New Winter Releases for Lifelong Learners to Dive Into

what better time to learn something new?

When the cold forces everyone inside, nonfiction readers thrive. Winter is the perfect time to set aside some time and learn something new. What's better than getting cozy under a warm blanket and getting lost in the latest advancements in science, or diving deep into some recently uncovered history?

Or perhaps you'd prefer to look inward and reflect on yourself with a good self-improvement book? Whatever slice of nonfiction is your favorite, these new winter releases are sure to teach you something new.

february books

After the North Pole: A Story of Survival, Mythmaking, and Melting Ice

by Erling Kagge - Kari Dickson

The Norwegian explorer, philosopher and acclaimed writer tells of his historic 58-day journey to the North Pole on skis in this provocative memoir that is a profound meditation on nature and the history of explorers' obsession.

The North Pole looms large in our collective psyche--the ultimate Otherland in a world mapped and traversed. It is the center of our planet's rotation, one of the places that is most vulnerable in an epoch of global climate change. Its sub-zero temperatures and strange year of one sunset and one sunrise make it an eerie, utterly disorienting place that challenges human endurance and understanding.

Harriet Tubman: Military Scout and Tenacious Visionary: From Her Roots in Ghana to Her Legacy on the Eastern Shore

by Jean Marie Wiesen - Rita Daniels - Queen Mother Dr Delois Blakely

A fresh portrait of this iconic American--and the first to involve a Tubman family member since Harriet herself was interviewed in 1886.

For all Harriet Tubman's accomplishments and the myriad books written about her, many gaps, errors, and misconceptions of her legendary life persist. One such fallacy is that Sarah H. (Hopkins) Bradford is to blame for omitted information in Harriet Tubman: The Moses of Her People and that she ended her second book too soon. But according to the Tubman family, it was Harriet's physical disability, the result of a head injury she incurred as a child, that left her unable to complete the necessary lengthy interview process with Sarah and properly flesh out the work.

Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live

by Susan Morrison

The definitive biography of Lorne Michaels, the man behind America's most beloved comedy show

Over the fifty years that Lorne Michaels has been at the helm of Saturday Night Live, he has become a revered and inimitable presence in the entertainment world. He's a tastemaker, a mogul, a withholding father figure, a genius spotter of talent, a shrewd businessman, a name-dropper, a raconteur, the inspiration for Dr. Evil, the winner of more than a hundred Emmys--and, essentially, a mystery. Generations of writers and performers have spent their lives trying to figure him out, by turns demonizing and lionizing him. He's "Obi-Wan Kenobi" (Tracy Morgan), the "great and powerful Oz" (Kate McKinnon), "some kind of very distant, strange comedy god" (Bob Odenkirk).

Lorne will introduce you to him, in full, for the first time. With unprecedented access to Michaels and the entire SNL apparatus, Susan Morrison takes readers behind the curtain for the lively, up-and-down, definitive story of how Michaels created and maintained the institution that changed comedy forever.

Fearless and Free: A Memoir

by Josephine Baker - Ijeoma Oluo - Anam Zafar - Sophie Lewis

**A February LibraryReads Notable Nonfiction Bonus Pick**

After stealing the spotlight as a teenaged Broadway performer during the height of the Harlem Renaissance, Josephine then took Paris by storm, dazzling audiences across the Roaring Twenties. In her famous banana skirt, she enraptured royalty and countless fans--Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso among them. She strolled the streets of Paris with her pet cheetah wearing a diamond collar. With her signature flapper bob and enthralling dance moves, she was one of the most recognizable women in the world.

When World War II broke out, Josephine became a decorated spy for the French Résistance.

Who I Always Was: A Memoir

by Theresa Okokon

For fans of Aftershocks and How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, a gripping and deeply honest memoir in essays, this debut collection sets out to answer the universal question of: Why am I like this?

When Theresa Okokon was nine, her father traveled to his hometown in Nigeria to attend his mother's funeral...and never returned. His mysterious death shattered Theresa as her family's world unraveled. Now a storyteller and television cohost, Okokon sets out to explore the ripple effects of that profound loss and the way heartache shapes our sense of self and of the world--for the rest of our lives.

Memorial Days: A Memoir

by Geraldine Brooks

A heartrending and beautiful memoir of sudden loss and a journey towards peace, from the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Horse

Many cultural and religious traditions expect those who are grieving to step away from the world. In contemporary life, we are more often met with red tape and to-do lists. This is exactly what happened to Geraldine Brooks when her partner of more than three decades, Tony Horwitz - just sixty years old and, to her knowledge, vigorous and healthy - collapsed and died on a Washington, D. C. sidewalk.

After spending their early years together in conflict zones as foreign correspondents, Geraldine and Tony settled down to raise two boys on Martha's Vineyard.

