Adult Book Lists

A psychiatrist who has dedicated her life to treating global survivors of unspeakable horrors shares the three keys to resilience that we can use to weather stress, loss, and trauma in our own lives.

“This book is a gift of empathy and lived wisdom—rare, real, and deeply human.”—Dr. Koen Sevenants, former global lead for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergencies for UNICEF’s Child Protection Area of Responsibility

In her debut book, Dr. Suzan Song draws from patient stories, humanitarian research, and her own life to help readers release their unrealistic longing for stability and open them up to a new, healthier mindset. As uncomfortable as it is, instability, Dr. Song suggests, is what ultimately invites us into transformation.

From her clinical practice in the United States to her global work over two decades with survivors of human rights violations, Dr. Song has uncovered three keys to resilience: Narrative, Ritual, and Purpose. Western therapy teaches that we heal by examining our influences, inner conflicts, and goals. This is vital work, but insight alone does not lead to lasting change. 

Song has found that rituals, whether private or community-based, create the bridge from insight to change. She brought this observation back to her clinical work along with the third potent source of healing: Purpose. Whatever you're going through, these three tools can help you not only weather the winters of life but thrive through them.

Profoundly insightful and beautifully written, Why We Suffer and How We Heal offers a groundbreaking new path to deep healing and finally feeling alive again.

From the author of the “insightful and well-crafted” (The Wall Street Journal) Kennedy and King comes a heart-wrenching and sensitive examination of the tragic loss of President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy’s premature son, Patrick, and how their shared grief brought them closer together in the months leading up to his assassination. 

In April 1963, President Kennedy and the First Lady announced the pregnancy of their third child—joyful news after years of miscarriages and the stillborn birth of a daughter in 1956. But on August 7th, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy was born six weeks premature and died less than two days later.

In this probing, soulful account of the struggle to save Patrick, Steven Levingston takes us inside the long-troubled relationship of Jack and Jackie as they faced one of the most difficult experiences of their marriage. With a “perceptive and eloquent” (The Christian Science Monitor) voice, Levingston reveals how Patrick’s death, tragic as it was, ultimately brought the couple closer together and set the President on a trajectory to be a better husband and father in the months leading up to their fateful campaign trip to Dallas.

For his definitive account of Patrick’s brief but influential life, Levingston draws on first-ever interviews with doctors who treated Jackie and Patrick, in-depth revelations of the Secret Service agent in whose speeding car Jackie nearly gave birth prematurely, and on new archival documents. Twilight of Camelot is a fresh and humanizing portrait of one of the most famous and complicated couples of the 20th century, and a pulsating drama that illuminates one of the least-known periods in Kennedy family history.

Global icon Liza Minnelli shares her inspiring story: stepping out from the long shadow of a mega-star mother and legendary film director father, fighting a lifetime battle with addiction, and emerging from it all to become a once-in-a-lifetime artist.



Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! is the autobiography of EGOT icon Liza Minnelli. This fascinating, untold story reveals the intimate truth of the only child born to Hollywood legends Vincente Minnelli and Judy Garland. For the first time, here is Liza up close: Raw, strong, sexy, hilarious and heartbreaking.



Liza decided at the age of 16 that "sympathy is my mother's business. I give people joy." That veil of joy, however, masks a lifelong struggle with Substance Use Disorder ("SUD," which Liza inherited from her mother's branch of her family), boundless love to give and an equal need to receive it, broken marriages, multiple miscarriages, and hospitalizations--the highs and lows of unparalleled artistic success and lifelong friendships, as well as chronic anxiety and the threat of financial ruin. 



Despite every challenge, Liza's is a life wrapped in laughter and her tremendous capacity to give and receive love. Today at nearly 80, she opens her heart, mind and memories, sharing secrets we never knew. Liza's book celebrates supreme artistry and, more importantly, her human rights activism.



"It's time to tell the truth," Liza says, "and help people heal, as I have, one day at a time."

Grammy Award–winning R&B and hip-hop legend Teddy Riley recounts his journey from growing up in the projects in Harlem to inventing the genre New Jack Swing, selling out shows at Madison Square Garden, and creating music for Michael Jackson, Snoop Dogg, Pharrell, and more. 

Since the early ’80s, Teddy Riley has revolutionized the music industry, from his creation of New Jack Swing to his work in R&B, hip-hop, gospel, soul, and pop that forever changed the industry. His profound influence still resonates today, and he has been inducted into the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame, awarded the Soul Train Legend Award and given his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Now, Riley—with coauthor, award-winning biographer Jake Brown—lifts the curtain on his fascinating and inspiring journey with this unforgettable memoir of talent, resilience, collaboration, betrayal, and creativity.

