Recent Reads for Hesitant Historians

September 15, 2025September 11, 2025 / Lauren / 1 Comment

I am surrounded by history lovers. My husband is a history professor who uses me as a sounding board when he’s talking through new articles. A good friend does deep dives into English monarchs, and she shares memes that mash current events together with Medieval art. And I have to confess: I have no idea what they’re talking about.

I’m very useful when you want to assemble some IKEA furniture, or if you want to differentiate between an American crow and a common raven, but listening to me explain the American Revolution is like watching an episode of Drunk History (and sadly, without the negronis). I don’t dislike history. It’s just that the kind of history you get in school – politics, wars, rich people – does nothing for me. What I want is an exhibit of decorative arts, a reconstructed peasant house, a display of medical instruments. Maps of migrations laid over topography or ecological changes. A poster. A piece of metal. I want something that’s alive with meaning and has a story to tell.

If a relaxing evening involves hooks, needles, or rippers:

Threads of Empire: A History of the World in Twelve Carpets by Dorothy Armstrong (2025)

I can’t get through biographies of monarchs, but give me a book on how their clothing was constructed and I will drink it up like a chocolate fountain in Versailles. Threads of Empire tickles the same part of me that loves dresses and chain mail at art museums. This isn’t just about who owned history’s beautiful rugs, but the people that made them, the materials and techniques they were working with, and what was going on in their world.

Related read:

Silk: A World History by Aarathi Prasad (2024)

This is another great read that takes a close look at how a prized textile is made, then zooms out to examine its place in time and geography.

If you never got past your childhood fascination with pirates:

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann (2023)

We’re attracted to stories of things gone wrong, whether it’s hikes or music festivals. As you can guess from the subtitle of this book, there are quite a few things that went wrong with the HMS Wager in 1741. This is a true crime novel, a survival tale, and a look into 18th century British naval life – did you know expeditions routinely sailed with dedicated scientists on board? – with a little dusting of world politics. Grann crafts an engaging narrative well worth the hype.

If you can’t get enough of the British Navy, you can circumnavigate again with Hampton Sides’ bestseller from last year. Sides’ narrative doesn’t move with the same momentum as Grann’s book, but it’s a voyage well worth taking.

If you can’t look away from technological disasters:

Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham (2024)

Nobody synthesizes story and science quite like Adam Higginbotham. Last year he released this book on the Challenger space shuttle, which exploded during liftoff in 1986. He’s on par with the best thriller writers in terms of building suspense, and he’s just as adept at breaking down complex engineering concepts.

This book has haunted me: not only in its emotional impact, but in how amazing it is that we’ve accomplished space travel at all. It compelled me to make a pilgrimage to the Intrepid Museum in Manhattan to get an up-close look at the Enterprise, the very first orbiter NASA made for the space shuttle program.

Higginbotham is making quite a name for himself writing about 1980s technological disasters. His award-winning debut focused on the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown, and it’s just as good (and horrifying) as Challenger.

If you’re a news junkie:

Looking at Women Looking at War: A War and Justice Diary by Victoria Amelina (2025)

“I have just bought my first gun in downtown Lviv,” starts the diary of this Ukrainian novelist and mother turned war documenter. Amelina’s diary tells the story of how she and other women – librarians, lawyers, writers – were experiencing the war in Ukraine and participating in the resistance. She was killed by a Russian missile in 2023, and this book collects her unedited and uncompleted notes. It’s a chilling reminder that her life was suddenly cut short at 37 years old.

Related read:

Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets by Svetlana Aleksievich (2017)

Alexievich is well-known for her oral histories of the Soviet Union, and this book is an accessible look at how people in Russia experienced the fall of the Soviet period and the emergence of a new Russia. The experiences and viewpoints are as diverse as if you’d selected a random group of Americans and asked them how they viewed the 2024 election. If you’re looking to understand modern Russia, this is a really great place to start.

If David Attenborough narrates your inner thoughts:

The Beast in the Clouds: The Roosevelt Brothers’ Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda by Nathalia Holt (2025)

Can you imagine a world in which people think pandas are imaginary creatures? Apparently, it was only a century ago. This book chronicles the sons of Teddy Roosevelt (who lent his name to a different type of bear) as they explored the Himalayan mountains in search of this very real animal.

