“Kids’ books merit grown-up conversation,” children’s author Barnett (Rumpelstiltskin) asserts in his by turns grave and playful treatise. Lamenting that there’s “almost no serious critical attention” paid to this “widely read, deeply loved, highly profitable literature,” Barnett urges adult readers to reflect on how “we control the production, reception, and consumption of the books kids read.” He goes on to deliver a stream of insights (“Children’s publishing operates without any meaningful participation from children”) mixed with tongue-in-cheek observations (“Children are terrible customers. They have no real income.... Many of my readers cannot, technically, read”). Barnett’s observations include that the book-buying habits of adults, rooted in their own nostalgia, have kept decades-old children’s titles in print; that the more “didactic” branch of American children’s publishing has “beget a hulking kindness industrial complex”; and that the “poetic achievement” of Goodnight Moon exemplifies what he believes to be the highest goal of children’s literature—to provide striking observations of the small, daily “hard things children must do alone,” such as going to sleep. (“To have your worries validated... is such a rare gift when you’re a kid,” he notes.) It’s a poignant refresher for “dead dull finished grown-ups” on childhood’s role as an “in-between place full of uncertainty.” (May)

Reviewed on 03/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

This searing deep dive from journalist Craven (Our Veterans) spotlights a brutal strain of masculinity inculcated by America’s military education establishment. Surveying the histories of the five service academies, particularly West Point, along with several private military schools, he pegs the institutions as having promoted an aggressive, controlling masculine ideal that has bled outward into American society for centuries. Starting with the tenure of Sylvanus Thayer, the authoritarian “godfather” of West Point, Craven traces how military education “breeds loyalty, teaches obedience, and constructs violence” through dehumanizing hazing methods. He also notes that periodic attempts at reform, which began as early as the 1900 hazing death of West Point cadet Oscar Booz, have failed to bring about lasting change. Most strikingly, he highlights ancillary institutions that have promoted the military school ethos to the rest of society, including the Boy Scouts and ROTC fraternities, and traces the ways in which, even as military schools’ profile improved in the latter 20th century as they garnered a reputation for reforming difficult students, they subjected Black and female cadets to ostracization and harassment. The schools also were crucibles of right-wing thought, he notes, pointing in particular to the deep penetration of evangelical Christianity into the Air Force Academy. It amounts to a unique and vital perspective on America’s masculinity crisis. (May)

Reviewed on 03/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

Journalist and historian Clavin (Running Deep) offers a by-the-numbers account of the Battle of Little Bighorn. In June 1876, the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry Regiment suffered a resounding defeat at the hands of the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho. The battle bristled with larger-than-life figures, from the brave-but-misguided General Custer, to the “unkillable” Crazy Horse and the stoic Sitting Bull, who had a vision foretelling Custer’s downfall. Noting that he aims to tell the story “without overanalyzing and taking detours,” Clavin sets up the action that led to Custer’s infamous last stand in short dry chapters; the backstory involves much betrayal and reneging on promises by the federal government, and the radicalization of warriors like Crazy Horse by earlier massacres of Native encampments. The book becomes more spirited during the battle itself, which is naturally dramatic, as well as terrifying, infuriating (one general spends most of the battle “meandering” about), and gory. A fascinating figure who emerges is Moving Robe Woman, a Lakota 23-year-old who plunges into battle with her face painted red, avenging her 10-year-old brother who’d been killed a few days earlier and mutilating those she slaughters. But the overreliance on long quotes from other histories undermines Clavin’s authority, especially when he leans on them during dramatic moments. Still, it’s a serviceable retelling of a famous clash of titans. (May)