With heart and humor, Riley reflects on his beginnings as musical prodigy growing up in Harlem and the highs and lows of working with some of the biggest names in the industry. From masterminding his own acclaimed groups, such as Guy and Blackstreet, to producing groundbreaking hits such as Bobby Brown’s “My Prerogative” and writing and producing with legends like Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Mary J. Blige, Lady Gaga, and more, Riley takes us on a remarkable journey that parallels the explosion of new genres and Black influence in the contemporary music landscape.

Remember the Times also candidly illustrates the evolution of popular music through the ’80s to today, taking us behind the scenes directly from the man who grew “to define the sound and reinvigorate contemporary R&B and hip-hop” (Mixdown Magazine, Australia).

The highly anticipated biography of one of the world’s most treasured literary voices, showcasing a life as triumphant and inspiring as the stories she crafted.

To know the name Judy Blume is to know and love literature. Her influential novels turned classics—including Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret; Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing; Deenie; and Summer Sisters—touched the lives of tens of millions of readers. For more than fifty-five years her work has done something revolutionary: it rewired the world’s expectations of what literature for young people can be—frank, candid, earthy, and unafraid to show the messier sides of humanity. But little is known about the real woman behind the iconic persona, and the unlikely journey of her literary ascension, until now.

In Judy Blume, journalist, historian, and longtime Blume aficionado Mark Oppenheimer pens a beautiful, multidimensional portrait of the acclaimed author through extensive interviews with Blume herself, invaluable access to her papers and correspondence, and thoughtful analysis of Blume’s beloved novels, including early, unpublished works that shed light on the pathbreaking writer she would become. Oppenheimer goes deep, exploring Blume’s middle-class 1950s upbringing, complicated childhood, varied relationships and marriages, unabashed sexual experiences, bouts of heartache and loss, and enduring legacy as a champion of free speech and contemporary literature. Oppenheimer peels back the curtain to reveal the woman behind the literary empire in all her complex, multifaceted glory—a true gift for anyone who grew up reading and loving these extraordinary books.

The moving follow-up to Susan Lucci's New York Times bestseller, All My Life, this stunning new memoir includes nearly one hundred never-before-seen photos.

The long-running Queen of Daytime television, Susan Lucci--who has gone by the endearment, La Lucci, since her earliest days on the set of All My Children--knows a thing or two about life, love, joy, adventure, and remaking oneself after loss, both personally and professionally.

While Erica Kane, her character on the daytime drama All My Children, had married eleven times during her forty-one years on air, Susan had been married only once--to the love of her life, Helmut Huber. When Helmut passed away unexpectedly in March of 2022, she faced one of the greatest challenges of her life--overcoming grief and striving to live with hope and joy again while still honoring her memories.

This is a book that celebrates love, friendships, those we admire up close or from afar, the influential teachers in our lives, the wonder of family, parenting and grandparenting, the magic of theatre, fulfilled dreams, grace, freshly baked apples, Alpine cheese, home renovations, modern medicine, faith, miracles large and small, mending one's heart, and moving forward. But most of all, this is a book written with gratitude.

It is with a tender mix of candor, humor, and vulnerability that Lucci reflects on both her many life blessings and her biggest hurdles. At turns entertaining, funny, sad, healing, and genuinely informative, her stories are not just about mourning loss, they are about grabbing and living life with gusto at every stage ... on every stage.

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by The New York Times and The Washington Post 

From CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams, a revelatory account of how one man, four teenagers, and a struggling city collided over race, vigilantism, and public safety . . . exposing the fault lines of a nation

On a dirty New York subway car on December 22, 1984, Bernhard Goetz shot Barry Allen, Darrell Cabey, Troy Canty, and James Ramseur, four teenagers from the Bronx, at point blank range. Goetz claimed they were going to mug him; the teens claim that one of them had simply asked for five dollars.

Crime was at an all-time high. So was racial tension. Was Goetz, who was white, a hero who finally fought back? Or a bigot whose itchy trigger finger seriously wounded three unarmed black kids and condemned a fourth to irreversible brain damage? By the time Goetz went on trial for quadruple attempted murder, the “Subway Vigilante” saga had become a global sensation, and New Yorkers across race and class were split over whether he deserved decades in prison…or a medal.

