Adult

In BRAIN STORM, Dr. Shelley Kolton tells the story of a childhood marked by unimaginable abuse and the distinct parts her brain created to hold those memories and protect her. She balanced the demands of medicine, marriage and family as new parts --- each one requiring her attention and care --- emerged while grueling therapy sessions consumed her days and nights. After 12 torturous years, she finally accepted that the alters colliding inside her brain had, in truth, saved her. Kolton, often using emails and text messages written by her alters, mixed with her own journal entries, paints an honest, intimate and at times humorous portrait of a woman living with dissociative identity disorder (DID), managing the inhabitants of her own creation.

Set on the eve of the financial crash of 2008, BARCELONA DREAMING is narrated, in turn, by an English woman who runs a gift shop, an alcoholic jazz pianist, and a translator tormented by unrequited love, all of whose lives will be changed forever. Underpinning the novel, and casting a long shadow, is a crime committed against a young Moroccan immigrant.

During the Roaring Twenties, two of the most revered and influential men in American business proposed to transform one of the country’s poorest regions into a dream technological metropolis. Henry Ford and Thomas Edison’s “Detroit of the South” would be 10 times the size of Manhattan, powered by renewable energy and free of air pollution. And it would reshape American society, introducing mass commuting by car, use a new kind of currency called “energy dollars,” and have the added benefit (from Ford and Edison's view) of crippling the growth of socialism. The whole audacious scheme almost came off. But while some saw it as a way to conjure the future and reinvent the South, others saw it as one of the biggest land swindles of all time. They were all true.

When NBA player Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 in March 2020, the league shut down immediately. As the pandemic raged, it looked as if it might be the first year in league history with no champion. But four months later, after meticulous planning, 22 teams resumed play in a "bub­ble" at Disney World --- a restricted, single-site locale cut off from the outside world. Due to health concerns, the league invited only a handful of reporters, who were required to sacrifice medical privacy, live in a hotel room for more than three months, and submit to daily coronavirus test­ing in hopes of keeping the bubble from bursting. Ben Golliver, the national NBA writer for the The Washington Post, was one of those allowed access. BUBBLEBALL is his account of the season and life inside.

In a world in which the word masculinity now often goes hand in hand with toxic, comedian, actor and father Michael Ian Black offers up a way forward for boys, men and anyone who loves them. Part memoir, part advice book, and written as a heartfelt letter to his college-bound son, A BETTER MAN reveals Black’s own complicated relationship with his father, explores the damage and rising violence caused by the expectations placed on boys to “man up,” and searches for the best way to help young men be part of the solution, not the problem. “If we cannot allow ourselves vulnerability,” he writes, “how are we supposed to experience wonder, fear, tenderness?”

THE HERO CODE is Admiral William H. McRaven's ringing tribute to the real, everyday heroes he's met over the years, from battlefields to hospitals to college campuses, who are doing their part to save the world. When Bill McRaven was a young boy growing up in Texas, he dreamed of being a superhero. He longed to put on a cape and use his superpowers to save the earth from destruction. But as he grew older and traveled the world, he found real heroes everywhere he went --- and none of them had superpowers. None of them wore capes or cowls. But they all possessed qualities that gave them the power to help others, to make a difference, to save the world: courage, both physical and moral; humility; a willingness to sacrifice; and a deep sense of integrity.

When Sean Flynn’s neighbor in North Carolina texted “Any chance you guys want a peacock? No kidding!” he stared bewilderedly at his phone. He had never considered if he wanted a peacock. But as an award-winning magazine writer, this kind of mystery intrigued him. So he, his wife and their two young sons became the owners of not one but three charming yet fickle birds: Carl, Ethel and Mr. Pickle. In WHY PEACOCKS?, Flynn chronicles his hilarious and heartwarming first year as a peacock owner, from struggling to build a pen to assisting the local bird doctor in surgery to triumphantly watching a peahen lay her first egg.

No one expected a 15-year-old Black kid with dreadlocks who cared more about his DJ business than his homework to become the youngest-ever White House fellow, run 50 marathons and cofound a multibillion-dollar company. But Robert Reffkin, raised by an Israeli immigrant single mother after his father abandoned him and his maternal grandparents disowned him, has always defied the odds. As CEO of Compass, America’s largest independent real estate brokerage, Reffkin distills the wisdom he’s gathered from his mother and his 100+ mentors throughout his journey. Each chapter offers a part of his life story and an actionable lesson, such as: “Love your customers more than your ideas.” “Dream out your future on paper --- then tear the paper up.” And “Adapt like water and you’ll be unstoppable.”

In TALKING TO GOATs, award-winning broadcaster Jim Gray looks back at his four decades of sports reporting from the unparalleled perspective of one of the world’s most respected and skilled interviewers. The book features numerous world-class athletes, including Muhammad Ali, Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Floyd Mayweather, Michael Phelps, Mike Tyson and Tiger Woods, and world leaders George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Mikhail Gorbachev and many more. On each page, Jim gives the reader a coveted all-access pass as he reviews the best interviews, the best athletes and the best games in modern sports history. It’s like a personal introduction to the characters and careers of these heroes and villains we’ve known since childhood.