Walter’s novel centers on Rhys Kinnick, a reclusive environmental journalist forced back into society by family crisis. Rhys, who has spent years in self-imposed exile wrestling with regret, trauma, and intellectual separation, finds his world upended when his daughter, Bethany, sends her children to stay with him, fleeing the dangers of their stepfather's ties to a Christian Nationalist militia. I liked how Walter's characters are deeply drawn and real: Rhys is neither hero nor antihero but...

This, for me, was an example of how the mind can completely ruin your life if you let it.  This memoir is raw. Its an exploration of chronic illness, grief, and the unexpected salvation found in a humble pigeon. Stricken by a mysterious and debilitating illness (eventually diagnosed as ME/CFS) that left him constantly isolated and tormented by unrelenting headaches, Buckbee’s former life as an adventurous athlete and teacher dissolved. The book begins at his lowest point, grieving the loss of...

Mary Roach's Replaceable You delivers her blend of meticulous research, dark humor, and relentless curiosity that her fans have come to love, making the quest to repair and replace human body parts fascinating. As usual, she humanizes highly technical and often nauseous subjects, covering everything from the history of prosthetic limbs and early skin grafts to the cutting-edge science of 3D-printed organs and xenotransplantation (pig-to-human parts). Roach takes readers into operating rooms,...