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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

An older couple standing in a large room filled with pianos

Attuned to Pianos

An instrument restorer’s beautiful obsession

by Lydialyle Gibson

Illustration of Emily Dickinson talking to tech support

Emily Dickinson—Dashed

Alexandra Petri introduces the poet to tech support for help with her keyboard.

Design at water’s edge: photograph of the multipurpose Elbphilharmonie, on the River Elbe, Hamburg (2016)

Off the Shelf

Recent books with Harvard connections

portrait of Wendell Steavenson

From War Zones to the North Shore

A new novel from foreign correspondent Wendell Steavenson

by Lydialyle Gibson

Do You Believe in Magic?

Former practicing magician Dan Droz ’72 turns his tricks into a career in sculpture

by Nancy Walecki

Republican or Early Imperial Roman relief of the Greek playwright Menander, 100 BCE-early first century CE

The Case for Cultural Appropriation

How humans hybridize their civilizations

by Adam Kirsch

Restored to Nature

Landscape architect Mikyoung Kim’s healing arts

by Lydialyle Gibson

Conflicting cultures in Africa: “The Missionary burns the House of a Witch,” ca. 1750, from the book, Images on a Mission in Early Modern Kongo and Angola

Off the Shelf

Recent books with Harvard connections

Reid Parsons stands in a greenhouse amid plants

Raising Her Voice

Singer-songwriter Reid Parsons on the irreplaceable instrument

by Lydialyle Gibson

Elif Batuman

The “Harvard Novel” Enters the Twenty-first Century

On Elif Batuman’s fictions

by Beth Blum