In Five Bullets, Elliot Williams vaults back to gritty 1980s Manhattan and reexamines the first major true-crime story of the cable news era. Drawing on archives and interviews with many main characters, including Goetz, Williams presents a masterful and vivid tale that also tells the origin stories of larger-than-life figures: Al Sharpton, a polarizing young local activist rocketing to national prominence; Rudy Giuliani, a rising-star prosecutor with an important decision to make; the NRA, which needed a poster boy for its transition from hunting club to political juggernaut; and Rupert Murdoch, whose new purchase, the New York Post, grew his empire by keeping a scary story in the headlines.

A shocking account of a pivotal moment in our history, Five Bullets demonstrates why, in order to understand today’s debates about race, crime, safety, and the media, it’s imperative to reflect on what went down in the subway four decades ago. As Williams’s powerful narrative reveals, it was not just Goetz on trial, but the conscience of a nation.

A heartbreaking, empowering and often hilarious debut memoir about a mother's all-consuming love, a son's perilous quest to discover the world beyond the front door and the unregulated homeschool system that impacts millions like him



Stefan Merrill Block was nine when his mother pulled him from school, certain that his teachers were "stifling his creativity." Hungry for more time with her boy who was growing up too quickly, she began to instruct Stefan in the family's living room. Beyond his formal lessons in math, however, Stefan was largely left to his own devices and his mother's erratic whims, such as her project to recapture her twelve-year-old son's early years by bleaching his hair and putting him on a crawling regimen.



Years before homeschooling would become a massive nationwide movement, at a time when it had just become legal in his home state of Texas, Stefan vanished into that unseen space and into his mother's increasingly eccentric theories and projects. But when, after five years away from the outside world, Stefan reentered the public school system in Plano as a freshman, he was in for a jarring awakening.



At once a novelistic portrait of mother and son, and an illuminating window into an overlooked corner of the American education system, Homeschooled is a moving, funny and ultimately inspiring story of a son's battle for a life of his own choosing, and the wages of a mother's insatiable love.

In this explosive, wildly entertaining memoir, Spencer Pratt charts his rise and fall as America’s most notorious reality TV villain on The Hills—and how, from the ashes of the Pacific Palisades fires, he’s finally ready for his redemption arc. 

Spencer Pratt wasn’t born into Hollywood royalty—he charmed his way in, driven by an unshakeable need to become somebody. By twenty-one, he had created his own reality show, making him the youngest executive producer in network television history. When that venture imploded, he didn’t give up; instead, he infiltrated MTV’s The Hills, weaponizing Simon Cowell-style villainy to become Y2K’s most hated reality TV antagonist. From on-screen fights to off-camera manipulation, Spencer transformed toxicity into ratings gold—and, with future wife Heidi Montag, built “Speidi,” a two-headed tabloid machine worth $2 million a year.

But behind the scenes, Spencer was spiraling. He begged for a redemption arc, only to learn villains don’t get to yell “cut.” As his mental health unraveled, calculated chaos gave way to full-blown instability—hoarding weapons, blowing a fortune on crystals, and pushing everyone away. Broke, blacklisted, and exiled from Hollywood, he lost his grip on reality, trapped in the fake world he’d built until he had almost nothing left. All that remained was Heidi, the one person who never stopped believing in him.

Together, Heidi and Spencer embarked on an unlikely comeback: rebuilding their lives through hummingbird mysticism, family, and lovable eccentricity across social media platforms. When the 2025 Palisades wildfires destroyed their home and everything inside, something miraculous happened—the TikTok community rallied around them with breathtaking speed, transforming them from antiheroes into beloved survivors almost overnight. Spencer Pratt was reborn not as a manufactured persona, but as exactly who he was: unedited, unfiltered, and real.

Now, for the first time, Spencer reveals the untold truth behind the spectacle—a darkly comedic, unflinching, and often surreal confessional from a TV villain who’s finally broken character for good.

The star of classic television series, including The Jeffersons and 227, reveals her difficult journey from a tempestuous childhood to becoming a confident Hollywood powerbroker and groundbreaker who paved the way for today's superstar talents.

Marla Gibbs has been a Hollywood icon for generations of fans. Now, at ninety-three, she chronicles her climb from a difficult youth in which she yearned for safety and love, to the high-stakes world of Hollywood where she became a confident powerbroker learning to work behind the scenes for fair pay, access, and more creative control for herself and her colleagues.

