As a result of childhood learning disabilities and educational neglect, Oliver James graduated from high school and became one of approximately 45 million functionally illiterate Americans. However, at age 32, with big dreams and few tools to actualize them, he dedicated himself to learning the key skill that had evaded him his entire life: reading.

Oliver has become a TikTok/BookTok sensation for the way he’s candidly documented his decision to learn to read as an adult, and his struggles and triumphs along the way. Here, he tells the full story behind his journey for the first time through the 21 key books that shaped and informed his experience. His story reveals the ways in which reading can teach each of us how to be better, more empathetic people.

In just 365 days, Oliver went from barely being able to read a restaurant menu to closing in on his goal of finishing 100 books in a year. Unread is a moving reminder to all of us that words and stories have power, and that, no matter our past, it’s never too late to grow.

“I’m glad I met you.”

Faced with the truth about Miori and Touko Kirishima, Sakuta must make a choice. This will be his final case of Adolescence Syndrome!

Mylene has it all: She’s the daughter of nobility, she boasts incredible aptitude with magic and the blade, and she possesses striking vermilion-tinged locks that signify she’s been chosen by God. Yet this elegant warrior hides a shocking secret—inside her lurks the soul of the strongest mercenary in history, Savage Fang. In his past life, Savage Fang cut down countless foes of superior ability for his employers with nothing but cunning and strength. Now reborn as Mylene, this former sellsword will use her past experience and newfound powers to shape the world as she sees fit…even if she has to get her aristocratic peers involved along the way!

A beloved schoolteacher chronicles the meteoric rise of his most dazzling student in this ambitious, big-hearted story of learning and legacy.

Mr. Keating is an extraordinary teacher: brilliant, dedicated, and possibly a few pages ahead in a book no one else is reading. He’s a magician, able to enchant fourteen-year-olds into a love of writing and literature. Yet no student has lived up to the promise of their potential more than Clara Hightower. Over the course of three decades, Clara goes from kindergarten thief to a high school genius, Silicon Valley celebrity, and, finally, animal rights activist turned terrorist.

But to tell Clara’s story, Mr. Keating must tell his own, including his courtship and marriage, his dreams of writing and comedy, his days in the classroom in lower Manhattan and his rivalry and friendship with his head of school, and his eventual stroke and the isolation that follows.

Fiercely original, The Optimists is a love story, a joke book, and a meditation on the meaning of life and death. Tender and insightful, it’s a profound testament to the lessons that reach far beyond the classroom.

Dive into the dark underbelly of England’s most ancient university, where behind closed doors a circle of privileged students enter into a dark pagan ritual—one that holds tantalizing power and comes at a terrible price.​

“An absorbing novel that weaves an unforgettable tale of magic and subversion.”— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

When practical, unassuming second-year student Emma Curran wins an exciting research fellowship, she is ushered into the glittering debauchery of the University elite. There, she falls for the devastating, aristocratic Jasper Balfour, leader of the all-male Turnbull Club: a shadowy secret society that has created centuries of Britain’s leaders, power brokers and history-makers.

One night, the Turnbulls propose a sinister little game: a fox hunt. The women run. The men chase. And Emma finds herself fleeing for her life through the streets, hunted by the boy she loves.

Torn from her ordinary life and trapped in a dangerous, otherworldly realm, Emma awakens transformed. No longer mortal, she’s become something beastly. And now she must summon every ounce of cunning and ferocity to save herself.

“Bury me with this book.”—Victoria Lee, author of A Lesson in Vengeance

“Feels like running full-tilt through a nighttime forest.”—Emma Törzs, author of Ink Blood Sister Scribe

From a former contributing editor at Runner’s World, a narrative-driven prescriptive book on reckoning with the end of an athletic journey—and what comes next.

On January 18, 2020, Dimity McDowell unknowingly went on her last run. The deceleration of her running career began three years before that, following a medical visit which ended in the assessment that she should not run anymore. She should have quit then and there. But running is not like other hobbies; the sport anchored major parts of her identity, including her career, self-image, and mental health. This is true for so many runners (who are legion: about 50 million Americans participate in some form of running or jogging). And many of them will have to grudgingly hang up their sneakers at some point.

