Convocation is almost here so we thought we would share with you an inspirational book. In Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most, Miroslav Volf, Matthew Croasmun, and Ryan McAnnally-Linz offer a guide to defining and creating a flourishing life. The book is based on their popular class at Yale. Religious thinkers and philosophers consulted include Jesus, Socrates, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the Dalai Lama, Ida B. Wells, Friedrich Nietzsche and others. The book provides readers with jumping-off points, road maps, and habits of reflection for determining the meaning in their lives and where things need to change.

In The Lincoln Miracle: Inside the Republican Convention That Changed History, Ed Achorn brings to life the most consequential presidential election in US history by chronicling Abraham Lincoln’s nomination to lead the Republican Party in the 1860 presidential election. Once you are finished, check out the rest of our Popular Reading collection. Titles range from Read More

In Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past, two historians, Kevin Kruze and Julian Zelizer, replace myths with research and reality. Based on a firm foundation of historical scholarship, they debunk the narratives that portray the New Deal and Great Society as failures, immigrants as hostile invaders and feminists Read More

Storytelling is a skill that everyone can develop. In The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman, Carmine Gallo “reveals the communication and leadership secrets of the Amazon founder, showing readers how to sharpen their writing, storytelling and communication skills to build the company or career of their dreams.” Once you are finished, Read More

In Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way, Kieran Setiya writes a deeply personal and thought-provoking book, not only drawing on ancient and modern philosophy, but fiction, history, memoir, film, comedy, social science, and stories from his own experience. He offers a map for navigating rough terrain, from personal trauma to Read More

When Ukrainian journalist Iuliia Mendel got the call she had been hired to work for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, she had no idea what was to come. Her time with the president is encapsulated in The Fight of Our Lives: My Time With Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s Battle for Democracy, and What It Means for the World. Zelenskyy Read More

Have you ever thought about who programmed the first modern computer? Kathy Kleiman would like to introduce us to the six women who programmed the ENIAC, the first modern computer, at the end of World War II, in her book, Proving Ground: The Untold Story of the Six Women Who Programmed the World’s First Modern Read More

Ever wonder what happened before the Big Bang? Laura Mersini-Houghton, an expert on the multiverse and the origins of the universe offers a new account of the events before the Big Bang in Before the Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe and What Lies Beyond. Check out our other scientific works in our Popular Read More

Ever wonder what it’s like to be wealthy? Laura Thompson knows. Her new book, Heiresses: The Lives of the Million Dollar Babies, uncovers the lives of such heiresses as Consuelo Vanderbilt, the original American “Dollar Heiress,” Barbara Hutton, the Woolworth heiress and Patty Hearst, the notorious heiress to a newspaper fortune turned terrorist. Check out Read More

If you have seen the Netflix series, The Good Place, you may appreciate the ethical dilemmas that the main characters face while reaching, well, the good place. Michael Schur, creator of The Good Place and the cocreator of Parks and Recreation, gives us a funny guide to living an ethical life in How to Be Read More