A vivid look at 10 astonishing people who are maintaining some of the world's oldest and rarest cultural traditions.

Eliot Stein has traveled the globe in search of remarkable people who are preserving some of our most extraordinary cultural rites. In Custodians of Wonder: Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions, and the Last People Keeping Them Alive, Stein introduces readers to a man saving the secret ingredient in Japan's 700-year-old original soy sauce recipe. In Italy, he learns how to make the world's rarest pasta from one of the only women alive who knows how to make it. And in India, he discovers a family rumored to make a mysterious metal mirror believed to reveal your truest self. From shadowing Scandinavia's last night watchman to meeting a 27th-generation West African griot to tracking down Cuba's last official cigar factory “readers” more than a century after they spearheaded the fight for Cuban independence, Stein uncovers an almost lost world.

Climbing through Peru’s southern highlands, he encounters the last Inca bridge master who rebuilds a grass-woven bridge every year from the fabled Inca Road System. He befriends a British beekeeper who maintains a touching custom of "telling the bees" important news of the day. And he crunches through a German forest to find the official mailman of the only tree in the world with its own address – to which countless people from across the world have written in hopes of finding love. These are just some of the last custodians preserving age-old rites on the brink of disappearance against all odds. Let Eliot Stein introduce you to all of them.

"A manageable plan, offering profound long-term benefits for both mind and body--it's a must-read for anyone serious about wellness. --Daniel G. Amen, MD, author of Change Your Brain Every Day

The Sleep Doctor shows you how to transform your health by balancing your basics--sleep, hydration, and breathing are the keys to renewed energy, weight loss, lower stress, and improved cognition.

Good health doesn't have to be complicated. Sleeping, hydrating, and breathing are fundamental to life, and making simple adjustments to the way we perform these basic functions can have an extraordinary impact on our health and wellbeing.

In Sleep Drink Breathe, bestselling author Dr. Michael Breus shares the most recent science on these biobehaviors and inspiring patient stories that are the basis for his innovative strategy for optimizing your sleep, hydration, and breathing habits.

Dr. Breus's revolutionary three-week Sleep-Drink-Breathe regimen is so straightforward, you won't be intimidated by it and you will stick with it. After just a few days, you'll feel better physically, mentally, and emotionally, and will be on the road to whole-body balance that lasts.

Family secrets come to light as a young woman fights to save herself, and others, in a Nazi-run baby factory—a real-life Handmaid's Tale—during World War II.

In a sleepy German village, Allina Strauss’s life seems idyllic: she works at her uncle’s bookshop, makes strudel with her aunt, and spends weekends with her friends and fiancé. But it's 1939, Adolf Hitler is Chancellor, and Allina’s family hides a terrifying secret—her birth mother was Jewish, making her a Mischling. 

One fateful night after losing everyone she loves, Allina is forced into service as a nurse at a state-run baby factory called Hochland Home. There, she becomes both witness and participant to the horrors of Heinrich Himmler’s ruthless eugenics program. 

The Sunflower House is a meticulously-researched debut historical novel from Adriana Allegri that uncovers the notorious Lebensborn Program of Nazi Germany. Women of “pure” blood stayed in Lebensborn homes for the sole purpose of perpetuating the Aryan population, giving birth to thousands of babies who were adopted out to “good” Nazi families. Allina must keep her Jewish identity a secret in order to survive, but when she discovers the neglect occurring within the home, she’s determined not only to save herself, but also the children in her care. 

A tale of one woman’s determination to resist and survive, The Sunflower House is also a love story. When Allina meets Karl, a high-ranking SS officer with secrets of his own, the two must decide how much they are willing to share with each other—and how much they can stand to risk as they join forces to save as many children as they can. The threads of this poignant and heartrending novel weave a tale of loss and love, friendship and betrayal, and the secrets we bury in order to save ourselves.

Discover the monsters, witches, and other ghoulish creatures that make up lesser known Christmas folklore in this gleefully creepy guide-perfect for horror fans who love the wintry holidays.

When you think about Christmas, you likely picture mangers, glowing fireplaces, sweet carolers, and snow-blanketed hills. But behind all this bright magic, there's something much darker lurking in the shadows. In The Dead of Winter, Cambridge-trained historian Sarah Clegg delves deep into the folklore of the Christmas season in Europe, detailing the way its terrifying and often debaucherous past continues to haunt and entertain us now in the twenty-first century.

Perfect for the growing mainstream audience obsessed with horror and monsters, this guide makes the perfect gift, beautifully packaged in a stocking-stuffer-friendly trim size.

Be prepared for any disaster and put your mind at ease with this step-by-step plan for surviving natural disasters, technological and grid failures, attacks, hazards, and more including sheltering in place or evacuating as conditions dictate.

