"The inside story of the race to develop Ozempic, and its potentially revolutionary impact on public health and culture. A "cure" for obesity has long been the holy grail for the pharmaceutical industry, one that seemed unattainable until recent breakthroughs in type 2 diabetes research led to the development of Ozempic, a weight loss medication that activates hormones in the stomach, making people feel fuller for longer. The treatment is so effective that it is already disrupting many industries-from healthcare to fast food to fashion-and it has quickly made its creator, Denmark's Novo Nordisk, the most valuable company in Europe. But the impact of these drugs goes far beyond billion-dollar profits; a true long-term cure for obesity could save 40% of American adults from dangerous preventable illnesses. And as their success continues to grow, one question looms in the minds of investors, healthcare workers and politicians: are they too good to be true? In Off the Scales, Reuters journalist Aimee Donnellan illuminates the history of the latest medical breakthrough that is poised to change the world, while bringing difficult social questions about inequality and morality to the forefront. Through original reporting and rigorous research, she forecasts the future of Ozempic and similar medications-and examines what their explosive popularity tells us about our ideals of beauty, the lengths to which people will go in order to become thin, the current state of healthcare, and the inner workings of the pharmaceutical industry. Along the way, Donnellan profiles the scientist whose contributions to the discovery of GLP-1 were overlooked and her fight for recognition while her colleagues were thrust into the limelight, and offers new insights into the ways that the food and beauty industries made billions while promoting unhealthy and unrealistic body image standards and accelerating the obesity crisis. She also reveals the lengths that the celebrity class went to obtain this medication when supplies were limited and prescriptions were costly, and relates the first-hand accounts of several early Ozempic users and the transformative effect the drug has had on their weight loss journeys. Above all, Off the Scales is an informative and entertaining study of the unexpected social consequences of finally getting what we've wanted for so long"-- Provided by publisher.

From the award-winning historian and filmmakers of The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz, The Roosevelts, and others: a richly illustrated, human-centered history of America’s founding struggle—expanding on the landmark, six-part PBS series to be aired in November 2025

“From a small spark kindled in America, a flame has arisen not to be extinguished.” —Thomas Paine

In defeating the British Empire and giving birth to a new nation, the American Revolution turned the world upside down. Thirteen colonies on the Atlantic coast rose in rebellion, won their independence, and established a new form of government that radically reshaped the continent and inspired independence movements and democratic reforms around the globe.

The American Revolution was at once a war for independence, a civil war, and a world war, fought by neighbors on American farms and between global powers an ocean or more away. In this sumptuous volume, historian Geoffrey C. Ward ably steers us through the international forces at play, telling the story not from the top down but from the bottom up—and through the eyes of not only our “Founding Fathers” but also those of ordinary soldiers, as well as underrepresented populations such as women, African Americans, Native Americans, and American Loyalists, asking who exactly was entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Enriched by guest essays from lauded historians such as Vincent Brown, Maya Jasanoff, Jane Kamensky, and Alan Taylor, and by an astonishing array of prints, drawings, paintings, texts, and pamphlets from the time period, as well as newly commissioned art and maps—and woven together with the words of Thomas Paine— The American Revolution reveals a nation still grappling with the questions that fueled its remarkable founding.

A beautiful and moving testament to the enduring life of Kobe Bryant and the Mamba Mentality.

When Kobe and Gianna Bryant died, tragically and unexpectedly, in 2020, the world mourned with a wholehearted ferocity. In perhaps the largest and most intense outpouring of public art the world has ever seen, murals went up on seemingly every available wall in Los Angeles and around the globe. The paintings were both professional and amateur, some public and some private, many of them colossal. All of them expressed love and respect for Kobe and Gianna Bryant as athletes, as a father and daughter, as heroes who will not be forgotten.

In Mamba & Mambacita Forever, Vanessa Bryant brings together the images and stories of more than a hundred murals honoring her husband and daughter. Taken together, what emerges is the story of a man who became even more than he himself could have imagined, an avatar of determination, discipline, and competitiveness. He was also a worldwide icon, one of the greatest athletes of our time, a man committed to his family and to fatherhood. Kobe was a figure of transformation and hope.

Mamba & Mambacita Forever ensures that the legacy of Kobe and Gianna Bryant will live on even after the most monumental murals themselves have all crumbled.

A propulsive, never-before-told story of one family’s shocking involvement as Nazi and Japanese spies during WWII and the pivotal role they played in the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

It began with a letter from a screenwriter, asking about a story. Your family. World War II. Nazi spies. Christine Kuehn was shocked and confused. When she asked her seventy-year-old father, Eberhard, what this could possibly be about, he stalled, deflected, demurred, and then wept. He knew this day would come.