Told in her forthright voice, It's Never Too Late illuminates Gibbs' daring move to Los Angeles to rebuild her life after an abusive marriage, how she became an actor, and how she eventually learned to balance acting with show running. She was a "Boss Bae" decades before the term would become entertainment industry shorthand for a power flex. While developing 227 her lawyer won her "all rights, courtesies and privileges of an executive producer without the credit." Though the authority she wielded behind the scenes created deep tensions on and off the set, her hard-luck young life had prepared her to succeed even as her tenacity was put to the test. Her experiences laid the groundwork for powerbrokers like Shonda Rhimes and Issa Rae.

An inspiring personal portrait of triumph and Hollywood that reminds us we can leave the past behind, It's Never Too Late is the true tale of a remarkable life and a wise guidebook for aspiring artists, entrepreneurs, and entertainment fans.

A hilarious but nonetheless groundbreaking contribution to the argument about which force shapes American life the most. For two kinds of readers—those who know it’s football and those who are about to find out.

Chuck Klosterman—New York Times bestselling critic, journalist, and, yes, football psychotic—did not write this book to deepen your appreciation of the game. He’s not trying to help you become that person at the party, or to teach you how to make better bets, or to validate any preexisting views you might have about the sport (positive or negative). Football does, in fact, do all of those things. But not in the way such things have been done in the past, and never in a way any normal person would expect.

Cultural theorists talk about hyperobjects—phenomena that bulk so large that their true dimensions are hidden in plain sight. In 2023, 93 of the 100 most-watched programs on U.S. television were NFL football games. This is not an anomaly. This is how society is best understood. Football is not merely the country’s most popular sport; it is engrained in almost everything that explains what America is, even for those who barely pay attention. 

Klosterman gets to the bottom of all of it. He takes us to a metaphorical projection of Texas, where the religion of six-man football merges with America’s Team [sic] and makes an inexplicable impact on a boy in North Dakota. He dissects the question of natural greatness, the paradox of gambling and war, and the timeless caricature of the uncompromising head coach. He interrogates the perfection of football’s marriage with television and the morality of acceptable risk. He even conjures an extinction-level event. If Žižek liked the SEC more than he liked cinema, if Stephen Jay Gould cared about linebackers more than he cared about dinosaurs, if Steve Martin played quarterback instead of the banjo . . . it would still be nothing like this.

A century ago, Yale’s legendary coach Walter Camp wrote his unified theory of the game. He called it Football. Chuck Klosterman has given us a new Camp for the new age, rooted in a personal history he cannot escape.

The deepest dive yet into the heart and soul, secret affairs, unexplored alliances, and bitter feuds of a generally worshipped, intermittently reviled American icon.

Perhaps no founding father is as mysterious as Thomas Jefferson. The author of the Declaration of Independence was both a gifted wordsmith and a bundle of nerves. His superior knowledge of the human heart is captured in the impassioned appeal he brought to the Declaration. But as a champion of the common man who lived a life of privilege on a mountaintop plantation of his own design, he has eluded biographers who have sought to make sense of his inner life. In Being Thomas Jefferson, acclaimed Jefferson scholar Andrew Burstein peels away layers of obfuscation, taking us past the veneer of the animated letter-writer to describe a confused lover and a misguided humanist, too timid to embrace antislavery.

Jefferson was a soft-spoken man who recoiled from direct conflict, yet a master puppeteer in politics. Whenever he left Monticello, where he could control his environment, he suffered debilitating headaches that plagued him for decades, until he finally retired from public life. So, what did it feel like to be Thomas Jefferson? Burstein explains the decision to take as his mistress Sally Hemings, the enslaved half-sister of his late wife, who bore him six children, none of whom he acknowledged. Presenting a society that encouraged separation between public and private, appearance and essence, Burstein paints a dramatic picture of early American culture and brings us closer to Jefferson's life and thought than ever before.

New York Times bestselling author Rachel Held Evans inspired a generation of questioning and evolving believers. This book offers a collection of her most impactful essays--in print for the first time.