Are you prepared for a widespread electrical grid failure? What would you do if there was a sudden tornado warning? Will you be ready when disaster strikes?

In Disaster Survival 101, survival expert and bestselling author Creek Stewart cuts through the panic and fear emergency situations can create so you can ensure all safety measures are in place should you ever need them.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to understand disaster preparedness and develop a prepared mindset that will help you make important, well-informed decisions in an emergency. With detailed chapters on food storage, water sourcing, heating, power generation, first aid, and an overview of self-sufficient living so you’ll be fully prepared to shelter in place at your home. And with evacuation chapters that explain what to take, where to go, and how to get there safely you’ll be well prepared with a plan for any kind of emergency.

You’ll also find step-by-step plans that help you take action and survive when caught in the midst of more than twenty likely emergency scenarios including natural disasters, physical safety threats, technology and grid failures; and other emergencies including pandemics and nuclear, biological, and chemical threats. Organized by scenario, each entry gives an overview of the situation, a checklist of immediate actions to take to ensure safety, and checklists to assess whether to shelter-in-place or evacuate and how to successfully execute either decision.

When every moment and decision counts, you will be ready with Disaster Survival 101.

The "gripping and astonishing story" (Douglas Preston) of the Cinta Larga, a tribe that had no contact with the West until the 1960s and came to run an illegal diamond mine in the Amazon.

Growing up in a remote corner of the world's largest rainforest, Pio, Maria, and Oita learned to hunt wild pigs and tapirs, and gathered Brazil nuts and açaí berries from centuries-old trees. The first highway pierced through in 1960. Ranchers, loggers, and prospectors invaded, and the kids lost their families to terrible new weapons and diseases. Pushed by the government to assimilate, they struggled to figure out their new, capitalist reality, discovering its wonders--cars, refrigerators, TV sets, phones--as well as a way to acquire them: by selling the natural riches of their own forest home. They had to partner with the white men who'd hunted them, but their wealth grew legendary, the envy of the nation--until decades of suppressed trauma erupted into a massacre, bloody retribution that made headlines across the globe.

Based on six years of immersive reporting and research, When We Sold God's Eye tells a unique kind of adventure story, one that begins with a river journey by Theodore Roosevelt and ends with smugglers from New York City's Diamond District. It's a story of survival against all odds; of the temptations of wealth and the dream of prosperity; of an ecosystem threatened by our hunger for resources; of genocide and revenge. It's a tragedy as old as the first European encounters with Indigenous people, playing out in the present day. But most of all, it's the moving saga of a few audacious individuals--Pio, Maria, Oita, and their friends--and their attempts to adapt and even thrive in the most unlikely circumstances.

Want to fill your home with lush greenery? You can do it without breaking the bank or your back. Cara Brezina shares her love of plants and offers advice on how to choose, nurture, and not kill the houseplants in your life--all without spending a bunch of money. With the help of clear illustrations and straightforward instructions, learn to find free or affordable plants and herbs; propagate from cuttings, roots, and your dinner scraps; create dazzling displays, cactus gardens, and terrariums on a budget; find sustainable planting materials; and fertilize your plants without spending big. Discover the joy of experimentation and seeing what you can make grow. No matter where you live, how broke you are, or how hectic your life is, you can turn your home into a green oasis and make lasting friends with your houseplants.

DECEMBER 2024 INDIE NEXT PICK!
LIBRARYREADS TOP PICK FOR DECEMBER!

Rosie writes romance novels and listens to Taylor Swift on loop. Aiden is a literary fiction writer who doesn't believe in happy endings. They're about to write a book together—what could go wrong?

The Hating Game meets Beach Read in this sexy and hilarious enemies-to-lovers romance from a debut Peruvian-Tennessean voice.

Rosie, an idealistic and passionate Peruvian American, leaves her Tennessee hometown to pursue her dream of making it in New York as a writer. But her plan is derailed when she ends up in class with her archnemesis and ex-crush, Aiden Huntington—an obnoxious, surly, and gorgeous literary fiction writer who doesn’t have much patience for the romance genre or for Rosie.

Rosie and Aiden regularly go to verbal battle in workshop until their professor reaches her breaking point. She allows them to stay in her class on one condition: they must cowrite a novel that blends their genres. 

The reluctant writing duo can’t help but put pieces of themselves into their accidentally steamy novel, and their manuscript-in-progress provides an outlet for them to confess their feelings—and explore their attraction toward each other.

When Rosie and Aiden find themselves competing against each other for a potentially career-changing opportunity, the flames of old rivalry reignite, and their once-in-a-lifetime love story is once again at risk of being shelved—unless they can find a way to end the book on their own terms.