Reviewed on 03/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

This lyrical testament to the power of Black community in Philadelphia and beyond combines finely wrought essays by activist and educator Rogers (How We Stay Free), vibrant snapshots from photographer Karim Brown, and quotes from Black visionaries past and present. The title is drawn from a song of the same name by Philly rapper PnB Rock, who was shot and killed during a robbery in 2022; Rogers notes that the song “encapsulates the tantamount grief and unresolved trauma of generation(s) of Black Philadelphia youth besieged by intracommunal violence, the pervasive effects of organized abandonment, and the overall climate of anti-Black racism.” He invites readers to embrace that grief while reaching for healing, hope, and joy. Brown, whose luminous slice-of-life images of Black Philadelphia are interspersed throughout, offers his own short essay on how “becoming relatively conscious of my Blackness and its relationship with the greater context of the world... shoved me into using the camera to articulate the contradictions... joy, and sorrow” of “the everyday existence of Black folk.” Rogers’s words and Brown’s images are arranged in conversation with excerpts from luminaries like Toni Morrison and Nina Simone and contemporary thinkers like Saidiya Hartman, Kiese Laymon, and Hanif Abdurraqib. The result is a radiant vision of a hopeful Black present and future. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 03/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

“The disappearance of lesbian bars is not the tragedy I once thought it was,” Karp, host of the Cruising Karp podcast, reflects in her heartening debut travelogue. In 2020, following a string of closures, the media began sounding the death knell of the lesbian bar, prompting Karp to embark on a road trip to visit the handful that remained. But as she traveled, new bars kept opening; the country, it turned out, “was on the cusp of a lesbian bar resurgence.” Organized by region, the book recaps stories of beloved bars alongside profiles of their owners, employees, and regulars. In Washington, D.C., As You Are co-owners Jo and Coach recall how working together on the lesbian-centric basement floor of a gay men’s bar inspired them to open their own more inclusive space. At the Sports Bra in Portland, Ore., owner Jenny Nguyen recaps the challenging process of opening the nation’s first women’s sports bar, a model now being widely mimicked. Jonda Valentine, founder of the Lipstick Lounge in Nashville, Tenn., reflects on how getting kicked out of her family’s church led her to open a welcoming space of her own. “The contemporary lesbian bar is gender expansive, trans inclusive, intersectional, and accessible,” Karp notes, finding that today’s lesbian spaces have evolved to oppose conservative attacks on LGBTQ+ rights. Readers will find this a bracingly optimistic chronicle of modern queer life. (May)

Reviewed on 03/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

This inconsistent anthology from English literature scholar Cohen (After the End of History) invites readers to “engage with a wider range of ideas about the current moment’s frenzy of hostility to books.” Some of the essays deliver unique points of view. Emily Drabinski, the first openly LGBTQ+ president of the American Library Association, describes the hateful political attacks against her and her organization during her tenure. Annie’s Foundation board member Emily Harris shares how her organization, which advocates for students’ right to read, was founded by ordinary parents pushing back against conservative group Moms for Liberty. New York City teacher Annie Abrams illustrates how Bill Gates’s philanthropic efforts to promote Common Core standards led to a “broad turn away from liberal education” and incentivized teaching short passages rather than complete literary works. But other contributions strike off notes. Novelist Lydia Millet bemoans her books never having been banned, suggesting an appearance on a banned books list is a badge of honor or a sales tactic. Georgia Tech professor Aaron Santesso takes a similar tack but with 18th-century literature, his academic specialty. Chronicle of Higher Education columnist Leonard Cassuto critiques “absolutist stances” on both sides of the political spectrum. With contributions ranging from eye-opening to exasperating, this doesn’t always rise to the occasion. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 03/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

“The ascent of the American men is something akin to a sporting miracle,” writes sports journalist Schaerlaeckens in this thorough debut history of the U.S. men’s national soccer team. The team formed in 1916 and finished third at the inaugural FIFA World Cup in Uruguay in 1930 (its best result to date). American soccer struggled over the next several decades, however. As Schaerlaeckens explains, the sport had a “foreignness” that pushed people away, while attempts to create a sustainable professional league were thwarted by low attendance and financial troubles. The country hosted the 1994 World Cup, which helped elevate the sport and made celebrities out of players like Alexi Lalas and Cobi Jones. The U.S. Soccer Federation later began investing in youth development with a soccer academy in Bradenton, Fla., which produced some of the program’s current stars, including Tyler Adams and Christian Pulisic, who led the team out of the group stage at the 2022 World Cup. The team is entering the 2026 World Cup as an “ascendant program, hoping to summit sometime soon,” Schaerlaeckens writes. He vividly chronicles the tumultuous journey of American men’s soccer by placing the team’s recent rise in the context of decades of institutional disorganization and on-field struggles. Fans will find this a boon. (May)