Related read:

Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life by Jason Roberts (2024)

You’ve probably heard of Carl Linnaeus, one of the most famous Enlightenment-era catalogers of the natural world. But have you heard of mathematician and fellow naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon? There are reasons for one man’s obscurity and the other’s fame, Roberts argues, including the convenience of Linnaeus’ theories of racial hierarchies and Leclerc’s aristocratic status (probably not the best thing to be in 1780s France).

If you’re fascinated by architecture and buildings:

Twelve Churches: An Unlikely History of the Buildings That Made Christianity by Fergus Butler-Gallie (2025)

Butler-Gallie presents a fun and often funny history of the world’s largest religion by focusing on twelve buildings in particular. You’ll visit an amazing church complex in Ethiopia that was carved into volcanic rock with medieval tools, Japan at the cusp of its isolationist Edo period, and the site of a tragic bombing during the Civil Rights movement. Religion is a fascinating way to view world history, and this book has something for everyone regardless of your personal faith.

Related read:

The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss (2024)

From the publisher: “Evan Friss’s history of the bookshop draws on oral histories, archival collections, municipal records, diaries, letters, catalogs, and interviews with leading booksellers to offer a fascinating look at this institution beloved by so many–not just as a merchant, but as a gathering place for like-minded people who cherish books.”

If you held onto your science textbooks from college:

Say Anarcha: A Young Woman, a Devious Surgeon, and the Harrowing Birth of Modern Women’s Health by J. C. Hallman (2023)

If you enjoyed Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks or the many fistulas in Mary Roach’s Gulp, then this one is for you. Modern gynecology and obstetrics are relatively recent innovations, and their development was due to experimentation on poor and enslaved women, such as Anarcha. This books covers what we know about her, including her life beyond the operating table.

Imagine you’re a young woman who just found a great-paying job painting glowing watch faces in Waterbury. Now, imagine you and your coworkers start getting too sick to work – and your employers try to paint you as a promiscuous partier. This is the horrifying true story of the radium girls, factory workers in the early 20th century who were exposed to radioactive material while business owners looked the other way. It’s also the story of the uphill battle for worker protections and safety standards.

And another one just for fun:

A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn (1980)

Instead of a triumphant story of great mens’ achievements, Zinn’s history looks at everyday people, such as workers in early factories, immigrants, women, native Americans, slaves, and servants – those whose exploitation arguably fueled the power of those great figures. It’s been republished several times since its release in 1980, and it has influenced hundreds of works (including titles on this list) that take a more critical look at our national narratives.

Best Museum Passes for Families with Young Kids

June 9, 2025June 4, 2025 / Lauren / 1 Comment

As a parent of two young kids, my time away from work is a constant stream of requests and/or demands. The 4-year-old: refill my milk cup even though you’re currently buttering my toast and haven’t even made your coffee yet. The 20-month-old: read Trashy Town to me again. The 4-year-old: I just discovered My Little Pony and I love it, so now my name is Princess Twilight Sparkle and my brother is Spike. Spike: read! Twilight: you are no longer Momma, you’re now Princess Celestia. Can you talk like Princess Celestia? Spike: I will scream-cry if you don’t read to me in two seconds.

Sometimes you need a change of scenery in order to prevent your kids (or yourself) from scream-crying. For me, the library’s museum passes have been invaluable when it’s too wet to visit the playground at Bartlem Park or too cold for miniature horses at Brooksvale Park. Museum passes offer discounted or free admission for adults and kids to museums and educational attractions across Connecticut and beyond. You can reserve them up to 30 days in advance and print almost all of them from home anytime, requiring no special trip to the library. For added convenience, many museums will just scan the pass right from your phone. Here’s our young crew’s experience with the passes.

The Children’s Museum

Location: 180 Mohegan Drive, West Hartford

Pass perks: one free admission for every paid admission

Cost before perks: $15/person ages 2 and up, below 2 is free (price info)

We visited The Children’s Museum when Twilight was two years old and Spike was an unhatched egg. The museum accepted the digital pass that was sent to my phone via email, and soon we were in an indoor air-conditioned wonderland. The museum looks like a former school with one long hallway and branching classrooms that have been converted to different activity areas. I appreciated the easy navigation! The woods-themed dramatic play room was a hit, as was the craft room. The dinosaur room was another success.

