“New Yorkers,” an oral history by Craig Taylor, and “Names of New York,” Joshua Jelly-Schapiro’s chronicle of street names, capture the dizzying variety and fluidity of the city’s stories.
“The Bookseller of Florence,” by Ross King, tells the history of Renaissance bookmaking through the story of Vespasiano da Bisticci, who rose from humble roots to dominate the trade.
In “Second Nature,” Nathaniel Rich offers a tour of the ways humans have both conquered the natural world and been overwhelmed by the unintended consequences.
As a child, the novelist found consolation in books that embraced American rugged individualism and the Korean quest for knowledge. Those same books showed her how to honor the stories of the people she grew up with.
