Books | September 2020

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September 2020 View more

Fiction

Anxious People
By Fredrik Backman (Atria Books)
An open house becomes a life-or-death situation when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes everyone in the apartment hostage. As the pressure mounts, eight strangers begin to reveal long-hidden secrets. Before long, the robber must decide which is the more terrifying prospect: going out to face the police or staying in the apartment with this group of impossible people.
Transcendent Kingdom
By Yaa Gyasi (Knopf)
Gifty is a graduate student studying the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother died of a heroin overdose. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her. But even as she turns to science to unlock the mystery of her family’s loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith.

Nonfiction

Exercised
By Daniel E. Lieberman (Pantheon)
A Harvard University professor draws on insights from evolutionary biology and anthropology to suggest how we can make exercise more enjoyable, rather than shaming and blaming people for avoiding it. He also tackles the topic of exercising too much, even as he explains why it can reduce our vulnerability to the diseases mostly likely to make us sick and kill us.
Fault Lines
By Karl Pillemer (Avery Publishing Group)
Estrangement from family is devastating to the individuals involved, and damage can extend across generations. Many Americans suffer such rifts, yet little guidance exists on how to cope with and overcome them. This guide to mending fractured families combines the advice of those who have successfully reconciled with scientific research.