There’s also a large collection of live animals spread across three rooms: snakes, chinchillas, box turtles, and more, all of whom came to the museum after being given up, injured, or confiscated. The museum has regular demonstrations where kids can meet some of the animals. Twilight wasn’t interested in petting the ball python, but there were so many other activities that kept her engaged that it wasn’t a loss.

KidsPlay Children’s Museum

Location: 61 Main St, Torrington

Pass perks: Half-price admission for up to 6 family members

Cost before perks: $14 for everyone age 1+, free under 12 months (price info)

KidsPlay has become our family’s favorite museum. There are so many rooms and activities here: play vehicles, a climbing wall, air play, a craft room, a music room with a piano, a grocery store, a pioneer cabin with dress-up clothing. We could not possibly visit every area in one trip! We were impressed not only with the breadth of activities, but how clean and well-maintained the space was. We loved this museum so much on our discounted visit that we got a year-long membership, so we’ve gotten to experience rotating play areas like kinetic sand and a hockey rink.

Street parking is a breeze in downtown Torrington, and there’s an off-street lot as well. The only drawback is its limited schedule. As with any museum, check the hours of operation before you visit!

Roaring Brook Nature Center

Location: 70 Gracey Road, Canton

Pass perks: one free admission for every paid admission

Cost before perks: $9 for adults, $7 for children 12 and under (price info)

Our Children’s Museum pass also grants discounted admission to Roaring Brook Nature Center (not to be confused with Roaring Brook Park, the not-for-the-faint-of-heart local trail). The nature center has an indoor section with taxidermy dioramas of our local habitats, live animals, play nooks, and a library, plus an outdoor area with rescued birds and turtles. Twilight enjoyed the scavenger hunt, singing lullabies to Tomasina the black vulture, and looking for turtles in the pond.

The highlight of the trip, though, was a hike along the trails next to the nature center. The trails are free to access and open from dawn to dusk, and a lot of it is hemlock forest (i.e., those really cool dark forests that make you feel like you’re a character in a fantasy book). The kids played Poohsticks from the bridge over the creek and explored a set of lean-tos while their bird nerd of a parent listened to warblers and nuthatches calling in the trees.

Connecticut Science Center

Location: 250 Columbus Blvd, Hartford

Coupon perks: 15% off up to six admissions

Cost before perks: $29 for adults, $23 for ages 3-12, plus $7 per person for butterfly encounter (price info), plus $7 per vehicle for 3 hours of parking in the adjacent garage (garage information)

Twilight loves the CT Science Center. When she was two years old, we could easily spend an hour just in the water play area. (They provide smocks, but it’s still a good idea to bring backup clothes and shoes.) There’s also live animals including a sloth, a butterfly encounter, and lots of interactive science activities that get more interesting as Twilight gets older. A glass elevator lets you look out across the whole museum, and it’s roomy enough for you to indulge in repeat rides without compromising foot traffic.

This is not a reservable pass, but a coupon that you can pick up anytime and use anytime. Even with a coupon, this is admittedly a pricier outing. But if you can swing it, it’s worth a visit.

Dinosaur State Park

Location: 400 West St, Rocky Hill

Pass perks: free admission to the exhibit center for two adults and four kids age 6-12; kids 5 and under are free

Cost before perks: $6 for ages 13+, $2 for ages 6-12, free parking and trail access

The kids recently visited 200-million-year-old dilophosaurus footprints at Dinosaur State Park, where you can visit indoor exhibits for free with the CT Parks Pass. (This is a physical pass that needs to be picked up and delivered back to the library.) The footprints are housed in a geodesic dome that also includes dino dioramas, crafts, and some live reptiles and amphibians. The adults loved it, but Twilight was a little disappointed that dinosaurs were extinct and weren’t there stomping around making the footprints.

Luckily, the nature trails outside the exhibit center are perfect for small legs, and they’re free to use without the pass. We saw a big (and completely harmless) water snake sunning itself near the marsh!

Overall, there are so many activities at each place that you really can’t go wrong with borrowing a pass. And even if your museum outing is more miss than hit, hey – at least it’s a few hours in which your kids aren’t pretending they’re Keith Moon and your living room is a Holiday Inn!

