Mae Carson

Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military establishment: the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These investigations are vital to how we understand the world we really live in—where one nuclear missile will beget one in return, and where the choreography of the world’s end requires massive decisions made on seconds’ notice with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have. Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario explores this ticking-clock scenario.

While mental health is complex, our culture has made anxiety into something it’s not. For the majority of people who face anxiety, the truth is simpler than we think: Anxiety is an alarm. It’s a signal — nothing more and nothing less. Anxiety is simply our body’s way of telling us something is wrong. If we stop and listen, we can calm the alarm and move forward into healing and hope.

Just weeks after Jaron has taken the throne, an assassination attempt forces him into a deadly situation. Rumors of a coming war are winding their way between the castle walls, and Jaron feels the pressure quietly mounting within Carthya. Soon, it becomes clear that deserting the kingdom may be his only hope of saving it. But the further Jaron is forced to run from his identity, the more he wonders if it is possible to go too far. Will he ever be able to return home again? Or will he have to sacrifice his own life in order to save his kingdom?

Southern Illinois is a place of mixed emotions as the American Civil War erupts. For the Creightons, the war lures two sons to the Union army and one to the Confederacy, leaving 10-year-old Jethro to care for the family farm. As the war rages, Jethro does whatever he can to learn about the fates of his brothers, while the Creighton family faces its own danger. Some townspeople can’t forgive the Creightons for having a rebel son-and they’re willing to use violence to make their feelings known. In a state torn by conflicting loyalties, Jethro is forced to grow up quickly to preserve his family and their home.