The Kuehns, a prominent Berlin family, saw the rise of the Nazis as a way out of the hard times that had befallen them. When the daughter of the family, Eberhard’s sister, Ruth, met Nazi leader Joseph Goebbels at a party, the two hit it off, and they had an affair. But Ruth had a secret—she was half Jewish—and Goebbels found out. Rather than having Ruth killed, Goebbels instead sent the entire Kuehn family to Hawaii, to work as spies half a world away. There, Ruth and her parents established an intricate spy operation from their home, just a few miles down the road from Pearl Harbor, shielding Eberhard from the truth. They passed secrets to the Japanese, leading to the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor. After Eberhard’s father was arrested and tried for his involvement in planning the assault, Eberhard learned the harsh truth about his family and faced a decision that would change the path of the Kuehn family forever.

Jumping back and forth between Christine discovering her family’s secret and the untold past of the spies in Germany, Japan, and Hawaii, Family of Spies is fast-paced history at its finest and will rewrite the narrative of December 7, 1941.

On the eve of his 100th birthday, national treasure Dick Van Dyke brings us this autobiographical collection of life advice, stories, and reflections on how he's maintained a zest for life.



Dick Van Dyke danced his way into our hearts with iconic roles in Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and The Dick Van Dyke Show. Now, as he's about to turn 100 years old, Dick is still dancing and approaching life with the twinkle in his eye that we've come to know and love. In 100 Rules for Living to 100, he reveals his secrets for maintaining your joie de vivre and making the most out of the life you've been given. 



Through stories of his pivotal childhood, moments on film sets, his expansive family, and finding love late in life, Dick reflects on both the joyful times and the challenges that shaped him. His indefatigable spirit and positive attitude will surely inspire readers to count the blessings in their own lives, persevere through the hard times, and appreciate the beauty and complexity of being human.

"We made what seemed like an impossible dream come true." --Paul McCartney


An engrossing oral history of a band that came to define a generation, Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run tells the madcap story of Paul McCartney and his newly formed band, from their humble beginnings in the early 1970s to their dissolution barely a decade later. Drawn from over 500,000 words of interviews with McCartney, family and band members, and other key participants, Wings recounts--now with a half-century's wisdom--the musical odyssey taken by a man searching for his identity in the aftermath of The Beatles' breakup. Soon joined by his wife - American photographer Linda McCartney -on keyboard and vocals; drummer Denny Seiwell; and guitarist Denny Laine, McCartney sowed the seeds for a new band that would later provide the soundtrack of the decade.

Organized chronologically around McCartney, RAM, and nine Wings albums, the narrative begins when a twenty-seven-year-old superstar, rumored to be dead, fled with his new wife to a remote sheep farm in Scotland amid a sea of legal and personal rows. Despite the harsh conditions, the Scottish setting gave McCartney time to create, and it was here where this new band emerged. Wings then follows the group as they play unannounced shows at university halls, tour in a sheared-off double-decker bus with their children, survive a robbery on the streets of Nigeria, and eventually perform blockbuster stadium shows on their world tour, all while producing some of the most enduring music of the time.

With extraordinary recollections collected by Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville and edited into a genre-defining oral history by Ted Widmer, Wings transports the reader, as if on a magic carpet, to the grit and glamour of the 1970s. Pushing creative forms to produce a new history, even a Wings bible, the book refracts a bygone era in a totally new light. Introduced with a personal, heartfelt foreword by McCartney, the volume contains 150 black-and-white and color photographs, many previously unseen, as well as timelines, a gigography, and a full discography. Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run emerges as a work of soaring originality that presents a new art form all its own.

 

A radiant new memoir from artist and writer Patti Smith, author of the National Book Award winner Just Kids

“God whispers through a crease in the wallpaper,” writes Patti Smith in this moving account of her life. A post–World War II childhood unfolds in a condemned housing complex where we enter the child’s world of the imagination. Smith, the captain of her loyal and beloved sibling army, vanquishes bullies, communes with the king of tortoises, and searches for sacred silver pennies.

The most intimate of Smith’s memoirs, Bread of Angels takes us through her teenage years where the first glimmers of art and romance take hold. Arthur Rimbaud and Bob Dylan emerge as creative role models as she begins to write poetry then lyrics, ultimately merging both into the songs of iconic recordings such as Horses, Wave, and Easter.

