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Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. Demon Copperhead is set in the mountains of southern Appalachia. It’s the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize • Winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction • A New York Times "Ten Best Books of 2022" • An Oprah’s Book Club Selection • An Instant New York Times Bestseller • An Instant Wall Street Journal Bestseller • A #1 Washington Post Bestseller 

Diary of a Citizen Scientist is a timely exploration of the exploding world of citizen science where hundreds of thousands of volunteers are monitoring climate change, tracking bird migration, finding stardust for NASA, and excavating mastodons. The story is told through the lens of nature writer Sharman Apt Russell’s yearlong study of a little-known species, the Western red-bellied tiger beetle. In a voice both humorous and lyrical, Russell recounts her persistent and joyful tracking of an insect she calls “charismatic,” “elegant,” and “fierce.” Patrolling the Gila River in southwestern New Mexico, collector’s net in hand, she negotiates the realities of climate change even as she celebrates the beauty of a still-wild and rural landscape.​

Winner 2016 John Burroughs Medal | 2015 WILLA Award Best Creative Nonfiction | Finalist 2015 New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards

Disability rights activist Alice Wong brings tough conversations to the forefront of society with this anthology. It sheds light on the experience of life as an individual with disabilities, as told by none other than authors with these life experiences.

"It's an eye-opening collection that readers will revisit time and time again.” —Chicago Tribune

Sharing real stories from women with ADHD, autism, synesthesia, misophonia, and more, Nerenberg explores how these brain variances present differently in women and dispels widely held misconceptions. She also offers a path forward, describing practical changes in how we can communicate, design our surroundings, and better support divergent minds.

As a professional illustrator, Catherine tells the story of her leukemia diagnosis and treatment in this graphic memoir. Young and previously healthy, she now finds herself catapulted into the world of the seriously ill―constantly testing and waiting for results, undergoing endless medical treatments, learning to accept a changing body, communicating with a medical team, and relying on the support of her partner, family, and friends.We accompany her though the waiting, the doubts, the fears, and the tears―but also the laughter, the love, and the strong will to live. The reader accompanies her though the waiting, the doubts, the fears, and the tears―but also the laughter, the love, and the strong will to live.

The unfettered prescribing of pain medications during the 1990s reached its peak in Purdue Pharma's campaign to market OxyContin, its new, expensive - extremely addictive - miracle painkiller. Meanwhile, a massive influx of black tar heroin - cheap, potent, and originating from one small county on Mexico's west coast, independent of any drug cartel--assaulted small town and mid-sized cities across the country, driven by a brilliant, almost unbeatable marketing and distribution system. Introducing a memorable cast of character - pharma pioneers, young Mexican entrepreneurs, narcotics investigators, survivors, and parents.

Winner of the NBCC Award for General Nonfiction | Amazon's Best Books of the Year 2015 | Michael Botticelli, U.S. Drug Czar (Politico) Favorite Book of the Year | Angus Deaton, Nobel Prize Economics (Bloomberg/WSJ) Best Books of 2015

Past and present converge as sisters, Trang and Quỳnh, come together to confront decisions made during a time of war—decisions that reverberate throughout one another’s lives and ultimately allow them to find common ground across race, generation, culture, and language. Immersive, moving, and lyrical, Dust Child tells an unforgettable story of how those who inherited tragedy can redefine their destinies with hard-won wisdom, compassion, courage, and joy.

Finalist for the 2024 Dayton Literary Peace Prize

In Eating While Black, Psyche A. Williams-Forson offers her knowledge and experience to illuminate how anti-Black racism operates in the practice and culture of eating. She shows how mass media, nutrition science, economics, and public policy drive entrenched opinions among both Black and non-Black Americans about what is healthful and right to eat. Distorted views of how and what Black people eat are pervasive, bolstering the belief that they must be corrected and regulated. What is at stake is nothing less than whether Americans can learn to embrace non-racist understandings and practices in relation to food.

Noted Harvard-trained geriatrician uses stories from her quarter-century of caring for patients and draws from history, science, literature, popular culture, and her own life to weave a vision of old age that’s neither nightmare nor utopian fantasy - a vision full of joy, wonder, frustration, outrage, and hope about aging, medicine, and humanity itself.

Elderhood is for anyone who is, in the author's own words, "an aging, i.e., still-breathing human being."

Review

Aging as the Next Social Revolution by Andrea A Firth. Oakland Magazine, June 13, 2019

A once accomplished concert pianist, Richard now has ALS. As he becomes increasingly paralyzed and is no longer able to live on his own, Karina becomes his reluctant caretaker. As Richard's muscles, voice, and breath fade, both he and Karina try to reconcile their past before it's too late. This is a masterful exploration of redemption and what it means to find peace inside of forgiveness.