NBN Book of the Day

NBN Book of the Day

episodes

One book selected daily from those published on the New Books Network.

Raf de Bont et al eds., "Globalizing Wildlife" (UNC Press, 2026)

August 31, 2026

Globalizing Wildlife

Raf de Bont, Vanessa Bateman, and Tom Quick eds.
Hosted by Jacob Ward

Humans have always incorporated wildlife into processes of work, capture, and exchange. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, globalization b…

María Angélica Thumala Olave, "The Love of Books: Attachment to a Changing Cultural Object" (Manchester UP, 2026)

August 30, 2026

The Love of Books

María Angélica Thumala Olave
Hosted by Dave O'Brien

Why do people read? In The Love of Books: Attachment to a Changing Cultural Object (Manchester University Press, 2026) María Angélica Thumala Olave, …

Bernadette Ludwig, "Unwelcome Shores: Black Refugees in America" (Rutgers UP, 2025)

August 29, 2026

Unwelcome Shores

Bernadette Ludwig
Hosted by Michael Rosino

Unwelcome Shores: Black Refugees in America (Rutgers University Press, 2025) is an ethnographic study of the Liberian refugee community in Staten …

Diego Galego, "Queering Public Policy: A Disruptive Yet Inclusive Framework for Policymaking" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026)

August 28, 2026

Queering Public Policy

Diego Galego
Hosted by Nick Pozek

For years, LGBTQ+ policies worldwide have been crafted based on heteronormative views, needs, and practices. However, this has gradually changed over …

Kanchana N. Ruwanpura and Wilfried Swenden eds., "Protecting Workers? Crisis, COVID-19 and South Asia" (Helsinki UP, 2026)

August 27, 2026

Protecting Workers?

Kanchana N. Ruwanpura and Wilfried Swenden eds.

In our recent conversation about Protecting Workers? Crisis, COVID-19 and South Asia (Helsinki UP, 2026), the editors Kanchana N. Ruwanpura and Wilfri…

Brian Jay Jones, "George Lucas: A Life" (Little, Brown and Company, 2016)

August 26, 2026

George Lucas

Brian Jay Jones
Hosted by Daniel Moran

The essential biography of the influential and beloved filmmaker George Lucas. On May 25, 1977, a problem-plagued, budget-straining independent scien…

Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, "The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois" (HarperCollins, 2021)

August 25, 2026

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
Hosted by Sullivan Summer

In 2021, the NAACP Image Award-winning poet Honorée Fanonne Jeffers made her fiction debut with The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois, a magisterial epic …

Edward Goldring, "Purges: How Dictators Fight to Survive" (Cornell UP, 2026)

August 24, 2026

Purges

Edward Goldring
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Purges: How Dictators Fight to Survive (Cornell University Press, 2026) by Dr. Edward Goldring delves into one of the key tactics that autocrats deplo…

Steve Feldstein, "Bytes and Bullets: Global Rivalries, Private Tech, and the New Shape of Modern Warfare" (St. Martin's Press, 2026)

August 23, 2026

Bytes and Bullets

Steve Feldstein

Steve Feldstein's Bytes and Bullets: Global Rivalries, Private Tech, and the New Shape of Modern Warfare (St. Martin's Press, 2026) opens with a juxta…

Sandeep Vaheesan, "Democracy in Power: A History of Electrification in the United States" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

August 22, 2026

Democracy in Power

Sandeep Vaheesan
Hosted by Anna Olteanu

In Democracy in Power: A History of Electrification in the United States (University of Chicago Press, 2024), Sandeep Vaheesan recounts the rather ove…

Ashanté M. Reese, "Gather: Black Food, Nourishment, and the Art of Togetherness" (W. W. Norton, 2026)

August 21, 2026

Gather

Ashanté M. Reese
Hosted by Reighan Gillam

Food justice is defined as the understanding that our food system is unequal and that something needs to be done about it. But how can we create a wor…

Claudia Kreklau, "The Making of Modern Eating: How the German Middle Class Forged the Way We Eat, 1780–1910" (Berghahn, 2026)

August 20, 2026

The Making of Modern Eating

Claudia Kreklau
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Nineteenth-century Germany invented the way we eat. Women experimenting in households, French chefs fleeing guillotines, and one of the most rapid…

Nancy Folbre, "Making Care Work: Why Our Economy Should Put People First" (U California Press, 2026)

August 19, 2026

Making Care Work

Nancy Folbre

A bold critique of conventional economics that reveals why the time and money we devote to care work is vital to our economic future.Our economy is mu…

Jacob Hagstrom, "Asymmetric Warfare: Politics and Cultures of Violence in the Modern Era" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

August 18, 2026

Asymmetric Warfare

Jacob Hagstrom

The forces that fight asymmetric wars are so distinct that one side avoids direct military confrontation in favor of political, social, or otherwise u…

Kiara Wyndham, "Diversityland: Hiding Racial Inequality in an American Suburb" (U California Press, 2026)

August 17, 2026

Diversityland

Kiara Wyndham
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Fort Bend County, Texas, looks like the America we claim to want: a suburb where Black, White, Asian, and Latinx families share cul-de-sacs, sch…

Elizabeth Tynan, "Nuclear Archipelago: Secrets, Power and the Biggest Atomic Blast in Australia" (NewSouth, 2026)

August 16, 2026

Nuclear Archipelago Secrets

Elizabeth Tynan

Nuclear Archipelago: Secrets, Power and the Biggest Atomic Blast in Australia (NewSouth, 2026) tells the shocking story of the two British atomic weap…

Sophie Chao, "Land of Famished Beings: West Papuan Theories of Hunger" (Duke UP, 2025)

August 15, 2026

Land of Famished Beings

Sophie Chao
Hosted by Natali Pearson

In Land of Famished Beings: West Papuan Theories of Hunger (Duke UP, 2025), Sophie Chao examines how Indigenous Marind communities understand and theo…

Matias E. Margulis, "Shadow Negotiators: How UN Organizations Shape the Rules of World Trade for Food Security" (Stanford UP, 2023)

August 15, 2026

Shadow Negotiators

Matias E. Margulis
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Shadow Negotiators: How UN Organizations Shape the Rules of World Trade for Food Security (Stanford University Press, 2023) by Dr. Matias E. Marguli…

Ellery E. Foutch, "A Perfectionist Impulse: The Art of Stopping Time in the Nineteenth Century (U Minnesota Press, 2026)

August 14, 2026

A Perfectionist Impulse

Ellery E. Foutch
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Cultural studies of the nineteenth century often categorize their subjects as being motivated by one of two opposing notions: a wholehearted embrace o…

Kathleen J. Frydl, "Liberalism and the Reinvention of the Modern Corporation" (Oxford UP, 2025)

August 13, 2026

Liberalism and the Reinvention of the Modern Corporation

Kathleen J. Frydl
Hosted by Lilly Goren

This is a really good book. Really good. Liberalism and the Reinvention of the Modern Corporation (Oxford UP, 2025) takes the reader on a fascinating,…