Non-Fiction

Michio Kaku, renowned theoretical physicist and #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Future of the Mind and The Future of Humanity, tells the story of the greatest quest in all of science. INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER When Newton discovered the law of gravity, he unified the rules governing the heavens and the Earth. Since then, physicists have been placing new forces into ever-grander theories. But perhaps the ultimate challenge is achieving a monumental synthesis of the two remaining theories—relativity and the quantum theory. This would be the crowning achievement ...

How can garbage turn into gold? What does recycling have to do with globalization? Where does all that stuff we throw away go, anyway? When you drop your Diet Coke can or yesterday’s newspaper in the recycling bin, where does it go? Probably halfway around the world, to people and places that clean up what you don’t want and turn it into something you can’t wait to buy. In Junkyard Planet, Adam Minter-veteran journalist and son of an American junkyard owner-travels deeply into a vast, often ...

The author of the best-selling Your Inner Fish gives us a lively and accessible account of the great transformations in the history of life on Earth–a new view of the evolution of human and animal life that explains how the incredible diversity of life on our planet came to be. Over billions of years, ancient fish evolved to walk on land, reptiles transformed into birds that fly, and apelike primates evolved into humans that walk on two legs, talk, and write. For more than a century, paleontologists ...

The author of The Professor and the Madman and The Perfectionists explores the notion of property—our proprietary relationship with the land—through human history, how it has shaped us and what it will mean for our future. Land—whether meadow or mountainside, desert or peat bog, parkland or pasture, suburb or city—is central to our existence. It quite literally underlies and underpins everything. Employing the keen intellect, insatiable curiosity, and narrative verve that are the foundations of his previous bestselling works, Simon Winchester examines what we human beings are doing—and have ...

Learn 3 essential elements to write a successful first book. Overcome fears and obstacles in the way of starting and finishing a book. Find clarity, gain confidence, and make connections. Each chapter begins with an inspiring quote and ends with an action item. With references and checklists, readers will be guided to write a fabulous first book!

From the acclaimed author of Death in the Air (“Not since Devil in the White City has a book told such a harrowing tale”–Douglas Preston) comes the riveting story of the birth of criminal investigation in the twentieth century. Berkeley, California, 1933. In a lab filled with curiosities–beakers, microscopes, Bunsen burners, and hundreds upon hundreds of books–sat an investigator who would go on to crack at least two thousand cases in his forty-year career. Known as the “American Sherlock Holmes,” Edward Oscar Heinrich was one of America’s greatest–and first–forensic ...

From beloved, award-winning poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil comes a debut work of nonfiction—a collection of essays about the natural world, and the way its inhabitants can teach, support, and inspire us. As a child, Nezhukumatathil called many places home: the grounds of a Kansas mental institution, where her Filipina mother was a doctor; the open skies and tall mountains of Arizona, where she hiked with her Indian father; and the chillier climes of western New York and Ohio. But no matter where she was transplanted—no matter ...

Ever wonder what kind of impression you’re making? Good modern manners can help you make a splash, elevate your self-esteem, enhance your personal brand, and lead to what we’re all looking for—greater success in every part of our lives. Nita Patel’s debut book, Boss Vibes is authority, class, and edge all in one unique package. Her witty, fresh voice and clever, take-no-prisoners observations make it fun to stop and think about how we’re really coming across to the world and where we want to go ...

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2020 NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY  THE WASHINGTON POST * THE ECONOMIST  NEW SCIENTIST * PUBLISHERS WEEKLY * THE GUARDIAN “A thrilling tour of potential cosmic doomsdays….Mack’s infectious enthusiasm for communicating the finer points of cosmological doom elevates The End of Everything over any other book on the topic.” —The Wall Street Journal “I found it helpful—not reassuring, certainly, but mind-expanding—to be reminded of our place in a vast cosmos.” —James Gleick, The New York Times Book Review From one of ...

The co-host of the popular NPR podcast Planet Money provides a well-researched, entertaining, somewhat irreverent look at how money is a made-up thing that has evolved over time to suit humanity’s changing needs. Money only works because we all agree to believe in it. In Money, Jacob Goldstein shows how money is a useful fiction that has shaped societies for thousands of years, from the rise of coins in ancient Greece to the first stock market in Amsterdam to the emergence of shadow banking in the 21st ...

Imagining the future has been a significant part of the mass culture and a way for our collective consciousness to process the world around us and our expectations of what’s to come. Science fiction was one of the first genres to emerge as soon as the moving image was made possible a little more than a hundred years ago. Over the XX century, as we have seen technology advancing faster than ever, sci-fi has always been exceptional at pushing the boundaries of what is possible, ...

In this fascinating book from the New York Times bestselling author of The Horse, Wendy Williams explores the lives of one of the world’s most resilient creatures—the butterfly—shedding light on the role that they play in our ecosystem and in our human lives. Butterflies are one of the world’s most beloved insects. From butterfly gardens to zoo exhibitions, they are one of the few insects we’ve encouraged to infiltrate our lives. Yet, what has drawn us to these creatures in the first place? And what are their lives ...

The book-length answer to anyone who ever put their hand up in math class and asked, “When am I ever going to use this in the real world?” “Fun, informative, and relentlessly entertaining, Humble Pi is a charming and very readable guide to some of humanity’s all-time greatest miscalculations—that also gives you permission to feel a little better about some of your own mistakes.” —Ryan North, author of How to Invent Everything Our whole world is built on math, from the code running a website to the equations ...