Curl Up With a Good Book: Fiction
Fall is the season of sweaters, tea, and big books! Here are some new works of fiction for you to consider as you keep warm in the autumn chill. (Come back tomorrow for our nonfiction recommendations!)
What makes Stephen King happy?
The answer is his new novel Fairy Tale. The epic tale of time travel and the battle between good and evil was conjured in the bleakness of the pandemic.
A return to form
George Saunders returns with a new collection of short stories in Liberation Day. The collection, he said, was meant to address how quickly life passes by.
Imagining Jackie before…
Anne Mah’s journalistic novel Jacqueline in Paris portrays Jacqueline Bouvier in her college year abroad, painting an origin story for the future first lady.
Worth the wait?
After a sixteen-year interlude, Cormac McCarthy delivers a two-volume series this fall: The Passenger will be published on October 25. The conclusion, Stella Maris, will be available on December 6.
More Blockbuster Decisions?
The Supreme Court’s 2022–23 term begins today and promises to be just as controversial and consequential as the previous term—which culminated with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The current docket includes another challenge to the Voting Rights Act and a pair of affirmative-action cases that urge the Court to overturn its earlier decision in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003). This term also marks the debut of the newest justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the Court.
The 116th Supreme Court Justice
U.S. District Court, District of Columbia
Ending the Most Effective Civil Rights Bill?
Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum; photograph, Yoichi Okamoto
Affirmative Action or “Reverse Discrimination”?
Franz Jantzen/Supreme Court of the United States
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“El Precursor” to Simón Bolívar
Francisco de Miranda—who fought for American independence under George Washington—led a revolutionary army in Venezuela in 1810. He was caught and imprisoned in 1812, but his attempt paved the way for Simón Bolívar years later.
The first animal domesticated by humans was the dog, possibly as early as 30,000 years ago.
See All Good FactsBrowse by Category
Entertainment & Pop Culture
Entertainment and leisure activities have been a part of culture in one form or another since the ancient times. Dance performances, live music, and storytelling have a long tradition throughout history, even as the styles and available methods of delivery have shifted dramatically.
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What's the Difference Between Sweet Potatoes and Yams?
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Can You Spare A Seinfeld Quiz?
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Geography & Travel
Planet Earth contains some extraordinarily diverse environments, some of which are easily habitable and some not so much. In different areas of Earth, one might find sweltering deserts, dense tropical rainforests, or bone-chilling tundras. Each biome and habitat comes with its own selection of flora and fauna, and it may include physical features such as canyons, volcanoes, rivers, or caves. Human beings have built homes in many different environments, settling the area and organizing it into units such as cities, states, regions, and countries, each with its own points of interest. Shifting trends in human migration have resulted in a human geography that is profoundly different from that of centuries ago.
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cave
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Another Quiz About Islands
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Health & Medicine
The study of the human mind and body, how these function, and how they interact—not only with each other but also with their environment—has been of utmost importance in ensuring human well-being. Research on potential treatments and preventive medicine has expanded greatly with the development of modern medicine, and a network of disciplines, including such fields as genetics, psychology, and nutrition, aims to facilitate the betterment of our health.
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influenza
disease
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No, vaccine side effects don’t tell you how well your immune system will protect you from COVID-19
Scientists haven’t identified any relationship between...
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US-backed vaccine patent waiver: pros and cons explained
Would removing IP protection increase COVID-19 vaccine...
Lifestyles & Social Issues
It's easy enough to agree that human beings all around the world have certain basic requirements that must be fulfilled in order to ensure their individual and collective well-being. History has shown us, however, that it's not so easy to form societies or communities that fulfill these requirements for all members. The fight for human and civil rights has persisted for hundreds of years and remains alive today, both within the borders of nations and on an international scale. It has led to large-scale social movements and reforms concerning issues such as suffrage, slavery, women's rights, racism, environmentalism, gay rights, and much more.
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- socialism
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What’s the Difference Between Hispanic and Latino?
Is there a difference?
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New Seven Wonders of the World
See who did—and didn’t—make the cut.
Literature
With the development of language, the human imagination has found a way to create and communicate through the written word. A literary work can transport us into a fictional, fantastic new world, describe a fleeting feeling, or simply give us a picture of the past through novels, poems, tragedies, epic works, and other genres. Through literature, communication becomes an art, and it can bridge and bond people and cultures of different languages and backgrounds.
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What Did Shakespeare Sound Like?
“Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.”
