In his second book, neuroscientist and environmental journalist Aldern examines the palpable effects of climate change on our brain chemistry, including not just increased anxiety, stress, and depression, but also detrimental changes in decision-making abilities and judgment. Paraphrasing a climate advocate in California’s Central Valley, the author writes, “planetary empathy is rooted in pain: the …

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“When would the day arrive when he didn’t feel like howling in sadness?” That’s the bleak situation facing Sangjin, a writer who’s fled to the Korean countryside to wait out the end of World War II in Ch’oe’s luminous collection of stories. In the war’s final months, Japan’s defeat is expected, but what will happen …

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Lore, Bastian, and Gabe are all still alive following the events in The Foxglove King (2023), despite a ritual meant to take Lore’s life and usher in a new age for the god Apollius. But Lore, determined to live despite—or perhaps because of—her deep and unyielding connection to the magical death force Mortem, is unwilling …

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Religion can engender feelings of anxiety about the constraints of church doctrine as followers mature into their understandings about life and the world. For Paolo Venticinque, an Italian seminarian working as a Jesuit high school teacher, those constraints don’t cause him to question his faith but to wonder how his faith can work beyond them. …

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Hirahara starts by discussing how college students Yuji Ichioka and Emma Gee coined the term Asian American in 1968; she also defines the phrase Pacific Islanders but notes that the book doesn’t cover those with Central and Western Asian heritage. She goes on to explore various identities within the AAPI communities, as well as U.S. …

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As the family walks to the mango tree, the young narrator is thrilled: She’s finally old enough to help pick them. Her brother tells her that everyone has a mango memory. He describes the excitement he felt climbing a tree for the first time to pluck mangoes. When the girl begins to climb, however, she …

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Patterson, Eversmann, and Mooney gather first-person testimonies from independent booksellers (including author Judy Blume, who started her Key West store when she was 78); booksellers at chain stores like Barnes & Noble; and school, college, private, and public librarians from around the U.S. and Canada. They reminisce about their early discovery of books, their passion …

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