From stories of love within the American Carceral System to the history of Los Angeles, and the science of sweat, these new nonfiction books span a wide range of topics guaranteed to open your world, or at least map your brain. 

The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free by Paulina Bren

Constructed in 1927 the Barbizon Hotel, became the place to stay for any ambitious young woman hoping for fame and fortune. Sylvia Plath fictionalized her time there in The Bell Jar, and, over the years, its almost 700 tiny rooms housed actresses Grace Kelly, Liza Minnelli, and Phylicia Rashad; writers Joan Didion and Meg Wolitzer; and many more. Before the hotel's residents were household names, they were young women with a suitcase and a dream. The Barbizon is both a portrait of the lives of these young women who came to New York looking for something more and an epic history of women's ambition.

 

 

Brainscapes: The Warped, Wondrous Maps Written in Your Brain–And How They Guide You by Rebecca Schwarloze

In Brainscapes, neuroscientist Rebecca Schwarzlose discusses the ways that literal maps of sights, sounds, and actions etched into our brains support complex thought, hold the keys to our survival, and can shine a light on both our past and future. Combining unforgettable real-life stories, cutting-edge research, and vivid illustrations, Schwarzlose takes readers on a path-breaking journey into the brain, revealing surprising lessons about our place in the world and about the world's place within us.

 

 

 

Better to Have Gone: Love, Death, and the Quest for Utopia in Auroville by Akash Kapur

A spellbinding story about love, faith, the search for utopia, and the often devastating cost of idealism. The author recalls his time growing up in the utopian community of Auroville in India and his search for the truth about the tragic deaths of his wife's parents, who met at Auroville in the late 1960s and died there two decades later, on the same day. Better to Have Gone is a book about the human cost of our age-old quest for a more perfect world. 

 

 

 

Love Lockdown: Dating, Sex, and Marriage in America's Prison System by Elizabeth Greenwood

What is it like to fall in love with someone in prison? Over the course of five years, Elizabeth Greenwood followed the ups and downs of five couples who met during incarceration. In Love Lockdown, she pulls back the curtain on the lives of the husbands and wives supporting some of the 2.3 million people in prisons around the United States. In the vein of "Modern Love," this book shines a light on how these relationships reflect the desire and delusion we all experience in our romantic pairings.

 

 

 

Everything Now: Lessons from the City-State of Los Angeles by Rosecrans Baldwin

Positing that Los Angeles is best understood when considered a city-state, the author highlights the cultural, economic, and social history of the location and highlights the local heroes, landmarks, languages, cuisines, and literature that are key to its vibrancy. Deeply reported and researched, Rosecrans Baldwin's Everything Now approaches the metropolis from unexpected angles, nimbly interleaving his own voice with a chorus of others, from canonical L.A. literature to everyday citizens. Here, Octavia E. Butler and Joan Didion are in conversation with activists and astronauts, vampires and veterans. Baldwin records the stories of countless Angelenos, discovering people both upended and reborn: by disasters natural and economic, following gospels of wealth or self-help or personal destiny. 

 

The Brilliant Abyss: Exploring the Majestic Hidden Life of the Deep Ocean, and the Looming Threat That Imperils It by Helen Scales

Revolutionary studies in the deep are rewriting the very notion of life on Earth and the rules of what is possible. In the process, the abyss is being revealed as perhaps the most amazing part of our planet, with a topography even more varied and extreme than its Earthbound counterpart. In The Brilliant Abyss, marine biologist Helen Scales brings to life the majesty and mystery of an alien realm that nonetheless sustains us, while urgently making clear the price we could pay if it is further disrupted.

 

 

 

To End a Plague: America's Fight to Defeat AIDS in Africa by Emily Bass

This definitive history of PEPFAR, a US program that played a key role in slashing HIV cases and AIDS deaths in sub-Saharan Africa, reveals an America that was once capable of real and meaningful change. PEPFAR played a key role in slashing HIV cases and AIDS deaths in sub-Saharan Africa, leading to the brink of epidemic control. Resilient in the face of flatlined funding and political headwinds, PEPFAR is America’s singular example of how to fight a long-term plague. 
 

 

 

 

The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration by Sarah Everts

Why is sweat salty? Why do we sweat when stressed? Why do some people produce colorful sweat? The Joy of Sweat takes readers around the worldIn Finland, Everts explores the delights of the legendary smoke sauna and the purported health benefits of good sweat, while in the Netherlands she slips into the sauna theater scene, replete with costumes, special effects, and towel dancing. Along the way, Everts traces humanity’s long quest to control sweat, culminating in the multibillion-dollar industry for deodorants and antiperspirants. And she shows that while sweating can be annoying, our sophisticated temperature control strategy is one of humanity’s most powerful biological traits.

 

 

Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine by Nicola Twilley

Until Proven Safe tracks the history and future of quarantine around the globe, chasing the story of emergency isolation through time and space—from the crumbling lazarettos of the Mediterranean, built to contain the Black Death, to an experimental Ebola unit in London, and from the hallways of the CDC to closed-door simulations where pharmaceutical execs and epidemiologists prepare for the outbreak of a novel coronavirus.

 

 

 

 

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Have trouble reading standard print? Many of these titles are available in formats for patrons with print disabilities.

Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.