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10 Captivating Contemporary Novels Set in the British Isles
These works of fiction will leave you dreaming of the...
Philosophy & Religion
Humans have long pondered not only how we came to be but also why we came to be. The earliest Greek philosophers focused their attention upon the origin and nature of the physical world; later philosophers have theorized about the nature of knowledge, truth, good and evil, love, friendship, and much more. Philosophy involves a methodical assessment of any and all aspects of human existence and experience. The realms of philosophy and religion have sometimes intersected in conducting such inquiries as these. As with philosophy, the study of religion underscores how humankind has long speculated about its origins. The possibility of a higher being (or beings) to which livings things owe their existence has long captived human thought. Many religions also offer their own views on the nature of good and evil, and they may prescribe guidelines and judgment on different kinds of human behavior.
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- political philosophy
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Tigray’s ancient rock-hewn churches are under threat: why it matters
A philologist is documenting Ethiopia’s heritage...
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It’s dangerous to think virtual reality is an empathy machine
Virtual reality is an important tool, and research shows...
Politics, Law & Government
The world today is divided territorially into more than 190 countries, each of which possesses a national government that claims to exercise sovereignty and seeks to compel obedience to its will by its citizens. Governments can be classified in any number of ways. For example, they might be classified by the number of rulers, thus distinguishing government by one (as in a monarchy or a tyranny) from government by the few (in an aristocracy or oligarchy) and from government by the many (as in a democracy). Governments can also be classified by mode of succession; for example, ascension to governmental leadership may follow the rules of hereditary succession, or it may be determined through elections or by force. Governments also vary in terms of the laws and rules of conduct that each political entity follows.
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- property law
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Deaf women fought for the right to vote
A researcher unearths historical information about...
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Holy wars: How a cathedral of guns and glory symbolizes Putin’s Russia
A scholar of nationalism explains how the Main Church...
Science
How can the sky be blue one day and stormy the next? Why do heavy objects tend to fall downwards when dropped? How are birds able to fly (and why can’t I do the same?)? Human beings have long been curious about the world in which we live, striving to identify connections among the phenomenons we witness and to understand how it all works. The field of science has developed over many centuries as a way of studying and understanding the world, beginning with the primitive stage of simply noting important regularities in nature and continuing through the rise of modern science. The modern-day sciences cover a vast range of fields, including biology, chemistry, meteorology, astronomy, physics, and much more.
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Big Science
science
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8 Animals That Suck (Blood)
Stay away from these real-life vampires if you value...
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9 Mind-Altering Plants
This brings new meaning to "vegetative state."
Sports & Recreation
Physical contests and recreational games have long played a part in human society. In both team and solo sports, the human body has been pushed to its limits in the name of improving athletic performance and in order to break record upon record. The ancient Olympic Games are an early example of the contests in which humans have engaged to showcase physical prowess. In modern times, sports and games have evolved into a lucrative and competitive industry, while other leisure activities, such as card and video games, can be competitive or just serve as a way to unwind or socialize.
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gridiron football
sport
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Gymnastics: Fact or Fiction?
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Canadian Football League
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Technology
Humankind has long striven to improve its living conditions through the development of tools, instruments, and transportation and communications systems, all with the goal of making our lives easier, more productive and—why not?—more fun, too. Thanks to human curiosity and technological research, many significant inventions have been made throughout history that in turn made a difference in our daily lives.
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Russian anti-satellite weapon test: What happened and what are the risks?
In the short term, little can be done to mitigate this...
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Got Zoom fatigue? Out-of-sync brainwaves could be another reason videoconferencing is such a drag
A researcher explains how out-of-sync brainwaves could...
Visual Arts
These are the arts that meet the eye and evoke an emotion through an expression of skill and imagination. They include the most ancient forms, such as painting and drawing, and the arts that were born thanks to the development of technology, like sculpture, printmaking, photography, and installation art. Though beauty is in the eye of the beholder, different eras in art history have had their own principles to define beauty, from the richly ornamented taste of the Baroque to the simple utilitarian style of the Prairie School.
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folk art
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Bits and Bobs: Collage and Assemblage
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Cubism: Art and Artists
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World History
Does history really repeat itself, or can we learn from the mistakes of those who came before us? History provides a chronological, statistical, and cultural record of the events, people, and movements that have made an impact on humankind and the world at large throughout the ages.
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Renaissance
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Is Castilian Spanish Spoken with a Lisp?
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Understanding the Titanic Disaster
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