Writer and film producer Fischer (The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures) explores in this entertaining group biography the lives and works of filmmakers Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg. He begins on the set of the 1968 film Finian’s Rainbow, one of the last gasps of Hollywood’s Golden Age. After winning a scholarship from Warner Bros., a young Lucas was tasked with observing the film’s director, the up-and-coming Coppola. The two had an instant connection and went on to start their own production company, American Zoetrope. Meanwhile, Spielberg, another promising young director, had landed a contract directing TV shows for Universal Studios but was eager to make movies. Fischer documents how the three ushered in a new era of film that rejected the old system of powerful studios controlling production and instead centered high-concept, director-driven blockbusters. Along the way, he chronicles how Coppola transformed The Godfather, a pulpy novel about the Mafia, into a film that “pushed the bounds of the medium”; follows Spielberg’s animatronic innovations in Jaws; and traces how Lucas turned his idea for a “sort of space opera thing” into the Star Wars franchise. Throughout, Fischer leverages a novelistic style that makes his extensive research and interviews a pleasure to read. This is a sure-fire hit for cinephiles. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

This unique blend of reportage and memoir from journalist Kuper (Soccernomics) documents the impact and history of the FIFA World Cup. Having attended every World Cup since 1990, Kuper traces the international soccer tournament as it grew into a massive global spectacle, arguing along the way that “World Cups don’t change the world, but they do illuminate it.” The first World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930 under the direction of FIFA president Jules Rimet, who wanted to create a standalone international tournament for professional players. Kuper’s coverage of World Cups in Italy, France, Japan, South Korea, and Germany in the 1990s and early 2000s mixes game recaps with personal observations, including that “in nine World Cups, I still haven’t seen a single act of fan violence.” Elsewhere, he presents a deep history of soccer in South Africa, where his family is from, contending that the 2010 World Cup, which was held there, highlighted a white version of South Africa instead of the Black community “where the country’s football culture originated.” Moving to more recent tournaments, Kuper details evidence that Russia and Qatar bribed FIFA Executive Committee members to host the 2018 and 2022 tournaments. Throughout, Kuper blends scrupulous reportage with evocative reflections (“a national team was the nation made flesh”). Soccer fans will be enthralled. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

Social media personality Brown debuts with a chatty guide that aims to help readers “begin showing up for yourself in the way you deserve.” He recounts how heavy drinking and tumultuous relationships derailed his professional acting goals before a 2018 reckoning in a hotel room prompted him to rethink the insecurities holding him back (“What would you say to your bestie right now if she were saying these things about herself?”). Drawing from his subsequent efforts to get his life back on track, the author explains how readers can identify damaging beliefs and coping mechanisms that erode self-esteem, “affirm the shit out of yourself” by embracing personality quirks and refusing to accept poor treatment from others, and begin “shaping your reality with intention” by clarifying goals and working to achieve them. Brown’s caustic humor (“What good is a dead bitch?” he asks in a section on emotional exhaustion) bolsters his refreshingly direct wisdom on how to live more authentically. Fans and newcomers alike will get plenty out of Brown’s sharp and sassy insights. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

This intricate and erudite study by Harvard historian Givens (Fugitive Pedagogy) explores the racist origins of the U.S. education system, finding that Black, white, and Native children’s educations in the 19th and early 20th centuries were not merely “unequal” but actually interdependent and “relational.” Through rigorous research, Givens surfaces a vast web of material and ideological connection. He spotlights the ways in which profits from slavery and the seizure of Native land underwrote white students’ educational expenses, and notes that the era’s curricula served to create a “national white identity” while alienating Native and Black children from their own cultures. He also uncovers deeper, thornier interconnections between government, education, and race, such as how white-run schools in Choctaw territory served as hubs for government-run tribal “enrollment and allotment” programs, which sought to “assimilate” Native people by forcing them onto individual plots of land; as well as how, before their forced removal, the Five Southern Tribes attempted to appease and assimilate with their white neighbors by enacting “anti-literacy” laws banning the education of Black people. Marvelously complex and expansive, this paints a troubling picture of how government-run education has served as a powerful apparatus of state control and racial domination in U.S. history. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

Street artist and hip-hop producer Freddy “Fab 5 Freddy” Brathwaite debuts with a rollicking memoir of the downtown art and music scenes of 1970s and ’80s New York City. Growing up in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in the 1970s, Brathwaite was inspired by a high school trip to the MoMA to steal spray paint cans from shop class and tag subway trains. “The graffiti gave me visibility, and the visibility gave me status,” he writes, detailing how he teamed up with Lee Quiñones and other members of the legendary Fabulous 5 graffiti crew. At the same time, he connected with MC Melle Mel and Grandmaster Flash, “tapping into the scene” of the emerging music style known as rap. Much of the memoir reads like a downtown picaresque: as a public access TV cameraman, Brathwaite met Debbie Harry, Robert Mapplethorpe, and David Byrne; when he met Jean-Michel Basquiat, the two “vibed instantly,” as both were Brooklyn-raised with Caribbean roots. In the book’s final third, the party slows down to make room for somber reflections on AIDS and the racial politics of MTV, with Brathwaite’s forceful points weakened somewhat by the tonal whiplash. Still, for readers interested in the birth of hip-hop, this is a must. Agent: Luke Janklow, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

