Books – Detail

Siobhan Moroney situates the 1945 Chicagoland Prize Homes competition in its time both socially and architecturally, analyzing floor plans and other materials to reveal how the designs reflected the expectations of middle-class families and the social norms that dictated their everyday lives and aspirations.

An eye-opening investigation into how our ever-expanding urban highways accelerated inequality and fractured communities—and a call for a more just, sustainable path forward.

A beautifully illustrated history of the many inventive, poetic, and alluring ways in which color swatches have been selected and staged.

Scholars, advocates, and architects assess America’s affordable housing crisis and suggest various strategies to rectify it, including numerous images of important, recently built houses and complexes.

Charles Holland challenges us to look beyond the day-to-day familiarity of buildings to rediscover the pleasure of experiencing architecture

Over the arc of fifty years, sketchbook in hand, Laurie Olin has observed the rich vitality of Italian cities and landscapes. This selection of nearly 250 drawings and watercolors, handsomely reproduced, displays Olin's unique combination of precise observation, sensitivity to context, and graphic spontaneity. These remarkable images will speak to architects, landscape designers, and urban planners, as well as all those who appreciate Italian art, food, and culture

The first-ever coffee table book on Philadelphia’s private gardens! Inspiring photos and expert writing spotlight select private gardens, where horticultural pride is part of the region’s land history.

In 1742, when the legendary dome atop St. Peter’s Basilica—designed by Michelangelo—cracks and threatens to collapse, Pope Benedict XIV summons three mathematicians whose groundbreaking ideas spark a revolution in the world of architecture.

Aimed at practicing professionals and students in landscape architecture, this book is the must-have inspirational resource that provides you with everything you need to design and implement landscape lighting across multiple scales.

As the Historical Society of Pennsylvania commemorates its 200th anniversary, this volume celebrates the growth of its extraordinary collections of more than twenty-one million manuscripts, books, photographs, maps, broadsides, prints, and drawings.

A monumental illustrated survey of the architecture of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century China.

Sheila Heti kept a record of her thoughts over a ten-year period, then arranged the sentences from A to Z. Passionate and reflective, joyful and despairing, these are her alphabetical diaries. From the award-winning author of Pure Color. 

From one of America’s most beloved historians, an artfully woven biography, memoir, and history. She takes you along on the emotional journey she and her husband, Richard (Dick) Goodwin embarked upon in the last years of his life.

An accessible account of the contradictory life and work of the modernist Catalan architect.

From award-winning journalist Kara Swisher comes a witty, scathing, but fair accounting of the tech industry and its founders who wanted to change the world but broke it instead.

The vivid and masterful story of Isabella Stewart Gardner—creator of one of America’s most stunning museums—an American original whose own life was remade by art. Includes archival photos of Isabella’s world, museum, and the art she collected.

A collection of personal essays from America’s most revered essay writer, Joseph Epstein.

From the award-winning New York Times-bestselling author of Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller, comes a career defining memoir about grieving the sudden loss of her twenty-one-year-old child.

Disarmingly witty and poignant, Sloane Crosley's memoir explores multiple kinds of loss following the death of her closest friend.

An Instant New York Times Bestseller

From internationally renowned writer and Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie, a searing, deeply personal account of enduring—and surviving—an attempt on his life thirty years after the fatwa that was ordered against him.

Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Wiesel, Elie's wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit truest to the author's original intent.

Using never before seen sources, Once a King is a fresh, revelatory and gripping insight into the Duke of Windsor - King Edward VIII - who gave up the throne to marry the woman he loved, twice divorced American Wallis Simpson.

The compelling true story behind the testimony that awed the nation. The book reveals riveting new details about the leadup to her testimony and its overwhelming aftermath and describes how she continues to navigate her way out of the storm.

For the very first time, Judi opens up about every Shakespearean role she has played throughout her seven-decade career, from Lady Macbeth and Titania to Ophelia and Cleopatra. In a series of intimate conversations with actor & director Brendan O'Hea, she guides us through Shakespeare's plays with incisive clarity, revealing the secrets of her rehearsal process and inviting us to share in her triumphs, disasters, and backstage shenanigans.

From the bestselling author of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird. James Mcbride describes life as the son of a white mother and Black father, reflecting on his mother's contributions to his life and his confusion over his own identity.

A searing essay collection that explores displacement and loss, creativity and change, institutional power and progress.

In this unflinching portrait of shattered families, desperation and determination, the author, born to a drug-addicted mother, recounts growing up in foster care, and despite his military career, undergraduate education from Yale and a PhD from Cambridge,he argues that stability at home is more important than external accomplishments.

