Join Roxanne Coady and the staff of RJ Julia Booksellers as we explore the best books of the year to give as gifts to the readers in your life. See the full list of books discussed here.

Thomas Jefferson considered Samuel Adams the earliest, most active, and most persevering of the revolution. Yet when we think of the founders, his name is often missing, submerged by other founders, his cousin John Adams or John Hancock, or obviously Washington and Jefferson himself. Now, Stacy Schiff does what she does brilliantly in The Revolutionary: Samuel Adam, using her Pulitzer Prize0winning skills as a biographer to bring to life the revolution, the politics, the propaganda, and the man who insidiously and deliberately became a revolutionary of the first order. Resurrecting a man history has almost forgotten, a man without whom our history might have taken a different course. ________________________________ Stacy Schiff is the author of Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), winner of the Pulitzer Prize; Saint-Exupéry, a Pulitzer Prize finalist; A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, winner of the George Washington Book Prize and the Ambassador Book Award; Cleopatra: A Life, winner of the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for biography; and most recently, The Witches: Salem, 1692. Schiff has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she lives in New York City. Roxanne Coady is owner of R.J. Julia, one of the leading independent booksellers in the United States, which—since 1990—has been a community resource not only for books, but for the exchange of ideas. In 1998, Coady founded Read To Grow, which provides books for newborns and children and encourages parents to read to their children from birth. RTG has distributed over 1.5 million books. Related Episodes: George Packer on Redefining "American" Can We Salvage Patriotism? Should We?

It is not often that you read a book that is both heartbreaking, infuriating, inspiring, eye-opening, and riveting. Nicholas Dawidoff’s new book, The Other Side of Prospect, brilliantly uses the particular story of the Newhallville neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut, and a young black man wrongly convicted of murder to tell the universal story of the violence, poverty, and injustice that exists in too many of our American cities. There is a reason Nicholas has been a finalist for the Pulitzer, a Guggenheim Fellow, and the recipient of a slew of other honors and fellowships. He wraps his compassion and journalistic devotion to research and details into a story that takes us into his grip, leaving us more informed, more understanding, and hopefully more committed to being part of a solution. As James Baldwin said, “If one wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected.” The unprotected could not be in better, wiser hands than Nicholas Dawidoff. ________________________________ Nicholas Dawidoff is the critically acclaimed author of five books, including The Catcher Was a Spy and In the Country of a Country. He is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and has also been a Guggenheim, Berlin Prize, and Art for Justice Fellow. Roxanne Coady is owner of R.J. Julia, one of the leading independent booksellers in the United States, which—since 1990—has been a community resource not only for books, but for the exchange of ideas. In 1998, Coady founded Read To Grow, which provides books for newborns and children and encourages parents to read to their children from birth. RTG has distributed over 1.5 million books. Buy the Book: The Other Side of Prospect Related Episodes Steve Luxenberg: We Need to Rethink Precedents Julia Samuel: How Do We Process Grief?

Signal Fires is Dani Shapiro’s first novels in fifteen years, and has everything most of us want in fiction: indelible characters, a book we can’t put down, and the ability to provoke how we think about our lives by understanding of their lives. She joins Roxanne Coady for a live conversation held at RJ Julia Booksellers. Dani Shapiro is a best-selling novelist and memoirist and host of the podcast Family Secrets (now in its seventh season). Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vogue, and Time. She has taught at Columbia and New York University and is the co-founder of the Sirenland Writers Conference. She lives in Litchfield County, Connecticut. Roxanne Coady is owner of R.J. Julia, one of the leading independent booksellers in the United States, which—since 1990—has been a community resource not only for books, but for the exchange of ideas. In 1998, Coady founded Read To Grow, which provides books for newborns and children and encourages parents to read to their children from birth. RTG has distributed over 1.5 million books.

John Wood Sweet is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the former director of UNC’s Program in Sexuality Studies. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, the National Humanities Center, the Institute for the Arts and Humanities at UNC, and the Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale, among others. His first book, Bodies Politic: Negotiating Race in the American North, 1730–1830, was a finalist for the Frederick Douglass Prize. He was named a Top Young Historian by the History News Network and has served as an Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer. He lives in Chapel Hill with his husband, son, and daughter. Related Episodes: Richard Haass on Why History Matters Has Our Thinking About Regret Been All Wrong? Elizabeth Strout Knows "Anything Is Possible"

Many of us may know the broad outline of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. But for most of us, the details, the headline names, the level of malevolent violence and the horrific sacrifices were, at best, vague. But David Dennis, Jr., in his new book, The Movement Made Us: A Father, a Son, and the Legacy of a Freedom Ride, poignantly and vividly gives us an intimate portrait of the personal side of the civil rights movement. David wrote this book in collaboration with his father, David Dennis, Sr. His father had a pivotal role in the civil rights movement as an organizer and hero of the Freedom Rides, lunch counter sit-ins, and voter registration drives, as well as an official of the Congress of Racial Equity. Dennis, Sr.’s story exposes the risk, the relationships, and repercussions on families and lives that brings the movement to life for us. Dennis David, Jr. is an award -winning journalist and educator creates the stories of his father and the movement that has lingered in my mind and forced me to rethink today’s movement for Black Rights and safety. DAVID J. DENNIS JR. is a senior writer at The Undefeated. His work has been featured in Atlanta magazine, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, and Huffington Post, among other publications. Dennis is the recipient of the 2021 American Mosaic Journalism Prize, is a National Association of Black Journalist Salute to Excellence award winner, and was named one of The Root’s 100 Most Influential African Americans of 2020. He lives in Georgia with his wife and two children and is a graduate of Davidson College. Related Episodes: Claudia Rankine: The Reconciliation Won't Be Easy, But It's Necessary Work David Blight on the Prophet of Freedom

