“This was the first photograph I ever saw of Susie. It hung in the bedroom of her little flat in Maida Vale in London and I fell in love with it. Of course I also fell in love with Susie herself and thirty years later we are still as devoted to each other as two people can be.” That’s Nick Cave at the jump setting the terms of this book: The black-and-white images by Issermann a French fashion photographer and longtime friend of the Caves are meant to make readers fall a little in love with Susie too. Here she is a silhouette on the beach posing for Issermann in Normandy in 1990; here’s Susie in Rome in 1996 under a long black veil. Susie too chimes in writing that she and Nick married in 1999 and had twin sons the following year. The ensuing photos often include the twins—Nick’s hands are shown drawing with pen on a child’s hand; there’s a blurry close-up of mother and son—and the book transforms into a family album. (A photo index clarifies that the family pictures were taken at an Italian estate in 2008.) Readers may note that only one child is spoken of in the present tense suggesting what isn’t stated outright: One of the Cave twins has since died. That so few of the family pictures feature crisply focused faces plays like an effort to avert the pain of confronting loss head-on. It’s through no shortcoming of Issermann’s starkly beautiful images that readers can’t possibly find Susie as captivating as her husband does; the book is more successful—immensely so—as a grief album made heartbreakingly public.

In her debut memoir Russ interweaves memories of her childhood with an account of her relationship with her partner of 13 years. Brian who was initially just a friend had everything that the author coveted and did not yet have herself: confidence sureness and capability. When they transitioned to a romantic relationship Russ leaned heavily on Brian’s affirmations and physical presence and when he proposed both marriage and a new life on a sailing vessel the author couldn’t help but agree. But something inside her constantly pulled her back just a little bit—a desire to stay grounded to stand up for her own wants and to find out what those wants even were. The author needed to know who she was apart from her marriage to Brian and their nomadic life on the waves. She was also guarding a guilty secret: “I wanted to tell him I didn’t deserve him and I probably never had.” As Russ recalls arguments friendships and wonder-filled encounters with marine life and people around the world she simultaneously chronicles her gradual but steady buckling under her own whirlpool of thoughts. In this telling—the pace of the narrative is measured and slow—the author always seems to know the truth behind her silences and hesitations and the decisions she felt compelled to make but ultimately regretted. As Russ continues to unpack the dilemmas that carried on despite her self-awareness readers may grow frustrated by her lack of action or attempts to change. Still the memoir is a moving testament to self-empathy during periods of stagnation and seeming hopelessness—Russ reassures readers that there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel one that the author with no lack of struggle reaches with a clarity and confidence of her own.

When Anna Kamoria was attending her North Carolina high school she also trained in sword fighting and martial arts with her mother Adelyna’s “handsome stoic” friend Derrick and she felt different from her classmates “in a way that made it hard to relate to others.” One night her mother was murdered by unknown assailants and Anna disappeared only to be found back at her former home a year later with no memory of the lost time. She moved in with family friends and spent the next two years recovering faking and bullying her way through mandatory psychotherapy and earning her GED. Now she’s still unable to come to terms with strange memories that she considers “trauma-induced hallucinations.” Anna revisits the murder scene on her 20th birthday and Derrick reappears there explaining that it’s time for Anna to learn about Nightfall which her mother “forbade me from telling you about”; he calls it “a place for learning.” A wax-sealed letter arrives and invites Anna for an extended Nightfall stay; soon Anna drinks a nightshade concoction and is whisked away to her new home. Organized survival challenges await as well as camaraderie and sexy rivalry among Nightfall’s other recruits. Late-night clandestine rendezvous offer opportunities for forbidden love triangles and information-gathering. Cliques emerge among students who affiliate with longstanding pegasus dragon and ravengroups. Ravenwood’s novel follows the winning formula of romantasy series-starters such as Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing (2023) with a dash of Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince (2018).Although its content warnings are fair the book doesn’t go as far as horror-adjacent dark romantasies such as Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House (2019).Anna is a somewhat bland protagonist though in part because she recalls so little of importance in her life beyond her amnesia and amnesia-related events. Anna does begin to thrive however as she pursues new memories and relationships at Nightfall and greater challenges and character growth hopefully await her in future installments.