"A suspenseful dark comedy about a struggling writer who wakes up to find his date from the night before dead-and must now decide how far he's willing to go to spin the event into his next big book. A few years ago, David Alvarez had it all: a six-figure book deal, a loving boyfriend, and an exciting writing career. His debut novel was a resounding success, which made the publication of his second book-a total flop-all the more devastating. Now, David is single, lonely, and desperately trying to come up with the next great idea for his third manuscript, one that will redeem him in the eyes of readers, reviewers, the entire publishing world...and maybe even his ex-boyfriend. The issue is, good ideas are hard to come by, and the mounting pressure of a near-empty bank account isn't helping. But when David connects with a sexy stranger on a dating app, he figures a wild night out in New York City may be just what he needs to get his creative juices flowing. Lucky for him, his date turns out to be handsome, confident, and charming-everything David's been looking for, really-not to mention the perfect distraction from yet another evening staring at a blank screen. After one of the best nights of his life, David wakes up hungover but giddy-only to find prince charming dead next to him in bed. Horrified, completely confused, and suddenly faced with the implausible-but-somehow-plausible idea that he may have actually killed his date, David calls the only person he can trust in a moment of crisis: his quirky literary agent, Stacey. Together, David and Stacey must untangle the events of the previous night, cover their tracks, and spin the entire misadventure into David's career-defining novel-if only they can figure out what to do with the body first"--

"[A] rich and lyrical tale of desperation and redemption, set during an outbreak of a plague that causes amnesia.... Throughout, Sainz Borgo applies stark poetry to the terrifying setting, where 'moans and cries attributed to ghosts sometimes masked executions and beatings.' It's a stunner." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Winner of the 2023 Jan Michalski Prize, a searing novel of loss and resilience that illuminates the often-overlooked human dimension of the migrant crisis, re-imagining the border as a dreamlike purgatory bridging life and death.

In an unnamed Latin American country, a mysterious plague quickly spreads, erasing the memory of anyone infected. Angustias Romero flees with her family, but their flight is tragically cut short when she loses both her children. Consumed by grief, she finds herself within the hallucinatory expanse of Mezquite--a town corrupted by greed and populated by storytellers, refugees, and violent, predatory gangs.

Here, Angustias is finally able to lay her children to rest at the Third Country, a cemetery run by the larger-than-life Visitación Salazar and a refuge beyond suffering and fear. While Visitación remains defiant in her mission to care for the dead, the cemetery she oversees is the focal point of a bitter land dispute with Alcides Abundio, the most feared landowner of the border. Caught in this power struggle, Angustias and Visitación-friends and sometimes rivals- stand their ground on a frontier where the law is dictated by violence; a surreal territory whose very nature blurs the boundaries between life and death.

Exploring what we are capable of and how far we will go when we have nothing to lose, No Place to Bury the Dead confirms Karina Sainz Borgo's importance amongst the voices of modern Latin American literature, merging thriller, western, and classic tragedy in an unforgettable and urgent novel that won the 2023 Jan Michalski Prize.

Translated from the Spanish by Elizabeth Bryer

The New York Times bestselling author of Win the Day reminds us of the millions of miracles God performs every day and inspires us to live with a clearer sense of identity and purpose.

Think you’ve never experienced a miracle? With all due respect, you have never not. In fact, you are one!

There never has been—and there never will be—anyone else like you. That isn’t a testament to you. It’s a testament to the God who created you. Your fingerprint, eyeprint, and voiceprint are unlike anyone else’s. Simply put, you matter to God.

Most of us take everyday miracles for granted, including the one that stares back at us in the mirror. It’s time to take them for gratitude. Why is that so important? Because whatever you don’t turn into praise turns into pride. The miracle of life becomes mundane. We get so wrapped up in our own little world, we end up worshipping a god who looks like us, acts like us, and thinks like us. 

It’s no wonder we’ve lost our wonder. But there is a way to recapture holy curiosity!

In A Million Little Miracles, New York Times bestselling author Mark Batterson reveals three miraculous truths that awaken us to carpe wonder for the Creator and His creation:

1. God Is Bigger Than We Think—we can rest in His wisdom and strength
2. God Is Closer Than We Realize—we never have to do life alone
3. God Is Better Than We Imagine—we can reclaim our childlike wonder

A million little miracles are waiting to be discovered, including the miracle called you.

Jim O'Heir, who played Jerry (or Garry or Larry) on Parks and Recreation and co-hosts the hit podcast Parks and Recollection, brings fans a heartfelt behind-the-scenes look at one of America's most beloved sitcoms, brimming with never-before-told stories featuring the cast and crew, along with dozens of unseen photos!