Why don’t all the passes give me free admission?

We would love to offer passes that grant free admission everywhere, but the museums set the terms for their passes and decide what they’re going to make available for libraries to purchase. Sometimes that’s free admission. Sometimes that’s just a discount. It all depends on the museum, but we always get the best discount we can!

Why doesn’t the library offer passes to Beardsley Zoo, Mystic Aquarium, or the Maritime Aquarium?

Good question! Unfortunately, the aquarium passes don’t really offer a good value for most patrons. (Think a percentage off a yearly membership, or a few dollars off if you purchase add-ons beyond general admission.) Instead of disappointing our patrons, we opt to get different passes with better discounts. As for the Beardsley Zoo, they changed their ordering process a couple years ago, and it doesn’t jive with the way we make purchases. However, we’re planning to add more animal-themed passes in 2026. Stay tuned!

What about the Peabody Museum? Why doesn’t the library offer a pass?

We don’t offer a Peabody Museum pass because it’s completely free! They gave it a major overhaul recently, and it’s a gorgeous space. Fossilized skeletons and plants are on the first floor, with minerals and animal dioramas on the third floor. Human history is exhibited on the second floor.

Want to spend more time doing free stuff in New Haven? Enjoy a drive or hike to the top of East Rock Park where you can look out over the city and Long Island Sound, or walk around the grounds of Edgerton Park, which also hosts Shakespeare performances in August and the CT Folk Fest in September. Older kids and adults will enjoy free museums such as the Yale Center for British Art, the Yale Art Gallery, and the Morris Steinert Collection of Musical Instruments (when it reopens to the public). Admission to the New Haven Museum is also free when you borrow our pass!

Optimism for Earth Day

April 14, 2025April 9, 2025 / Lauren / Leave a comment

I’d say I think about death more than your average sub-40-year-old. I could blame my high school English teacher for introducing me to existentialist thinker Albert Camus, or childhood Don Bluth films, but I probably just came out this way. Saying somebody “passed” feels strange in my mouth, inaccurate, as if the total and unequivocal departure from this plane of existence is akin to expelling a kidney stone. When I was pregnant, instead of choosing color palettes for a nursery like many expectant mothers, I went shopping for life insurance and wrote detailed directions for the disposal of my body (with relevant phone numbers).

“This is a great start to a post about optimism,” you might be thinking. But my acute awareness of mortality isn’t a pool I sit and wallow in. Instead, it spurs me to use my brief time to make a positive impact in this world. That’s how I feel about climate change. We’re inundated with data on warming temperatures, declining wildlife populations, more frequent severe weather events. We could collectively sit and wallow in a pool of doom. Or, we can arm ourselves with hope, draw up an imperfect plan of action, and try our best to leave whatever mark we can in the time we have.

If you’re stuck in the doom-pool and need some help, let one of these books be a hand extended to pull you out.

What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (2024)

In the throes of the terrible summer of 2020, a tiny bright spot emerged: How to Save a Planet, a cheery podcast that discussed tangible solutions to the problem of climate change. The podcast and its parent company were swallowed up and digested by Spotify, but biologist and policy wonk Ayana Elizabeth Johnson continues to spread the gospel of actionable solutions, most recently in this book.

Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World by Katharine Hayhoe (2021)

We all have a stake in the health of our planet. Instead of assailing you with facts about why you need to act on climate issues, Hayhoe gives you strategies to help you start conversations with almost anyone who isn’t on board (yet).

Cheaper, Faster, Better: How We’ll Win the Climate War by Tom Steyer (2024)

Streyer is excited about the future of clean energy, to the point where he left a lucrative job at an investment fund to start – well, another investment fund, but one dedicated to climate solutions. You’ll learn how investors, inventors, and entrepreneurs are harnessing the power of capitalism for the good of the planet.

How Can I Help?: Saving Nature with Your Yard by Douglas Tallamy (2025)

Stand on the corner of gardening and conservation long enough, and you’ll run into Doug Tallamy. He’s published on the importance of native plants and the virtues of oak trees. His newest book gives property owners and gardeners a host of actions that they can take in their own yard to help the environment.