She leaves it all behind to marry her one true love, Fred Sonic Smith, with whom she creates a life of devotion and adventure on a canal in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. Here, she invents a room of her own, a low table, a Persian cup, inkwell and pen, entering at dawn to write. The couple spend nights in their landlocked Chris-Craft studying nautical maps and charting new adventures as they start a family.

A series of profound losses mark her life. Grief and gratitude are braided through years of caring for her children, rebuilding her life and, finally, writing again—the one constant in a life driven by artistic freedom and the power of the imagination to transform the commonplace into the magical, and pain into hope. In the final pages, we meet Smith on the road again, the vagabond who travels to commune with herself, who lives to write and writes to live.

A stunning celebration of Dolly Parton’s iconic career as a performer, featuring entertaining personal stories alongside more than 500 full-color photographs, including exclusive images and ephemera from her archive, and an eight-page gatefold listing her lifetime of performances.

In Star of the Show, the culminating book in Dolly Parton’s photographic trilogy—following Songteller (lyrics) and Behind the Seams (fashion)—the global superstar finally shares a definitive look at her career as one of the world’s most dazzling and beloved performers.

Featuring engaging stories and memories from Parton’s dynamic life behind the microphone, this book spotlights her signature performances and star-making moments, from singing in front of her family to premiering on the Grand Ole Opry stage and beyond. Her formative years performing with country legend Porter Wagoner are chronicled as she learns hard lessons from life on the road. Breaking out on her own at state fairs and critically acclaimed venues, she toured the world performing for millions of fans in arenas, stadiums, and at festivals. From making her onscreen debut in the blockbuster feature film 9 to 5 to playing the Dallas Cowboys’ 2023 Thanksgiving halftime show to 42 million viewers, this global superstar knows no limits. Along the way, Dolly shares the stage with Kenny Rogers, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, and others, while offering insight on touring big, singing strong, and staying on top for seven decades.

Brimming with Parton’s trademark wit and heartfelt sincerity, Star of the Show: My Life on Stage is not only an homage to one of history’s most cherished artists, but also a must-have collector’s item for—and love letter to—any fan of the one and only Dolly Parton.

How does one of the greatest storytellers of our time write her own life? The long-awaited memoir from the author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments, one of our most lauded and influential cultural figures.

'Every writer is at least two beings: the one who lives, and the one who writes. Though everything written must have passed through their minds, or mind, they are not the same.'

Raised by ruggedly independent, scientifically minded parents - entomologist father, dietician mother - Atwood spent most of each year in the wild forest of northern Quebec. This childhood was unfettered and nomadic, sometimes isolated (on her eighth birthday: 'It sounds forlorn. It was forlorn. It gets more forlorn.'), but also thrilling and beautiful.

From this unconventional start, Atwood unfolds the story of her life, linking seminal moments to the books that have shaped our literary landscape, from the cruel year that spawned Cat's Eye to the Orwellian 1980s Berlin where she wrote The Handmaid's Tale. In pages bursting with bohemian gatherings, her magical life with the wildly charismatic writer Graeme Gibson and major political turning points, we meet poets, bears, Hollywood actors and larger-than-life characters straight from the pages of an Atwood novel.

As we travel with her along the course of her life, more and more is revealed about her writing, the connections between real life and art - and the workings of one of our greatest imaginations.

Beautifully illustrated with more than 200 photographs, including never-before-seen images, The Look is a stunning journey through Michelle Obama’s style evolution, in her own words for the first time. 

In this celebration of style, from the moment she entered the public eye during her husband’s U.S. Senate campaign through her time as the first Black First Lady and today as one of this country’s most influential figures, Michelle Obama shares how she uses the beauty and intrigue of fashion to draw attention to her message. 

Featuring the voices of Meredith Koop, Obama’s trusted stylist, as well as her makeup artist Carl Ray, hairstylists Yene Damtew, Johnny Wright, and Njeri Radway, and many of the designers who have dressed Obama for notable events, The Look brings readers behind the scenes not only to reveal how her most memorable looks came together but also to tell a powerful story about how we present ourselves. 

Obama’s intimate and candid stories illuminate how her approach to dressing has evolved throughout her life—from the colorful sheath dresses, cardigans, and brooches she wore during her time as First Lady to the bold suits, denim, and braids of her post-White House life and all the active looks and beautiful gowns in between. 

In The Look, Michelle Obama explores the joy and the purpose of fashion and beauty and how—when wielded with grace and care—they can uplift and affirm the values one holds most dear. Confidence, she concludes, cannot be put on. But when you’re wearing something that’s intentional or beloved, clothing can make you feel like the best version of yourself.