Reviewed on 03/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

Jaouad (Browning upon Arabia), professor emeritus of French and Francophone studies at Skidmore College, delivers a captivating biography of Swiss writer and explorer Isabelle Eberhardt. Born in Geneva in 1877, Eberhardt was the illegitimate daughter of a Russian noblewoman and, allegedly, her children’s tutor, an ex-priest affectionately known as “Vava.” Eberhardt had an unconventional upbringing, encouraged by Vava to defy gender norms by dressing as a boy and to study subjects like Arabic, literature, and history. Inspired by her studies, she became interested in Algeria and published, under a male pseudonym, short stories about North Africa based on correspondences with her brother and acquaintances who lived there. Jaouad chronicles Eberhardt’s eventual move to Algeria, where she dressed as a man and converted to Islam. Her lifestyle led French colonial authorities to suspect her of being a spy, and she was nearly killed in an assassination attempt before dying at age 27 in a flash flood in Algeria. Joauad doesn’t portray Eberhardt as merely an outcast but takes care to contextualize and demystify her life. Once dismissed as an eccentric, Eberhardt emerges here as a visionary who embodied the spirit of adventure through her nonconformist life. It’s a vivid portrait of a revolutionary. (May)

Reviewed on 03/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

Mexican American novelist and memoirist Grande (Across a Hundred Mountains) explores the ripple effects of her experiences as an immigrant in this stirring collection. The subject matter is broad: “Stitching My Mother Tongue” probes Grande’s feelings of shame at not being able to write in Spanish, and for raising her children in an English-speaking home; “Explaining Myself” details her decision, in the wake of the #MeToo movement and Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings, to publicly discuss being raped by a friend. Other essays are darkly humorous, as when Grande recalls attending her sister-in-law’s 2004 college graduation, where the commencement speaker, Donald Trump, told the audience that “if there is a concrete wall in front of you, go through it, go over it, go around. But get to the other side of that wall.” Grande ends the volume with an account of her daughter tending to a deformed monarch butterfly, explaining how the species “has become a symbol for undocumented immigrants” because of its 3,000-mile migration through “storms, predators, and a vanishing food supply.” Nimbly balancing hope and heartbreak, Grande’s tender dispatches add up to an affecting self-portrait. Photos. Agent: Johanna Castillo, Writers House. (May)

Reviewed on 03/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

A Brooklyn “grieving and weaving” circle, a forest bathing session in Chile, and a group baptism at the Vatican are just some of the gatherings attended by bestseller Feiler (The Search) in this spirited meditation on rituals. Seeking to discover “what still holds us together” in a world of increasing alienation, the author travels the globe, observing a diverse range of practices and interviewing experts. What he finds is not a “celebration recession” but rather a “ritual revival,” with many people around the world rethinking what rituals can look like. Those spotlighted range from the “millennium-old” Balinese coming-of-age custom matatah, “the ceremonial act of shaving down... an individual’s twelve front teeth,” to Taylor Swift–themed divorce parties. Most movingly, the author profiles individuals who have created new rituals to match their experiences, including Missy Holliday, who pioneered “honor walks” for organ donors after her sister’s sudden death and donation. Though Feiler sometimes waxes florid (“Rituals curate symbols into meaningful experiences that form the alphabet of intimacy and the grammar of coexistence”), he offers strong proof that rituals foster community and connection. Even the typical familial arguments over weddings and funerals, the author astutely shows, work to “force families to address... underlying conflicts.” It’s a powerful case for the continued importance of ritual at a time of disconnection and division. (May)

Reviewed on 03/06/2026 | Details & Permalink