A National Bestseller

This lucent anti-memoir from celebrated novelist Lydia Millet explores the pain and joy of being a parent, child, and human at a moment when the richness of the planet’s life is deeply threatened.

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by the Washington Post, Oprah Daily, and Literary Hub

Reminiscent of the works of Mary Karr and Terese Marie Mailhot, a memoir of family and survival, coming-of-age on and off the reservation, and of the frictions between mainstream American culture and Native inheritance; assimilation and reverence for tradition.

In this uproarious exploration of the joys of reading, a long-time teacher, lifelong reader and The New Yorker contributor shares surprising stories from her life and the poignant ways in which books have impacted her students and shows us how literaturecan transform us for the better.

National Bestseller

Set in the tumultuous year of 1968 in southern Virginia, a racially charged murder case sets a duo of white and Black lawyers against a deeply unfair system as they work to defend their wrongfully accused Black defendants in this courtroom drama from #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci.  

For readers of The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett and Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, A Great Country explores themes of immigration, generational conflict, social class and privilege as it reconsiders the myth of the model minority and questions the price of the American dream.

An unforgettable novel of fearless women banding together to pursue the lives they want, inspired by the real-life historic Japanese courtesan strike

Anna Quindlen’s trademark wisdom on family, friendship, and the ties that bind us are at the center of this novel about the power of love to transcend loss and triumph over adversity, by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Still Life with Bread Crumbs and One True Thing.

The New York Times bestselling author returns with an irreverently sexy, tender, hilarious and surprising novel about a woman upending her life

A propulsive and piercing debut, set ten years before the events of Shakespeare’s historic play, about the ambition, power, and fate that define one of literature’s most notorious figures: Lady Macbeth.

From one of America’s most celebrated storytellers come three dark, interlocking tales about the residents of a rural New York town, and the shocking headlines that become their local mythologies.

New York Times bestselling author Xochitl Gonzalez delivers a mesmerizing novel about a first-generation Ivy League student who uncovers the genius work of a female artist decades after her suspicious death.

A Most Anticipated Book of 2024: TIME, The Washington Post, Refinery 29, Barnes & Noble, LitHub

An autobiographical novel from Édouard Louis, hailed as one of the most important voices of his generation―about social class, transformation, and the perils of leaving the past behind.

An ingenious, devastating, explosive novel about the ramifications of choice from "one of the most original and talented authors working today" (NPR).

A Booker Prize Finalist.

A woman in post-apartheid South Africa confronts her family’s troubling past in this taut and daring novel about national trauma and collective guilt—from the Booker Prize–longlisted author of An Island.

Like a sober, millennial Jesus’ Son, Michael Deagler’s debut novel is the poignant confession of a recovering addict adrift in the fragmenting landscape of America’s middle class. Shot through with humor, hubris, and hard-earned insight, Early Sobrieties charts the limbos that exist between our better and worst selves, offering a portrait of a stifled generation collectively slouching towards grace.

In the vein of The Paris Wife and The Personal Librarian comes this debut novel, a magnificent work of “biographical fiction” that reimagines the turbulent and triumphant early years of Ella Fitzgerald, arguably the greatest singer of the twentieth century.

A chilling and unforgettable story of a close-knit Jewish family in London pushed to the brink when they suspect their daughter is a witch.

Set in a Lower East Side tenement in the early days of the COVID-19 lockdowns, Fourteen Days is an irresistibly propulsive collaborative novel from the Authors Guild, with an unusual twist: each character in this diverse, eccentric cast of New York neighbors has been secretly written by a different, major literary voice—from Margaret Atwood and Celeste Ng to Tommy Orange and John Grisham.

A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

Named a Most Anticipated book of 2024 by TIME, The New York Times, Goodreads, Entertainment Weekly

A bold and unpredictable debut thriller set in the biotech world (and deceptive beauty) of Switzerland, by acclaimed actor Richard Armitage.

A debut collection of stories set in a hauntingly reimagined Lagos where characters vie for freedom from ancestral ties.

By Athenaeum Staff, 'Pemi.

One of Apple Books' Best Books of May 

A historic presidential campaign changes the trajectory of a young Black man’s life in the highly anticipated debut novel from one of The New Yorker’s rising stars.

National Bestseller

A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and ferociously funny, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view. From the “literary icon” (Oprah Daily) and Pulitzer Prize Finalist whose novel Erasure is the basis for Cord Jefferson’s critically acclaimed film American Fiction.

An engrossing exploration of the vows we make to one another, the tensile relationships between parents and their children, and what we owe to others and ourselves.

From the beloved, critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author comes a spectacularly moving and intense novel of secrecy, misunderstanding, and love, the story of Eilis Lacey, the complex and enigmatic heroine of Brooklyn, Tóibín’s most popular work in twenty years.

