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Three book covers displayed on a light background, featuring titles and authors.

Must-Read Harvard Books Winter 2025

From aphorisms to art heists to democracy’s necessary conditions 

by Gabriella Gage

A correspondence corner for not-so-famous lost words

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Distinguished couple: Professor Louis Agassiz, ever the scientist, ever the creationist, despite the evidence for Darwinian evolution, and Elizabeth (Cary) Agassiz, who emerges impressively from the last chapter of this new biography

Christoph Irmscher biography of Louis Agassiz reviewed by James Hanken

The fruitful, flawed Louis Agassiz

by James Hanken

Alexander Wilson’s colorful craft: a fanciful collection of waterfowl, from Harvard’s archives

Recent books by E.O. Wilson, Ezekiel Emanuel, Elliott Abrams, and more

Recent books with Harvard connections

Filmmaker Julie Mallozzi intercut scenes of Lalita Bharvani at home, tending to her garden or doing yoga, with startling images of x-rays and medical tests, including an echocardiogram. One poignant scene shows Bharvani visiting her elderly mother in India.

Julie Mallozzi's film Indelible Lalita tells a medical and spiritual story

Indelible Lalita’s saga of pigmentation and personhood

by Laura Levis

Independence Day, 1942: the first field test of napalm, behind Harvard Business School

History of napalm origins at Harvard

A new book traces napalm's invention to Harvard—and its evolution from heroic discovery to pariah

The writer at work: Soman Chainani in his Brooklyn apartment

Soman Chainani's new fantasy-adventure novel is a fairy tale for today’s world

A fairy tale for today’s world

"Mastermind," Maria Konnikova's how-to book on perceiving like Sherlock Holmes

The "Literally Psyched" columnist on Sherlock Holmes, perception, and mental prowess

A correspondence corner for not-so-famous lost words

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

“Doc” Willoughby in his home kitchen in Cambridge, a laboratory for cookbooks

Doc Willoughby explains how to write a cookbook

“Doc” Willoughby talks grilling and writing.

by Betsy Block

The Gramercy Park doorway site of the <i>Highway 61</i> cover

Bob Egan traces the places of pop icons

Bob Egan finds the original venues of iconic images.

by Craig Lambert