What We Are Reading Today: ‘Designing San Francisco’ by Alison Isenberg

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Designing San Francisco’ by Alison Isenberg
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Designing San Francisco’ by Alison Isenberg

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Designing San Francisco’ by Alison Isenberg

“Designing San Francisco” is the untold story of the formative postwar decades when US cities took their modern shape amid clashing visions of the future. In this pathbreaking and richly illustrated book, Alison Isenberg shifts the focus from architects and city planners—those most often hailed in histories of urban development and design—to the unsung artists, activists, and others who played pivotal roles in rebuilding San Francisco between the 1940s and the 1970s.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘The First King of England’ by David Woodman

What We Are Reading Today: ‘The First King of England’ by David Woodman
Updated 03 September 2025

What We Are Reading Today: ‘The First King of England’ by David Woodman

What We Are Reading Today: ‘The First King of England’ by David Woodman

“The First King of England” is a foundational biography of Æthelstan (d. 939), the early medieval king whose territorial conquests and shrewd statesmanship united the peoples, languages, and cultures that would come to be known as the “Kingdom of the English.”

In this panoramic work, David Woodman blends masterful storytelling with the latest scholarship to paint a multifaceted portrait of this immensely important but neglected figure, a man celebrated in his day as much for his benevolence, piety, and love of learning as he was for his ambitious reign.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘Bugwatching’ by Eric R. Eaton

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Bugwatching’ by Eric R. Eaton
Updated 02 September 2025

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Bugwatching’ by Eric R. Eaton

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Bugwatching’ by Eric R. Eaton

Insects are the most abundant wildlife on the planet—but also the least observed. This incisive field companion highlights the basic tools for watching insects with all of our senses, covers some best habitats and circumstances for seeing the most diversity, and shares tips for attracting desirable insects to your yard and garden. 

With wonderful illustrations by Samantha Gallagher, “Bugwatching” explains why this rewarding activity is for everyone, regardless of age, ethnicity, gender identity, level of affluence, ability, or disability.


What We Are Reading Today: Scars and Stripes by Eugene Red McDaniel

What We Are Reading Today: Scars and Stripes by Eugene Red McDaniel
Updated 01 September 2025

What We Are Reading Today: Scars and Stripes by Eugene Red McDaniel

What We Are Reading Today: Scars and Stripes by Eugene Red McDaniel

“Scars and Stripes” shows us how wars leave a legacy of human suffering. It’s hard to describe Eugene Red McDaniel’s struggle in enduring the horrors of being one of the most brutalized prisoners of war.

When his plane was shot down over the skies of Vietnam, McDaniel would be captured and spend six agonizing years as an inmate in Hanoi Hilton. 

His captors used barbaric and sadistic torture techniques on him, but McDaniel remained a source of hope and strength for his fellow prisoners by clinging to his faith in even the darkest of hours. 

In this book, a whole new generation of Americans will come to understand the power of prayer, belief, and devotion to God had in sustaining McDaniel during his six years as an inmate in Vietnam.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Organic Line’ by Irene V. Small

What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Organic Line’ by Irene V. Small
Updated 31 August 2025

What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Organic Line’ by Irene V. Small

What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Organic Line’ by Irene V. Small

What would it mean to treat an interval of space as a line, thus drawing an empty void into a constellation of art and meaning-laden things? In this book, Irene Small elucidates the signal discovery of the Brazilian artist Lygia Clark in 1954: a fissure of space between material elements that Clark called “the organic line.”

For much of the history of art, Clark’s discovery, much like the organic line, has escaped legibility. 

Once recognized, however, the line has seismic repercussions for rethinking foundational concepts such as mark, limit, surface, and edge.


What We Are Reading Today: Trajectory of Power

What We Are Reading Today: Trajectory of Power
Updated 30 August 2025

What We Are Reading Today: Trajectory of Power

What We Are Reading Today: Trajectory of Power

Authors: Terry M. Moe and William G. Howell

In “Trajectory of Power,” leading political scientists William Howell and Terry Moe provide a sweeping account of the historical rise of presidential power, arguing that it has now grown to the point where, in the wrong hands, it threatens to subvert American democracy and replace it with a de facto system of strongman rule.

The book shows that, for much of the 20th century, Republican and Democratic presidents pursued power in very similar ways and almost always within democratic bounds.