Elspeth Blackwood and her older sister Isla were raised in a family of trusted healers. They live together in a cottage outside Fife with Elspeth’s 4-year-old daughter Annabel who’s called Anna. Anna’s father was a sailor who headed out to sea shortly after learning Elspeth was pregnant never to be heard from again. The two sisters are enjoying a quiet respite by the shore when they realize Anna has disappeared. Terrified Elspeth finds the child beneath a cliff from which she’s fallen. They bring the chilled and frightened girl home and Elspeth tends to her missing her appointment to check on her patient Mr. Thomas who’s dying from pneumonia. The following day Elspeth arrives just in time to sit with Thomas as he takes his last breaths. In her raging grief Thomas’ widow accuses Elspeth of being a witch. Worse is to come: When the sisters race to the house of another patient Greer who’s about to give birth Isla sees immediately that the baby needs to be delivered by Cesarean section—but when the doctor arrives he rejects Isla’s conclusion. Both mother and baby die and the doctor spreads the lie that Isla caused the deaths. Readers know the shattering ending of Brooke’s disturbing narrative from the first page; the body of the novel tells the tale leading to that final horror. The author warns readers that this is not a story for the faint of heart and she is correct. The narrative—overflowing with blood gore and misogyny—vividly depicts the viciousness with which the women accused of witchcraft are treated. The only emotional relief for readers is witnessing how the sisters pursue their vengeance against the townsfolk. Brooke’s passionate prose lifted by the hint of a Scottish lilt fills the pages with compelling details about the plants Elspeth and Isla use for their remedies (“the plot had blossomed into a healthy crop ready to be crushed and powdered into medicinal salves creams and inhalants”)—and those they later use for vengeance.

The self-declared “worst” kid in his gifted circle of friends—the one with seemingly no talent for anything except getting into trouble—has spent his final year at Jerome Marco K-8 collecting disaster stories with his Team Bomb Shelter crew: martial arts cousin Adam science whiz Rover statistics prodigy Sean wheelchair-using brainy beauty Helen bighearted athlete Charlie and artist Jesús. Barn dances snow days gymnasium catastrophes and stink-bomb wars have already earned this ragtag group a reputation for turning ordinary mishaps into legend. But when a bureaucratic snafu forces the graduating eighth graders back for one unwanted extra day of school what should have been just another goofy footnote to their “worst” collection instead turns into the single most terrifying afternoon of their lives: An armed intruder brings the school to a standstill. Trapped scattered and cut off from help each member of the friend group has to draw on the skill that makes them unique to survive an ordeal that no lesson has ever prepared them for. Binder’s third book in the Team Bomb Shelter series is a genuine tonal high-wire act that mostly works. The narrator’s motor-mouthed wisecracking voice carries the early comic chapters with real charm and the ensemble’s distinct personalities (the strategist the scientist the artist the empath) pay off cleverly once the crisis hits. Each kid’s standout quirk becomes a genuine asset rather than a punchline. The shift from slapstick to suspense is handled with more care than the premise might suggest never lingering on graphic violence and the aftermath makes room for grief guilt and healing without turning preachy. However the earlier episodic chapters while funny sometimes meander long enough to blunt the urgency once the main event arrives and some jokes lean on now-familiar sitcom-kid archetypes.

The single-minded Zora Ravenal joined the Crimson Army to destroy her people’s greatest enemy. The Empire doesn’t just threaten the Commonwealth; its biggest figureheads are directly responsible for Zora’s most devastating loss. To take revenge she argues her way into becoming a Knight Mage with the power to protect her loved ones and stand up to the Commonwealth’s most dangerous foes. Unfortunately the trial she willingly subjects herself to doesn’t go as planned and in the aftermath Zora is unexpectedly saddled with custody of her personal nemesis the Royal Mage. Tarantula an assassin with a notorious temper is newly collared to prevent him from using his magic. He blames his predicament on Zora even as he is the only one skilled enough to help her hone her new power. These enemies will need to spend every waking minute in each other’s company then sleep in the same room. The terrible forced proximity forges a twisted new connection closer to mutual obsession than blazing malice. The first installment of Mas’ duology blends fantasy and contemporary storytelling including modern and archaic language a talking animal sidekick and a strange Mist that adversely affects technology. Mas overstuffs the novel with worldbuilding and the pace dithers in the first half. At first Zora and Tarantula’s enemies-to-lovers arc feels juvenile but eventually more compelling emotional layers erupt. Mas holds back her most significant narrative twists until the very end. Those reveals when they finally occur lay the groundwork for a more promising sequel with both of the book’s morally complicated leads on a level playing field as the stakes threaten to become world-ending.