Oprah's Book Club Pick

A sudden family death and an old nemesis bring retired agent Mac Dekker in from the cold in this alpine thriller from New York Times bestselling author Christopher Reich.

The New York Times and internationally bestselling author of the “captivating, richly drawn” (Woman’s World) The Paris Library returns with a brilliant new novel based on the true story of Jessie Carson—the American librarian who changed the literary landscape of France.

A child who will be named Johannes is born. An old man named Johannes dies. Between these two points, Jon Fosse gives us the details of an entire life, starkly compressed. Morning and Evening is a novel concerning the beautiful dream that our lives have meaning.

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2023

Piercing, fleet-footed, and undeniably resonant, here is a novel about how we tell stories and write history, how individuals play a counterpoint to big movements, how no single life is without consequence, tracing the arc of a man’s life, an ordinary life made exceptional by the fact that he has loved and has been loved in turn.

A bold and haunting debut story collection that follows various characters as they navigate the day-to-day perils of Jim Crow racism from Diane Oliver, a missing figure in the canon of twentieth-century African American literature, with an introduction by Tayari Jones

Introduced and contextualized by bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones, these stories are a celebration of Indigenous peoples’ survival and imagination, and a glorious reveling in all the things an ill-advised whistle might summon.

National Bestseller; Bram Stoker Award Nominee for Superior Achievement in an Anthology 

As uneasy and saturated as a prophetic dream, Not a River is another extraordinary novel by Selva Almada about masculinity, guilt, and irrepressible desire, written in a style that is spare and timeless.

Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize

A coming-of-age comedy. A telenovela-worthy drama. A moving family saga. All in a phone call you won’t want to hang up on.

The prize-winning, bestselling author of Peaces and Gingerbread returns with a novel about competitive friendship, the elastic boundaries of storytelling, and the meddling influence of a city called Prague. 

A Most Anticipated Book of the Year by Elle, LitHub, The Millions.

From the award-winning author of Goodbye, Vitamin: How far would you go to shape your own destiny? An exhilarating novel of American identity that spans three generations in one family and asks: What makes us who we are? And how inevitable are our futures? 

Read With Jenna's May Book Club Pick

In the spirit of Heather Morris, Kate Quinn, and Pam Jenoff, an enthralling and deeply moving story that begins during World War II, about orphaned twin sisters in Ireland whose lives diverge for decades, until fate—and faith—reunite them in the twilight of their lives.

A powerful, magical indigenous novel from Nagaland, India's foremost writer.

From the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner: Two girls who grow up to become women. Two friends who become something worse than enemies. This brilliantly imagined novel brings us the story of Nel Wright and Sula Peace, who meet as children in the small town of Medallion, Ohio.

National Book Critics Circle Award; An Athenaeum Read With Us Book Club Pick

From the award-winning and bestselling French author Colombe Schneck, a woman’s personal journey through abortion, sex, friendship, love, and swimming.

A Natalie Portman Book Club Pick

Her husband’s cheating on her. She hates Boca. Sylvia is mad and she isn’t going to take it anymore. She’s moving back north, to the city of her dreams—with her best friend, Evie, in tow. Think a screwball comedy featuring a sophisticated Thelma and Louise with martinis in hand . . .

From the bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway, A Gentleman in Moscow, and Rules of Civility, a richly detailed and sharply drawn collection of stories, including a novella featuring one of his most beloved characters.

From the writer Anthony Doerr calls “a massive talent,” the story of four brilliant Irish sisters, orphaned in childhood, who scramble to reconnect when the oldest disappears into the Irish countryside.

Literary icon and great American novelist Julia Alvarez, bestselling author of In the Time of the Butterflies and How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, returns with a luminescent novel about storytelling that reads like an instant classic.

From the Dagger Award–winning author of Norwegian by Night comes a vivid, thrilling, and moving World War II art-heist-adventure tale where enemies become heroes, allies become villains, and a child learns what it means to become an adult—for fans of All the Light We Cannot See.

An enthralling sci-fi thriller debut about a mission into deep space that begins with a lethal explosion that leaves the survivors questioning the loyalty of the crew.

From the International Booker Prize-winning translator and Women's Prize finalist, an utterly beguiling novel about eight translators and their search for a world-renowned author who goes missing in a primeval Polish forest.

A powerful novel about the construction of the Panama Canal, casting light on the unsung people who lived, loved, and labored there.

