Architecture is out of touch with the issues of the day—climate change, economic inequality, and political instability—and must reinvent itself as a “force for good,” according to this fiery if incomplete treatise. Dutch architect de Graaf (Architect, Verb) contends that architectural firms exploit their workers, that their founders stay too long (Brazilian architect Oscar Neiemeyer was still designing buildings at 104), that their principals take credit for what is collaborative work, that architectural education ignores practice for theory, and that more attention is unjustly paid to client desires than user needs. To address these ills de Graaf offers numerous recommendations, including for architects to unionize, retire at age 67, make architectural education more hands-on and affordable, utilize AI for “frivolous” design choices while allowing architects to focus on more important ones, and adapt existing buildings rather than demolishing them and designing new ones. Many of de Graaf’s accusations are logical and indisputable, though he’s less clear about how his proposed reforms might be implemented or how the political activism he advocates might be made compatible with the goals of architecture. De Graaf raises salient points about architecture’s place in the world, but readers may be left with more questions than answers. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Every writer, from novelists and journalists to town-council minute-takers, can enliven their work with a few choice verbs, according to this graceful guide from Pulitzer winner Kaufman (The Art of Grace). “My argument is simple: Excellent writing requires smart verbs,” she explains, noting that during her nearly 30 years as a dance critic for the Washington Post, she honed the skill of choosing precise and evocative verbs to express both motion and emotion. Chapters with appropriately active titles like Energize, Sharpen, Weed, Tantalize, and Zhush It Up are peppered with examples from the likes of Zadie Smith, Wallace Stevens, Anton Chekhov, and Ray Bradbury, as well as a surprisingly poignant offering from Ulysses S. Grant. (As he lay dying of cancer, Grant wrote: “The fact is I think I am a verb instead of a personal pronoun. A verb is anything that signifies to be; to do; or to suffer. I signify all three.”) Kaufman also provides digestible tips and quick exercises, plus a splendid list of verbs that have faded from general usage and a few that are making a comeback thanks to TikTok, such as the recently trending 200-year-old Scottish term hurkle-durkle, meaning to lounge in bed after waking. Calling verbs “the secret superpower of language,” Kaufman posits that “nouns are our reality; verbs are our dreams.” Indeed, this verb-filled outing reads like a dream. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Sweet, head of ethnography at the market research firm Ipsos, debuts with a practical exploration of how culture affects behavior, broadens perspectives, and helps predict and shape the future. He draws heavily from his experience at Ipsos, where he has worked with numerous brands and government leaders in the U.K. His work has shown him that culture can be broken down into three interlocking parts, which he refers to as the “Cultural Trinity”: identity (how people see and express themselves), community (who people interact with and feel validated by), and belief systems (how people decide what’s right and wrong). This framework enabled him, for example, to help the toothpaste brand Sensodyne make inroads in India. By recognizing that in India brushing one’s teeth is a personal ritual connecting body and soul, Sensodyne was able to tailor its marketing to be more culturally relevant. Elsewhere, he discusses how technology impacts culture, positing that brands will use AI to sell people products in increasingly personalized, convincing ways; for instance, companies might use AI to comb through people’s digital footprints and create custom ads for everyone in the world. A concluding section titled “Life Lessons from a Business Anthropologist” offers useful tips for understanding people, emphasizing the value of careful observation and asking “why” questions. Filled with illuminating case studies, this is a stimulating examination of the hidden influences that guide people’s actions. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Journalist Crane debuts with a heartrending true crime memoir about her father’s decades-old disappearance. One night in 1987, after Crane’s father, Eddy, called home to say he was about to leave work at the trucking company he co-owned in Baltimore, he vanished. Twenty years later, Crane, then a freelance journalist in New York City dealing with depression and PTSD caused by Eddy’s disappearance and her family’s near-refusal to speak about it, set out to uncover the truth. She returned to Maryland, where her digging turned up disturbing new details about Eddy’s life: his partner at the trucking company had links to organized crime, and Eddy may have been an FBI informant. She also found plenty of evidence that Eddy was murdered, including testimony about bullet holes in his office and a witness confirming that he feared for his life in the days before his disappearance. The thrust of Crane’s account concerns the tepid police response and the Baltimore Cold Case Unit’s continued classification of Eddy as a missing person, rather than a homicide victim. Crane seamlessly blends suspense and pathos as she recounts her investigation. Readers will be rapt. Agent: William LoTurco, LoTurco Literary. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Journalist Latifi’s unsettling debut scrutinizes the highly profitable world of family vloggers and momfluencers. The most successful accounts make millions of dollars a year sharing intimate moments, from pregnancy announcements to potty training. Interviewing current and former influencers and their children (some of whom love making content while others report feeling trapped), as well as nannies, psychologists, and social media marketing managers, the author surveys various facets of the industry, from the odd preponderance of Mormon influencers and the discomfiting popularity of teen mom accounts to the over-the-top viciousness of anti-momfluencer forums. Mixed in are some truly hair-raising findings: videos of sick or hurt children attract the most attention (“A vomiting child... is potential”), vlogger parents have been caught on camera coaching their children how to cry, and many parents are aware that pedophiles engage with their content. Despite the inherent shock value, Latifi makes a genuine effort to grapple with the industry’s ethics, probing not only the parents’ justifications (“Kids love being part of the content” is a frequent refrain) but also her own attraction to this type of content as an isolated new mom. Most astutely, Latifi observes how understandable it is that parents are willing to swap their family’s privacy for financial stability, given the greater lack of structural support for families in the U.S. It’s a perceptive, often stomach-churning exposé. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

The built environment is not a passive backdrop to peoples’ lives but a force actively shaping them, according to this intriguing treatise. Architect Murphy (The Architecture of Health) showcases projects his firm has been involved with to illustrate how architecture can improve society. Among them are the Butaro Hospital in Rwanda, which replaced the massive, disease-spreading hallways of modern hospitals with outdoor waiting areas and large windows that let in light and air; a combined health clinic and wastewater treatment facility in Haiti erected after the 2010 earthquake; and an immersive Montgomery, Ala., memorial to Jim Crow–era lynching victims that seeks to combat the amnesia surrounding historical atrocities. The author reveals how these projects were accomplished in collaboration with local governments and populations to address on-the-ground needs, and argues for a form of architecture that strives to transform “the deeper, systemic issues” that perpetuate social problems. Murphy draws out in lucid and convincing detail the subtle but significant ways architecture influences health, community, and commerce and can serve as “a vehicle for justice and repair,” even if a memoiristic thread about caring for his dying father—while touching—sometimes takes things off-track. Still, it’s an illuminating, optimistic take on how architecture might be harnessed to better the world. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Champion marathoner Rideout debuts with a gritty and inspiring autobiography. Born in working-class Somerville, Mass., in 1971, Rideout grew up watching his uncle Barney shooting heroin and vowed never to touch drugs himself. Nevertheless, he went on to experiment with cocaine in college, and after moving to New York City, he suffered an ankle injury and became addicted to opioids. While navigating a vicious, yearslong cycle of sobriety and relapse in the aughts, he found support and relief from his future wife, Shelly. When his sobriety was finally stable, Rideout turned to athletic training to keep his demons at bay, and much of the account details his experiences in triathlons, half-marathons, and marathons. Rideout’s recollections of first-place finish after first-place finish—he won his age category in major races including the New York and Boston marathons, making him one of the world’s fastest over-50 marathoners—are admirably straightforward: he doesn’t brag about his prowess or sugarcoat the anxieties, fears, and physical pain that accompanied him through nearly every victory. Instead, he convincingly argues that hard work and dedication can turn around even the most desperate circumstances. Readers will be galvanized. Agents: Byrd Leavell and Dan Milaschewski, UTA. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Times of London business editor Prescott debuts with a riveting investigation into the late tech founder Mike Lynch, who was accused of defrauding Hewlett-Packard during the $11 billion sale in 2011 of his software company, Autonomy. Two sudden deaths, which occurred hours apart in August 2024, loom over the author’s query: Lynch himself, who drowned when his superyacht capsized, and former Autonomy VP Stephen Chamberlain, who was hit by a car. The author spends minimal time on conspiracy theorizing, however, instead tracking Lynch’s ambitious rise—a son of Irish immigrants, he was “hailed as ‘Britain’s Bill Gates’ ”—and heavily litigated fall. Prescott evocatively channels the exhilaration of Autonomy’s rapid ascent after its 1996 founding, as well as the pressures of the 2008 recession, when the company began to fudge its books, including by logging sales before their completion. Though whistleblowers raised red flags, Autonomy’s accounting irregularities only became a problem when Hewlett-Packard, reeling from buyer’s remorse, accused Lynch of fraud. Prescott’s detailed examination of the subsequent legal battles captivates, but the book shines as an in-depth character study of Lynch. The founder is at once brilliant and tyrannical, an eccentric who named boardrooms after Bond villains and “a king of spin” who could “lie... with fluidity” (he once pretended to have a finance director who simply “did not exist”). It’s an enthralling tale of tech industry hubris. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Abraham Lincoln was a gifted party organizer and shrewd political operator, according to this eye-opening biography. Historian Pinsker (Lincolnr’s Sanctuary) tracks how Lincoln forged a winning Republican coalition in 1850s Illinois by steering between antislavery radicals (i.e., abolitionists) and moderates (who wanted slavery restricted), only to swerve decisively to a radical position in 1858 to undercut his proslavery Democratic rival, Stephen A. Douglas. As president, Lincoln walked a similar tightrope between pro- and anti-emancipation Republican camps, once again swerving hard to the radical position in order to win reelection in 1864. Pinsker’s prosaic Lincoln is a fascinating departure from typical depictions; Lincoln the party boss “rarely indulged in the warm, folksy language of his popular legend,” but was rather a man forever twisting arms, counting votes, considering (but not committing) voter interference, “barking out orders, providing advice, [and] pressing others to stay on task.” Examples of Lincoln’s sharp-elbowed tactics include calling a meeting with Frederick Douglass, who had begun to support radicals’ calls for Lincoln’s ouster, to casually raise the possibility of revoking the Emancipation Proclamation; Lincoln also allowed pro-Southern Ohio congressman Clement Vallandigham to return from exile so the Democrat’s strident antiwar rhetoric would alienate voters during the 1864 election. The result is a penetrating study of low politics in the pursuit of higher purpose. (Feb.)

Correction: A previous version of this review misidentified the author’s previous title.

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Food writer Washington (Caribbean Flavors for Every Season) takes a blistering look at America’s most prestigious culinary school in this vivid memoir. In 2009, the author, then in her 20s, was working for free as a pantry chef at a restaurant in Raleigh, N.C., when its owner, recognizing her talent, encouraged her to apply to the Culinary Institute of America. Washington arrived at the program’s stately campus in Upstate New York and found a hypercompetitive environment filled with state-of-the-art equipment, instructors who demanded militarylike uniformity, and a culture that prized pricier, fussier dishes—often American or European—over the simpler fare of her Trinidadian childhood (“The bouillabaisse I learned to prepare... could never dethrone buljol, a salted cod dish and relic from the transatlantic slave trade”). She was struck, she writes, at how many instructors mistook cruelty for rigor, though she acknowledges the humiliation was sometimes effective. She’s less forgiving of the disparity between the school’s hefty price tag—tuition, fees, room and board “might skirt six figures”—and the fact that graduates often ended up “making substantially less money in a year than the cumulative debt they incurred.” Washington successfully mines her experience to challenge some of the culinary industry’s excesses, while allowing her love for cooking and the history, culture, and technique that shapes it to shine through. Industry insiders and home cooks alike will be riveted. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink