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,...
Oxford atlas of the world
Map
The only world atlas updated annually, Oxford's Atlas of the World is the most authoritative atlas on the market. Full of crisp, clear cartography of urban areas and natural landscapes around the globe, the Atlas contains maps of cities and regions at carefully selected scales that give a striking...
Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life
Jabr, Ferris
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A vivid account of a major shift in how we understand Earth, from an exceptionally talented new voice. Earth is not simply an inanimate planet on which life evolved, but rather a planet that came to life. "Glorious . . . full of achingly beautiful...
Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History
Al-Rashid, Moudhy
Paper Book
Thousands of years ago, in a part of the world we now call ancient Mesopotamia, people began writing things down for the very first time. What they left behind, in a vast region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, preserves leaps in human ingenuity, like the earliest depiction of a...
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...
Dragon teeth : a novel
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...
Eradication: A Fable
Miles, Jonathan
Paper Book
A blackly comic literary gem in which a broken man confronts a broken world on an uninhabited Pacific island, where a conservation assignment becomes a moral reckoning. "An instant classic." --The Washington Post * "Excellent " --The New York Times * "Urgent and lyrical...
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 : extinction doesn't have to be forever
Horner, John R.
Paper Book
A world-renowned paleontologist teams up with a "New York Times" science writer to reveal a new science that trumps science fiction: how humans can re-create a dinosaur.
Jurassic Park
Kennedy, Kathleen
DVD
On a remote island off Costa Rica, wealthy entrepreneur John Hammond has created Jurassic Park. It features real live dinosaurs, cloned by using actual dinosaur DNA found in amber. Prompted by his lawyer, Hammond recruits paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant, paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler, and eccentric...
Jurassic Park : a novel
Crichton, Michael
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the author of Timeline, Sphere, and Congo, this is the classic thriller of science run amok that took the world by storm. Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's...
Jurassic World. Rebirth
Edwards, Gareth
DVD
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
Crichton, Michael
Paper Book
"HARROWING THRILLS . . . FAST-PACED AND ENGAGING." --People It is now six years since the secret disaster at Jurassic Park, six years since the extraordinary dream of science and imagination came to a crashing end--the dinosaurs destroyed, the park dismantled, the island indefinitely...
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...
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, Steve
Paper Book
By the author of the acclaimed bestseller The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, a "brilliant" and "beautifully told" new natural history of mammals, illuminating the lost story of the extraordinary family tree that led to us [New Scientist; The Times UK] ...
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.<...
Them Bones: A McKenzie Novel
Housewright, David
Paper Book
A stolen dinosaur skull is at the center of a complex mystery laid at the feet of unofficial P.I. Rushmore McKenzie. There are two things that Rushmore McKenzie hates to turn down--a request from a friend and a challenge. Both of them show up in his wife's nightclub in the...
Thunder horse : a Gabriel du Pre mystery
Bowen, Peter
Paper Book
When a dead snowmobiler carrying a large fossil tooth is found in rural Montana, it sets off a deadly race to find a potentially valuable Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur skeleton that may lie in an ancient burial ground.
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,...
Tyrannosaur Canyon
Preston, Douglas J.
Paper Book
A moon rock missing for thirty years... Five buckets of blood-soaked sand found in a New Mexico canyon... A scientist with ambition enough to kill... A monk who will redeem the world... A dark agency with a deadly mission... The greatest scientific discovery of all time... What fire bolt from the...
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...
Written in stone : evolution, the fossil record, and our place in nature
Switek, Brian.
Paper Book
"Switek seamlessly intertwines two types of evolution: one of life on earth and the other of paleontology itself."--Discover Magazine ""In delightful prose, [Switek] . . . superbly shows that '[i]f we can let go of our conceit,' we will see the preciousness of life in all its forms....

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