This is the story of anyone who lives and breathes the pavement—and has to give it up. The 27th Mile focuses on the time when running—or any other physical pursuit that anchored your daily life and self-identity—is no longer a healthy choice because of injury, chronic pain, or illness.

While The 27th Mile is anchored in Dimity’s personal journey, as one of the founders of the popular website Another Mother Runner, she taps into her vast network to share stories from others who have been there, as well as expert advice for empathy and wisdom to help guide readers to the next chapter of their athletic identity.

Grounded in her experience as a blackbelt, self-defense instructor, and globally recognized organizer, Rana Abdelhamid offers a bold, urgent roadmap to a safer world.

Abdelhamid wants every woman and survivor of gender-based violence to be able to defend themselves, and every community to build collective safety. What if we didn’t accept that it’s unsafe to walk home alone as a fact of life, but instead went out and created safe spaces for ourselves?

Through thousands of training sessions, she’s seen firsthand the strength we carry in our bodies, no matter our background or circumstance. Her revolutionary framework for finding that strength starts with emotional healing, then teaches physical self-defense and economic safety, and finally equips readers with organizing strategies to fight the systems that enable violence in the first place. A rallying cry and a practical guide, Get Home Safe will leave readers, regardless of strength, identity, or income, knowing they can fight back and reclaim power.

Forced by the gods to be wed. Forced by their secrets to be enemies. A desperate queen and a lowly fisherman must join together to save her land in this spellbinding romantasy from Sarah K. L. Wilson.

“Perfect for readers who love slow-burn romance steeped in lush fantasy!” ―Danielle L. Jensen, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Fate Inked in Blood

Queen Coralys, ruler of the Crocus Isles, kneels to no one. But when her kingdom is besieged by a terrible hurricane, killing her husband and destroying half her nation, she is forced to make a deal with the gods for salvation.

But the gods have a wicked sense of justice, and they demand payment for their help. Coralys must give up her titles and marry the first man to set foot on her pier: a poor, wounded fisherman with broad shoulders and dark power in his eyes.

Coralys keeps her promise and sets out with him in his dinghy, with only the hope of revenge against the gods to keep her from despair. But her new husband hides his own secrets: a link to the gods that may make him her enemy or her ally, and a mysterious list of impossible feats waiting to be crossed off. However, learning to trust each other will be their greatest challenge, because only together can they stop the enemies gathering at her kingdom’s shores.

“Intricately wrought and deeply imaginative … the kind of delicious slow-burn fantasy that made me love reading.” ―Hannah Whitten, author of The Foxglove King

A landmark new history of Syria—a country forged in conflict, cursed by civil war and dictatorship, and pivotal to the future of the Middle East

“A masterful history of Syria that is both sweeping in scope and brimming with vivid detail…a riveting and insightful book.” —Wendy Pearlman, author of We Crossed A Bridge and It Trembled

Modern Syria has seen violence, repression, and autocracy, suffering through tragedy after tragedy over the past century. Yet the history of Syria is not just a tale of dictators and generals. From the 1800s to the 2020s, the Syrian people have engaged in a passionate struggle for justice, equality, and a better future.

Whether fighting for national independence from French colonial rule, battling local landowning elites to share the country’s wealth, or rising up against the Assad regime, the Syrian people have fiercely clung to their right to live with respect and dignity. Theirs is a story of protest and perseverance in the long fight to reshape the political destiny of their nation.

Daniel Neep’s Syria: A Modern History offers a gripping narrative of how Syrians have navigated these events. Never losing sight of the fates of ordinary people, it provides a comprehensive account of how a nation born in conflict nevertheless sustained a rich, complex, and diverse society that will now chart its own path into the uncertain future.

Monica, the Silent Witch, has infiltrated Serendia Academy on a top-secret mission to protect the second prince. So far, she's been appointed accountant of the student council and things are going great! ...Or so she thought. With her former mentor arriving at the academy and her over-powered magic under the microscope, Monica is struggling to keep her identity hidden. As if social dances and tea parties weren't terrifying enough. And now, with a new danger closing in on the prince, will Monica reach her breaking point?