Welcome to the many new subscribers that have accumulated during my impromptu summer break in June. While I managed to read just one little book in May (a fantastic one), I got a few in this past month, and added several to my TBR list. Over the past month I added books on AI, hormones, death, the university, and more. Happy reading! By Liaquat Ahamed Published June 2026 from Penguin Press There’s something enchanting about the 19th century. It may be in part because most of the books I read documenting this era focus on high society and intellectual development, it may also be because so much was changing in this century. 1873 looks like a fascinating read, and hopefully an enjoyable one given its prize-winning status. By Robert Wright Published June 2026 from Simon & Schuster I literally heard about this book on Robert Wright’s podcast as he was complaining about how listening to podcasts about a book makes someone less likely to buy it. No me apparently! I’m not all that interested in books about AI, but give it an evolutionary spin and sign me up. By Saira Hameed Published May 2026 from Harper I’ve been keen on learning more about the science of our health and I know surprisingly little about hormones outside of the reproductive cycle. I can’t recall where I came across this book, but it looks great. By Saul Justin Newman Publishing August 2026 from MIT Press I’m a bit of a skeptic when it comes to the goal of living longer — both in terms of whether we can and whether we should. This topic has been quite popular over the last couple of years in publishing, but I’ve been picky about which books to read. I came across this one and both the approach and thesis of the book are right up my alley (even if a bit of confirmation bias is driving this!).