The 21st century began optimistically in Latin America. Left-leaning leaders armed with programs to reduce poverty and reclaim national wealth were seeing results—but as the aughts gave way to the teens, they began to fall like dominos. Where did the dreams of this “pink tide” go? Look no further than the original culprits of Latin

Written by By M. Leona Godin, author of There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness In William Melvin Kelley’s A Drop of Patience, we follow the life of a young Black musician named Ludlow Washington, who is placed in a school for the blind when he is five and remains there until

Contributed by Diane Shader Smith, mother of Mallory Smith, author of Salt in My Soul: An Unfinished Life Literature and medicine have long been intertwined. In the early 2000s, Dr. Rita Charon helped formalize this intersection as a discipline through her work at Columbia University and her book, Narrative Medicine: Honoring the Stories of Illness

Called “powerful and provocative” by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, author of the New York Times bestselling How to be an Antiracist, White Tears/Brown Scars reveals how white feminism has been used as a weapon of white supremacy and patriarchy deployed against Black and Indigenous women, and women of color. Taking us from the slave era, when white women fought

Because what you read matters.   Subscribe to the Penguin Classics Newsletter here.   Summer is officially fading like a sunset, and whether you’re back to school or back to your usual fall routine, we can guarantee there will be plenty of classics to keep you company. From our first Puerto Rican classic to a revelatory

To commemorate Constitution Day and the signing of the United States Constitution in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787, we have assembled a list of books that can help guide students in understanding the constitution.   Penguin Guide to the United States Constitution  This guide includes annotations and accessible explanations from one of America’s most esteemed

Penguin Random House is proud to celebrate Latinx & Hispanic Heritage Month.  We are highlighting the works of our incredible authors from the Latinx and Hispanic community whose stories and characters have a profound impact on our society.  Using #IAmLaCultura, join us this month and beyond in sharing stories of the Latinx and Hispanic voices

By: Jess McHugh   Who gets to tell the American story?   That was the question that preoccupied me in the years of researching and writing Americanon. I was fascinated by the ways in which commonplace books, owned by millions of Americans—from almanacs to primers to cookbooks—shaped and reshaped American identity over generations of reading.

The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a sobering report on the status of climate change, sounding what U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called a “code red for humanity.” The report reconfirms what most of us already know: Humans, primarily through the usage of fossil fuels, are “unequivocally” to blame for rising temperatures that experts

Cathy Park Hong will be awarded the American Book Award for Minor Feelings, a ruthlessly honest, emotionally charged, and utterly original exploration of Asian American consciousness. With sly humor and a poet’s searching mind, Hong uses her own story as a portal into a deeper examination of racial consciousness in America today. This intimate and

Thirty years ago, Carter addressed racism, colorism, classism, and sexism head on. Her books feel just as relevant today.   This essay by Caitlin Landuyt, editor, Vintage Books, was previously published on Crime Reads   Nanette Hayes, the Black jazz saxophonist/Francophile/reluctant crime solver of Charlotte Carter’s Rhode Island Red, Coq au Vin, and Drumsticks, blew into my life

Kabul-born novelist Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, is known for his evocative storytelling deeply rooted in Afghanistan’s history and culture. Like so many of us, he watched Afghanistan fall to the Taliban with profound sadness. In the wake of these events, Penguin Random House has updated the educator’s guides for Hosseini’s