In this episode of Just the Right Book with Roxanne Coady, she is joined by Tina Brown to discuss her new book, The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor—the Truth and the Turmoil, out now from Crown. Please note: This episode was recorded before the recent death of Queen Elizabeth II. Tina Brown is an award-winning writer, the former editor in chief of Tatler, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker, and the founder of The Daily Beast and of the live event platform Women in the World. She is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Diana Chronicles, and in 2017 she published The Vanity Fair Diaries, chosen as one of the best books of the year by Time, People, The Guardian, The Economist, Entertainment Weekly, and Vogue. In 2000 she was awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II for her services to journalism. She lives in New York City. More to listen: Senator John McCain In His Own Words: A Tribute How Can We Stay Human in a F*cked Up World? Sheryl Turkle on Why Some Stories Take Time Roxanne Coady is owner of R.J. Julia, one of the leading independent booksellers in the United States, which—since 1990—has been a community resource not only for books, but for the exchange of ideas. In 1998, Coady founded Read To Grow, which provides books for newborns and children and encourages parents to read to their children from birth. RTG has distributed over 1.5 million books.

In this episode of Just the Right Book with Roxanne Coady, she is joined by Anthony T. Kronman to discuss his new book, After Disbelief: On Disenchantment, Disappointment, Eternity, and Joy, out now from Yale University Press. ________________________________ Anthony Kronman is Sterling Professor of Law and a former dean at Yale Law School. He is the author of Confessions of a Born-Again Pagan and Education’s End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life. He lives on Block Island, Rhode Island. Roxanne Coady is owner of R.J. Julia, one of the leading independent booksellers in the United States, which—since 1990—has been a community resource not only for books, but for the exchange of ideas. In 1998, Coady founded Read To Grow, which provides books for newborns and children and encourages parents to read to their children from birth. RTG has distributed over 1.5 million books.

In this episode of Just the Right Book with Roxanne Coady, we revisit our conversation with Jessica Nordell discussing her book, The End of Bias: A Beginning: The Science and Practice of Overcoming Unconscious Bias, out now from Metropolitan Books. Subscribe and download the episode, wherever you get your podcasts! ________________________________ Jessica Nordell is a science and culture journalist whose writing has appeared in the Atlantic, the New York Times, the New Republic, and many other publications. A former writer for public radio and producer for American Public Media, she graduated from Harvard University and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The End of Bias is her first book. Roxanne Coady is owner of R.J. Julia, one of the leading independent booksellers in the United States, which—since 1990—has been a community resource not only for books, but for the exchange of ideas. In 1998, Coady founded Read To Grow, which provides books for newborns and children and encourages parents to read to their children from birth. RTG has distributed over 1.5 million books.

When we think of racism, we often think of actions, obstacles, systems. What we often overlook is the power of images, movement, art, and words. They represent the power of both harm and hope. Elizabeth Alexander in her new book, The Trayvon Generation, uses this prism to share poetry, art, and film. And along with her exquisite, evocative language, we find ourselves educated, provoked and challenged. Elizabeth is singularly equipped to tell us this story. She is a poet. Many were introduced to her when she read her poem “Praise Song for the Day” at President Obama’s inauguration. She is a bestselling, award-winning author and is now the president of the Mellon Foundation, the nation’s largest funder in the arts, culture, and humanities. But at her core, she is an educator, having had that role as chair of African-American studies at Yale University. In her new book, that is just what she does. She educates us, and the poet in her delivers the education with lyrical beauty. Elizabeth Alexander is a prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author, renowned poet, educator, scholar, and cultural advocate. Her most recent book, The Trayvon Generation (2022), is a galvanizing meditation on the power of art and culture to illuminate America’s unresolved problem with race and the challenges facing young Black America. Among the fifteen books she has authored or co-authored, her memoir, The Light of the World, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2015 and her poetry collection American Sublime was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 2006. Notably, Dr. Alexander composed and recited “Praise Song for the Day” for President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration. Over the course of an esteemed career in education, she has held distinguished professorships at Smith College, Columbia University, and Yale University, where she taught for fifteen years and chaired the African American Studies Department. Dr. Alexander is currently president of the Mellon Foundation, the nation’s largest funder in the arts, culture, and humanities. * Roxanne Coady is owner of R.J. Julia, one of the leading independent booksellers in the United States, which—since 1990—has been a community resource not only for books, but for the exchange of ideas. In 1998, Coady founded Read To Grow, which provides books for newborns and children and encourages parents to read to their children from birth. RTG has distributed over 1.5 million books.