An advent calendar hangs on the wall: “The doors are fun to open. What could it be?” Decorations toys clothes even food. It’s always a surprise. But no matter what’s inside the refrain is the same: “Oh I love traditions with my family!” The first-person narration is mostly a list of the found items with some repetition reminiscent of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” The charmingly rustic digital illustrations depict different families diverse in terms of race and type as the days progress along with the items listed in groups of four. The depicted doors are symbolic since most of the presents could never fit inside them (like a baby doll or roller skates). Upon reaching the 24th night the text repeats the entire list with close-up images (perhaps so that very young readers can go back and spot ones they didn’t catch before). “Now all the doors are open and you waited patiently….” At last a pale-skinned Santa arrives bearing gifts on Christmas. The emotional beats of this little book are all ones of joy and wonder while the practical beats center on opening presents (so many in fact that not much patience is required). The book is best used as a game itself spotting all the items in the illustrations along with an elf character hidden in each scene.

Julie wakes one morning to the “BANG / CRASH / BOOOOM” of the Chinese opera “thundering from the TV” while Poh Poh practices her sword dancing. Julie has so many questions. Over egg tarts in Chinatown Poh Poh spins stories of growing up in China where Cantonese opera performers frequented her father’s tea house. When her father stopped paying her school fees—“There’s no use educating a girl. You’ll be married off soon enough”—she found nurturing teachers among the performers. At last she joined them on stage after intensive training with her sword; she recalls how as a performer she could be “commanding brave and bold—things I could not be in my real life.” But bold she was eventually traveling to the other side of the world and escaping the “sky demons dropping bombs.” Safe from war she built a life in Gun San (as many Cantonese people referred to North America) that eventually allowed Julie to “learn to read and write and dance and sing and dream.” Hune-Brown’s upbeat affectionate picture-book debut is rooted in a CBC Radio documentary she made about her grandmother. Lowe’s vibrant illustrations rendered in pencil watercolor and Procreate extend the text with enticing details: family photos favorite ducks both plushy and real and identifiable Toronto.

Nearly a century of German political and social shifts are translated into human experience in Sacks’ new novel starting with a 1933 prologue introducing young Klara von Arnsberg—“Narrow all over sharp at the edges. Hard a little cruel”—the daughter of a wealthy industrialist family. Klara’s betrayal of Max her “clever and kind” Jewish friend is just the first in a parade of horrors and harshnesses that will characterize this and subsequent generations featured in the ensuing 10 linked stories. “Rubble and Ruin” introduces Dorothea and Elsa a pair of hungry and poor sisters in postwar Berlin taking care of Dorothea’s baby Oskar the product of rape by Russian soldiers. Klara and Max reappear here too revealing details of Max’s survival and Klara’s marriage to a brutish Nazi officer. Oskar’s adult life alongside a Turkish guest worker is explored in “Two Lives” and in “Children of the Revolution” Armin one of Klara’s grandchildren endures a miserable childhood in the 1970s his feckless parents dabbling in drugs and subversive politics. There’s a pattern of unhappy children and unfeeling parents like Ingo in “New Skins” whose East German Stasi officer father denounced his own brother and Ursula a wartime friend of Klara’s in “The Fire” whose father showed her no warmth while fondly recalling his time as a concentration camp guard. Klara’s “stone-cold heart” and reprehensible murderous past recur frequently her shadow falling over later stories featuring immigrants and the return of right-wing politics. Klara’s personification of the ills of the past and Sacks’ tendency toward the simple binary in her characters diminish the book’s impact while Berlin is evoked as a flawed melting pot.

In this debut personal finance book Herriot introduces readers to the concept of “time freedom” the idea that wealth doesn’t mean accumulating enough money to retire early—it means securing sufficient income and savings combined with control over work scheduling to allow one to move between periods of work and periods of leisure instead of enduring many years of toil followed by late-in-life relaxation (“it’s about shaping how your time unfolds on your terms not constantly negotiating between the push and pull of work and life as if they were separate forces”). The author explains what time freedom looks like in different contexts (such as Herriot’s family’s commitment to a multigenerational tradition of summering at a Wisconsin lake) before guiding readers through the process of applying the framework to their own needs and interests. The author coaches readers on using their values to shape their spending rather than relying on strict budgeting working within the limits of their “money personalities” (and building new entrepreneurial or frugality skills as needed) and balancing savings and investments to meet financial needs. Herriot counsels readers to use their skills and connections—often those developed through a more traditional career path—to create a flexible business that ebbs and flows often on a seasonal basis to help them balance work and play throughout their lifetime. The author makes a persuasive case for reevaluating the traditional retirement structure and offers a compelling framework (the Time Freedom Formula: “Lifestyle Expenses = Investment Income + Flexible Work”) for developing a new lifestyle vision. The book’s financial guidance is generally solid encouraging prudent behavior and minimal risk-taking in pursuit of an enjoyable life. While the book doesn’t address the broader structural challenges of 21st-century employment formats—Herriot focuses on individual rather than policy solutions to the problems of unfulfilling work and inadequate leisure—readers with entrepreneurial leanings and skill sets that can be profitable outside of a salaried context will find both inspiration and actionable advice in these pages.

When the cub first peeks out of her den the world outside feels overwhelming. But with her mother’s gentle encouragement she swims in icy water dives below the surface evades killer whales and even briefly ventures out on her own. All along the way the mother polar bear reminds her cub “You can do anything.…I’m right here beside you.” Theirs is a world of wintry white making all colors appear especially vibrant and bright by contrast. Tiny bits of grass and flowers are a visual surprise; another scene depicts the northern lights spectacular across the night sky. The off-white color of the bears helps them stand out from the snow. Lambert makes excellent use of viewpoint shadow and layering from a lovely bird’s-eye view of the narrow waterways to the appearance of depth in the water. These compelling images will keep readers turning pages following along with the polar bear cub’s journey. The story’s theme—that a parent’s love is safe and empowering—is familiar but deeply reassuring and heartfelt to little ones and their caregivers alike.

Neiman the director of an international public think tank called the Einstein Forum continues the probing cultural critique begun in her Learning From the Germans (2019) and Left Is Not Woke (2023). Appalled by President Trump’s “ideas that are destructive enough to warrant the word evil” she proposes a return to “universalism.” In the wake of Hannah Arendt’s conception of fascist evil as a “failure to think” she argues that “not malice but vacancy marks the worst form of evil.” In seven ruminative chapters she pinpoints some of the causes for the current state of affairs in the United States: market fundamentalism and its focus on the accumulation of wealth as well as the elevation of power over law. At the same time Neiman also excoriates the adherents of “identitarian” politics or wokeness: “We must face the consequences of the liberal/left hesitation to use moral language.” The author effectively challenges American self-boosterism (“every survey of wealthy countries shows the U.S. behind on any measure of well-being”) and convincingly defends Enlightenment thought. Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” was she points out that of a benevolent God not that of the capitalist market regulating itself. But her attack on wokeness mirrors all too familiar right-wing talking points neglecting the fact that competence—which she claims should be “the first criterion for appointments”—is more difficult to attain for disadvantaged members of society. Similarly support for transgender rights might be less the product of niche tribalism than the desire to allow the pursuit of happiness for everyone. Neiman movingly evokes Albert Einstein’s democratic socialism as a model for moral renewal today but does not reveal how her readers numbed by daily government spin might go about implementing it.  

Kat a strong-willed teenager sees the escalation of armed conflict in real time as tanks begin rolling into town broadcast on news channels. She heads to a community shelter as bombs start to drop. Schools close supplies are rationed and citizens depart by choice or force. Just as Kat’s family is attempting to leave soldiers abduct her father. Kat stays behind in hopes of saving him instead of following her mother and sister to safety. Falling into the stoic strained rhythms of life under siege she watches soldiers pillage homes neighbors struggle to survive and buildings burn. Violence and destruction are unpredictable and ubiquitous yet even children must press on. The story’s nonspecific setting demands that readers acknowledge just how quickly these actions could unfold anywhere. Kat’s eventual happy ending is a welcome if implausible narrative relief but even she admits “when I close my eyes I’m often back in the city with bangs and explosions and things shaking.” Kat has pale skin and dark hair; most of the city’s residents are pale-skinned. Rigano’s paneled illustrations buzz with detailed comic-book intensity skillfully immersing readers in Kat’s reality.

Alice Kaplan is looking forward to finishing her studies at Cornell University when her father’s sudden death forces her to stay in New York City and help her mother. Hoping to make her name as a journalist she joins the staff of a feminist newspaper. Her assignments along with her debates with other staff members draw her into the most important political and artistic movements of the late 1960s. She meets poet Audre Lorde and feminist Gloria Steinem and she attends the protest before Richard Nixon’s inauguration. Alice’s consciousness is raised; friends and acquaintances help her understand structural racism and homophobia as well as the horrors of the Vietnam War and the injustice of the draft. Meanwhile her personal life is tumultuous—her college boyfriend Pete turns out to be a rat; her oldest friend Darlene falls in with some criminals; and she struggles to forge an adult relationship with her mother. At home and out in the world Alice must absorb these new experiences and decide what she stands for as a writer an activist and a woman. Her journeys through the counterculture are thorough and illuminating; she engages with the major political movements of the day via lively characters who clearly articulate their travails and aspirations: “If you swallow tyrannies day by day” Lorde says “you sicken and die.” The novel is especially adept at outlining the challenges of intersectional feminism and identifying the misogyny embedded in the antiwar movement and leftist politics. Halter’s depictions of abortion and rape culture are refreshingly frank and realistic and all too timely. The depiction of the era does lack some hoped-for sensory detail; the dialogue can read as flat and pro forma in contrast to the depth of Alice’s character and her evolving inner life.

A nauseating wannabe influencer in the toxic manosphere Brodie Hendren uses the money he makes from credit card fraud and selling Nazi memorabilia to stalk his ex-wife. Meanwhile two thieves who became the closest thing to sister and brother in a foster family turn into adversaries of peak criminal acumen executing competing heists for pricey collectible stamps. The sister now calling herself Grace Latimore made it out of foster care by learning high-end robbery skills from her older boyfriend a corrupt cop. Years ago she extracted an especially valuable watch from a theft to cover the share that boyfriend took from her—the same watch her brother Adam Garrett was sent by his own crime boss to seize. Now Adam pays off his underworld debts by working surveillance for an unlicensed private eye: sometimes on honest investigations sometimes on scams. Motivated by a mix of vengeance and family ties Adam launches a search for Grace. This forlorn history adds a depth of motivation rarely seen in such precise heists. Grace hoping to have finally found a safe place to land works as the assistant in an antique shop putting to legitimate use all the valuation skills she learned in cat burglary. But the antiques dealer has her own fears and secrets. As all the expertly detailed crimes converge there are high stakes in cash and human lives on the line.

Three decades before The Pitt became a critical darling and a hit with viewers another hospital-themed drama aired the first of what would become more than 300 episodes: ER created by physician and novelist Michael Crichton with Steven Spielberg among its producers. Journalist Rice’s oral history of the series drawn on archival interviews as well as her own conversations with more than 60 people involved in the show begins with the show’s genesis as a screenplay that Crichton sent to Spielberg where it languished in a file before being read by television executive Tony Thomopoulos who convinced Crichton to rework it as a pilot. Casting followed with George Clooney and Anthony Edwards joining early and Julianna Margulies agreeing to star in what she thought would be one episode (her character was originally supposed to die in the pilot). Don Ohlmeyer head of NBC’s West Coast division hated the pilot but after test audiences reacted rapturously at two screenings relented and television history was made with viewers tuning in en masse to the show that earned its bona fides with the help of physician writers. Rice’s book is structured cleverly with some chapters centered on a particular theme—the show’s title sequence camera work Clooney’s penchant for pranks—and others dedicated to single episodes of the show. The latter sections are fascinating peering into some of the series’ most memorable installments including “Motherhood” which was directed by Quentin Tarantino and “Ambush” the ambitious live episode that was filmed twice to accommodate different time zones. It’s disappointing that Rice doesn’t have much to say about the show’s final four seasons—after actor Noah Wyle (now star of The Pitt) departed—but overall this is an entertaining history of an iconic series.