Sweet Nothings: Confessions of a Candy Lover

by Sarah Perry

A fun, sophisticated illustrated collection of essays that catalogs the simple and not so simple pleasures of the eclectic world of candy from the award-winning author of After the Eclipse. With illustrations by Forsyth Harmon.

A taxonomy of sweetness, a rhapsody of artificial flavors, and a multi-faceted theory of pleasure, Sweet Nothings is made up of one hundred illustrated micro essays organized by candy color, from the red of Pop Rocks to the purple Jelly Bonbon in the Whitman's Sampler. Each entry is a meditation on taste and texture, a memory unlocked. Everyone's favorites--and least favorites--are carefully considered, including Snickers and Trader Joe's Peanut Butter Cups, as well as the beloved Good n' Plenty and Werther's Originals.

january books

Go Higher: Five Practices for Purpose, Success, and Inner Peace

by Big Sean Big Sean - Jay Shetty

Multi-platinum artist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, Big Sean shares his five key practices for- inner work and self-acceptance in this interactive guidebook on maintaining daily mental wellness.

Sean Anderson, better known as Big Sean, has reached incredible levels of success in his music career. And while, from the outside, his life looks like a collection of enviable achievements, in truth, he has experienced the highest highs and the lowest lows that come with anxiety and depression.

At the age of eighteen, Sean decided to forgo college to sign with Kanye West's record label. Even though he saw his wildest dreams coming true, almost like a rap fairytale, he found himself contemplating taking his own life. It was in this, his darkest moments, that he started applying the spiritual practices he'd witnessed his mother embrace throughout his childhood from books like The Four Agreements, The Secret, and many more.

Hope: The Autobiography

by Pope Francis Pope Francis - Jorge Mario Bergoglio - Carlo Musso - Richard Dixon

Pope Francis originally intended this exceptional book to appear only after his death, but the needs of our times and the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope have moved him to make this precious legacy available now.

Hope is the first autobiography in history ever to be published by a Pope. Written over six years, this complete autobiography starts in the early years of the twentieth century, with Pope Francis's Italian roots and his ancestors' courageous migration to Latin America, continuing through his childhood, the enthusiasms and preoccupations of his youth, his vocation, adult life, and the whole of his papacy up to the present day.

Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman

by Brooke Shields - Rachel Bertsche

From generational icon Brooke Shields comes an intimate and empowering exploration of aging that flips the script on the idea of what it means for a woman to grow older

Brooke Shields has spent a lifetime in the public eye. Growing up as a child actor and model, her every feature was scrutinized, her every decision judged. Today Brooke faces a different kind of scrutiny: that of being a "woman of a certain age."

And yet, for Brooke, the passage of time has brought freedom. At fifty-nine, she feels more comfortable in her skin, more empowered and confident than she did decades ago in those famous Calvin Kleins. Now, in Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old, she's changing the narrative about women and aging.

The JFK Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Kennedy--And Why It Failed

by Brad Meltzer - Josh Mensch

From the New York Times bestselling authors of The Nazi Conspiracy and The Lincoln Conspiracy comes a true, little-known story about the first assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy, right before his inauguration.

Kennedy, the thirty-fifth president of the United States, is often ranked among Americans' most well-liked presidents. Yet what most Americans don't know is that JFK's historic presidency almost ended before it began--at the hands of a disgruntled sociopathic loner armed with dynamite.

Three Wild Dogs (and the Truth): A Memoir

by Markus Zusak

In this poignant, funny, and disarmingly honest memoir, one of the world's most beloved storytellers, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Book Thief, tells of his family's adoption of three troublesome rescue dogs--a charming and courageous love story about making even the most incorrigible of animals family.

There's a madman dog beside me, and the hounds of memory ahead of us . . . It's love and beasts and wild mistakes, and regret, but never to change things.

What happens when the Zusak family opens their home to three big, wild, street-hardened dogs--Reuben, more wolf than hound; Archer, blond, beautiful, destructive; and the rancorously smiling Frosty, who walks like a rolling thunderstorm?

King: A Life (Young Adult Edition)

by Jonathan Eig - Yohuru Williams - Michael G Long

Hailed as "the most compelling account of [Martin Luther] King's life in a generation" by the Washington Post, the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller is now adapted for young adults in this new standard biography of the most famous civil rights activist in American History.

Often regarded as more of a myth and legend than man, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was many things throughout his storied life: student, activist, preacher, dreamer, father, husband. From his Atlanta childhood centered in the historically Black neighborhood of Sweet Auburn to his precipitous rise as a civil rights leader on the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Montgomery, Dr. King would go on to become one of the most recognizable, influential, and controversial persons of the twentieth century.

Accolades and Praise for King: A Life: Pulitzer Prize Winner

December New Releases

Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman

by Patrick Hutchison

A memoir of the author's journey from an office job to restoring a cabin in the Pacific Northwest, based on his wildly popular Outside Magazine piece.

