Summer Learning 2026 for Adults

A mix of new and recommended fiction and nonfiction titles.

Updated May 27, 2026
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Assyria : the rise and fall of the world's first empire
Frahm, Eckart
Paper Book
A new history of Assyria, the ancient civilization that set the model for future empires    At its height in 660 BCE, the kingdom of Assyria stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. It was the first empire the world had ever seen. Here,...
Atlas of a lost world : travels in ice age America
Childs, Craig
Paper Book
Scientists squabble over the locations and dates for human arrival in the New World. The first explorers were few, encampments fleeting. At some point in time, between twenty and forty thousand years ago, sea levels were low enough that a vast land bridge was exposed between Asia and North America....
Atlas of the world
Map
Eleven years ago, the first edition of Oxford's Atlas of the World was met with praise for the incredible beauty and accuracy of its maps as well as for its wealth of geographic data, and each successive edition only collects more accolades. The New York Times Book Review called it a "veritable...
Becoming Earth : how our planet came to life
Jabr, Ferris
Paper Book
The New York Times Bestseller. A radically thought-provoking account of a major shift in how we understand our Earth, not simply as an inanimate planet on which life evolved, but rather as a planet that came to life. 'Full of conceptual twists and wonderful...
Between two rivers : ancient Mesopotamia and the birth of history
Al-Rashid, Moudhy N.
Paper Book
'I have never read a book on Mesopotamia that so beautifully brings to life the people themselves ... It melts away the sense of time.' TOM HOLLAND 'Tender, moving and vivid.' ROBERT MACFARLANE 'Beautiful' STEPHEN GREENBLATT ...
The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire: Why Our Species Is on the Edge of Extinction
Gee, Henry
Paper Book
By the award-winning author of A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth: a history of humanity on the brink of decline. A Next Big Idea Club Must-Read Selection We are living through a period that is unique in human history. For the first time in more...
Dinner with King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists Are Recreating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations
Kean, Sam
Paper Book
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Disappearing Spoon, a romp through the entire history of humankind-from 75,000 B.C. to the dawn of the modern age. From the mighty pyramids of Egypt to the majestic temples of the Aztec, we have a good idea of...
The dinosaur artist : obsession, betrayal, and the quest for Earth's ultimate trophy
Williams, Paige
Paper Book
In this 2018 New York Times Notable Book,Paige Williams "does for fossils what Susan Orlean did for orchids" (Book Riot) in her account of one Florida man's attempt to sell a dinosaur skeleton from Mongolia--a story "steeped in natural history, human nature, commerce, crime, science...
Dinosaur odyssey : fossil threads in the web of life
Sampson, Scott D.
Paper Book
This captivating book, laced with evocative anecdotes from the field, gives the first holistic, up-to-date overview of dinosaurs and their world for a wide audience of readers. Situating these fascinating animals in a broad ecological and evolutionary context, leading dinosaur expert Scott D....
Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Life
Dorling Kindersley Ltd. (COR)/ Smithsonian Institution (COR)
Paper Book
A comprehensive pocket guide to dinosaurs and prehistoric animals and the world they inhabited millions of years ago. Packed with more than seven hundred full-color illustrations, this definitive pocket guide paints a vivid portrait of extraordinary dinosaurs and prehistoric...
Dinosaurus : a prehistoric dictionary
Charles, Rhys
Paper Book
Whatever our age, dinosaurs stir in us a sense of wonder as huge as the prehistoric beasts themselves. They live in our imaginations and in our encyclopedias, through species that are instantly recognizable yet known only through their bones. Dinosaurus takes a fresh, new approach to our...
Dragon teeth
Crichton, Michael
Paper Book
Michael Crichton, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Jurassic Park, returns to the world of paleontology in this recently discovered novel--a thrilling adventure set in the Wild West during the golden age of fossil hunting. The year is 1876. Warring Indian tribes still...
The Emerald Mile : the epic story of the fastest ride in history through the heart of the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Paper Book
From one of Outside magazine's "Literary All-Stars" comes the thrilling true tale of the fastest boat ride ever through the Grand Canyon, atop the legendary Colorado River flood of 1983. In the spring of 1983, massive flooding along the length of the Colorado River...
Footprints : in search of future fossils
Farrier, David
Paper Book
A profound meditation on climate change and the Anthropocene and an urgent search for the fossils--industrial, chemical, geological--that humans are leaving behind What will the world look like in ten thousand years--or ten million? What kinds of stories will be told about...
Frostlines: A Journey Through Entangled Lives and Landscapes in a Warming Arctic
Shea, Neil
Paper Book
A Recommended Read from Yale Climate Connections "[Frostlines weaves] together natural history, indigenous perspective, and environmental transformation in the Arctic. The book helps bring a human story to the science of climate change."--Parade A...
Geology for dummies
Spooner, Alecia M.
Paper Book
Get a rock-solid grasp on geology Geology For Dummies is ideal reading for anyonewith an interest in the fundamental concepts of geology, whether they're lifelong learners with a fascination for the subject or college students interested in pursuing geology or earth sciences....
How to build a dinosaur : the new science of reverse evolution
Horner, John R.
Paper Book
A world-renowned paleontologist reveals groundbreaking science that trumps science fiction- how to grow a living dinosaur. Over a decade after Jurassic Park, Jack Horner and his colleagues in molecular biology labs are in the process of building the technology to create a...
Jurassic Park
Crichton, Michael
Paper Book
An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Creatures once extinct now roam Jurassic Park, soon-to-be opened as a theme park. Until something goes wrong...and science proves a dangerous toy.... "Wonderful...Powerful." THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK...
