, for example, how the Forest Reserve Act of 1891 led to the establishment of thousands of miles of trails, many across Native American territory. Though many trails are now earmarked for recreation, others have been used by lumber and mining industries, practices that not only harm the environment but limit public access, Osleger explains. Through deep research and eloquent depictions of natural landscapes, Osleger reveals America’s complicated relationship with preserving the outdoors. This deserves a place in every wilderness explorer’s backpack. (May)

Reviewed on 03/27/2026 | Details & Permalink

NPR host Scott Simon (Sunnyside Plaza) shares his love for the animals in his life in this charming essay collection. “We don’t make much of a distinction in our family between humans and the other animals,” he asserts before recounting stories of pets he’s had throughout his life. There’s Hoppy, a grasshopper he brought home from a camping trip as a kid and kept in a jar for a few days until it died, which taught him “love can smother if you’re not careful”; Leona, an orange cat he took in after her caretakers, interns at the British Embassy, moved back home and whom he agreed to rear as a “British cat” (he put pictures of David Beckham over her food bowl); and Daisy, a French poodle his daughters named after the dog in R.J. Palacio’s novel Wonder. Heartwarming accounts of caretaking for even the unlikeliest of critters—be it the colony of worms his family keeps in a bin on their balcony (aptly named “the Slimons”) or the imaginary pet his daughter rescued from the subway—are punctuated with poignant reflections on such topics as animal intelligence, the use of animals in medical research, and end-of-life care. It’s a loving testament to the ability of pets to stretch hearts and minds. Illus. (May)

Reviewed on 03/27/2026 | Details & Permalink

Decorated entertainer Minnelli’s debut delivers on the razzle-dazzle intrigue of its title. Narrating her life story to musician Feinstein, her longtime friend, Minnelli invites readers to join her at the piano bench and soak up the highs and lows of her storied career. She begins on the MGM lot, where she grew up the only child of filmmaker Vincente Minnelli and superstar Judy Garland in the 1940s and ’50s (“We were living our own version of Meet Me in St. Louis.... But it wouldn’t be all blueberry pie for long”). First witnessing the cracks in her parents’ marriage soon after her fifth birthday, Minnelli became a keen observer of her mother’s addictions to “pills and alcohol” before grappling with her own addictions in adulthood. Among other chatty showbiz anecdotes, Minnelli recalls breaking an ankle during rehearsals for her Broadway debut and making career-defining turns in the film Cabaret and its companion TV special, Liza with a Z. Through multiple marriages and divorces, successes and flops, she catalogs the pendulum swings of her life with gumption and good humor (“One day it’s kicks, then it’s kicks in the shins”). Fans new and old will appreciate this portrait of a woman forever committed to putting on a show. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 03/27/2026 | Details & Permalink

Yale English professor Yeazell (Art of the Everyday) scrupulously chronicles how the influence of Dutch Baroque painter Johannes Vermeer, who was nearly forgotten after his death in 1675, has spread through art and culture. Though French art critic Theophile Thore is credited with “rescuing the painter from oblivion” upon seeing View of Delft and writing an 1866 article about the painting, Yeazell points out that a little-known dictionary of Netherlandish artists, which mentioned Vermeer and three of his paintings, was published by two Dutchmen decades earlier. Yeazell goes on to examine the ways the painter’s work influenced art, literature, and cinema through both overt “imitation” and the subtle “assimilation” of his aesthetic into the cultural imagination. (The light and composition in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, for example, recalls Vermeer’s “cinematic” style of obscuring the artist’s presence and illuminating only a slice of the composition.) She also discusses how gaps in the historical record of Vermeer’s career created openings for forgers like Han van Meegeren, whose Supper at Emmaus appeared to confirm the theory that Vermeer had painted religious works early on. Throughout, the author marshals rigorous analysis to show how the artists, filmmakers, writers, and critics who carried forward Vermeer’s “afterlives” have expanded, innovated, and sometimes transformed the meaning of his work. Serious admirers of the painter will want this on their bookshelves. (June)

