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Books

A woman peers out of a residential complex at the women-only Taconic Correctional Facility in Bedford Hills, New York, in 2012.

New York Directive Restricts Inmates’ Literature Options

A pilot directive affecting three New York State prisons stipulates that inmates can only receive packages from six approved vendors

Cool Finds

Rare Scraps of Paper Unearthed in the Sludge of Famed Pirate Ship

The 300-year-old fragments found in Blackbeard’s flagship show someone on board was likely literate and interested in sea stories

Ellen Raskin designed the first-edition book cover; she later wrote The Westing Game, which won its own Newbery.

Women Who Shaped History

The Remarkable Influence of ‘A Wrinkle in Time’

How the Madeleine L’Engle novel liberated young adult literature

Thomas Edison's ideas fed the story that would become In the Deep of Time.

Thomas Edison’s Forgotten Sci-Fi Novel

By feeding his visions for the future to a well-regarded contemporary, the prolific inventor offered a peek into his brilliant mind

The book was published so hastily the fuse bomb pictured on the cover was “ticking.”

1968: The Year That Shattered America

The Book That Incited a Worldwide Fear of Overpopulation

‘The Population Bomb’ made dire predictions—and triggered a wave of repression around the world

Each chapter progresses from the very small to the very big.

Learn to Speak the Language of the Universe With This Mindblowing New Book

Magnitude helps you imagine the outer limits of time, speed and distance—without breaking your brain

Zora Neale Hurston’s Study of the Last Known U.S. Slave to Be Published in 2018

Cudjo Lewis was captured and transported to the U.S. in 1860. After regaining his freedom five years later, he went on to help establish African Town

The Ten Best Children’s Books of 2017

Our picks are full of silly words, weird animals and unknown histories

How can you maximize reading’s rewards for baby?

New Research

Brain Studies Suggest What Books to Read to Your Baby—and When

Psychologists looked at infant brains to find that both timing and content can impact mental development

Enrico Fermi, Italian-American physicist, received the 1938 Nobel Prize in physics for identifying new elements and discovering nuclear reactions by his method of nuclear irradiation and bombardment.

Was Enrico Fermi Really the “Father of the Nuclear Age”?

A new book takes a fresh look at the famed scientist

The Ten Best History Books of 2017

From presidential biographies to a look at the long rise of fake news, these picks will surely interest history buffs

The Ten Best Science Books of 2017

These books not only inspired awe and wonder—they helped us better understand the machinations of our world

Codex Amiatinus

After 1300 Years Abroad, the Earliest Complete Latin Bible Returns to England

The Codex Amiatinus will go on display at the British Library in 2018

A pod of dolphins swim along a boat in the Channel Islands National Park, California

What Archaeologists and Historians Are Finding About the Heroine of a Beloved Young Adult Novel

New scholarship reveals details about the Native American at the center of the classic Island of the Blue Dolphins

New Research

Researchers Investigate What Makes a Poem Popular

A recent study found that vividness of imagery best predicted a poem’s aesthetic appeal

The Ten Best Travel Books of 2017

These reads will remedy even the direst cases of wanderlust

The accused "Angel Makers of Nagyrév" walk in the Szolnok prison yard in Hungary.

Is There Humanity to Be Found Within Serial Killers?

A new book tells the complex stories behind murderous women, the so-called “femmes fatales.”

Janelle Shane's neural network needs a lot of first lines before it can teach itself to write good ones.

This Neural Network Can (Maybe) Start a Novel Better Than You

As the end of NaNoWriMo draws near, take a look at one researcher’s effort to help find that perfect first line

Gotcha!

Gulliver’s Travels Wasn’t Meant to Be a Children’s Book And More Things You Didn’t Know About the Literary Classic

Even now, 350 years after his birth, the great Irish satirist Jonathan Swift remains as sharp and relevant as ever

Marley Dias

American Ingenuity Awards

Marley Dias’ Inspirational Goal to Collect Books About Girls of Color

What can we learn from a 12-year-old who’s turning the literary world upside down? Everything

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