Lapidarium : the secret lives of stones
Judah, Hettie
Paper Book
'A delightful storybook . . . a portrait of our whole world created from the contents of the ground' Literary Review 'A real cabinet of curiosities' Sunday Times From the hematite used in cave paintings to the moldavite that...
The last days of the dinosaurs : an asteroid, extinction, and the beginning of our world
Black, Riley
Paper Book
Winner of the AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books! "This is top-drawer science writing." --Publishers Weekly, starred review In The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, Riley Black walks readers through what happened in the days, the...
The Lost Tomb: And Other Real-Life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder
Preston, Douglas
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTELLER * A GOODREADS READER'S CHOICE AWARD FINALIST From the #1 bestselling author of The Lost City of the Monkey God, a jaw-dropping discovery of an Egyptian tomb opens up a slew of archaeological mysteries and deadly tales...
The lost world : a novel
Crichton, Michael
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the author of Timeline, Sphere, and Congo comes the sequel to the smash-hit Jurassic Park, a thriller that's been millions of years in the making.   "Fast...
The map that changed the world : William Smith and the birth of modern geology
Winchester, Simon.
Paper Book
In 1793, British canal digger William Smith noticed that the rocks he was excavating were arranged in layers, and that the fossils found in one layer were very different from those found in another. Determined to create a map that would display this hidden underside of England, he spent 20 years...
The Mesopotamian Riddle : An Archaeologist, a Soldier, a Clergyman, and the Race to Decipher the World's Oldest Writing
Hammer, Joshua
Paper Book
An "adventure tale for puzzle lovers and Indiana Jones fans alike" (The Washington Post) following three free-spirited Victorians on their twenty-year quest to decipher cuneiform, the oldest writing in the world--from the New York Times bestselling author of The Bad-Ass...
The Monster's Bones : The Discovery of T. Rex and How It Shook Our World
Randall, David K.
Paper Book
In the dust of the Gilded Age Bone Wars, two vastly different men emerge with a mission to fill the empty halls of New York's struggling American Museum of Natural History: Henry Fairfield Osborn, a privileged socialite whose reputation rests on the museum's success, and intrepid Kansas-born...
Origin : a genetic history of the Americas
Raff, Jennifer
Paper Book
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! From celebrated anthropologist Jennifer Raff comes the untold story--and fascinating mystery--of how humans migrated to the Americas. ORIGIN is the story of who the first peoples...
Otherlands : A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds
Halliday, Thomas
Paper Book
"Immersive . . . bracingly ambitious . . . rewinds the story of life on Earth--from the mammoth steppe of the last Ice Age to the dawn of multicellular creatures over 500 million years ago."--The Economist LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE * "One of those rare...
The rise and fall of the dinosaurs : a new history of a lost world
Brusatte, Stephen
Paper Book
"THE ULTIMATE DINOSAUR BIOGRAPHY," hails Scientific American: A thrilling new history of the age of dinosaurs, from one of our finest young scientists. "A masterpiece of science writing." --Washington Post A New York Times Bestseller * Goodreads Choice Awards ...
The rise and reign of the mammals : a new history, from the shadow of the dinosaurs to us
Brusatte, Stephen
Paper Book
The passing of the age of the dinosaurs allowed mammals to become ascendant. But mammals have a much deeper history. They - or, more precisely, we - originated around the same time as the dinosaurs, over 200 million years ago; mammal roots lie even further back, some 325 million years.Over these...
Set in stone
Woodhouse, Kimberley
Paper Book
A dangerous scheme could bury their long-held dreams forever. . . . From the time she was little, Martha Jankowski has been digging in the dirt, much to the dismay of her mother. Now she dreams of being a paleontologist and is determined to make her parents proud by uncovering the next big...
A short history of nearly everything
Bryson, Bill.
Paper Book
THE #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER * One of the world's most beloved writers and New York Times bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods and The Body takes his ultimate journey--into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer. "Brims with...
Some assembly required : decoding four billion years of life, from ancient fossils to DNA
Shubin, Neil
Paper Book
An exciting and accessible new view of the evolution of human and animal life on Earth. From the author of national bestseller, Your Inner Fish, this extraordinary journey of discovery spans centuries, as explorers and scientists seek to understand the origins of life's immense diversity.<...
Time song : journeys in search of a submerged land
Blackburn, Julia
Paper Book
Julia Blackburn has always collected things that hold stories about the past, especially the very distant past: mammoth bones, little shells that happen to be two million years old, a flint shaped as a weapon long ago. Shortly after her husband's death, Blackburn became fascinated with Doggerland,...
Under Jerusalem : The Buried History of the World's Most Contested City
Lawler, Andrew
Paper Book
A spellbinding history of the hidden world below the Holy City-a saga of biblical treasures, intrepid explorers, and political upheaval "A sweeping tale of archaeological exploits and their cultural and political consequences told with a historian's penchant for detail and a...
Why dinosaurs matter
Lacovara, Kenneth
Paper Book
What can extinct dinosaurs teach us about our future? Plenty, according to paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara, who has discovered some of the largest creatures to ever walk the Earth. By tapping into the ubiquitous wonder that dinosaurs inspire, Lacovara weaves together the stories...
Written in stone : the hidden secrets of fossils and the story of life on Earth
Switek, Brian
Paper Book
The first book on the hunt for evolution's 'missing links' over the last three decades - and what palaeontologists' findings mean for our place on earth

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