The impassioned debut study from theologian Stacy explores white American evangelicals’ dangerous devotion to conspiracy theorizing and proposes a faith-based route away from insular paranoia. A former evangelical pastor who grew up in a fundamentalist community, Stacy recollects his dismay at finding his congregants believed that “Tom Hanks was a closet pedophile” or that “the 2020 election was stolen,” as well as at witnessing the slew of Christian symbolism present in the crowd on January 6 (“I was watching terror as worship”). Arguing that conspiracy “isn’t a bug but a feature” of American evangelicalism, the author examines the movement’s long history of conspiracy theorizing, from Great Awakening leader George Whitfield’s paranoid fear of slave uprisings to Reverend Billy Graham’s recorded Oval Office conversation with Richard Nixon about Jewish people supposedly controlling the media. Stacy also analyzes features of evangelical theology—such as “a totalizing knowledge of good and evil”—that encourage what he calls “holy paranoia.” Hoping to challenge “moral zealotry” in his community, Stacy advocates for a “Christian posture that refuses to possess the knowledge of good and evil for ourselves” and, instead, embraces uncertainty. He includes prompts for readers (“Why do I want this to be true?”; “Who do I need to encounter?”) that probe at unquestioned belief and gaps in knowledge. It’s an empathic rumination on the evangelical community’s inner workings. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

Zelizer (The Journalism Manifesto), a professor of journalism at the University of Pennsylvania, argues in this intriguing but uneven study that many of America’s journalists “are so caught up in belonging to one side or the other they fail to lay out the stakes that matter most.” She contends that this divisiveness is the result of “us vs. them” habits journalists learned during the Cold War—ranging from political ideologies about American exceptionalism inculcated within reporters themselves, to “access journalism” coverage styles that involved cozying up to officials and editorial tactics for framing stories that tend to devalue one subject’s position relative to another’s. Zelizer’s account serves in part as a captivating history of U.S. media coverage of the Cold War—she describes reporters in full boosterism mode as well as those who lost access to government sources due to critical coverage. The connection between the Cold War and present-day reporting can feel tenuous at times, though her breakdown of the ways in which Palestinians are devalued in American news stories is fascinating, and her critique of the patness of American journalism has bite (many reporters use “familiar scripts in a business-as-usual fashion... however irrelevant they might be,” she contends). This impassioned reflection on journalistic ethics is at its best when it zeroes in on how professional laziness festers into something more dangerous. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

Nation correspondent Littlefield debuts with a quirky yet hard-hitting inquiry into the overturning of Roe v. Wade. A fan of murder mysteries, the author frames her narrative as a whodunit in search of perpetrators, with the victims being Roe itself as well as women who died from botched abortions due to the slow, 50-year chipping-away of reproductive rights via policies like parental consent laws and the 1976 Hyde Amendment, which prevented Medicaid coverage for abortion. The result is a captivating character study of an oddball bunch, among them retired IRS attorney Paul Haring, who first approached Catholic bishops with the idea that would become the Hyde Amendment, and disgraced congressman Bob Bauman, who encouraged “jovial ass grabber” Henry Hyde to sponsor the amendment. Littlefield’s interviews with these individuals reveal their motivations—while some are political opportunists and others “identify strongly with the unwanted fetus,” most seem to be “true believers” who see their efforts as a ticket to heaven. Littlefield strives to humanize her perps rather than portraying them as villains—because being human means they can be defeated, she notes—while also critiquing the failure of the pro–abortion rights movement to more rigorously challenge early anti-abortion policies, like Hyde, whose primary victims were the poor and disadvantaged. The result is a dogged pursual of those responsible for women’s deaths. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

This revelatory mix of nature writing and memoir from conservationist Williams (Erosion) reflects on encounters, which she calls “Glorians,” that reveal the interconnectedness of the natural world. These ordinary, often overlooked moments can include an ant carrying a flower to its colony or millions of stars merging into the Milky Way, scenes she describes witnessing from her home in Southern Utah. Williams posits that by cultivating the patience for discovering Glorians, observers become more aware of the sacredness and vulnerability of life, especially amid crises like climate change and pandemics. Written in part during the Covid-19 pandemic, the account places Glorians in the context of isolation and death; when Williams and her husband go to pick out their burial plots, they choose a spot that appears to be inhabited by badgers, noting that “when Death comes, we know our place and who our caretakers will be—not in the afterlife, but the underground.” She also writes about her time teaching at Harvard Divinity School, where she immersed herself in religious texts that connected her to “the shape and perception of other minds in other times,” making her less lonely. Evocative and richly personal, Williams’s writing seamlessly weaves together meditations on mortality, nature, and the modern world. Readers will be inspired. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

Country singer Herndon debuts with an affecting chronicle of his struggles with addiction and coming to terms with his sexuality. Shaped from childhood by the devout Southern women in his family, Herndon recalls first singing on his grandmother’s Christian radio program at age five, in 1968. A few years later, he was singled out by a tent revival preacher during a fiery sermon on homosexuality. Though Herndon was too young to understand the sermon, the public shaming left a scar, contributing to his later efforts to suppress his same-sex attraction. Despite a supportive, borderline-codependent relationship with his mother (“Miss Peggy was never prepared to analyze anyone’s psychology, especially her own”), Herndon spiraled as his music career took off in the 1980s and ’90s, burying the pain of the closet in anonymous sexual encounters and crystal meth. With unblinking candor, he chronicles his fragile sobriety, 2014 coming-out, and 2020 relapse followed by a suicide attempt, but ends on a convincing note of hope that outlines how therapy has helped him heal. It’s a raw account of one man’s jagged path to self-acceptance. Photos. Agent: Zeke Stokes, ZS Strategies. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink