Excerpts

Zen Buddhist teacher says it’s because we’re always struggling either to possess or avoid people, things, or situations

Neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky says every decision, action you make is result of chain of genes, biology, experience that preceded it

Yascha Mounk chronicles how ideology took over, where it went wrong

In “Career and Family” Claudia Goldin tracks evolution through 20th-century gains to era of earning inequality that forces harsh life choices.

Viewed as example of American ingenuity, prized military weapon exploded in popularity, best known now as tool to kill innocent people.

New book by psychologist, sociologist surveys depth, complexity of Bruce Springsteen’s connection to his female fans.

Ruth Simmons’ memoir traces everyday natural beauty, mortal peril of growing up Black in 1940s rural Texas

Future Harvard president leaves Virginia for Concord Academy, set on path by JFK inauguration speech, visit by MLK.

Toobin examines how Oklahoma City bomber’s beliefs have been embraced by right-wing extremists.

Anupam Jena and Christopher Worsham sift data to find hidden forces at work in healthcare in new book.

In her new book, professor of psychiatry Luana Marques says that too many mistake symptoms for underlying problem

Book by Naomi Oreskes, Erik Conway traces history of how Americans came to trust markets more than government.

Tracy Kidder’s “Rough Sleepers” follows Jim O’Connell, who provides Boston’s homeless with health care.

Daniel Goleman, Tsoknyi Rinpoche walk us through science, practice of why we should meditate

You believe in climate change but drive a gas-guzzler, don’t recycle. Why? Neuroscientist explores in new book.

Barrett Rollins, wife Jane Weeks were Dana-Farber stars who kept her cancer secret nearly to end

Imani Perry returns to Alabama to interview Angela Davis, another daughter of Birmingham, in excerpt from new book

Cells are the building blocks of life, Siddhartha Mukherjee says in his new book, but their vulnerabilities are also our vulnerabilities.

New book traces insurgent use of text, photos, media on internet to take down crucial U.S. establishments, institutions.

Former Bioethics Fellow Jay Baruch ’02 recalls impatient patient who pulled her own breathing tube (and lived to tell about it) in new memoir

Becca Levy ‘92, Ph.D. ’95 examines hidden stereotypes of aging, their insidious effects in excerpt from her new book

Book excerpt from “Hearts Touched with Fire: How Great Leaders Are Made” by David Gergen.

In excerpt from new book on our age of disasters, Kennedy School lecturer Juliette Kayyem ’91, J.D. ’95, examines how we take wrong lessons from history.

Excerpted from a new book by Cathy O’Neil, Ph.D. ’99, “The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation.”

Weike Wang tails Harvard-educated ICU doc through surprise visit after her dad’s death in witty look at family, culture, and COVID

Denounced as obscene, Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’ exploded old ways of thinking about fiction — and the world itself.

A book by Radcliffe Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin traces Martin Luther King’s desperation and the savvy legal tactics of Constance Baker Motley.

In excerpt from his new book, Matthew Aucoin details why he chose Whitman as main character in his debut opera “Crossing” at American Repertory Theater.

In her new book Linda Greenhouse traces forces that made near certain rise of newest — and undeniably consequential — Supreme Court justice.

Book follows a white female furnace operator, a black efficiency supervisor, and a white machine operator after a plant shutdown.