For seven seasons, Leslie Knope and the Parks and Recreation gang charmed millions of viewers with their quirky antics and unwavering positivity. The sitcom continues to be a fan-favorite for streaming services today, nearly a decade after its finale. Now for the first time, Jim O'Heir, who played the lovable Jerry (or, well, Garry/Larry/Terry/Barry, depending on the episode), invites readers back to Pawnee for an exclusive look behind the scenes.

Joined by some of his Parks and Rec pals, including Chris Pratt, Retta, Rob Lowe, and showrunners Greg Daniels and Mike Schur, O'Heir reveals how this "little show that could" came to be, thanks to the tireless dedication and comedic genius of Amy Poehler, Nick Offerman, and the rest of the gang. As the show found its footing, the cast quickly bonded into a tight-knit family. Here O'Heir shares all his favorite unforgettable memories both on and off camera, from hilarious unscripted moments and epic dance-offs in the hair and makeup trailers, to iconic birthday parties at Rashida Jones's house and quiet bonfires in Nick Offerman's backyard.

Welcome to Pawnee is O'Heir's loving tribute to Parks and Recreation, imbued with the same warmth and humor that endeared the show to millions.

From The New York Times's Jeremy Egner, the definitive book on Ted Lasso.

When Ted Lasso first aired in 2020, nobody—including those who had worked on it—knew how a show inspired by an ad, centered around soccer, filled mostly with unknown actors, and led by a wondrously mustachioed “nice guy” would be received. Eleven Emmys and one Peabody Award later, it’s safe to say that the show’s status as a pop-culture phenomenon is secure.

In Believe, entertainment journalist and Ted Lasso fan Jeremy Egner traces the show’s creation and legacy through the words of the people at its center. Drawing on dozens of interviews from key cast, creators, and more, Believe takes readers from the first, silly NBC Premier League commercial to the pitch to Apple executives, then into the show’s writers’ room, through the brilliant international casting, and on to the unforgettable set and locations of the show itself.

Brimming with careful reporting and written to match the show’s heart and humor, Believe tells a story of teamwork, of hidden talent, of a group of friends looking around at the world’s increasingly nasty discourse and deciding that maybe simple decency still has the power to bring us together—a story about what happens when you dare to believe.

An intimate look at the life and music of modern pop's most legendary figure, Taylor Swift, from leading music journalist Rob Sheffield.

A cultural phenomenon. A worldwide obsession. An agent of emotional chaos. There's no parallel to Taylor Swift in history: a teenage girl who turns into the world's favorite pop star, songwriter, storyteller, guitar hero, live performer, changing how music is made and heard. An all-time great on the level of The Beatles, Prince, or David Bowie.

Heartbreak Is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music is the first book that goes deep on the musical and cultural impact of Taylor Swift. Nobody can tell the story like Rob Sheffield, the bestselling and award-winning author of Dreaming the Beatles, On Bowie, and Love Is a Mix Tape. The legendary Rolling Stone journalist is the writer who has chronicled Taylor for every step of her long career, from her early days to the Eras Tour. Sheffield gets right to the heart of Swift and her music, her lyrics, her fan connection, her raw power.

At once one of the most beloved music figures of the past two decades and one of the most criticized, Taylor Swift is known as much for her life beyond her music as she is for her hits--the most public of stars, yet also the weirdest and most mysterious. In the tradition of Sheffield's Dreaming the Beatles, Heartbreak Is the National Anthem will inform and delight a legion of fans who hang on every word from Taylor and every word Rob writes on her.

The new Great British Baking Show book ties into the 2024 season of the UK's most popular cooking show. Indulge in the very best comfort bakes that you'll want to make time and again, with recipes from Paul, Prue and the bakers.

This new book showcases 80 wonderful bakes inspired by the show's most popular signature themes - Cake, Biscuits, Bread, Pastry, Patisserie, Dessert, Chocolate and Free-from - celebrating the very best in comfort bakes.

Is there anything more comforting than the smell of a fresh bake wafting through the house? Paul, Prue and the 2024 bakers explore comfort in all its forms in these delectable, warm, cosy recipes. These include cakes for cheery family get togethers; recipes with a sense of nostalgia; hearty and warming bakes for cosy nights; and low-effort and quick concoctions that are an immediate balm.

You'll find rhubarb upside-down cake, served with lashings of custard; butterscotch shortbread - the perfect dunking biscuit; cheesy, salty crumpets that couldn't be easier to make; a moreish malted chocolate and honeycomb layer cake, and so much more. Every page of this book is packed with sumptuous bakes that will become go-to recipes whenever good food is what you need.