Wit's End isn't just a state of mind. It's the name of a gravel road, the address of a run-down off-the-grid cabin, 120 shabby square feet of fixer-upper Patrick Hutchison purchased on a whim in the mossy woods of the Cascade Mountains in Washington state.

Giant Love: Edna Ferber, Her Best-Selling Novel of Texas, and the Making of a Classic American Film

by Julie Gilbert

A book that explores the great American novelist and playwright Edna Ferber, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Ficton, whose work was made into many Academy Award-winning movies; the writing of her controversial, international best-selling novel about Texas, and the making of George Stevens' Academy Award winning epic film of the same name, Giant.

The stupendous publication of Edna Ferber's Giant in 1952 set off a storm of protest over the novel's portrayal of Texas manners, money and mores with oil-rich Texans threatening to shoot, lynch or ban Ferber from ever entering the state again.

In Giant Love, Julie Gilbert writes of the internationally best-selling Ferber, one of the most widely read writers in the first half of the 20th Century - her evolution from mid-west maverick girl-reporter to Pulitzer Prize winning, beloved American novelist, from her want-to-be actress days to becoming Broadway's acclaimed prize-winning playwright whose collaborators - George S. Kauffman and Moss Hart, among them, were, along with Ferber, herself, the most successful playwrights of their time.

Also Here

by Brooke Randel

As a young girl Brooke Randel knew little about the Holocaust-just that it was a catastrophe in which millions were murdered, and that her grandma Golda Indig barely escaped that fate. But her Bubbie never spoke about what happened, and the two spent most of their time together making pleasant memories: baking crescent roll cookies, playing gin rummy, and watching Baywatch. Until an unexpected phone call when Golda said, out of the blue: "You should write about my life. What happened in the war."

What results is a fascinating memoir--about one woman's harrowing survival, and another's struggle to excavate the story from under the sands of time, and her grandma's illiteracy. Chronicling the darkness of the past and the difficult (and occasionally comic) challenges of bringing it to life in a sunny Florida condo, this book offers an insightful look into the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren,
and the impossible pull of both silence and remembrance.

My Time to Stand: A Memoir

by Gypsy-Rose Blanchard - Melissa Moore - Michele Matrisciani

A victim of her mother's Munchausen by proxy and child abuse survivor, Gypsy-Rose Blanchard's unique and controversial case made headlines across the world.

Now, she's finally free to start living her life on her terms--and to tell her own story as only she can.

Forced to use a wheelchair in public and endure a lifetime of faux illness, fraud, and exploitation, Gypsy was subjected not only to her mother's medical, physical, and emotional abuse, but deprived of childhood milestones. Prevented from attending school or socializing, Gypsy's formative years were defined by pain and isolation.

After serving 8 years in prison for the role she played in her mother Dee Dee's murder, Gypsy is embracing her fresh start--and reminding all of us that it's never too late.

The Last Tsar: The Abdication of Nicholas II and the Fall of the Romanovs

by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa

"Elegantly written and magisterially researched" (Robert Service, author of A History of Modern Russia), the definitive story behind the self-destruction of the autocratic Romanov dynasty, by the world's foremost expert

When Tsar Nicholas II fell from power in 1917, Imperial Russia faced a series of overlapping crises, from war to social unrest. Though Nicholas's life is often described as tragic, it was not fate that doomed the Romanovs--it was poor leadership and a blinkered faith in autocracy.

The Tiger Slam: The Inside Story of the Greatest Golf Ever Played (Tiger Woods in 2000-2001)

by Kevin Cook

Twenty-five years ago, Tiger Woods achieved the greatest feat in golf history: the "Tiger Slam." Now, for the first time, the award-winning author of Tommy's Honor delivers a riveting account of Tiger at his most brilliant--dominating the game in a way we will never see again.

In 1997, as every schoolchild knows, Tiger Woods won the Masters by the largest margin in history, becoming the first Black player to win a major championship. Four years later, the world watches with breathless anticipation as he returns to Augusta National, aiming for a milestone no other golfer has ever achieved: four professional Grand Slam triumphs in a row.

Postmortem: What Survives the John Wayne Gacy Murders

by Courtney Lund O'Neil

In the vein of the bestselling I'll Be Gone in the Dark, this compelling work of true crime explores the aftershocks of "Killer Clown" John Wayne Gacy's crimes with a uniquely intimate slant, as the daughter of a key witness probes her mother's personal experiences and the legacy of murder within a family, a community, and the American psyche.

On a December night in 1978, Courtney Lund O'Neil's mother, teenaged Kim Byers, saw her friend Rob Piest alive for the last time. At the end of his shift at the pharmacy where they both worked, fifteen-year-old Rob went outside to speak to a contractor named John Wayne Gacy about a possible job.

That night Rob became Gacy's final victim; his body was later found in the Des Plaines River. Kim's testimony, along with a receipt belonging to her found in Gacy's house, proving that Rob had been there, would be pivotal in convicting the serial killer who assaulted and killed over thirty young men and boys.

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