As we mark the centennial of Malcolm X’s birth, The Afterlife of Malcolm X serves as a vital reminder of his enduring impact—and why his story continues to matter. ... Read full Story
Erin Entrada Kelly’s At Last She Stood shares the story of World War II guerilla fighter and leprosy advocate Josefina “Joey” Guerrero, helping inspire in a new generation of readers the bravery to overcome immense odds. ... Read full Story
Ocean Vuong’s second novel represents an evolution of his novelistic powers. It’s magisterial, precise and mythic in its resonance. ... Read full Story
Peniel E. Joseph vividly chronicles the Civil Rights Movement in the pivotal year of 1963—when “America came undone and remade itself.” ... Read full Story
Part myth, part horror and part mystery, Mina Ikemoto Ghosh’s Hyo the Hellmaker is a fresh take on divine fantasy that’s replete with the unexpected. ... Read full Story
The Einstein of Sex brilliantly resurrects Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, the pioneering gay doctor and LGBTQ+ rights activist who defied the Nazis. ... Read full Story
Frederick Joseph constructs a true roller coaster of a narrative in This Thing of Ours, painting his protagonist’s complex struggles with language that is both poetic and engaging for a young adult audience. ... Read full Story
The final work of the late Tomie dePaola, Where Are You, Bronte? is a heartfelt tribute to dePaola's beloved dog, with illustrations from Barbara McClintock that pay homage to dePaola's inimitable style. ... Read full Story
Dogged by mental illness, poverty and arrests, Erika J. Simpson’s mother also filled their lives with magic, as told in Simpson’s wonderful debut memoir, This Is Your Mother. ... Read full Story
Wonder Women is a definitive collection of contemporary figurative painting by women and nonbinary artists from the Asian diaspora. ... Read full Story
Becky Aikman’s enthralling Spitfires chronicles the lives of American women who piloted British planes during World War II, fighting for their right to a future in the skies. ... Read full Story
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 21, 2025 is:
litmus test • \LIT-mus-TEST\ • noun
A litmus test is something (such as an opinion about a political or moral issue) that is used to make a judgment about whether someone or something is acceptable.
// At our family’s Thanksgiving dinner, the litmus test for good mac and cheese is whether or not it is baked.
“The audience in a Broadway show can be intoxicating, and it’s like a litmus test. If a joke doesn’t land one night, you tell it differently the next night. It’s terrifying, on set, to have no idea if something is working.” — Erika Henningsen, quoted in The Hollywood Reporter, 1 May 2025
Did you know?
It was in the 14th century that scientists discovered that litmus, a mixture of colored organic compounds obtained from lichen, turns red in acid solutions and blue in alkaline solutions and, thus, can be used as an acid-base indicator. Six centuries later, people began using litmus test figuratively. It can now refer to any single factor that establishes the true character of something or causes something to be assigned to one category or another. Often it refers to something (such as an opinion about a political or moral issue) that can be used to make a judgment about whether someone or something is acceptable or not.