One hundred of today’s most prominent literary and cultural icons talk about the books that hold a special place in their hearts—that made them who they are today.Leading authors, politicians, CEOs, actors, and other notables share the books that changed their life, why they love them, and their passion with readers everywhere. Regan Arts has teamed up with the literary charity 826National, which will receive a portion of the book’s proceeds to provide students age...

Prior to becoming a "melting pot" of many languages, the continents of North and South America were already home to a variety of Native American tribes, each with its own language. What's more, subsets of tribes often had their own dialects, sometimes making communication between two people nearly impossible, even if they lived near each other. This book discusses the major Native American languages used by tribes in various regions and how some of their words have been incorporated into t...

"[A] wide-ranging and nuanced group portrait of the Founding Fathers" by a Pulitzer Prize winner ( The New Yorker).In the early 1770s, the men who invented America were living quiet, provincial lives in the rustic backwaters of the New World, devoted to family and the private pursuit of wealth and happiness. None set out to become "revolutionary." But when events in Boston escalated, they found themselves thrust into a crisis that moved quickly from protest...

A fresh, provocative history that renews our understanding of France in the world through short, incisive essays ranging from prehistoric frescoes to Coco Chanel to the terrorist attacks of 2015.Bringing together an impressive group of established and up-and-coming historians, this bestselling history conceives of France not as a fixed, rooted entity, but instead as a place and an idea in flux, moving beyond all borders and frontiers, shaped by exchanges and mixtures. Presented in ...

"A delightful exposition of commonly-encountered statistical fallacies and paradoxes and why they matter." —Samuel H. Preston, coauthor of Demography: Measuring and Modeling Population ProcessesAn essential guide to the ways data can improve decision making.Statistics are everywhere: in news reports, at the doctor's office, and in every sort of forecast, from the stock market to the weather. Allen B. Downey knows well that people have an innate abil...

In this trailblazing work from the internet’s most empathetic math teacher, Ben Orlin unravels the secrets behind the world’s most confounding language.Math, it is said, is the "universal language.” But if a language brings people together, why does math make so many of us feel so alone? In Math for English Majors, bestselling author Ben Orlin (Math with Bad Drawings) offers fresh insights for the mathematically perplexed and mathematical masters ...

A magisterial journey through the epic life and transformative times of John Quincy AdamsIn this masterful biography, historian Randall B. Woods peels back the many layers of John Quincy’s long life, exposing a rich and complicated family saga and a political legacy that transformed the American Republic.Born the first son of John and Abigail Adams, he was pressured to follow in his father’s footsteps in both law and politics. His boyhood was spent amid the...

From the award-winning author, "the kind of collection that lodges in your brain like a malignant grain of an evil dream" (Laird Barron, author of The Imago Sequence).Winner of the This Is Horror AwardFinalist for the Shirley Jackson AwardFinalist for the Bram Stoker AwardThis is not your cookie-cutter horror collection. Stephen Graham Jones has taken nightmarish visions from his fevere...

"America is in a self-reinforcing spiral of decreasing trust, confidence, and capability. [Howard] shows us how to break out of it . . . short, clear, passionate." —Jonathan Haidt, New York Times-bestselling author of The Righteous MindSomething basic is missing in our culture. Americans know it. Nothing much works as it should. Simple daily choices seem impossible, or fraught with peril. In the workplace, we walk on eggshells. Big projects—say, mo...

The first book to study the four wives of Queen Victoria's sons as a family group—based partly on previously unpublished material from the Royal Archives.The first to join the family of the "Grandmama of Europe" was Alexandra, eldest daughter of the prince about to become King Christian IX of Denmark. Charming, ever sympathetic and widely considered one of the most attractive royal women of her time, she was prematurely deaf and suffered from a limp which was made f...

A New Yorker Best Book of the Year. "A beautifully written and well-documented account of how creativity gained the societal value it has today." —Vlad Glăveanu, author of CreativityCreativity is one of American society's signature values, but the idea that there is such a thing as "creativity"—and that it can be cultivated—is surprisingly recent, entering our everyday speech in the 1950s. As S...

"Beautiful and endlessly fascinating. . . . you'll never look at punctuation the same way again." —Michael Bierut, partner, PentagramIn this show-stopping guide with more than seventy-five uniquely designed two-color spreads—a rollicking linguistic ride in the spirit of Eats, Shoots & Leaves and Just My Type—award–winning graphic designer Michael Arndt explores the typographic origins, names, and shapes of both common and uncommon punctuation marks...