Holy Ground: On Activism, Environmental Justice, and Finding Hope by Catherine Coleman Flowers (2025)

Flowers advocates for the rural poor in areas where a lack of infrastructure, paired with climate change-related flooding, makes it difficult for families to access sanitary water. This book is a series of essays on her work and personal experiences with environmental and racial justice, and it’s an inspiration for others to join in the fight for a safer, healthier future for our neighbors.

Hope Dies Last: Visionary People Across the World, Fighting to Find Us a Future by Alan Weisman (2025)

Previous books in the list have looked at specific solutions and people, but Weisman’s upcoming book (which conveniently comes out right on Earth Day) takes a wider approach to see what the fight against climate change means for us as human beings. He talks with architects, scientists, artists, and religious leaders to ultimately paint a portrait of hope.

Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape by Cal Flyn (2021)

Years ago, in the middle of a long hike in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, I looked down at the rocks beneath my feet and realized I would be very happy if, many thousands or millions of years from now, the elements in my body were to become part of a rock underneath a foot as someone or something moved through a beautiful place. Everything alive is going to die. But nature and the processes of the physical world will go on. In Scotland, rare flowers grow on a heap of 19th century waste. Elk and wolves wander the irradiated exclusion zone around Chernobyl. With beautiful prose, this book travels to places ravaged by war, pollution, and human-made disaster to show how life continues in our absence. With or without us, Earth will eventually heal itself, and I find that deeply comforting.

Put Some Alto in Your Voice: New Books About Women Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet

March 17, 2025March 17, 2025 / Lauren / Leave a comment

Maybe I should have been a scientist.

I mean, setting aside that my library degree has the word “science” in it, I could have been very happy with the hard stuff like biology and physics. My recent reading of Adam Higginbotham’s Challenger has me considering a parallel life as an engineer designing parts for the aerospace industry. Hope Jahren’s Lab Girl brought me back to college anatomy and physiology, which I took for fun. What self-respecting English major memorizes squamous cells and zygomatic processes for fun? And why didn’t I pursue this thing that obviously called to me?

Answer: literature and the arts simply sat closer and sang louder. We had lots of books at home, but the mystery of a story’s meaning or a certain chord or color called to me more than the mystery of what existed in outer space or beneath the soil. By the time I was thinking about my future, I could more easily conceptualize myself creating worlds than uncovering the world that already existed. But, if I ever change my mind and decide to implode my professional life, it’s easy enough to channel Suzanne Simard and fill out an application for forestry school.

Many women in history never had the benefit of choice that I do, the ability to see a path beyond their sex. Their dreams – if they were even allowed to dream – were crushed because women weren’t supposed to be scientists, or run businesses, or be leaders and advocates. They were supposed to keep quiet. Well, for this Women’s History Month, I’m sharing some brand new books about women that put some alto in their voice and let themselves be heard.

The Cure for Women: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine That Changed Women’s Lives Forever by Lydia Reeder (2024)

After Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to graduate from medical school, more women demanded a chance to study medicine. Their success spurred a chilling backlash from male physicians who distorted Darwin’s evolution theory and proclaimed that women should never be allowed to attend college or enter a profession because their menstrual cycles made them perpetually sick. Into the midst of this turmoil marched Mary Putnam Jacobi, daughter of a New York publisher and the first woman to be accepted into the world-renowned Sorbonne medical school in Paris. Aided by other prominent women physicians and suffragists, Jacobi conducted the first-ever data-backed, scientific research on women’s reproductive biology. The results of her studies shook the foundations of medical science and higher education.

She-Wolves: The Untold History of Women on Wall Street by Paulina Bren (2024)

Award-winning historian Paulina Bren tells the story of the first generations of women who fought their way into the bad-boy culture and lavish opulence of the finance world. If the wolves of Wall Street made a show of their ferocity, the she-wolves did so with tough-as-nails persistence. Starting at a time when “No Ladies” signs hung across the doors of Wall Street’s clubs and unapologetic sexism and racism were the norm at top firms, Bren chronicles the remarkable women who demanded a seat at the table. She-Wolves is an engaging and enraging look at the collision of women, finance, and New York from the go-go years to ground zero.

