State Science

In January 2012, having covered a Somali pirate trial in Hamburg for Spiegel Online International, Michael Scott Moore traveled to the Horn of Africa to write about piracy and ways to end it. In a terrible twist of fate, Moore himself was kidnapped and subsequently held captive by Somali pirates for 977 days. Yet Moore’s own struggle is only part of the story: The Desert and the Sea falls at the intersection of reportage, memoir, and history.

For twelve years the Golden State Killer terrorized California, stalking victims and killing without remorse. Then he simply disappeared, for the next forty-four years, until an amateur DNA sleuth opened her laptop. In I Know Who You Are, Barbara Rae-Venter reveals how she went from researching her family history as a retiree to hunting for a notorious serial killer—and how she became the nation’s leading authority on investigative genetic genealogy, the most dazzling new crime-fighting weapon to appear in decades.

A landmark collaboration between a thirty-year veteran of the CIA and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, The Main Enemy is the inside story of the CIA-KGB spy wars, told through the actions of the men who fought them. Based on hundreds of interviews with operatives from both sides, The Main Enemy puts us inside the heads of CIA officers as they dodge surveillance and walk into violent ambushes in Moscow. This is the story of the generation of spies who came of age in the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis and rose to run the CIA and KGB in the last days of the Cold War.

Master of the Senate carries Lyndon Johnson's story through one of its most remarkable periods: his 12 years in the U.S. Senate. At the heart of the book is its unprecedented revelation of how legislative power works in America, how the Senate works, and how Johnson, in his ascent to the presidency, mastered the Senate as no political leader before him had ever done. "There is something uniquely mesmerizing about the wily, combative Lyndon Johnson as portrayed by Caro," says Publishers Weekly.

“Short stories have to accomplish a nearly impossible magic trick: to introduce a world often much stranger than our own and make you care about it in a matter of pages,” writes R. F. Kuang in her introduction. “The most important part of this magic trick is just a willingness to get weird.” The stories in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023 are brimming with bizarre and otherworldly premises.

Take a trip to the Sunshine State! Learn about Florida's history, weather, geography, people, and more in this book that's all about our 27th state.

Take a trip through the Heart of Dixie! Learn about Alabama's geography, weather, history, people, and more in this book that's all about our 22nd state.

Visit the Badger State! Learn about Wisconsin's history, geography, weather, people, and more in this book that's all about our 30th state.

Take a trip to the Beehive State! Learn about Utah's history, geography, weather, people, and more in this book that's all about our 45th state.

Take a trip through the Show-Me State! Learn about Missouri's history, geography, weather, people, and more in this book that's all about our 24th state.

Take a trip through the Pelican State! Learn about Louisiana's history, geography, weather, people, and more in this book that's all about our 18th state.

Welcome to the Great Lakes State! Learn about Michigan's history, geography, weather, people, and more in this book that's all about our 26th state.

Explore the Centennial State! Learn about Colorado's history, geography, weather, people, and more in this book that's all about our 38th state.

Come visit the Last Frontier! Learn about Alaska's history, weather, geography, people, and more in this book that's all about our 49th state.

Visit the Pine Tree State! Learn about Maine's history, geography, weather, people, and more in this book that's all about our 23rd state.

Explore the Gem State! Learn about Idaho's history, geography, weather, people, and more in this book that's all about our 43rd state.

Welcome to the Sooner State! Learn about Oklahoma's history, geography, weather, people, and more in this book that's all about our 46th state.

Welcome to the Ocean State! Learn about Rhode Island's history, geography, weather, people, and more in this book that's all about our 13th state.

Take a trip through the Hoosier State! Learn about Indiana's history, geography, weather, people, and more in this book that's all about our 19th state.

Welcome to the Cornhusker State! Learn about Nebraska's history, geography, weather, people, and more in this book that's all about our 37th state.