A Read With Jenna pick; Named a Most Anticipated Book by:  Washington Post, Book Riot, Electric Literature, LitHub, ELLE, The Millions, Goodreads, Reader’s Digest

A timeless comedy of manners—refreshing as a summer breeze and bracing as the British seaside—about a generation of young women facing the seismic changes brought on by war and dreaming of the boundless possibilities of their future, from the bestselling author of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand.

From the writer who is “in a class by herself,” (The New York Times), a nuanced, atmospheric tale–set in the Irish countryside–that explores what we’ll do for our loved ones, what we’ll do for revenge, and what we sacrifice when the two collide.

In The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven, a "briskly entertaining" (New York Times Book Review), "transporting and wholly original" (People Magazine) novel by Nathaniel Ian Miller, one man banishes himself to a solitary life in the Arctic Circle, and is saved by good friends, a loyal dog, and a surprise visit that changes everything.

An Athenaeum Read With Us Book Club Pick

A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all: Welcome to The Ministry of Time, the exhilarating debut novel by Kaliane Bradley.

A Good Morning America Book Club Pick

From the critically beloved, New York Times bestselling author of The Tiger’s Wife and Inland, a sweeping novel of mothers and daughters, displacement and belonging, and wondrous tales of a world both fallen and new.

An astonishing novel about the choice between living and writing, and the desire to transcend the divide between Africa and the West. Above all, it is an ode to literature and its timelessness.

Winner of the Prix Goncourt; A New York Times Best Book of 2023; Longlisted for the National Book Award

A college student in need of quick money finds work on an Alaskan fishing boat in the unforgiving Bering Sea.

A “beautifully written” (Hilary Mantel) story of love, madness, sisterly devotion, and control, about the two beloved daughters of renowned 1700s English painter Thomas Gainsborough, who struggle to live up to the perfect image the world so admired in their portraits.

A dazzling, heartfelt adventure through the food, art, and fashion scenes of 1980s Paris—from the New York Times bestselling author of Save Me the Plums and Delicious!

In pursuit of happiness, a young woman’s dreams extend beyond money and marriage in this aspirational historical novel by the international bestselling author of The Light After the War.

From bestselling authors Janie Chang and Kate Quinn, a thrilling and unforgettable narrative about the intertwined lives of two wronged women, spanning from the chaos of the San Francisco earthquake to the glittering palaces of Versailles.

Two novellas by Peter Handke―his first new works since he won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature.

From the National Book Award-Longlisted author of The Most Secret Memory of Men comes a polyphonic tale of immigration and community by “the most promising Senegalese writer of his generation” (Le Monde) and winner of the 2021 Prix Goncourt.

An unlikely duo ventures through France and Italy to solve the mystery of a child’s fate in this moving, page-turning novel from “a gifted storyteller” (People).

A hauntingly poetic family drama and coming-of-age story that reveals a dark corner of South Korean history through the eyes of a small community living in a reformatory center—a stunning work of great emotional power from the critically acclaimed author of If You Leave Me.

Lisa Scottoline, the #1 bestselling author of What Happened to the Bennetts, presents another pulse-pounding domestic thriller about family, justice, and the lies that tear us apart.

New York Times Bestseller; USA Today Bestseller

Two feuding neighbors unite to resurrect a neglected city garden in this uplifting and quietly joyful novel by Sara Nisha Adams, author of the beloved The Reading List.

From New York Times bestselling author Hampton Sides, an epic account of the most momentous voyage of the Age of Exploration, which culminated in Captain James Cook’s death in Hawaii, and left a complex and controversial legacy still debated to this day.

From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah's The Women―at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.

An immersive, masterful story of a family born on the wrong side of history, from one of our finest contemporary novelists.

Constantly surprising, joyously sensual, Until August is a profound meditation on freedom, regret, self-transformation, and the mysteries of love—an unexpected gift from one of the greatest writers the world has ever known.

Wandering Stars traces the legacies of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Industrial School for Indians through to the shattering aftermath of Orvil Redfeather's shooting in There There.

A Time Most Anticipated Book. 

An incandescent debut about young adults learning how to care for themselves — from within the limits of the psychiatric system. Perfect for fans of Tove Ditlevsen and devotees of Sylvia Plath.

In this new novel by Syria’s most prominent writer of the National Book Award Finalist Planet of Clay, a wounded nineteen-year-old soldier in the Syrian Army remembers his life lived in the traditional Alawite way. 

The riotous, raucous and deeply resonant debut novel from “one of the best story writers in the English language today” (Financial Times) Wild Houses follows two outsiders caught in the crosshairs of a small-town revenge kidnapping gone awry.

Set against a high-society Shanghai wedding, a heartfelt, funny, dazzling novel about a reluctant bride and her two best friends, each with their own motives and fed up with the way society treats women, who forge a plan to steal all the gift money on the big day.