For a generation finding their footing in life after evangelicalism, Rachel Held Evans was one of the most trusted and beloved voices of our time. Stubborn in her hope, courageous in her questions, and devoted to inclusivity, her online writing was a sanctuary to the millions who read her words daily. Her death to a sudden illness in 2019 invoked a global outpouring of stories of her legacy and influence.
Today, her words still speak, and now for the first time, fans old and new can experience her most viral and enduring essays in print. Braving the Truth is an anthology and keepsake collection letting readers borrow the bravery Rachel was best known for. Edited by New York Times bestselling author and Rachel's dear friend Sarah Bessey, and interspersed with reflections from Matthew Paul Turner, Shauna Niequist, Lisa Sharon Harper, Glennon Doyle, and more, this special volume tackles topics such as:

• "An Evolving Faith: " On doubt, asking questions, and liberation from certainty
• "That Unholy American Trinity: " On patriarchy, white supremacy, and religious nationalism
• "Casseroles and Kingdom of the Hungry: " On the church
• "All right, then, I'll go to hell: " On gender and sexuality
• "Still a Bible Nerd: " On Scripture, biblical literalism, and a better way
• and more

"If you want to understand the Church today, you need to understand Rachel Held Evans," so writes Sarah Bessey. Thoughtful yet down-to-earth, immediate and timeless, this essay collection is a gift from the past to bring into the future--a treasury to revitalize, validate, embolden, and return to again and again.
 

A frank, hands-on guide to using AI at work, unpacking for the curious and skeptical alike the “24 Laws” of AI and revealing strategies that businesses of every size can use to free up time, innovate, and add to the bottom line—from a Wall Street Journal tech columnist

“The antidote to AI panic. Read it. You’ll breathe easier.”—Scott Galloway, NYU Stern School of Business professor and co-host of Pivot with Kara Swisher

“A clear, practical, and hype-free guide to the AI revolution that will resonate with anyone trying to figure out the how to make AI deliver real value.”—Ethan Mollick, Wharton professor and New York Times bestselling author of Co-Intelligence

AI is nothing to be afraid of. After all, AI is merely software. It’s great at some things and (at least right now) terrible at others. But for workers who take time to experiment with AI and develop expertise, AI will make them more productive and more creative, saving them time, giving them job security, and boosting their income.

In How to AI, Wall Street Journal columnist Christopher Mims introduces readers to people just like them who are at the forefront of using AI in the world of work. Imagine a freelance lawyer who suddenly has a whip-smart assistant to help her nail every deposition. Or a mom-and-pop contractor whose new software tool is automating construction bids that used to eat up hundreds of hours. 

But even as half a billion people around the world have leapt at the chance to use ChatGPT and other tools, millions of us have stayed on the sidelines. Are you one of them? Maybe you feel you should be using AI tools, but you don’t know where to begin. Or maybe you love AI but find yourself struggling to get your co-workers or employees on board. In How to AI, Mims teaches readers twenty-four simple but eye-opening “laws” about AI and how we should approach it, including:

• AI is an assistant, not a replacement.
• AI isn’t creative, but it can help you be.
• Give AI your least favorites things to do.
• AI can’t create finished products, but it’s great at prototypes.

Animated by the wit and brilliant explanatory power that have earned Mims’s Wall Street Journal columns a devoted following, How to AI will prepare readers to become a part of the AI revolution—and, most important, arm them with the tools to make it work for them.

From acclaimed historian and author of the “marvelous” (The New York Times Book Review) The Last American Aristocrat comes a captivating new biography of Teddy Roosevelt, exploring the life of America’s 26th president and his pivotal role in shaping the dawn of the American Century.

Theodore Roosevelt was one of America’s most fascinating presidents—a complex man both publicly and privately. In this sweeping biography, historian David S. Brown takes us on an electrifying journey through Theodore Roosevelt’s life—from his privileged New York upbringing to his transformative presidency that reshaped America’s role on the global stage.

In the Arena vividly brings Roosevelt to life as a man of striking contradictions: a rugged outdoorsman with a love for books, a war hero who earned a Nobel Peace Prize, and a larger-than-life figure whose energy seemed boundless. Through compelling storytelling and meticulous research, Brown explores the pivotal moments that forged Roosevelt’s indomitable spirit, from battling childhood asthma to witnessing the deaths of both his mother and his wife on the same day, to wrangling cattle in the West and preserving 150 million acres of national land.

Challenging traditional views, In the Arena offers a fresh perspective on Roosevelt’s groundbreaking political legacy, including his Square Deal policies that laid the groundwork for modern social welfare programs. It also unpacks his bold foreign policy, which expanded America’s global influence and set the stage for its rise as a world power. Brown argues that Roosevelt’s charisma and performative presidency helped bridge the old Victorian values with the new industrial age, capturing the attention of the middle-class and making him a leader that the people loved.

Drawing comparisons to works like David McCullough’s Mornings on Horseback, Brown’s narrative stands out for its rich detail and sharp insights. More than just an account of a presidency—it’s an exploration of a life lived on the edge of greatness and is a must-read for anyone who wants to better understand this critical period of American history.