Discover Well-Read Black Girl Books and the projects reshaping publishing →

Book reviews and excerpts from exceptional books about history, current affairs and religion

History, Current Affairs and Religion

Recommended books found: 459

So Many Stars

An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color

by Caro De Robertis

Hardcover: May 2025 | Paperback: Jun 2026

Critics' Consensus:

Award-winning novelist Caro De Robertis offers a first-of-its-kind, deeply personal, and moving oral history of a generation of queer and trans elders of color, from leading activists to artists to ordinary citizens to tell their stories of ...

The Afterlife of Malcolm X

An Outcast Turned Icon's Enduring Impact on America

by Mark Whitaker

Hardcover: May 2025 | Paperback: Jun 2026

Critics' Consensus:

Published to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of his birth, the first major study of Malcolm X's influence in the sixty years since his assassination, exploring his enduring impact on culture, politics, and civil rights.

Banned Together

Our Fight for Readers' Rights

by Ashley Hope Pérez

Hardcover: Mar 2025 | Paperback: May 2026

Critics' Consensus:

A dazzling YA anthology that spotlights the transformative power of books while equipping teens to fight for the freedom to read, featuring the voices of 15 diverse, award-winning authors and illustrators.

Girl on Girl

How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves

by Sophie Gilbert

Hardcover: Apr 2025 | Paperback: Apr 2026

Critics' Consensus:

From Atlantic critic and Pulitzer Prize finalist Sophie Gilbert, a blazing critique of early aughts pop culture.

Prophecy

Prediction, Power, and the Fight for the Future, from Ancient Oracles to AI

by Carissa Véliz

Hardcover: Apr 2026

Critics' Consensus:

From an award-winning University of Oxford professor comes a brilliant, urgent new look at prophecies—the predictions that determine our lives, from our personal finances and the quality of our healthcare to the news and social media we consume...

America, América

A New History of the New World

by Greg Grandin

Hardcover: Apr 2025 | Paperback: Apr 2026

Critics' Consensus:

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning historian, the first comprehensive history of the Western Hemisphere, a sweeping five-century narrative of North and South America that redefines our understanding of both.

The Bookshop

A History of the American Bookstore

by Evan Friss

Hardcover: Aug 2024 | Paperback: Apr 2026

Critics' Consensus:

An affectionate and engaging history of the American bookstore and its central place in American cultural life, from department stores to indies, from highbrow dealers trading in first editions to sidewalk vendors, and from chains to special-interest...

Partially Devoured

How Night of the Living Dead Saved My Life and Changed the World

by Daniel Kraus

Hardcover: Mar 2026

Critics' Consensus:

The New York Times bestselling author of Whalefall and Angel Down dives into a horror movie classic to examine his favorite film's importance to our history, culture, and psychology--a perfect blend of research and memoir for fans of the movie, the ...

The Demon of Unrest

A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War

by Erik Larson

Hardcover: Apr 2024 | Paperback: Mar 2026

Critics' Consensus:

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Splendid and the Vile brings to life the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War—a simmering crisis that finally tore a deeply divided nation in ...

El Paso

Five Families and One Hundred Years of Blood, Migration, Race, and Memory

by Jazmine Ulloa

Hardcover: Mar 2026

Critics' Consensus:

From New York Times reporter Jazmine Ulloa, a sweeping human history of El Paso, revealing violence, power, and privilege at play in America's most famous border town.

Dark Laboratory

On Columbus, the Caribbean, and the Origins of the Climate Crisis

by Tao Leigh Goffe

Hardcover: Jan 2025 | Paperback: Feb 2026

Critics' Consensus:

A groundbreaking investigation of the Caribbean as both an idyll in the American imagination and a dark laboratory of Western experimentation, revealing secrets to racial and environmental progress that impact how we live today.

One Aladdin Two Lamps

by Jeanette Winterson

Hardcover: Jan 2026

Critics' Consensus:

"One of the most daring and inventive writers of our time" (Elle) weaves together memoir, manifesto, and a feminist reimagining of One Thousand and One Nights in this impassioned exploration of the power of reading.

The reviewer of each book decides which categories it belongs in - but we're only human, mistakes happen. If you see a book that you think is in the wrong place, tell us!

Recently Viewed

No books viewed yet

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
When No One Else Will
by Amanda Skenandore
1940s Chicago nurse risks everything at an illegal women’s clinic during a high-profile trial of courage and sisterhood.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket
    The Jellyfish Problem
    by Tessa Yang
    A marine biologist rescues a Maine island menaced by a giant glowing jellyfish in this inventive debut.
  • Book Jacket
    Look What You Made Me Do
    by John Lanchester
    A propulsive tale of intergenerational tension and revenge from the Booker Prize nominee.
  • Book Jacket
    Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young
    by Zayd Ayers Dohrn
    Son of Weather Underground radicals recounts life on the run and decades of revolutionary struggle.
Who Said...

In war there are no unwounded soldiers

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Book
Trivia
  • Book Trivia

    Can you name the title?

    Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

Q S, S

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.