Celebrated every year on August 9th (today!), National Book Lovers Day is the perfect time to curl up with an old favorite or pick up a new read. In case you’re having some trouble choosing, scroll down to read more about 10 recent bestsellers. From parrots to big history, there’s sure to be something that will pique your interest. Happy reading!

 

Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 3

9780520279940The surprising final chapter of a great American life. Created from March 1907 to December 1909, these dictations present Mark Twain at the end of his life. Also included in this final volume of the Autobiography is the previously unpublished “Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript.”

 

 

 

Parrots of the Wild

9780520239258A synthetic account of the diversity and ecology of wild parrots, Parrots of the Wild distills knowledge from the authors’ own research and from their review of more than 2,400 published scientific studies. The book is enhanced by an array of illustrations, including nearly ninety color photos of wild parrots represented in their natural habitats.

 

 

The Land of Open Graves

9780520282759In his gripping and provocative debut, anthropologist Jason De León sheds light on one of the most pressing political issues of our time—the human consequences of US immigration policy.  The Land of Open Graves reveals the suffering and deaths that occur daily in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona as thousands of undocumented migrants attempt to cross the border from Mexico into the United States.

 

 

A Sea of Glass

9780520285682“An engaging travel adventure that blends art, science, and natural history. A Sea of Glass documents Drew Harvell’s quest to document the conservation status of some of the ocean’s most charismatic marine invertebrates, from sea slugs to octopuses. Inspired by her discovery of a lost collection of handblown glass animals, Harvell dives the world’s oceans to determine how their living counterparts are faring in today’s beleaguered marine ecosystems. Beautifully illustrated, A Sea of Glass is both a call to action and a loving ode to our oceans.”—Ted Danson, actor, activist, and founding member of Oceana

 

The Islamic State

9780520289284Islamic State (also known as ISIS, ISIL, and Daesh) stunned the world when it overran an area the size of Great Britain on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border in a matter of weeks and proclaimed the birth of a new Caliphate. In this timely and important book, Abdel Bari Atwan draws on his unrivaled knowledge of the global jihadi movement and Middle Eastern geopolitics to reveal the origins and modus operandi of Islamic State.

 

 

The Scholar Denied

9780520276352“Tests, and convincingly proves, the belief, too long repressed, that W. E. B. Du Bois played not only a pivotal role in the birth of modern scientific sociology in America—he was its founding father, on either side of the color line….a fresh and crisply researched reinterpretation of Du Bois’s path-breaking Atlanta School of Sociology and is sure to be a major book.”—Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University

 

Hiding in Plain Sight

9780520278059Hiding in Plain Sight tells the story of the global effort to apprehend the world’s most wanted fugitives. Beginning with the flight of tens of thousands of Nazi war criminals and their collaborators after World War II, then moving on to the question of justice following the recent Balkan wars and the Rwandan genocide, and ending with the establishment of the International Criminal Court and America’s pursuit of suspected terrorists in the aftermath of 9/11, the book explores the range of diplomatic and military strategies—both successful and unsuccessful—that states and international courts have adopted to pursue and capture war crimes suspects.

 

The Birth of the Anthropocene

9780520289970“The world that all humans in all history knew has ended, and something new has started. This book can help you start thinking about what that event—the biggest event in our lifetimes—really means.”—Bill McKibben, author of Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

 

 

Sidewalking

9780520273726In Sidewalking, David L. Ulin offers a compelling inquiry into the evolving landscape of Los Angeles. Part personal narrative, part investigation of the city as both idea and environment, Sidewalking is many things: a discussion of Los Angeles as urban space, a history of the city’s built environment, a meditation on the author’s relationship to the city, and a rumination on the art of urban walking.

 

 

Listening to Killers

9780520282872An inside look at twenty years’ worth of murder files from a leading expert psychological witness. The author offers detailed accounts of how killers travel a path that leads from childhood innocence to lethal violence in adolescence or adulthood and the role of empathy in breaking the cycle of violence.

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