Book Stew

Historian David Blight, author of "Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom," discusses how the activist and abolitionist would embrace the present day Black Lives Matter and Me Too movements.

Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of LEADERSHIP: IN TURBULENT TIMES analyzes the leadership qualities that helped Franklin D. Roosevelt earn the nation's trust during the fallout of the Great Depression

Trust us, your book club will want to read and discuss IN THE MIDST OF WINTER. Internationally bestselling author Isabel Allende returns with a sweeping novel that journeys from present-day Brooklyn to Guatemala in the recent past to 1970s Chile and Brazil as three very different people are unexpectedly brought together.

American icon Arthur Ashe—the Jackie Robinson of men’s tennis—was a pioneering athlete who, after breaking the color barrier, went on to become an influential civil rights activist and public intellectual. He became the first African American to play for the US Davis Cup team in 1963, and two years later he won the NCAA singles championship. In 1968, he won both the US Amateur title and the first US Open title, rising to a number one national ranking. Turning professional in 1969, he soon became one of the world’s most successful tennis stars, winning the Australian Open in 1970 and Wimbledon in 1975. After retiring in 1980, he served four years as the US Davis Cup captain and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1985.

Maverick carpenter on HGTV’s smash hit Fixer Upper, the star of Wood Work on the DIY Network, and the author of HANDCRAFTED, Clint Harp discusses his path from quitting his well-paying but soul-crushing sales job to following his dreams as an artisan and carpenter. Part memoir and part manual for dreamers, Clint’s book celebrates meaningful work, turning your craft into a career, and recognizing the importance of the journey itself.

Book Club Favorites presents its September pick: Instant New York Times bestseller, IN THE MIDST OF WINTER by Isabel Allende. Watch Isabel chat with Carol Fitzgerald of The BookReporter.

Book Club Favorites presents its September pick: Instant New York Times bestseller, IN THE MIDST OF WINTER by Isabel Allende. Watch Isabel chat with Carol Fitzgerald of The BookReporter.

Presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin discusses how "LEADERSHIP: IN TURBULENT TIMES" carefully examines the leadership qualities and attributes of the four presidents she has written about and researched: Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Theodore Roosevelt.

Historian David Blight, author of "FREDERICK DOUGLASS: PROPHET OF FREEDOM," discusses the salve-turned-activist's impact upon America.

Author Thomas Page McBee, a trans man, trains to fight in a charity match at Madison Square Garden while struggling to untangle the vexed relationship between masculinity and violence. Through his experience boxing—learning to get hit, and to hit back; wrestling with the camaraderie of the gym; confronting the betrayals and strength of his own body—McBee examines the weight of male violence, the pervasiveness of gender stereotypes, and the limitations of conventional masculinity. A wide-ranging exploration of gender in our society, Amateur is ultimately a story of hope, as McBee traces a new way forward, a new kind of masculinity, inside the ring and outside of it.