American Poison: A Deadly Invention and the Woman Who Battled for Environmental Justice by Daniel Stone (2025)

The untold story of Alice Hamilton, a trailblazing doctor and public health activist who took on the booming auto industry—and the deadly invention of leaded gasoline, which would poison millions of people across America. Hamilton had New England connections, too – she attended Miss Porter’s Finishing School in Farmington, became the first woman faculty member of Harvard, and she retired to live out her days in Hadlyme, CT.

The Dragon from Chicago: The Untold Story of an American Reporter in Nazi Germany by Pamela D. Toler (2024)

Toler draws on extensive archival research to unearth the largely forgotten story of Sigrid Schultz’s years spent courageously reporting the news from Berlin, from the revolts of 1919 through the Nazi rise to power and Allied air raids over Berlin in 1941. At a time when women reporters rarely wrote front-page stories and her male colleagues saw a powerful unmarried woman as a “freak,” Schultz pulled back the curtain on how the Nazis misreported the news to their own people, and how they attempted to control the foreign press through bribery and threats.

Fearless and Free: A Memoir by Josephine Baker (2025)

Published in English for the first time, this is the memoir of the fabulous, rule-breaking, one-of-a-kind Josephine Baker. After stealing the spotlight as a teenaged Broadway performer during the height of the Harlem Renaissance, Josephine then took Paris by storm, dazzling audiences across the Roaring Twenties. When World War II broke out, Josephine became a decorated spy for the French Résistance. Her celebrity worked as her cover, as she hid spies in her entourage and secret messages in her costumes as she traveled. She later joined the Civil Rights movement in the US, boycotting segregated concert venues, and speaking at the March on Washington alongside Martin Luther King Jr.

The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science by Dava Sobel (2024)

Dava Sobel approaches Marie Curie from a unique angle, narrating her remarkable life of discovery and fame alongside the women who became her legacy–from France’s Marguerite Perey and Norway’s Ellen Gleditsch to Mme. Curie’s elder daughter, Irène, winner of the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. For decades the only woman in the room at international scientific gatherings that probed new theories about the interior of the atom, Marie Curie traveled far and wide to share the secrets of radioactivity before her death at 66 from aplastic anemia.

Daughter of Daring: The Trick-riding, Train-leaping, Road-racing Life of Helen Gibson, Hollywood’s First Stuntwoman by Mallory O’Meara (2025)

Helen Gibson was a woman willing to do anything to give audiences a thrill. Advertised as “The Most Daring Actress in Pictures,” Helen emerged in the early days of the twentieth-century silent film scene as a rodeo rider, background actor, stunt double, and eventually one of the era’s biggest action stars. Her exploits on motorcycles, train cars, and horseback were as dangerous as they were glamorous, featured in hundreds of films and serials–yet her legacy was quickly overshadowed by the increasingly hypermasculine and male-dominated evolution of cinema in the decades that would follow her. Through the page-turning story of Helen’s pioneering legacy, Mallory O’Meara gives readers a glimpse of the Golden Age of Hollywood that could have been: an industry where women call the shots.

When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion by Julie Satow (2024)

The twentieth century American department store: a palace of consumption where every wish could be met under one roof. It was a place where women, shopper and shopgirl alike, could stake out a newfound independence. In the 1930s, Hortense Odlum of Bonwit Teller came to her husband’s department store as a housewife tasked with attracting more shoppers like herself, and wound up running the company. Dorothy Shaver of Lord & Taylor championed American designers during World War II–before which US fashions were almost exclusively Parisian copies–becoming the first businesswoman to earn a $1 million salary. And in the 1960s Geraldine Stutz of Henri Bendel re-invented the look of the modern department store. This stylish account captures the department store in all its glitz, decadence, and fun, and showcases the women who made that beautifully curated world go round.

Sisters in Science: How Four Women Physicists Escaped Nazi Germany and Made Scientific History by Olivia Campbell (2024)

In the 1930s, Germany was a hotbed of scientific thought. But after the Nazis took power, physicists like Hedwig Kohn, Lise Meitner, Hertha Sponer, and Hildegard Stücklen had no choice but to flee due to their Jewish ancestry or anti-Nazi sentiments. Their harrowing journey out of Germany became a life-and-death situation that required herculean efforts of friends and other prominent scientists.