Reviewed on 03/27/2026 | Details & Permalink

Spiritual teacher Wadleigh (Shadow Work) outlines in this optimistic if tired guide how readers can become their truest selves. In order to “peel away years of conditioning” that rob people of their authenticity, she writes, readers must question the ingrained habits and beliefs that keep them locked in damaging routines that fail to reflect their values. They can then embark on 12 “paths” to becoming their most authentic self, including ensuring their “inner voice” is kind and positive; forgiving themselves with the compassion they normally show others; and seriously contemplating their priorities. She also encourages readers to harness their creativity—whether gardening or drawing in a coloring book—as a means of “free[ing] up energy inside of you” and attuning to the world’s beauty. Each chapter concludes with a quote from a writer or thinker and a summary of its teachings, along with practical tips and journal prompts for getting started on the path to authenticity. The author’s insights are encouraging and wise but too often repeat from her previous books, and sections on such topics as the damaging effects of social media feel like old news. This is best suited for Wadleigh’s most devoted fans. (June)

Reviewed on 03/27/2026 | Details & Permalink

“Read this book,” memoirist Thanh (To the Bridge) implores in her introduction to this nightmarish memoir of everyday life in Gaza. “Hassan Kanafani risked his life to write it.” Drawn from the author’s Reddit posts spanning from December 2024 to July 2025, the diary centers on life in the tent that engineering graduate Kanafani—a pseudonym—shares with his parents, grandmother, and siblings. His eyewitness reports include harrowing stories of neighbors pulling the bodies of their children from rubble, meager meals cooked over fires made of scraps of clothing, and performative acts of gratitude cruelly demanded by aid workers. “They are killing us—not only with bombs and bullets, but with hunger, with imprisonment, and with the relentless, brutal violation of our dignity,” he writes, as he recalls walking the camp at night and hearing the buzz of drones intermingling with the cries of starving children. (He also keeps track of skyrocketing food prices resulting from Israeli blockades; a bag of flour rises to more than $200, a single onion to $13.) “The truth about the war on Gaza is simple,” Kanafani explains after a so-called ceasefire during which Israel never stopped its attacks. “The occupation doesn’t want to stop the killing. It only wants to change its justifications.” This astonishing account demands readers look directly at the horrors in Gaza without blinking. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 03/27/2026 | Details & Permalink

Crazed propaganda, brutal repression, and helpless public acquiescence underpin Russian president Vladimir Putin’s regime, according to this heartbroken memoir. Bennetts (I’m Going to Ruin Their Live) revisits his 25 years living in Russia and covering it for The Times of London and other media outlets before he fled the country in 2022. He describes how Putin consolidated power by crafting an image as a strong force for order, gaining control of the media, perpetrating massive election fraud, arresting and murdering political opponents, and laying the groundwork for the Ukraine war. Bennetts tells the story through personal observations and interviews, including with newscasters who lied about Ukrainian soldiers crucifying a Russian toddler; his Russian mother-in-law, who believed television propaganda and cut him off; a Siberian shaman who tried to exorcize Putin from the Kremlin and wound up consigned to a psych ward; Ukrainian villagers tortured by Russian occupation troops; and Russian dissidents who volunteered to fight on the Ukrainian side. In Bennetts’s vivid rendering, Russia has fallen into an almost medieval mindset, with citizens exerting zero control over an abusive officialdom—at one point, he profiles the burgeoning cottage industry of witches employed to cast spells over unresponsive bureaucrats—while maintaining a peasant-like faith that a distant ruler will intervene in their problems. The melancholy result casts a bleak light on the Russian national psyche. (May)

Reviewed on 03/27/2026 | Details & Permalink

Faflik (Transcendental Heresies), an English professor at the University of Rhode Island, overreaches in this unique study of the intertwined racial histories of the Boston Red Sox and the city’s 1970s school desegregation crisis. Antibusing protests in the city, he argues, mirrored the Red Sox’s handling of race. The team went to great lengths to deny that race entered its hiring decisions (though it was the last MLB team to field a Black player), just as opponents of state orders to desegregate public schools were quick to dismiss the perception that they were against Black people, instead claiming they wanted to preserve the “integrity” of their communities. Faflik traces the Red Sox’s racially coded fan culture, most notably through pitcher Bill Lee, who was booed at games for his support of desegregation efforts. Elsewhere, he shows how antibusing protests took on the look and feel of sports, drawing connections between pep rallies and the movement’s marches. Unfortunately, frequent instances in which ordinary objects are freighted with heavy racial symbolism—most notably the Red Sox’s official hot dog, the Fenway Frank, which the author says “became as deeply implicated in Boston’s contest over racial equality as any other aspect of the club”—feel like a stretch. The result is more of a lofty thought experiment than a successful argument. (May)

Reviewed on 03/27/2026 | Details & Permalink