Clad in a street-cool outfit (blue sweatpants black T-shirt beneath a sleeveless undershirt and a plaid shirt knotted at the waist) a golden retriever–ish pooch struts confidently center stage demonstrating a series of dance moves. A white dog with floppy ears and tan spots wearing leggings and shorts waits in the wings gazing admiringly. Perfectly poised Dog One bops blissfully; Dog Two is tentative and striving but Dog Two’s steps pass muster and the newcomer shimmies more assuredly. “Step!” “Step! Kick!” “Step! Kick! Spin!” “Step! Kick! Spin! Slide!” A list of action words in large serif text colorful and edged in white each enthusiastically punctuated by an exclamation mark grows by one on every page. Most are four-letter one-syllable words—turn drop worm—accompanying the dogs’ body poses. The stakes rise with more complicated words: shimmy robot and even moonwalk. And finally “Freeze!” Newly independent readers might find it a challenge to follow all these steps and still focus on deciphering the words but they’ll find it an enjoyable ride all the same—and might be inspired to act out some of the moves.

Why is the sky blue? The more accurate question is: Why is the sky violet? The answer: “The atmosphere scatters violet wavelengths even more than blue just beyond what the human eyeball can see. Ask a spider or another creature with superior eyesight and the sky is assuredly violet.” So write Tyson and Walker in this absorbing and sharply designed volume that collects 5000 enlightening facts about the universe. Tyson and Walker the host and senior producer respectively of the podcast StarTalk collaborated on an earlier book To Infinity and Beyond: A Journey of Cosmic Discovery (2023). Their new collaboration is bursting with insights—often quite funny—that will spark the imaginations of readers young and old; one can eat it up in a long sitting or sporadically thumb through it and be dazzled by its revelations and colorful images. One of the bulleted entries for instance concerns the star that keeps us all alive: “The sunlight warming your face today started as photons in the Sun’s core when Neanderthals were still around.” The book begins with Earth then expands its focus to the solar system the Milky Way and beyond. The authors’ analogies make the facts memorable: “If the Sun were the size of a hot tub Earth would be the size of a sesame seed.” Also: “If we filled a giant balloon with all the water on Earth it would stretch 860 miles in diameter.” Some of the facts are hard to fathom: “A black hole with Earth’s mass…would have a radius of just nine millimeters.” And others are sobering statements about our changing world: “On a perfectly clear dark night in pristine conditions you could see about 6000 stars.” Today because of light pollution “Most people see less than 200 stars. Some may only see a dozen.”

Nat a little boy with light skin and brown hair lies frustrated in his bed. No matter how hard he tries he just cannot fall asleep. When he steps into the hallway and discovers his game controller tossed on the floor a flashback returns him to the events of earlier that night. His parents had urged him to go to bed but he refused to put down his video game and an over-the-top tantrum ensued: “My answer is NO! It’s MY controller. I WANT ONE MORE HOUR!” Ashamed Nat goes back to his room and tries to calm himself with deep breaths. (“If I think hard I can work out a plan. How to apologize? How to be kind?”) He begins to work on an endearing arts and crafts project to make things right with his family. Dorman’s cartoony illustrations are wonderfully detailed and deftly capture the emotional world of a young child. The rhymes are also a treat melodic and engaging to read: “Crumpling his blanket and kicking the floor Nat knew he just couldn’t sleep anymore!” The book offers young readers an accessible and appealing entry point for learning how to reflect on actions self-soothe and make amends.

The young Wake didn’t travel much as one of nine children but when opportunities arose in college he made the most of them. Many years after the travels took place Wake brings readers the tale of his travels around the world starting in 1976 when he had his first hitchhiking adventure to Yosemite Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Throughout the years he was present for Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee in London traveled around post-Mao China shortly after it had opened up to tourists and visited the Philippines during the “snap election” between Ferdinand Marcos and Cory Aquino. Aside from that he visited the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador spent a Christmas in Thailand celebrated the first night of Ramadan in Indonesia and camped on the beach in Greece. Wake includes everything you could want in a travel memoir: glimpses into many different geographic places and cultural differences a narrator who makes connections with people in the places he travels to and a healthy dose of good luck that allows him to be in significant places during their most memorable historical moments. While hinting at other adventures this memoir is focused on the travels that brought the author to significant political events around the world often by chance. Wake presents a unique blend of optimism deification gratification a strong belief in self-ability and “being blessed by glorious serendipity” that brought him to each place at just the right time: “The best discoveries the deepest mysteries and the most memorable adventures always come from the people I meet while getting to and from the must-see sites.” Wake delves into each adventure in its fullest learning languages meeting people participating in local cultural events and creating memories to last a lifetime.