Recent Reads for Black History Month

February 18, 2025February 18, 2025 / Lauren / Leave a comment

February is a month of opposites. Love (Valentine’s Day) and hatred (New England winters) and apathy (NFL championships). There’s also the forgetting of the very recent past (last month’s resolutions) and the remembrance of our longer past: presidential birthdays and Black History Month. For the latter, we celebrate the contributions of members of the African diaspora to the culture and history of the United States. There’s been a recent flurry of books related to African American history, and I’m excited to share them with you this month.

But first, I’m gonna tell you about something that is 1) not a book 2) not about America. It is the excellent BBC documentary series, A History of Africa, which you can view for free on YouTube. The African continent has a diverse and fascinating history that deserves way more attention than it gets. This documentary is a great starting point to enrich your knowledge of Africa’s diasporic daughters and sons.

If you prefer to start your journey in print, though, first on our list is the book equivalent of the aforementioned documentary.

An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence by Zeinab Badawi (2025)

Badawi (the host of A History of Africa) is a Sudanese-British journalist who worked for Channel 4 and the BBC before her current gig as President of the prestigious SOAS University of London. Her sweeping historical survey traces Africa’s rich legacy from prehistory to the present, exploring ancient civilizations, medieval empires and colonialism’s impact, while highlighting African voices and perspectives to offer a long-overdue account of the continent’s global significance.

Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman’s March and the Story of America’s Largest Emancipation by Bennett Parten (2025)

A groundbreaking account of Sherman’s March to the Sea—the critical Civil War campaign that destroyed the Confederacy—told for the first time from the perspective of the tens of thousands of enslaved people who fled to the Union lines and transformed Sherman’s march into the biggest liberation event in American history.

Sharks Don’t Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist by Jasmin Graham (2024)

You never forget your first shark. For Jasmin Graham, it was a little bonnethead, a type of hammerhead shark. Jasmin fell in love with sharks and with science, but the traditional academic path wasn’t for her. So, she joined with three other Black women to form Minorities in Shark Sciences (MISS), an organization dedicated to providing support and opportunities for young women of color who were pursuing the fascinating and environmentally essential work of marine studies. Jasmin became an independent researcher: a rogue shark scientist, learning how to keep those endangered but precious sharks swimming free – just like her.

Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families by Judith Giesberg (2025)

Drawing from an archive of nearly five thousand letters and advertisements, this is the riveting, dramatic story of formerly enslaved people who spent years searching for family members stolen away during slavery.

John Lewis: A Life by David Greenberg (2024)

Born into poverty in rural Alabama, John Lewis rose to prominence in the civil rights movement, becoming second only to Martin Luther King, Jr. in his contributions. Greenberg’s biography, a New York Times Book Review Top 100 Book of 2024, follows Lewis’s journey beyond the civil rights era, highlighting his leadership in the Voter Education Project and his ascent in politics.

The Stained Glass Window: A Family History As the American Story, 1790-1958 by David Levering Lewis (2025)

Sitting beneath a stained-glass window dedicated to his grandmother in the Atlanta church where his family had prayed for generations, it struck Lewis that he knew very little about those ancestors. And so, in his mid-80s, the esteemed historian began to excavate their past and his own, from white slaveholding families to a mulatto slaveholding family to an up-from-slavery black family. Lewis previously won two Pulitzer Prizes, one for each volume of his biography of W.E.B. DuBois.

The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe by Marlene Daut (2025)

Haiti has the amazing distinction of being home to history’s most successful slave revolt, which led to its independence from France in 1804 and its establishment as a sovereign republic. Its significance looms large in the consciousness of African American thinkers and writers, with figures like Langston Hughes spending time on its soil. This book is the essential biography of the controversial rebel, traitor, and only king of Haiti, Henry Christophe (1767-1820).

Growing Up Urkel by Jaleel White (2024)

An incisive and insightful memoir by Jaleel White, the actor who portrayed Steve Urkel on the hit sitcom Family Matters. You may wonder what place this has among serious history books, but Family Matters remains one of the longest-running live action sitcoms starring a mostly African American cast. Join Jaleel as he invites you to relive the unforgettable ride of nineties nostalgia, while uncovering the personal growth behind the iconic suspenders and the lasting impact of his journey as one of America’s favorite sitcom stars.